“And she knows that the lights leave the prettiest stains”
Area covered by walks: Oct 2005 - June 2006
Since returning to work, I've also returned to a schedule of walks during my lunch hour. As you may recall, I started an exercise program of sorts in October of 2005. Armed with a used Fuji point and shoot (2MP) that I purchased for $35, I decided to combine photography with (hopefully) a healthier lifestyle.
Exercise
In that time I've lost some weight (~10lbs) and have explored a wide cross-section of downtown and near-downtown Chicago.
Clicking on the image above will give you a larger view of the areas, in red, that I've explored. This encompasses about a 1.5 radius from the green arrow, where I work. (It does not include my trips out to Garfield Park and the Garfield Park Conservatory, though I should include them for completeness.)
My routes tend to be along cardinal directions. For example, when heading West from work, I've not explored every single North/South streets I cross (though I have crisscrossed on a large percentage of them). And when heading North or South, I've not walked every single East/West street either. Trying to represent that on this map would consume more time than I wish to allow, and so, a general overview is in order.
When I look at it, I'm pretty impressed. I've traveled very long distances in my allowed hour (sometimes stretched) of lunch. I've been through some admittedly "interesting" areas of the city without incident (despite my shirt/tie/camera and doe-eyed look) and I've discovered a lot more than I ever could from a car or a train.
Photography
As an experiment, I deliberately have been limiting myself to a single, 16MB card. This provides enough storage for approximately 24 images, (aka a "roll of film"), for my walk. I started with the premise that limited space will force me to think about the elements of an image before taking the picture. "What about the scene attracts me to it?" "What do I want to really capture?" "Is it worth being captured?"
And for the most part, I believe this has worked, and worked well. I believe I've slowed my approach to photography a bit. I think more when I have a camera in my hands. I've seen improvements in my photography, and have become more interactive with others photography. This experiment drove a desire to set up a photoblog at cetan.org and even presented opportunities to feature a few images at Gapers Block and WBEZ.org
Taking Stock
However, my return to this combination of exercise and photography has brought up something else. The map above represents the limit of the distance I can travel in a lunch hour. I will not be able to extend the map much further within the time alloted. A number of these areas, especially the Western routes, I've traveled dozens of times. To put it bluntly, I'm starting to get bored.
So, I have to question myself: why do I feel bored? Is it because the harsh overhead sun makes photography so difficult and frustrating? Is it the repetition of the routes? Am I over-saturated with the graphical elements I've been concentrating on and instead am scared to face the next possible photographic subject: people? Has this experiment simply run its course and I should now concentrate on something else? If so, where does that leave the exercise program?
Thanks to a sale at my local Wolf Camera, I've decided to abandon (at least temporarily) the self-imposed restriction of the 16MB card with my camera. Perhaps there is some value in shooting more in order to get through a mental wall? And perhaps more time spent on the North/South streets in the area West of downtown would provide fresh opportunities for capture?
This is my first photo "project" (self-assigned) and so it will take some learning to figure out when enough is enough or when I should push myself further. I still need to figure out how to combat the idea that, simply because I've covered an area a dozen times, it doesn't mean there isn't something fresh to see. Certainly I'm hamstringing myself by only exploring these areas at the same time of day and in that respect perhaps the project is nearing a close.
We shall see...