If you know me well, you know I go to Chicago several times a year to indulge in opera. That started, according to my Google calendar, in 2011. But I think it was the very next year, 2012, that I contacted an online acquaintance via the now defunct Google+ social media platform that was so much loved and used by photographers around the world. To make a long story short, he agreed to meet me at “The Bean,” a must site for photogs in Chicago, and today I have a whole bunch of Chi-town friends. Getting together with them to…