I had such a fun time last Saturday with Out of Chicago Photography and everyone who joined us for our ‘L’ Photo Tour! We started the morning off by meeting up at State & Lake where we jumped on the Green Line and headed west for some skyline shots at the Ashland stop.

As you can see the day started off pretty gray and chilly, so we stopped by the Garfield Park Conservatory to warm up. The stark difference in the outside temperatures and the humidity in the conservatory made for some condensation on the lens. Generally not terribly desirable but I kinda like it to give a bit of moodiness to the images.

If you’ve never visited the conservatory, you really should. This is truly a Chicago gem and right now there are installations by Luftwerk until September 22. Check this link to learn more, but below are a couple shots of the “Portal” and “Florescence”. I’m still hoping to get back on a Wednesday for their later hours to see some of these light installations in full effect.


Back on the green line to head south….

Our next stop was the new Cermack-McCormick stop. Probably everyone’s favorite stop of the day. There was a really fun reflection of the city and the train tracks at the south end of the station. Plus some interesting graffiti and ways to play around with framing the skyline with the station’s architecture.




Back on the green line to the IIT stop. Just before this stop the ‘L’ travels through a tunnel that is situated above IIT’s student center (Institute of Technology McCormick Tribune Campus Center). The tunnel and the center were designed by Rem Koolhaas (his first building completed in the US) to bridge the two sides of campus which are split by the ‘L’ – student housing to the east and the main campus to the west. The tunnel is also designed to muffle the sound of the ‘L’ traveling directly over the center, it really is remarkable how quiet it is in there when the train is passing by!



Next we headed back to the loop to grab lunch and shoot from one of the best parking garages overlooking the ‘L’. There also seems to be a new trend in sharing your Instagram and/or Twitter handle here. Clearly, this is a popular spot!


One more stop on the elevated section of the CTA, Adams/Wabash for those iconic views of Trump Tower and the urban canyon.

We had such a fun day and, as with all Out of Chicago events, it was so great meeting new people, connecting with old friends and exploring the city together. If you’ve never attended an OOC event they have some big conferences coming up so it’s not too late!
Here’s the lineup:
Portrait Conference: April 8-10
Summer Conference: June 24-26 (I’ll be teaming up with Michael Muraz to teach an architecture photography workshop, plus leading a bunch of photowalks)
Out of New York Photo Conference: October 14-16 (I’ll also be teaching at this one!!! I’ll do a presentation on architecture photography, lead 3 photowalks and once again team up with Michael Muraz for an on-the-street workshop covering all sorts of amazing architecture. Registration just opened today so be sure to sign up now to secure your spot. Plus, the super early bird price is available along with an additional $50 off with code: OONY50)