Friendship (View large)

Nothing profound here. There were lots of colorful personalities

taking their pictures at 'The Bean' in Chicago.

Millenium park and the "Bean" is quite an amazing place for photo opportunities. I visited there at night time for one day in 2009 and really wished I could spend more time.   Parking is pricey!

By the way,  this is a lovely shot especially as we can see the front and the partial back reflection on the bean.

Here is what I found on the net about the 'bean" which is actually called Cloud Gate.

"Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons)".

When in Chicago, we try to stay at a hotel that offers free valet parking. Then we don't use our car again until we leave.  Public transportation can get you everywhere you need to go.  Just some advice for your next visit!  :-)  Next time we go we'd love to see the Bean at night.  We had intended to do it on our recent trip, but we had pounded the pavement all day long, and frankly we just didn't have the energy to do it after dinner. 

Thanks for including the info on it...you're always so good at that.  I should have realized that not everyone is as familiar with this as I am.  :-)

Two things that attracted me to this image that make this outstanding. One is that they are all wearing practically the same kind if shades that makes it cool and second, is the back reflection and its distortion. Beautiful capture.

Regards, Christal

Thanks, Lester.  We watched these girls for a long time.  They, as everyone else, loved seeing their reflections in the 'Bean'.  People can do the silliest things sometimes!  :-)

Thanks for the Hotel/parking tip. I took one of the bean that is very abstract. I placed the camera on the ground under the belly of the bean and tripped the shutter with the self timer.

http://photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=952195

I just responded to your comment on my other image of 'The Bean' and said I couldn't find your image of it.   So thanks for the link.   It's a cool perspective.  Was it taken at night?  The coloration is so different than what I saw, but that's the cool thing about the Bean.....so many variables make it look different each time you see it.

"The Bean" offers some great and varied opportunities for capturing human behavior.  From the right angles you can also include some nice distortions of the Chicago skyline in the background.