The Drink & Click™ theme for November was “History” and I was in Chicago. Yay! And one of my images made “Finalist” in the competition. I’m way proud.

But let me give credit where credit is due. I did not know this point of view on the historic Chicago L existed. My friend, Adam Dooley, did, and when I grumped that I had made hundreds of shots of the L and was not happy with any of them, he took me to the precise place you must stand to get this shot. And it’s a finalist. Thanks, Adam!

Here’s how it works. Drink and Click™ is a rather loosely organized bunch of photographers who met on Google+, the social media network seemingly designed with photographers in mind that will soon go out of existence much to our dismay. But that’s another story.

The head of Drink and Click™ is Juan Gonzalez, who lives out west somewhere and who publishes a theme every month and lines up prizes and judges. Many major cities around the world have local coordinators who receive those themes and plan a day each month when local photographers gather and go out and… wait for it….. drink and click! Well, we eat, too.

The local coordinator in Chicago is Lauri Novak, another friend all because of Google+ and Drink and Click™, and she does her best to organize an outing when I’m in town. On this particular occasion, Adam was the only Chicago D&C’er who could join me.

So…, we’ve been walking and shooting for several hours, it’s getting late, we’re kind of cold, and I mention that the Chicago L is both historic and one of my fave things about Chi-town, but I can’t take a satisfying photograph of it to save my life. And Adam tells me there’s a place you can stand–on the pavement–and look down over the top of the tracks.

This I’ve gotta see! Sure enough, within minutes, there we stand and I click away. This, Louisiana friends, is what draws me back to Chicago over and over: friends who’ll walk for hours to get the shot and lots of cool stuff to shoot.