In The City

DanOstergren · May 12, 2026

I just returned from a ten day visit to see friends and family in Illinois and Wisconsin. Got to see my best friend and his family, who are part of my chosen family. I did a lot of photo sessions and some candids/unplanned photos, but I'll just share these photos I took of my best friend's brother in downtown Chicago for now. These weren't necessarily planned. We were on our way to another photo session that I actually had planned out in advance, but we had some time to kill so we stopped and did a little impromptu shoot. Lit using natural light (which was quickly shifting at times due to the partly cloudy weather with some pretty fast moving clouds.

I have a lot more photos to share from this trip, but I'll space them out.

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The sun came out from behind a cloud for this shot, making higher contrast light.

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terri · May 14, 2026

Lovely set! Chicago is so beautiful. Your background was easy! Love that staircase - #1 is very dramatic.

I hope you didn't freeze too much while you were there - I'm noticing your subject is in a tee-shirt. We've been staying chilly in the Midwest!

Black_Square · May 16, 2026

Some great shots Dan. Number 1 for me. The subject is nicely exposed especially given his dark clothing. I really like the dreamy depth of field and the colour tones of the buildings behind. They really give a crazy sense of scale. I wish we had tall buildings like you guys across the pond!

KJ_North · May 16, 2026

Great shots Dan, background etc on the first couple really nice.

DanOstergren · May 22, 2026

terri said:
Lovely set! Chicago is so beautiful. Your background was easy! Love that staircase - #1 is very dramatic.

I hope you didn't freeze too much while you were there - I'm noticing your subject is in a tee-shirt. We've been staying chilly in the Midwest!

Thank you Terri! Chicago is definitely a beautiful city and it's hard not to find amazing backdrops almost anywhere.

It was pretty warm that day, however during my other photo session later that day a storm came out of nowhere and absolutely dumped on us, and lighting struck a building directly above us. I have never seen a storm appear as quickly as that one did, it was pretty crazy.

DanOstergren · May 22, 2026

Black_Square said:
Some great shots Dan. Number 1 for me. The subject is nicely exposed especially given his dark clothing. I really like the dreamy depth of field and the colour tones of the buildings behind. They really give a crazy sense of scale. I wish we had tall buildings like you guys across the pond!

Thank you so much. I really love that dreamy look that I get from this particular lens, especially when the aperture is set wide open.

DanOstergren · May 22, 2026

KJ_North said:
Great shots Dan, background etc on the first couple really nice.

Thank you!

CherylL · May 24, 2026

Great set! My favorite is #7 because it is different then your usual poses. I noticed these are all with the 85mm f1.2. Is that your go to portrait lens?

DanOstergren · May 25, 2026

CherylL said:
Great set! My favorite is #7 because it is different then your usual poses. I noticed these are all with the 85mm f1.2. Is that your go to portrait lens?

Thank you so much CheryIL!

Yes, it is by far my favorite lens. I dreamt of owning one for almost 15 years before I could finally justify buying one (only after it's price-point plummeted in the used market when Canon switched their lens mount system from EF to RF). I have always been very partial to the 85mm focal length for portraits, and this particular 85mm lens produces some incredible results, whether the aperture is set wide open or stopped down.