CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

As the sun begins to set on the evening sky, the Water Lantern Festival begins to shine with the launch of the lanterns onto the water.

Water Lantern Festival by Paul Sager, on Flickr


Humboldt Park
Chicago, IL
Sept 2023

Water Lantern Festival


Water Lantern Festival began in 2018 with events in 34 cities with a combined attendance of over 130,000 participants.

Water Lantern Festival


Water Lantern Festival can be a very emotional experience, writing down some of your hope and dreams, or a letter to a loved one, and then sending it out into the water.

Water Lantern Festival


Watch your unique lantern drift out into the water as it joins other lanterns carrying hope, love, happiness, healing, peace, and connection.

Water Lantern Festival


Water Lantern Festival cares deeply about our environment and our water resources. Following the event the organizing team retrieves each lantern and cleans-up any trash.

Water Lantern Festival


1 in 10 people around the world lack access to safe water. Water Lantern Festival works with Water.org to help change this.

Water Lantern Festival


This event combines the magic of friends, family, food, and a beautiful array of twinkling lanterns on the waterfront.

Water Lantern Festival


The Water Lantern Festival brings together individuals from all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life to join in one emotional and memorable night.

Water Lantern Festival


Images captured in this post use primarily an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II mounted to an EOS 5DIII, captured in RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom v6.

Water Lantern Festival

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

Great job on these- the lighting is perfect.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Interesting! Nice photos, too, Paul.

Bubbee Loc: Aventura, Florida

Beautiful!
Love 4,7, and 9.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Excellent captures. I really like the clear reflection of the lanterns.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you tradio, John, Bubbee, alberio! The trip to Humboldt was someplace new in my Chicago travels. The Chicago festival had been moved from another park due to bad weather earlier in the summer. It probably turned out better as a result.

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Interesting set.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

This is a great set of pictures. I think the next to last is probably my favorite. I know you shoot a lot of film. Was this on film?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Kathy! You really can't do something like this with film. Even wide open at f/2.8 with a stabilized lens, I was shooting in bursts around 1/30 to 1/50 sec, still around ISO-5000. I culled about 70 ish images from well over 800 from just over 2 hours.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you bcheary! Glad you enjoyed.

cliff Hilbert Loc: Plano, TX

800 shots in 2 hours?? Wow!! You must have a sore trigger finger today 😄. Great shots, Paul!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thanks Cliff! Imagine yourself as a successful photographer. Did you take too few or too many great images? Between me holding the camera steady, getting a subject in (perfect) focus, and finding subjects I can 'freeze' around 1/30 sec, digital experience has taught me to capture as many as possible with all my best efforts, and then later I might find a few that actually worked.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank you Frank!

junglejim1949 Loc: Sacramento,CA

Wonderful tradition and photos.