When people see this photo, they instantly ask me one question and one question alone: “How did you get a picture of the Bean with no people in it?”  And it is a good question.

Millennium Park closes at 11PM.  I was shooting this at 11:02PM.  Security was in the process of ushering people out.  I yelled for everyone to get out of the way of my shot–surprisingly, not only did everyone comply, but security actually routed some people around me–and I got this I Am Legend shot of The Bean.

Initially, I was hesitant about shooting the Bean.  I’d seen a ton of different photos of it and they all seemed more or less the same.  I wasn’t sure what I could do that would be different enough to make the experience worthwhile.  Fortunately, I didn’t listen to my misgivings and shot the Bean anyway.  And I ended up getting three shots of it that I really like.  My favorite of these three shots of the Bean is the one I took on a foggy night where the buildings surrounding Millennium Park seem to be hovering over the park like space ships, but this photo is growing on me steadily.  It’s so calm, serene and, yes, empty.  And yellow.  But that’s a story for a different time.