The 2014 Chicago Flower and Garden Show

The entrance to the exhibit

Spring is almost here again. We've had a terrible winter season and signs of spring coming in is a sign of big relief. Spring brings one of the most awesome events in Chicago. Yes, I am talking about the Chicago Flower and Garden Show in Navy Pier.

A fountain near the entrance.

This year I enjoyed a lot of their exhibits. One of them is an exhibit of old file cabinets used to contain plants and flowers. It's a pretty ingenious way of reusing them.

Flowers in old file cabinets.

This year, instead of making my visit miserable by carrying a bag full of photographic equipment, I decided to bring one camera...yes, one camera, my Canon G15. A small but powerful camera that can shoot in raw and pretty good in lowlight.

There is even some honeycomb in this one.

The old file cabinet exhibit is pretty much artsy and ingenious at the same time.

Next is the Paradigm Shifts. The shifts in the exhibit is decorated and created by different artists. They cover subjects from fashion, to peace, to different cultures. There's a lot of stuff to see here.

One shift that has models imprinted on it.

This one is complete with a hat.

Pretty colorful.

Camo with a bullet belt in it. And yes those are bullets.

The art of floral exhibit is another interesting area in the show. Here they showcase art and flower arrangements from different artists at the same time.

One of the entries in the artsy plants exhibit.

Flowers arranged to look like a deers head.

Very artsy.

The honeycombs in one of the drawers of the file cabinets.

I love this shot of the tulips.

One of the vendor exhibits. This one is from Crate and Barrel.

So what's in the menu?

This one is near the center of the exhibit.

The photo contest area.

Taken in the Tulip section.

Another shot from the Tulip area.

The photo contest showcases the best of plant and flower photography from different photographers. I wasn't able to enter this year due to the fact that I was so busy with other stuff. I'll be in it again next year. Hopefully I win best in show again.

This looks familiar. It looks like the same one from last year.

Inside the Peterson Garden Project area.

Lots of tips for gardening here.

The Tablescapes area is pretty good this year. Lots of stuff to see from different businesses and organizations ranging from wedding planners, florists grocery stores and more.

More of a fashion type tablescape for this one. 

Flowers, and more flowers!

This one is a wedding themed tablescape.

Complete with shoes and a stuff toy.

This is one big tablescape. And one of my favorites.

More of like a fairy tale tablescape.

And last but not the least...the marketplace, where you can buy whatever you need for gardening. They even serve wine and spirits.

The Marketplace.

The show runs from March 15-23 2014. For more information visit the Chicago Flower and Garden show website at: http://www.chicagoflower.com/.

A shot I didn't expect to come out great

Yesterday I was doing a series of shots for this video that we are presenting for work. We actually shot a couple of frames in our green screen room so we can knock out the backgrounds of our shots easier either in After Effects or Photoshop. It was one rare event that we just used fluorescent lighting instead of strobes for an easier green screen setup.

Then one of our creative leads asked me if we can shoot a person inside a bathroom stall for one of the slides and I said yes. But then I had to use a speedlite for portable lighting due to the fact that studio lights aren't portable enough to squeeze in tight spaces in situations like that.

I then brought along a wireless trigger for the speedlite and a Canon 580 EXII with me during the shoot. I used a Canon 24-105mm f/4 lens because I needed a wider angle lens due to the space limitation inside the restrooms. I then had the idea to make the shot more memorable by having it look like one of those godly shots where light was coming from a single source, in this case, the person who is doing his business inside the stall.

I then asked the talent to hold the speedlite and bounce it on the stall door while I take the shot. I then crouched down, focused, and took the shot. When the preview came out, me and the creative lead were laughing so much at the shot:  

One of my favorite shots this year.

I then processed the shot in Photoshop and added an somewhat HDR effect to accentuate the bathroom floor a bit. It came out pretty funny but I loved the shot so much that I just had to put it in my portfolio.