Weekly Shooting Excursion X: West Loop

This is my tenth ‘get out of the house and go shoot something’ excursion.  I was on a roll with these shoots by now, and usually slipped into ‘photographer mode’ pretty easily when out on these day trips. This shoot was in mid-July, and while it was definitely hot, it wasn’t excruciatingly hot and humid as it was for the previous few shots. On the edge of unpleasant, but manageable. 

I chose the West Loop for this shoot. This is the area directly west of Chicago’s downtown core (the Loop to locals). The West Loop is an interesting neighborhood, and one that feels completely different than it did when I moved to Chicago 22 years ago. Back in the late 90’s, it was at the beginning stages of gentrification, and still more grubby than polished. It’s an old meatpacking district, and the aging warehouse buildings made good, inexpensive studio space for artists. Artists moving in led to galleries opening, and for several years the area was the home for the newer, more daring gallery scene in town (there are still galleries left, but the new, hot gallery scene is shifting again to an area northwest of the West Loop known as West Town). Condo conversions were next, then the establishment of restaurant row, a stretch of Randolph St. that’s home to several of the best known and highest rated fine dining establishments in the city. Oprah Winfrey’s studios were in the area when her tv show was in production (the lot where her studios were is now McDonald’s world headquarters). The latest addition to the area is several new high rise residential towers, replacing low rise warehouse buildings. It’s now considered one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city. A few meatpacking places and warehouses still exist there, but the vibe is more upscale urban than grungy light industrial these days.

Given how much it’s changed, it’s a surprisingly pleasant neighborhood. The side streets are pretty quiet, and while the new condo buildings aren’t as attractive as the old warehouses, it’s still a nice place to wander. It feels a lot like Chelsea in New York, although less self consciously trendy. I don’t get to this area often anymore, I used to hit the galleries every month when the exhibits changed, but haven’t done that in several years. I also have a good friend whose painting studio was in this area, on the third floor of a crumbling building that housed an industrial machine repair service on the first floor (that building is now gone, replaced by one of the newest residential skyscrapers in the neighborhood). Walking around and shooting was enjoyable, and because I hadn’t spent much time there in quite a while, with all it’s changes it felt like a brand new place.

I must have found the area photogenic, as this was my longest shoot so far, and also the one where I shot the most photos. Going through them all took much longer than expected. 

Here are my favorites:

 

Weekly Shooting Excursion IX: Beverly, Western Ave.

The next installment in my weekly escape the house photo shoots wasn’t as lengthy or involved as most of the others I’d done, mainly because it was way too hot and humid to spend several hours out shooting. The entire week had temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s with 80% or higher humidity. Really uncomfortable weather, and so hot that even doing something pretty low key like walking around shooting photos could risk heat exhaustion. I kept putting off going out, and while I got a lot of work done for the upcoming Fall semester, really wanted to to shoot. I finally went out on Friday, but cut things short by limiting my shoot to walking for a mile up Western Ave, in the Beverly neighborhood on the far southwest side of Chicago.  It’s close to home, and the mile I walked along Western was a shorter distance than I’d covered on most of my earlier walks. It was still nasty hot and uncomfortable, but I carried water, wore lots of sunscreen, and wasn’t out for a long time.

Beverly is kind of an interesting neighborhood. There’s a lot of big, old, well maintained homes along tree lined streets there, and it has just a bit of a suburban feel while retaining an urban neighborhood vibe. It’s also known for being one of the more integrated neighborhoods in Chicago, and for having one of the lowest crime rates in the city. It’s maybe not the most exciting neighborhood, but it’s pleasant, safe, and comfortable.

Western Ave. is one of the big north/south arterial streets in Chicago, running the entire length of the city and into the suburbs. It cuts right through Beverly, where it’s mostly the same sort of business district you find in neighborhoods anywhere near the edge of a city, with lots of medical and insurance offices, service businesses, fast food, etc. Some of the buildings have a cool mid-century vibe, not too different from the types of buildings I found when shooting in suburban Oak Lawn a couple weeks earlier.

Here’s my favorite shots from this hot, sticky photo shoot.

Shot with a Nishika N800 4-lens film camera

Shot with a Nishika N800 4-lens film camera 

Weekly Shooting Excursion VIII: Small Town Mid-Michigan

My eighth weekly photo shoot was quite different from the others I’ve done this summer. I visited my sister, who lives outside of the small Michigan village I grew up in, over July 4th weekend. She was at the tail end of a five week long furlough from her job, and I had been socially isolating as well, so we discussed it and realized we both felt safe having me visit.

The town I grew up near is in the middle of mid-Michigan farm country, miles away from anything. There’s really nothing much at all to do, which makes for a relaxing change of pace, as I’ve lived in Chicago for over twenty years now. It also means that I can’t shoot the things I usually do, but I always bring a camera when I visit, and spend some time just wandering in and around her large yard shooting the foliage and rural scenes. It was baking hot and humid the entire weekend, so I didn’t even do a lot of that, but did manage some decent shots. Most of them are variations on a bit of foliage isolated against a blurred out background, and I don’t shoot that type of photo often, so it’s fun to revisit that shooting technique.

I also accompanied my sister for a quick trip into town, just a couple miles away, and shot some photos while she was running a quick errand. The town is so small I was able to cover the entire main street business district (such as it is) in less than ten minutes!

Here’s the best of what I shot.

 Shot with a 4-lens Nishika N8000 film camera.