Chicago Photography Workshops

busy wabash street with the el train passing by overhead. — State Street El Station

picture of the interior of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago — Holy Name Cathedral

Chicago Photography Workshops – Walking Tour

Chicago Photography Workshops are private one on one classes for you. My clients will learn the newest techniques to get amazing pictures of Chicago. We will work with each customer one-on-one to teach you the steps needed. Yes, we will do this with your camera, so the pictures taken are all yours. Our professional photography instructor, Kevin OConnell, has been a photographer for over 40 years and versed in both film and digital cameras. These classes are designed to be fun and informative as well as educational. This class should push you months ahead of reading books with just the two hour class.

Our Clients

Many of our clients are professionals that come to Chicago for a convention or vacation. They are very busy in life and looking for the most feasible way to fit a Photography Workshop in while here, not taking up a whole day or weekend. What they get with us, is a customized workshop that not only gets them the type of shots they like, but send them home with some new techniques that will help in the future. Many of our clients came with new cameras and newer to photography. These same clients left with smiles and great images of a wonderful city.

Creativity is my main focus with my photography workshops and very welcome. Once we work on some easy to learn technical aspects of your camera, we can try some fun and interesting perspectives, like these below.

chicago skyline at night — Chicago Night Skyline

picture of the chicago south loop skyline — South Loop Skyline

Millennium Park – This is a wonderful place to shoot day or night, with some of the coolest attractions in the world. This is the number one sought after attraction in Chicago, with beautiful architecture, night lighting, and great skylines in the background. This is where you will find The Bean, Crown Fountain, and Pritzker Pavilion.

Buckingham Fountain – This Chicago attraction is in Grant Park of the South Loop. Its one of the largest fountains in the world with a style of geyser that shoots from the center 150 feet into the air. The whole structure is 280 feet in diameter with a 136 jets in all. Its a pleasure to shoot this attraction in the day or night. If you do shoot this at night, you will see all the beautiful colors that keep changing and reflecting from the water. A spectacular fountain, thats for sure.

Chicago River – The Chicago River goes right though the the north center of the city to Lake Michigan. On both sides of the river you will see famous and historic buildings like Trump Tower, Chicago Tribune, and Wrigley Building. This is the place to shoot at sunset during the blue hour with everything lit up. The historic bridges, bridge towers and architecture along the river makes for great photography shots.

General Logan Statue – This is located and 900 South Michigan Avenue. its a great place to meet and explore Grant Park, with walking trails that extend all over the park. This is best for daytime, and for walking . in this central location of the south loop, we can get pictures of the Chicago Skyline, walk to the lakeshore to get images of the lakefront and museums.

*Two hours of fun, while learning the fundamentals of your camera*

Experience | Difficulty

Level of Experience
No Experience – Beginner – Amateur – Intermediate – Advanced
Easy to moderate walking
Wheelchair and handicap welcome

Workshop Guide

Kevin O’Connell
40 years photography experience with both film and digital, many international awards

Tour Dates | Hours

All my workshops are now custom to my clients and my availability. For the past two years, 95 percent of the workshops are times that my clients can make, when they are in town. So I decided to keep it easy and uncomplicated and set a date ant time best for you. Just contact me through the contact page to set up a date and time, we will work something out that meets your best schedule. 7 days a week.

*I will be out of town from Sept 17th through Oct 5th*

*Very Important, Must Read*

BEFORE YOUR WORKSHOP

What You Must Do Before Your Workshop – No Exceptions!!

Their are so many different types of cameras out here today because of technology, with so many different ways to get to your manual functions – I just don’t have the time to learn them all in order to teach you how to use your camera. This class will teach you many tips and easy techniques for composition, best lighting and focussing for sharp images. By the end of the workshop you will have a much better understanding on how to use your camera in any lighting situation. In order to do this, I just ask a few things from you before you get to my class. This will save us both a lot of time, so we can get right to the reason your here.

The important settings we will use while on this workshop – look these up in your camera manual

In your camera manual find these things,

1- learn how to set your camera to manual – then

2- know how to change your f-stop

3- know how to change you shutter speed

4- know how to change your ISO

5- know how to open your histogram – we will need to see this after every shot

6- learn how to put your camera in live view

You don’t need to know how to use any of those settings, just how to get to them, because I will be teaching them to you. Knowing these simple steps will make yours and my workshop much more productive and I wont have to try and figure out how to open these settings while at our workshop. Believe me, some of these cameras make you push all kinds of buttons and menu tasks in order to get to these settings. If you however cant seem to figure one or some of them out even with reading the manual, I will help you during our workshop, but it will eat up valuable time. It can also frustrate you while we try to figure how to get to your settings. Please lets avoid this unneeded frustration.

If your coming in for a sunset or night workshop, make sure you bring a tripod, or ask me to borrow one of mine. I understand that a lot of my clients come from other countries, so its okay if you don’t have a tripod with you, just let me know.

My workshops are a lot of fun and will teach you so many advanced techniques packed into a two hour workshop. This workshop will save you months of reading books and so on.

Advanced photographers are also very welcome. All of my workshops are custom and private, so I can set up a very unique workshop catered to your needs and shoot right along side you. Great fun!!

Closed until further notice

Prices and Length of Workshop

Private Couples Workshops – $245.00 – Private Customized Workshop

Private One Person Workshop -$195.00 – Private customized Workshop

All workshops are two hours long, unless you want to customize it. Contact us below for custom you.