Hello! It has been a few months since I posted anything on this main blog page. The reason? The Two Ls: Laziness and Lack (of content). Here is some content I actually shot this week. The Autumn equinox was just a few days ago. During the Spring and Autumn equinoxes (give or take a few days) the setting sun will line up along the East-West streets, and the resulting scene between the buildings in downtown Chicago is pretty cool. I do not own a long enough lens to get close so I chose a cinematic presentation for my images. This was my first time shooting Chihenge so it was a learning experience. I will know what to expect next time. I only took a handful of shots and am leading this post with the best one, so there is no real reason for you to keep going, lol.

This was the first shot as the sun started peaking out from behind some buildings. I did not know beforehand where the sun would appear relative to the horizon. Then I noticed the gal in the middle of my shot move up so I knew it began. My friend and I walked up and down Michigan Avenue and looked down each East-West street to see which view we preferred. We settled on Jackson Boulevard because the Sears Tower could be seen in the shot. That is if we were on Michigan Avenue. But because of where the sun appeared we had to move off Michigan Avenue, and the skyscraper was obscured by closer buildings.

The other reason we ended up on Jackson Boulevard was because there were a lot of people camped on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago to watch the “henging” along Adams Street. There were fewer people on Jackson so we could properly social distance while shooting. I color graded each of my images differently for some variety. In the above image I got some of the other shooters out there. They would dart to the middle of the street when there was no traffic. I did the same thing where I was, and preferred to stay back to use the elevated train tracks as a framing element.

I had my Monochrom246 with me so I took just a few shots with it. Next time I will have a camera set up to capture some motion blur when the trains go by. It was not this dark, but I like some drama and moodiness. Thank you for visiting.

Click images to view on black.

Took a walk through Downtown Chicago the other day to get outside for a little bit and to snap some pictures of relatively empty spaces. The streets are not really as empty as I expected during this whole stay-at-home time. There are people everywhere! Less than before the pandemic but they are out there. I waited until people walked out of my frame to shoot.

If the man was not wearing a mask I would have removed him in post. The plazas in both of the images above are normally well-traversed areas, populated with people on break from work, skateboarding kids, tourists, and the spaces are used for farmers markets and other gatherings.

I hope someone is still guarding the money

I took this photo because I like the lettering of the neon sign. Still, we can tell that the scene is not normal. There is no valet, doormen, bellhops, etc to be seen outside waiting for guests.

I was clearly not staying home even though I can. On my days off I usually do. Like everybody I have to get outside some time. I like to take my walks downtown because it is easier to avoid other people there than it is in my own neighborhood. I live near two parks so there are always people about. There are more interesting things for me to photograph downtown so I might as well do something during my walks.

I shot most of the images in this post with my lens aperture wide open. The images are not entirely sharp and slightly dreamy as a result. I felt that if the images were slightly off that it may give the viewer a sense that something is not right.

Click images to view on black. Please follow my Instagram feed. Thank you for visiting.

Chicagohenge

COVID Chronicles - Empty Downtown Streets