Mark A Bergeron Photography

While living just steps away from this vista, I had taken many shots of the Chicago river looking east.  The riverwalk has been under construction for years, and they are finally wrapping things up - it is a fabulous mile walk that demonstrates the best of Chicago architecture!

I had been wanting to get out and reshoot the CBOT for a couple years now, the schedule and weather just happened to line up this evening.  I was lucky in that the lights go out at 10:30 and I had just taken these last series of shots before all went black.  Enjoy!

"Since 1930, the Chicago Board of Trade has been operating out of 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, in a building designed by architects Holabird & Root that is 605 feet (184 m) tall, the tallest in Chicago until the Richard J. Daley Center superseded it in 1965. This Art Deco building incorporates sculptural work by Alvin Meyer and is capped by a 31-foot (9.5 m) tall statue of the Roman goddess Ceres in reference to the exchange's heritage as a commodity market. Ceres is faceless because its sculptor, John Storrs, believed that the forty-five story building would be sufficiently taller than any other nearby structure and as a result that no one would be able to see the sculpture's face anyway.

On May 4, 1977, the Chicago Board of Trade Building was designated a Chicago Landmark. The building is now a National Historic Landmark. Today the Board of Trade Building is closely joined by numerous skyscrapers in the heart of Chicago's busy Loop commercial neighborhood."

Taken December 2012 prior to 6am - the only time that one is guaranteed no other visitors will be at the "Bean".  It was a very mild December day with a lot of residual rain from the night prior.

For years this was the view off of the Kenzie Bridge - the backdrop to countless wedding photo sessions (a dozen a day, no exaggeration).  Only faint traces of what was to come in terms of what would be today's skyline from this vista are shown here - namely the walkway on the lower right of the frame.  Today, this scene looks completely different,.., dominated by a new construction that obstructs the views of the Boeing and the absolutely iconic Willis (Sears) Towers.  Kenzie Bridge was in my backyard for years, and fortunately, I was able to witness the transformation (or demise) of this splendid Chicago visual offering.

Shot on Ground Hog's Day of 2014 - it wasn't much above zero on this day as I remember!  A few months later, Zeiss had contacted me about featuring this photo in their marketing material for the upcoming release of their new Otus series lens - this photo took the back cover of that brochure. 

Taken the Friday after the Chicago Cubs had won the World Series the Wednesday, prior.  I had gotten home from work that night and was content on staying put for the evening as I was quite exhausted from the week.  However, something was pulling me to get out and afterward, I'm sure glad I did.  After having dozens of visits to this point, the lake and exposure were quite magnificent on this particular evening with the skyline being adorned in Cub fashion.

As one looks off our balcony, this clock is probably the first thing people will notice.  On a a breezy summer afternoon, this was captured over 4 minutes - the partly cloudy sky added so much to the background!.

On a stormy night, I ventured out on to the town for some long-exposure fun.  After stumbling across the Hancock building on North Avenue Beach, I couldn't pass on taking a shot!

Waiting for the Batmobile to arrive at any second in this bridge!

As large a football/soccer field, the pavilion is a place where folks congregate to listen to music of all sorts, watch movies, etc.  It's not uncommon to have the lawn roped off to have the grass have a chance to grow.  When possible, my wife and I visit to listen to "whatever" type of music, open a bottle of wine, eat some fruit and cured meats, and just soak it all up as do the other thousand visiting.

While some might say understated, I might say under appreciated... The NBC building is a favorite.  Captured here on a foggy, warm, January evening.  The clouds were hanging so low in the city that when combined with the building's spot lights firing straight upwards causing a halo, made for a unique photo opportunity!

While not immediately seen in the more known parts of downtown Chicago, the Aqua building is a favorite in its design.  Residing 87 stories, it is not an insignificant structure aside from its unique design.  My wife and I had the fortune of enjoying our wedding weekend here!

For many years I live close to the Kenzie Bridge.  During he summer, it is filled with wedding parties trying to get a shot of the lovely downtown Chicago vista.

My arrival to the Planetarium point was a bit late as the fireworks for the Blackhawks win of the Stanley Cup had already commenced and the uncommon eastward wind pushed the remnants of the firework smoke back into the city skyline.  It has been an extraordinary few years for Chicago sports between the Hawks and the Cubs.  In both cases, I have to give top honors to the CNA building for again providing an exquisite mosaic of the Blackhawk insignia.  

Chicago is an amazing place for 20th century architecture.  You can look anywhere downtown and find something that is truly amazing.  This long exposure on a hot summer afternoon is just another example.

This arch is rather large and from this distance, it would be difficult to spot someone standing beneath it as they would appear so very small!  We can't recommend Utah enough for those that hike or those that want to see a variety of geological formations/transformations.  Enjoy!

Our last day in the Utah Arches National Park, yielded one my favorites from the trip.  This vastness of the landscape is quite immense here ...

In just about every photo I've seen of Balanced Rock (including the one here), one can never really understand the size of the rock being balanced many stories above - about the size of a city bus.  One day in the future, it will topple and its beauty will be forever lost...

While we had planned a trip for New Mexico, little did we know that Albuquerque is a hub of hot-air ballooning. My wife and I decided it was something we must do - and after the experience, we highly recommended it!

As we had just ascended, another balloon team was preparing for their flight.

Another delectable view from Utah's National Parks - Canyonlands. It's very difficult to discern how far down these gorges really are without context - the mountains on the opposite side of the view reside at least 20 miles away.

Rain is an uncommon event in Arizona dessert. On the first day of our trip there, in rained for about 36 hours straight causing our photo tour through the incredible Lower Antelope Canyon to be pushed to the next day and then a few more hours for the staff to make the hike suitable. What resulted was two days worth of tours crammed into one half-day's time. While the canyon was overrun with masses of humanity, the previous day's rain washed away the dust leaving vibrant colors and a lack of blowing sand (to the benefit of the cameras). A unique place, glad to have visited, but crazy experience. Enjoy!

Classic shot of Island In The Sky. The LaSal mountain range resides in the background of the photo. One more step forward and the photographer becomes part of the rubble below.

Standing at the rim of the canyon, taking another step forward would result in a 1500 ft free-fall to my end.  Just marveled at the immense size of this canyon only to find another immense canyon imbedded below with strata in sedimentary layers of the sandstone.  One can only imagine the forces of nature at work here…

Rain is an uncommon event in Arizona dessert. On the first day of our trip there, in rained for about 36 hours straight causing our photo tour through the incredible Lower Antelope Canyon to be pushed to the next day and then a few more hours for the staff to make the hike suitable. What resulted was two days worth of tours crammed into one half-day's time. While the canyon was overrun with masses of humanity, the previous day's rain washed away the dust leaving vibrant colors and a lack of blowing sand (to the benefit of the cameras). A unique place, glad to have visited, but crazy experience. Enjoy!

With a monstrous-looking rock structure surfacing from the ground, a forepaw extending into the frame, and finally a tail bending around on the right of the frame, this scene has become a favorite capture from the trip. I was initially a bit bummed when the gentleman popped into the right of the frame on the trail, but later thought it was perfect as it gave the structure some scale and enormity!

On our last night in Firenze (Florence) we walked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to grab a few night shots of the downtown sites.  The Duomo's size cannot be understated - the fact that it has approximately another 5 stories of structure beneath from what is seen here, is truly amazing.

Venice went to bed early which made for great evening photos of empty of tourists (such as myself!) but yet many streets remained fully lit!

Siena was/is an absolutely magical town - the architecture inside the city's walls has not been updated for centuries. Its sinuous and hilly cobblestone roads still echo with its former greatness.  Can't wait to head back in 2019!

Admittedly, San Giovanni Maggiore was never on the radar as a photo opportunity - true to say, I didn't even know anything about the small island residing a short distance away from the San Marco area of Venice.  After dinner one evening I went out to grab pics of San Marco.  As it turns out, a light fog rolled into the city that evening.  As I was exploring the neighborhoods around our hotel (you never want to venture to far at night in Venice as the streets become quite confusing!), I came across San Gio.  After several attempts at shots without a Vaporetto (aka, water taxi) in the frame, this was a result.  While I had taken about 2000 shots during the two weeks in Italy, this remains one of my top-five favorite photos ever taken, anywhere, period!

Translated as the "Old Bridge", one look at it and one can think only the opposite.  This long exposure taken from a neighboring bridge remains a favorite of my wife's and my journey to Italy in the fall of 2015.

The iconic status of the Colosseum is undisputed.  The vast quantities and masses of humanity that flock to this landmark is unprecedented.  Even as our experience took place in the "slow" season, hoards were still present to see its insides.  In all its majesty, the most surprising thing is, it's actually smaller than its reputation might suggest, but no less impressive.

As many others, taking photos after dark is quite satisfying.  The Italians do a great job keeping these historical landmarks constantly illuminated - more for deterring vandals and vagrants than photographers, I'm sure!  The scaffolding reaches around about 1/4 of the structure as it appears substantial restoration is in the works.

As it turns out, Halloween is also celebrated in Rome as was the case on this lovely evening!

For the last few days of our Italy trip, my wife stayed in the Tuscan town of Siena, at the Il Battistero, a residence owned by the same family going back centuries.  The 30-something son, Giovanni, provided us with recommendations for the best local restaurants (where they don't speak English) and gelato offerings - both tasty beyond compare.  Giovanni also provided us with an amazing scenic path through Siena that included unique views of this Basilica.  Our first pass was during the afternoon but I had to return after dark to grab this one.  Thanks Giovanni!  Hope we can connect again in 2019!

Completely drawn to this scene with a single source of light; it was really too much pass on.  This unexpected discovery lead to one of my very favorite shots of the trip.  As it turns out, this scene was a set on the 1955 classic Katherine Hepburn movie Summertime.  Enjoy!

During out last evening in Venice, I headed out to grab some shots of the city. The city was fairly difficult to navigate during the day. After dark, most didn't want to even try to get around so the streets were largely empty, which made for great evening photos!

Another random shot of a Venice "street" in the evening.  Venice is tough enough to navigate by day and people, tourists, just don't even try by day which leads to empty streets after dark - perfect for my type of photo opps!

An alternate shot of San Gio in Venice.  The light fog that rolled in that evening just provided some amazing shots of this picturesque church!

I'd been at the Chicago Botanical Gardens many times and the Great Blue Heron was always one bird that remained elusive.  This Memorial Day weekend was particularly cold and cloudy, I headed out early to beat the meager crowds that visited the gardens on Saturday.  Throughout the morning, the heron crossed the pond that connected the islands that make up the Japanese Gardens where the heron was flying/fishing.  This was entered in the garden's summer photo contest and won top prize.

With birds in flight, some days I get very lucky.  This was taken at Chicago's Lincoln Park inside the zoo area.  It was subsequently entered as part of the park's Nature in Focus photo contest to which it was a finalist and then the featured photo for their website.

This male mallard was quite insistent at the Chicago Botanical Gardens - as if he was waiting for something, or someone.  His comfort with visitors was extraordinary, he was literally within arm's reach and sometimes so close, my camera could not focus on him.  

My favorite time to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo is in the early morning.  I just never know what is going to happen there before the masses of humanity arrive and disturb the natural goings-on.  The purity of color in this gull was a nice offset to the earthy tones behind.

I had remained still and silent for a good half hour around a couple dozen Canadian Geese in Chicago's Grant Park one afternoon under a bunch of cranberry trees.  A few of the geese felt very comfortable in coming within close proximity.  This goose who had spent several minutes cleaning himself previously, came within a meter of me with an almost curious look about him.

Admittedly, it is much more common to mallards and loons in our neighborhoods, but this wood duck's colors were extraordinary!

This female mallard takes an afternoon break at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.  However, while I never meant her any harm from the start, she keeps an eye out due my close proximity ...

On my way out of the Milwaukee County Zoo, there were several flamingos congregating near a pond.  One stood out from the others, for whatever reason, and I felt compelled to capture it.

Another shot of this heron's crossing of the pond between the islands of the Japanese Gardens.

After visiting the Borghese Galleria in Rome, my wife and I took a stroll through the surrounding grounds and came across a largo with a few local residents.  The largo will forever remain a special place to my wife and myself ...

Our trip to the British Virgin Islands was extraordinary with so many remarkable memories.  I hadn't planned on grabbing shots of wildlife, but a group of pelicans were fishing around our boat one morning.  It was an interesting interplay with the gulls as the they would land on the backs of the pelicans while the pelicans heads would be underwater.  This shot captures the pelican taking off for another dive to grab more fish.

This group of pelicans was hanging out by a pond on the grounds of the Brookfield Zoo.  Their fishing technique is quite extraordinary - as they scoop up gallons of water in their beaks to find fish.

Taken in the early fall at the Chicago Botanical Gardens where the young males just start to take on their green hoods.  As there are visitors at the gardens all the time, this young one has quite a large comfort zone allowing me to get a shot of him fairly close-up.