Personal projects often take a lot of planning and persistence to pull off. They are passion driven assignments which is a big part of why they are so important to evolve as a photographer. However, sometimes opportunity and timing don't line up so you have to make the best of a poor situation. This is when experience and determination make or break an idea.
This is exactly what happened to photographer Michael Calabro last October on Lake Michigan. An outdoor lifestyle photographer based out of Chicago, Calabro has worked with all kinds of great clients from Nike, Red Bull, and Victory Motorcycles to Outside, and Surfer magazine just to name a few. His commercial and editorial work has taken him all around the world but it's his personal project documenting the little known Chicago surf scene that has gotten him some recent attention. "Yep, you can surf on a lake and it actually gets good if the conditions are just perfect, " said Calabro. Surf is at its best on the lakes going into the winter when the weather gets bad. Winds traveling over the length of the lakes can produce some pretty impressive swells and on a good day, quite a few surfers can be seen out in the cold. This particular day, however, was not your average Chicago October day and there weren't any waves on the lake. When the weather is nice the community has turned to a newer water sport called wake surfing.