One of the reasons I enjoy photography so much is for the challenges it presents. On Tuesday, the challenges were aplenty.

We started Day 3 of our family vacation by visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo. My plan from a photography perspective was to travel light seeing that we would be coming back for a break before heading downtown.  But instead of coming back to rest and reload, we decided to keep trekking.

In planning out the day, I had originally hoped to shoot some elaborate panoramas. But as plans changed, it meant that the majority of my gear was still sitting back at the condo. I was left shooting in bright sunlight on a clear day with my Mark III and Canon 24-70 USM.  No tripod, no panoramic head, no polarizing filter, no ND filter, no 50mm and no 14mm wide angle. But as I said at the beginning of the post, one of the best parts about photography is the challenge that it presents.

I attempted to shoot a few 360-degree panos by hand, but as I found out when I got back to the condo, they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. Knowing that the panos (without my tripod and panoramic head) were a long shot, I focused on what I did have to work with: a bright sun and an unbelievably reflective cityscape made of steel and glass.

During post-process, I elected to keep everything in black and white. I believe it tells a better story in the way that it compliments the city’s architecture.

Below are my results.