City

Going south on Michigan, take a left between the Intercontinental Hotel and the Tribune tower. Follow the street to it's end. 1/2 way down is a great spot for the b/g alone with the city bldgs behind them. At the end is a tree lined park setting with buildings and or grass and trees.

where it dead ends into the river. Go under Michigan on Grand ... take a right on McClurg ... follow it to the end and walk 50 feet to the river. You are now in front of a big pretty fountain and the River.

Going on LSD North, after you pass the Belmont exit you come to Recreation Drive. Exit there and follow it all the way around the North end of the Harbor until it heads south again ... keep going until it dead ends into the mouth of the Belmont Harbor.

This is always a quiet place with great trees and views of the City Skyline. I havn't been there since the construction out there ... I'll check it out.

LSD heading south towards the Museum park. Get in your right lane and exit to get to the Museum Campus. Go past the Field Museum and follow the road around to the jetty that heads out towards the Planetarium. I like to make a U turn 1/2 way out ... lots of shade and again great afternoon City skyline backgrounds.

You can also stop at the South stairs to the Field Museum for huge pillars and stairs and nice directional afternoon light.

The East End of North Avenue

Follow North Avenue East past the Historical Society ... it will dead end into Lake Shore Drive. You can park anywhere along the edge of the park and there is usually space as it is a no parking zone. There are lots of green vistas here, hills for posing groups on the ground, and at the west end of this spur of North avenue tucked behind the Historical Society is a flower garden.

I like to park or meet at the end of Dearborn and North to use the green and the flower garden. The east most end where it dead ends is all green and much quieter than at Dearborn ... but there are no flowers.

Just North of the Notebart Nature Museum on Cannon Drive - if the client wants beautiful green / lagoon setting without lots of Chicago.

Exit LSD at Fullerton and go North at Cannon Drive (to the south is the Zoo parking area) On the North West corner of Cannon and Fullerton is the Notebart Nature Museum. Just North of the museum is a service driveway for the museum with no parking signs all over it that seems like a pretty safe spot to stash a limo / trolley and photographers car for a few minutes.

Then, just north of the Notebart Museum is a very well kept piece of lawn with trees that makes great backlit, afternoon shots. Also, over the hill is the lagoon that can also be included in some shots for very small groupings (there is a sidewalk that goes in front of the lagoon that would be ugly in large groups.

Behind the museum are some nice patio areas that I didn’t explore and 100 years North is the prairie grass are pictured here for the couple.

Photogs also note … the new films are so flexible that you can expose for the shadow side as here, and still get the lagoon and direct sun highlights to come through with detail … I also flash filled this about as high as I could (F 8 @ 60^th)

Lagoon over the hill Grassy Knoll next to parking area