I must confess I wasn’t expecting Downtown Chicago to be as nice as it is: Wonderful architecture, great museums and parks. Very tourist-friendly.

Throughout the years I have traveled carrying my current dSLR with a normal zoom lens, but the lighter weight, expanded telephoto range and the record-breaking image stabilization of a Micro Four Thirds combo were perfect for city travel: I took all my photos with and Olympus OM-D camera (the EM1 mark II) and the M. Zuiko 12-100 f/4 lens (a 24-200mm equivalent in 35 mm).

Horses for courses of course… There will be times for big cameras, compact cameras or just smartphones… Just not this time!

The open space here reminds me of some modern paintings…

Handheld one to four seconds exposures are routine at wide angle settings.

Route 66 to California starts in Chicago…

A child walks by the fountain at Millenium Park seconds before the big face squirts water.

The Flamingo iron sculpture by Calder frames the surrounding buildings.

An approaching storm darkens the Chicago Skyline