photo adventures — a beautiful day in the neighborhood

October 5, 2014June 6, 2015 by kyle In photography Leave a comment

chicago’s currently doing that thing where it goes from summer to winter in the span of about 36 hours. i’m not too happy about it. last weekend it was 70 with a light breeze…yesterday it was 40 and rainy. not cool, chicago.

i decided to catch a few of the fleeting fall moments by taking a walk through the neighborhood after i moseyed onto my balcony this morning and saw this:

i’m a sucker for fall colors. one of my most vivid and favorite memories from hiking in colorado was strolling through an aspen grove in late september. and while i had no illusions about the foliage in lakeview being anywhere near as stunning, i still felt like i owed it to myself to soak up what lakeview had to offer.

i threw on my cheap, amazing 50mm f/1.8 prime (aka the nifty fifty aka the plastic fantastic) and headed outside. i keep a copy of boulder photographer George Lange’s “The Unforgettable Photograph” on my coffee table (thanks mom and dad!), and i was perusing it last night while watching the huskers get embarrassed on national television (what else is new?). tip 117 was: push the lens out of focus. i’ve done this at various points at night to try to get an abstract feel, but i haven’t done it much in the middle of the day. i figured i’d try it out, and the above shot is the result. the quality of the bokeh is pretty phenomenal for a $100 lens.

i live about 50 feet from Heritage, a bike and coffee shop where you can sip on Stumptown coffee while getting a flat tire fixed. it always has a pretty unique vibe, so i started my walk here to get in the right mindset.

i tried to befriend this dog, but he wasn’t having any of it. that’s ok. he probably had an annoying bark anyways…

i moved onto these flowers, which were much more cooperative:

i chatted with a vendor who was selling donuts out of the hollowed-out Heritage van (not as creepy as it sounds) for a few minutes…mostly lamenting about the weather, as grown-ups do…and then moved on.

i’m withholding the next couple shots i took for use in a future post (a celebration of a year of consecutive photo of the week posts, perhaps?), and i’m just mentioning it now to tease you. so consider yourself teased.

after taking these mystery shots, i headed down lincoln towards Muskie’s Hamburgers.

after 34 years on the corner of lincoln and lakewood, Muskie’s closed its doors for good a few weeks ago. it sounds like the owner’s planning on re-opening somewhere else in 2015, but i suspect a little bit of the magic will be gone…

i wanted to capture a couple shots for nostalgia’s sake, and i figured i’d edit the one above to match Muskie’s retro feel.

on my way back home, i paused to snap another lakeview-fall-colors-shot:

Tony happened to be walking by on his way to breakfast, so i decided to join him for a tasty Sam & George’s skillet (LaBamba!). we passed Heritage on the way, and i couldn’t resist getting another shot:

it’s nice that, even though Muskie’s is moving to a different location, Sam & George’s is still going strong after 50+ years on the corner of lincoln and wellington. similar to Muskie’s, it has a very nice retro diner feel.