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Chicago Photography Project – 3 Years

October 26th marked the three year anniversary of my Chicago photography project. As with previous entries I’ve updated the map detailing all the locations I’ve walked. This update, however, also includes the areas I've been to by either El train or car. I finally added my walks around Garfield Park and have included my visits to Pilsen.

(click for a larger view)

I'm at a bit of a loss for something to write about this past year. I feel somewhat bogged down in so much as I've really covered most of the ground I can cover without resorting to taking the El every day. I know there are tons and tons of things I've just not "seen" when walking by or have missed opportunities, but at the same time it feels a little monotonous. Traditional street photography (i.e. photographing people instead of just buildings and scenes) still scares me to no end. I don't know how photographers do it. Well, I sort of know: they project a positive image of themselves through body language and act like they have every right to do what they are doing, which they do, and so it works. And that, of course, is the sticking point with me...

I do not, however, wish to give into doom and gloom. I mean, I have walked A LOT this past year and have pushed myself to go further and faster. Thanks to swanksalot acting as tour guide, I got a good "feet-level" introduction to the Pilsen neighborhood. I've also walked through areas that are outside my comfort zone and lived to tell the tale (because, of course, they're never as bad as they are made out to be, at least, not at noon in the middle of the week). This is all Really Good (tm) and I'm grateful for the opportunities to indulge in these pursuits.

Even before the two year mark of this project, I've been thinking more about the equipment I've been using for this project. I have found a digital point and shoot a great tool because it fits right in a jacket pocket or in a small camera bag slung over my shoulder or across my chest. But the camera, due to the nature of its sensor and lens design, makes it very difficult to isolating a subject by way of a more narrow depth of field. In fact, more often than not, for a photo project that's taking place at noon, it is nearly impossible. As I mentioned earlier, I do have a fair amount of film sitting in the fridge, and developing + scanning at Target (for color negative film) is only $3. Perhaps it's time to start bringing a film SLR out during these walks.

So, three years in and: still no photobook (and very few prints), a map that continues to grow and grow, ruminations on cameras, and I guess, in the end (of this entry at least), I did have something to write about.

Chicago Photography Project – 2 years

October 26th marked the two year anniversary of my Chicago photography project. As with previous entries I've updated the map detailing all the locations I've been on foot.

I was able to expand to the west and south by riding the El to locations and walking back. Most recently I've spent time walking with fellow flickr user swanksalot in the area west and north of Union Park. Geographically and photographically this has proven to be a great experience.

In my first year of the project I had 4 photos featured on the Chicago Public radio website, but this year has seen 7 (!) more added to that list. I've also added (I believe) 4 more photos to the list featured on GapersBlock.com.

I never did print a mini-book of my images. I had such a difficult time deciding which images to put to page that I bogged myself down with the entire process. helloheather has continued to push me to print my images for display at home. I've printed a few but they sit un-framed on my dresser, or our kitchen table, or counters, or...well, you get the idea.

This year also saw our Canon A80 reach the 30,000 exposure mark, mostly as a result of this very project. Since that time I've added 4,000 more. Sadly, due to the previously mentioned camera problems I will likely need to send it to the recycling center sooner than I had hoped.

I have mixed feelings about this project. While I do keep pushing into new areas, taking the El should be a treat, not a habit. The costs can add up and, while I really do enjoy visiting new areas, I am cheating myself out of some walking/excercise time. So, I'm not sure where this project will be in another year. I'd like to think I will re-invigorate myself with some new idea...at least, I hope I do.

Shutter as syringe

Our stalwart A80 is at the Canon repair center now, having the CCD looked at (for free!). It seems that the repair from this past winter did not "take" and so it's back again.

The camera that started my lunch hour photography walks project was that Fuji A205 that I purchased for $35 via Craigslist. I retrieved it from the camera closet (yes, we have a closet for them...don't ask) only to find that it appears to be dead. It powers on fine, but pressing the shutter button results in the camera immediately shutting down. Only batteries straight off the charger will let it take any shots at all and then only a few before the above behavior is exhibited.
So, when I took my walk today, the only camera I had was my much maligned (and rightfully so) cell phone camera. Regardless of the poor quality of the images it produces, I /had/ to shoot. I had to take a picture. I feel like an addict saying it, but it's true. And what should I walk to but a nearly block-long row of sunflowers in bloom.

The sunflowers are planted on the edge of the property of a Catholic church: St. John Cantius. Like the sunflowers from the farmers market last week, they were filled with honeybees gathering as fast as they could. There was a nice breeze today and the sunflowers were waving around in quite an animated fashion.

In the end, the harsh noon-time sun would not have done these photos much justice even if I had the A80. Yeah, there would have been more dynamic range and more detail, but no matter. The camera phone worked as it should, even if it is sub-par relative to other phones of similar features.

Besides, I was able to walk 4 miles today during lunch which is far more important than any image captured.

Winter Slowdown

With the extreme cold we've been having it's been very difficult to get out and walk (and photograph). About 2 weeks ago a co-worker gave me a nice gift: a pair of gloves that fold-over to become mittens.

Something like this: http://www.campmor.com/cgi-bin/redir?prod=39158271

They were great. I could walk and photograph without having to take off my gloves and freeze my hands.

One week after receiving them I lost one. It fell out of the open pocket of my work bag. The reason the pocket was (and still is) open is that I broke the zipper on it and now it won't close. I lost it (the glove) somewhere either on the train or in the station after getting off the train. Sadly no one has turned it in to the lost and found.

I feel like a real idiot for rendering this gift useless (of course I lost the right-hand glove which is my shooting hand). It wasn't solicited and it was a very nice gesture.

So anyway, that put a crimp into my photography walks during lunch. That and the sub-20 deg temps we've had. Today was decent enough but my lunch hour was spent consuming too many hot wings while welcoming a new employee to the department.

Next week the highs are supposed to be around 7 deg. F which should make for /lovely/ hour-long walk. Really, I might stay out for an hour and a half then...

I'm going to have to start dumpster-diving into my archives for cetan.org images. It's too bad I don't have a decent film scanner at work I could work on scanning in lots of my old slides while waiting for the weather to improve.

Photography and Exercise – a year later

It was a year ago today that I purchased, for $35, the 2MP Fuji A205 and decided to begin walking for exercise during my lunch hour. It wasn't until recently that I abandoned the idea of limiting myself to only 24 photos per walk and started taking the Canon A80.

Today, it's cold and raining, but I walked to the south loop to see the remains of the Wirt Dexter building that burned down two days ago. I also stopped off at Central Camera to see what prices are on twin-lens reflex cameras (answer: too much).

I've updated the map since the previous post to include a couple of the new areas I've wandered through. (However, I'm still not including the Garfield Park walks on the map.) Because of my walk from the Brown Line stop at Sedgwick, I've had to change the scale of the map slightly.

Some statistics:

• Number of miles walked: no clue. A lot, that's for sure.
• Number of photographs taken: 2211
• Number of photographs featured on WBEZ.org: 4 (?)
• Number of photographs featured on GapersBlock.com: 6 (?)
• Number of times yelled at by a cop: 1 (just today, in fact for not walking on the right side of the street even though the street was essentially closed to cars)
• Number of time I felt threatened by walking in these areas: zero
• Number of times I felt truly out of place: too numerous to count.
• Pounds lost: 12. Not great but not too bad.

I think I'm going to use Qoop.com by way of Flickr to print a mini-book of this years best images. It would be nice to have something on the bookshelf to pull out and review every once in a while.

Overall, I'm very happy with my decision to pursue this activity. My photography has improved, my health has improved, and my knowledge of Chicago, even a small part of it, has improved. Last week I made two 4-mile treks, which means I can probably open myself up to even more exploration and still do it within the lunch hour. And, based on my experience on the Brown line, I will be extending the area I can cover every once in a while.

Goose Island – real men make their own islands…

http://lnk.nu/maps.google.com/bmc

Today I managed a 4 mile walk to Calumet Photo (located on Goose Island) and back again. The great part is that not only did I do it in an hour ten, but I was able to work in some photography and picked up a Holga 120N from Calumet.

Some links on Goose Island:

http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/goose_island/

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300045.html

I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of the start of these lunch-hour walks. I'm amazed at how much of the immediate downtown area I've been able to see and am humbled by how much more there is to explore.

“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...