Back in Chicago Again

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Mark

Yes, after my first experience travelling to Chicago back in 2009, I was back there again but this time for only a week and most of the time I was located at the Q Center. This time travelling there was a little bit more pleasant but I had to take a horrendously long route. Kuala Lumpur to London and then to Chicago. 23 hours in total and 2 hours of transit at Heathrow Terminal 3.

Since I was mostly held up at the Q Center, I decided to walk around the area to capture a bit more of the scenery in the area whilst I was waiting for the shuttle bus to bring me to the Premium Shopping Outlets. Damn, stuff there are very cheap. Managed to get a new suitcase (after Air Asia broke my old one) from Samsonite as well as sunnies from Oakleys there.

If there are 4 people travelling from the airport to the training center, the taxi service will send you a limo. I kid you not!

The training center used to be a golf course and near the entrance lies the 18th hole which is a par 3.

At this distance, I don’t think I can hit it straight to the green let alone cross the lake thanks to the damn lake and how I am afraid of hitting the ball into the water.

Tallest building in the whole area, that was where I was housed which was conveniently above the dining hall where there are 3 buffet lines available for all 3 meals!

Located next to the training center is a river, its called Fox River and I am not too sure if this is the same Fox River from Prison Break. Of course after a quick Google, Fox River Penitentiary was actually a fictitious place but it was located in Illinois.

The weather there was fantastic in July with temperatures hitting 28 degrees on a high and averaging around 23-25 degrees.

The flight back however from Chicago was less than entertaining. I had to travel for 28 hours, door-to-door, meaning from the Q Center till my apartment door. This included a nice 6 hour transit in India which I think they should revamp their system allow transit passengers to roam in the departure hall where all the lounges and shops are while we wait for our tickets to be processed.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Mark

Alright, I am definitely responsible for a little lack of blog updates. I guess the moment I turned this into a true blue photography blog, I seem to realise that I have that amount to blog about but then again, I am the number procrastinator when it comes to processing photos and getting up on the blog let alone sending them to the printers to get them printed.

Here is a continuation from my previous post, talking about when I was visiting Chicago City which is still a fond memory in my head. We started the day with an Architecture tour in mind, the tour mainly revolved around us going up and down the river whilst listening to some lady talking about how old some buildings were and what design the architect had in mind. To be honest, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be an architect. Mainly because I wanted to design the next “Death Star” or something cooler.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Every day had to always begin with a great breakfast and where else to have breakfast at the local bakery in the village.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I was quite happy as I could finally try out bagels and cream cheese.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

But to be perfectly honest, it was nothing to shout about. Kinda regretted not ordering the large breakfast set which came with toast, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. After going about on the river cruise, we decided to walk along Michigan Avenue which was crowded with shoppers.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After spending a lot of time walking (my feet was already aching!), we decided to look for a place for lunch and since I am a fan of 1901 HotDog’s and my favourite hotdog is Chicago Beef, why not try the actual Chicago Beef Hotdogs in Chicago itself. High and low searching and using our iPhones to search for nearby restaurants, we ended up at Portillo’s.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Where I ordered a huge chilli dog with curly fries. (Pity there wasn’t any rootbeer available)

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Next stop for us was the Aquarium which was located all the way down south of where we were. After taking the metro line (subway), we were still quite far off from the aquarium and walking there seemed the best alternative (also the cheapest). At the same time, it gave me some opportunities to shoot a little bit of the Chicago scenery. Apparently they worship feet over there since they have plenty of monuments dedicated to it.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Note the guy in the orange shirt above? Yes, he is on a Segway! He is part of a Segway tour group, how cool is that? Its basically a tour where you get to ride your own individual Segway around the city with a bunch of other people guided by a tour guide. Do that in Malaysia and you get run down by cars and “mat rempits“.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I am amazed that they even have signs to state “dog friendly” areas as well.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

More random stuff which I took whilst making our way to the aquarium.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After a long walk, we finally arrived at our destination.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Only to be welcomed by a huge crowd and the fact that we only had 2 hours before they closed. I am so not used to seeing everything closed by 5pm!

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

The main attraction of the aquarium, other than seeing loads of sea creatures, is their collection of beluga whales.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

After the place closed up, I took even more random shots of the surrounding areas.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

I still can’t believe how large Lake Michigan is!

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Yes it is a lake! Possibly larger than the entire land mass of Peninsula Malaysia.

By the way, the myth about cops and donuts ain’t true. I caught a couple of them eating hot dogs.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

They (the police, duh!) seem to be riding everything possible now, bicycles, horses, and motorcycles. Soon they will be riding one of these as well!

PaulBlartMallCop2 Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Only thing is that they probably needed to put power sockets around the city to charge up their Segways.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Funky looking bench with interesting art on it.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Last but not least, a shot of my colleague whilst we took the metro train back to our hotel.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Chicago, definitely a city I would love to visit again. I think I will spend a little more time there the next time I am in Chicago for training.

Chicago the Windy City – Day 1

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Mark

Before anyone asks where is Day 2 of the WeddingStory Langkawi trip, I decided that I definitely wanted to post up some other photos of my recent trip to the US. Back in May, I flew to the States to attend a training in Chicago for a week where I planned a short break after the training session. Since I was already at Chicago attending the training, I thought it would be great to stay a couple of nights in Chicago with a bunch of my colleagues over in the City whilst taking in the sights.

The bus ride from St. Charles all the way to the city was horrendous. We were stuck in traffic for about 3 over hours for what should have been a 45-min bus ride. By the time we arrived in Chicago, it was already 5pm in the evening and we had little time there to enjoy the sights.

Chicago Day1 002 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

Chicago City itself, home of the mafias and also known as the Windy City.

Chicago Day1 001 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

This is a view from my hotel room. The building next to the hotel had a very interesting concept, it was totally round and had built the parking lots below the rooms. Look at the parking spaces, there are no walls at all! I can’t imagine parking my car there overnight. I would probably be having nightmares about my car falling off from the building.

Chicago Day1 003 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

Chicago has a river running through the city where they have plenty of water taxis and Architecture tours available for tourists to ride up the Chicago River. Look how nice and clean the water is much compared to our own wonderful Klang River which runs through KL City. The secret to this is not only civic minded folks who don’t throw every single bit of rubbish into the river but they actually have a processing plant to clean the river’s water.

Chicago Day1 004 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

Before I went to Chicago, a friend of mine, CWCW, told me that I have to try a deep dish pizza. After checking out with some of my colleagues during my training session, I was told that I should check out Giordano’s for some of that awesome deep dish pizza. I guess Giordano‘s is sort of like those franchise type stores, much like Domino’s or Pizza Hut.

Chicago Day1 005 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

As it’s name suggests, this pizza is definitely a thick crust! The pizza is so thick that after 3 slices I was totally filled up to the brim, of course the extra added cheese did not help at all. The crust itself isn’t like the usual pizza crust you might get but it had a combination of pie crust in it. If you ever are in Chicago, I would highly recommend that you try out a deep dish pizza.

Chicago Day1 012 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

After stuffing ourselves crazy (with plenty of leftovers), we decided that a nice long walk would be suitable and since Grant Park was nearby we headed there for a walk. As light began to disappear, shooting in low light was going to be a tough challenge. The weather itself was just awesome, nice and cooling without any hint of humidity.

Chicago Day1 006 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

As we were walking, we chanced upon this interesting monument. I love the fact that it was rather stylish and interesting, mainly because it was totally reflective!

Chicago Day1 007 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

Which means I could take a photo of myself!

Chicago Day1 009 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

I loved how the syline of the buildings behind were also reflected on it the monument.

Chicago Day1 008 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

This was the skyline of buildings behind it.

After snapping a couple more photos, we headed towards the Sears Tower where the attraction there would be to head up to the upper decks or the “Sky Deck” to catch a 360 view of the Chicago City.

Chicago Day1 011 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

The one thing that caught my eye is how straight the roads were! Everything is so nicely planned out.

Chicago Day1 010 Chicago the Windy City Day 1

The SkyDeck definitely showed us all how large Chicago is. By the time we got down (we stayed till it was closing time), we were totally wiped out and proceeded back to our hotel.

Day 2 of the Chicago trip to follow up!

Bumming at the Q for a week

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Mark

Oh my goodness, the blog went silent for a week and I have to blame the lack of internet when I was in New York. Actually there was internet available at the hotel I was staying in and it was limited to only 30minutes and the Wi-Fi connection kept dropping so after I returned back on Saturday and sort of recovered from all the jet lag, I believe its time for a new blog post.

The first week I was in the states mainly involved me living in this small room as shown in the image below. As the title states, I was at the Q Center located in Chicago for a weeklong training. Getting there was no easy task, I had to endure a flight from Malaysia to Hong Kong, transit for 2 hours before travelling another 12 hours to Los Angeles. Upon arrival which was almost midnight, I stayed a night at Los Angeles because the security checks at LAX took almost 2 hours. Then early in the morning, take another flight to Chicago which I clearly missed because I was queuing up for more than an hour and missed the 1-hour before flight check-in deadline. Anyway they just put me on the next flight which was the next hour.

stcharles blog 001 Bumming at the Q for a week

Don’t sweat it, the awesome part of this was that it had free internet as well as a TV which had more than 10 HD channels. It was really awesome watching ESPN in HD! The image is so clear, you can see all the chest hair of all the basketball players when they are playing (ironically I was catching the eastern conference playoffs )

stcharles blog 002 Bumming at the Q for a week

Most of the time I would be walking to and from my training lecture and viewing these awesome scenery and although training usually lasts until quite late through the day, I am glad that the sun sets really late (like 8ish) so I still manage to catch some wonderful sun and cool temperatures.

stcharles blog 0031 Bumming at the Q for a week

The centre used to be a golf course but they managed to preserve the last hole.

stcharles blog 004 Bumming at the Q for a week

My room was located in these apartments on the right. They are quite close to the actual lecture rooms and since classes start at 8am, I had to wake up very early every morning just to catch breakfast before classes. I am utterly amazed that the Americans love to start at 8am everyday whilst where I work, usually people come in after 9am.

stcharles blog 005 Bumming at the Q for a week

Its nice to see tulips as well as we don’t get to see many of them here in Malaysia. But it was a really nice week at St. Charles in Chicago where the sun was up every day and the temperatures were still cool.

More to come when I process the photos I took while I visited Chicago city itself.

Suffering from long transits

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Mark

On my way to Chicago, I was booked on a flight which I had to transit in Hong Kong for 2 hours and then fly another 12 more hours to Los Angeles and stay overnight at the transit hotel and before you know it, hop on a 5 hour flight to Chicago. After a 3.5 hour flight, we arrived in the Hong Kong airport and it was full blown ready to take on the reported H1N1 Flu. Actually, all I did see were cameras which monitored each person disembarking the plane to see if they showed signs. Other than that, the transit area was quite nice.

hongkongairport blog 005 Suffering from long transits

First of all, I liked the architecture of the airport itself, the design really reminded me a lot of KLIA but the airport was so much more packed compared to our wonderful deserted KLIA.

hongkongairport blog 003 Suffering from long transits

Everywhere I turned within the transit section, there were loads of stores there ranging from high end brands such as Giorgio Armani to Starbucks coffee as well as individual smaller restaurants (they could be a chain too).

hongkongairport blog 004 Suffering from long transits

I guess the rent must have been quite high as the seats that we were given were really small. So small that I can’t put my bag on the chair and sit on the chair as well (no, I am not that fat, the chair is just that small!).

hongkongairport blog 001 Suffering from long transits

Anyway, Jamie ordered a duck pizza which was interesting but it was extremely small. The damage? USD$16.30. Food prices in Hong Kong are off the roof especially in the airport.

hongkongairport blog 006 Suffering from long transits

After a quick snack, I managed to go to one of these stations to charge my laptop as well as surf the internet. Note that I realised that KLIA and the Hong Kong Airport provides free Wi-fi. Sadly LAX and O’Hare International Airport does not offer free wi-fi.

After going back on board the next Cathay Pacific flight, the one thing I noticed was that all of the flight attendants were wearing masks throughout the entire flight there. By the time I arrived at LAX, the scene over there was as if they never heard of what the H1N1 flu was. The line at immigration was very long especially since the Homeland Security has implemented the new “Visit US” rule. By the time I arrived at the transit hotel, it was already 12am and I had to get up at 6am the next day to catch the 8am flight.

Anyway I definitely need to catch my sleep now, need to definitely fight off my jet lag. Will be continuing my transit nightmares on my next blog post.

All packed and ready to go

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Mark

Ok, I lied about the title, its officially 1.14am and I have not yet finished packing. I guess I only packed the important ones, or the things which I deemed as important such as my camera gear and my laptop.

3534129856 30f6380afb o All packed and ready to go

That’s right, my camera gears! I will be at Chicago and New York in the upcoming two weeks so I definitely know I can take loads of pictures there! What’s in my bag above? I have packed in my D700, an 80-200mm f/2.8 lens, a 14-24mm lens (I want to shoot when I am on top of the Empire State building!) as well as a 50mm lens. Also together with my camera gear is my MacBookPro and I am packing all of these items into my new Lowepro FastPack 250. Not too bad eh?

I still got loads of packing to do and double checking to do so I am going to continue packing and hitting the slack soon.

My laptop is currently copying photos over to a portable hard disk where I am supposed to pass some photos to Grace and I am also considering trying to figure out where should I backup my entire laptop documents. Probably into one of my external hard drives. Ah, I do things very last minute!

At the same time I printed out an eBook and I will be reading it on the way to US as well as brainstorm and plan out my slides for my presentation at ShootFest and for a photography workshop which I am giving at my company.

ShootFest 001 & more

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Mark

Before I announce the official press release below, the quick update is that there has already been 65 participants who have already signed up for ShootFest, hence there are only 15 spaces left people!

Anyway, I have been a little busy this entire week and I started packing last night for my trip to the US which begins tomorrow! Woohoo! Yes, I will be flying off to sunny Chicago on Saturday and then over to New York the week after. After trying to remember what I need to bring, I definitely have a huge packing list including some of my camera gear and 20Gb of memory cards. In the event that 20Gb is not enough, my contingency plan is that if I do use all 20Gb of memory, I would probably buy a 8Gb CF card there.

If you are wondering what I am doing in the US, its part business and part holiday (I’ve never been to the eastern seaboard). Definitely looking forward to photographing New York and checking out some of the fantastic landmarks there. Tweeting will still continue and hopefully, I can find some free wifi spots about NYC.

Official Press Release
ShootFest: The Wedding Unconference
Date: 6th & 7th June 2009 (Saturday & Sunday). Registration starts at 9am.
Venue: Integricity office, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, PJ
Fees: RM50
So what is ShootFest: The Wedding all about? And what is an unconference?
An unconference is an informal gathering of likeminded people with a common interest. Itâ€™s a participant-driven conference, meaning everyone must participate in some way or another. Everyone is encouraged to present a topic or engage in a discussion during the 2-day sessions.
Each ShootFest is a media unconference primarily for photographers and videographers. This first one that is organised is themed The Wedding and is meant for professionals, freelancers and anyone interested in wedding photography and videography.
The benefits of ShootFests are knowledge-sharing, networking and raising the bar for the industry. The idea is to breed improvement for everyone in a friendly environment.
Our sharing slots are open to everyone who is interested to speak. Participants can choose to speak about anythingâ€¦ from technical know-how, to marketing your photography business, to sharing your experience about how you left your full time job to be a wedding photographer. Other interesting things that will be happening are like Pecha Kucha sessions, where you share 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, or a buy-sell session where everyone brings their second hand gear to sell.
How it All Started
Inspired by a techies gathering called Barcamp, Alex Lam (www.integricity.com) and Grace Tan (www.weddingstory.com.my) gathered a group of wedding professionals and shared the idea of an unconference with them. The first ShootFest meeting was held at a coffee outlet and 5 people met up to discuss ideas. Those who were present were Zach Chin (www.zachchin.com), Jon Low (www.idealwedding.net), Mark Leo (www.markleo.net/blog) and of course, Alex and Grace.
Everyone was really excited about the idea of sharing knowledge and networking with others. It was at this first meeting that the name ShootFest was determined, and that night itself the domain was purchased, and a WordPress site set up. Others who couldnâ€™t make it for the meeting due to geographical constraints were Ian Chong (www.eeyern.com/blog) and Lim Kee Sitt (www.weddingstory.com.my).
Latest Updates
From that first meeting, we have gathered a group of volunteers who have willingly availed themselves to help in any way. Word about ShootFest went out informally through forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Over a short period of 2 weeks, we had 65 registrations. The cap on the total number of people would be around 80 due to venue restrictions.
Visit the ShootFest website: www.shootfest.org to get the latest updates, view the schedule, register and sign up for a speaking session. If youâ€™d like to help out in any way, do email [email protected] We gladly welcome volunteers

ShootFest 001 & more

Posted on May 15, 2009 by Mark

Official Press Release
ShootFest: The Wedding Unconference
Date: 6th & 7th June 2009 (Saturday & Sunday). Registration starts at 9am.
Venue: Integricity office, Centrepoint Bandar Utama, PJ
Fees: RM50
So what is ShootFest: The Wedding all about? And what is an unconference?
An unconference is an informal gathering of likeminded people with a common interest. It’s a participant-driven conference, meaning everyone must participate in some way or another. Everyone is encouraged to present a topic or engage in a discussion during the 2-day sessions.
Each ShootFest is a media unconference primarily for photographers and videographers. This first one that is organised is themed The Wedding and is meant for professionals, freelancers and anyone interested in wedding photography and videography.
The benefits of ShootFests are knowledge-sharing, networking and raising the bar for the industry. The idea is to breed improvement for everyone in a friendly environment.
Our sharing slots are open to everyone who is interested to speak. Participants can choose to speak about anything… from technical know-how, to marketing your photography business, to sharing your experience about how you left your full time job to be a wedding photographer. Other interesting things that will be happening are like Pecha Kucha sessions, where you share 20 slides, each for 20 seconds, or a buy-sell session where everyone brings their second hand gear to sell.
How it All Started
Inspired by a techies gathering called Barcamp, Alex Lam (www.integricity.com) and Grace Tan (www.weddingstory.com.my) gathered a group of wedding professionals and shared the idea of an unconference with them. The first ShootFest meeting was held at a coffee outlet and 5 people met up to discuss ideas. Those who were present were Zach Chin (www.zachchin.com), Jon Low (www.idealwedding.net), Mark Leo (www.markleo.net/blog) and of course, Alex and Grace.
Everyone was really excited about the idea of sharing knowledge and networking with others. It was at this first meeting that the name ShootFest was determined, and that night itself the domain was purchased, and a WordPress site set up. Others who couldn’t make it for the meeting due to geographical constraints were Ian Chong (www.eeyern.com/blog) and Lim Kee Sitt (www.weddingstory.com.my).
Latest Updates
From that first meeting, we have gathered a group of volunteers who have willingly availed themselves to help in any way. Word about ShootFest went out informally through forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Over a short period of 2 weeks, we had 65 registrations. The cap on the total number of people would be around 80 due to venue restrictions.
Visit the ShootFest website: www.shootfest.org to get the latest updates, view the schedule, register and sign up for a speaking session. If you’d like to help out in any way, do email [email protected] We gladly welcome volunteers

Mark Leo Dot Net

Loving all things photography, tech, gadgets, Apple and cars

Tag Archives: Chicago

Back in Chicago Again

Chicago the Windy City – Day 2

Chicago the Windy City – Day 1

Bumming at the Q for a week

Suffering from long transits

All packed and ready to go

ShootFest 001 & more

Official Press Release

ShootFest 001 & more

Official Press Release