©2010 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
“So are you feeling spiritual this morning?” was the question I was lightheartedly asked after transmitting these pictures yesterday. At first I didn’t realize what the editors were talking about. In search of morning fog pictures, I had stopped at the intersections of Balbo and Columbus after being dazzled by light rays from a building through the fog. Have you seen this type of phenomenon before? I hadn’t. By the time I got there on foot, the wind had carried away the fog and my photo with it. So I turned around, saw the statue at left, and thought – well, at least it’s something. Then I saw some of the dazzling reflections again on the building at right. I ran towards it and photographed the light rays before transmitting from my camera using our mobile technology. I was so focused on the unusual light, I didn’t even realize the overall image. When I later saw the cross I found it amusing and a little embarrassing that although I’m a photographer and churchgoer, others saw it before I did.
©2010 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
A commuter walks among the 9-foot tall cast iron legs of “Agora” a public art installation at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Roads. I’ve seen this several times, but didn’t see a time in which a photo could work really well. I passed by it this morning and for the first time saw that commuters had forged a path between the legs. Shooting at eye level would have been a bit pedestrian, so I laid down in snow when I saw a commuter coming around the bend. People are such good sports. I got up covered in snow and asked for her name for the paper. I’m sure I was quite the sight, but it never ceases to amaze me how little I have to explain before complete strangers tell me what their name is and what they’re up to. In this case, maybe there was some sympathy for the photographer at work…
©2010 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
My brother was recently in Thailand, where he rode an elephant through its beautiful countryside. I’ve never been to Thailand, but I can say that I rode an elephant at O’Hare Airport - the Elephant Beta. It’s the name of a specialty truck with a cherry picker and hoses that United Airlines uses to de-ice airplanes. For a story, I was allowed to photograph from the heated glass booths atop where operators are protected from being splashed by the propylene glycol. It was actually a lot of fun. Because the goal is to quickly and aggressively remove ice from airplanes, it felt like we were inside a robot playing a version of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em – hosing, splashing, moving left and right, blowing snow. All that was missing was a voice from the corner yelling “body blow! body blow!” It was a workout for me too. I was stuffed in behind the seat of the ramp serviceman, bent over doing squats for twenty minutes while being thrown left and right against the walls of the enclosed cab. But hey, I was smiling the whole time.
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
I guess the coffee cup on the billboard is of cold comfort for these commuters. Heh.
©Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
I’m always on the lookout for interesting locations in Chicago, so a friend told me to check out a tunnel connecting underground train lines that go through the Loop. The vanishing point and the lights made for an interesting background, so like many situations, I waited for I-don’t-know-what to happen in order to make an interesting picture. Without a person of interest, the image is only valuable to a location scout. So I waited, and waited. I get self-conscious when being stared at within crowds of people, so waiting is not a lot of fun. When you’re standing in the middle of a crowd you get a ton of stares and often a few comments. But you also don’t want to give up early, or rationalize an early departure just to relieve discomfort. At some point, this masked figure came through. I looked at the screen at the back of my camera and thought, well, the totality of the image is surreal enough – there’s something storm-trooper-science-fictionish to it. And it piqued my visual interest more than anything else that morning. So I went back to my day. It could have been just my rationalization talking, but judgment calls given limited time are a part of the business…
©2009 Alex Garcia
I am off the first three days this week, so my vacation days have coincided with the first serious snowfall of the season. That means I can more easily take an enchanted view of the snow. I don’t have to worry about getting that perfect shot of the miserable commuting experience shared by hundreds of thousands. I can focus on the bucolic scene and horses from the first snowfall of last winter, coming back from western Illinois where our parents live. The memory of this scene has truly helped me past the snowdrifts of negativity while driving in traffic around the city. I have heard it said that people seem to be wired for biophilia, or “love of nature”, and that people’s most peaceful memories are usually outside in nature. I would agree… It’s hard for me to stay upset at snow when I’m embracing a snow scene in my mind’s eye…
©2009 Alex Garcia
“You know, there’s ZERO visibility up there”….”Zero visibility, you know that sir”…”Zero visibility today. Can’t see anything. Nothing”. By the time I got past the three different employees who warned me that there was nothing to see at the top of the Willis Tower on a foggy day, you begin to feel that your public persona is either that of a fool, or of a person on a suspicious mission. I just wanted to see whether there was any possibility of photographing building tops through the shifting cloudbanks. As it turned out, I had some company up there – a smattering of visitors from around the world, who probably had one afternoon to see the Willis Tower and this was it. Some of them may have realized this, but if you can get beyond the fears of being that high up, enveloped in a cloud that obscures the vision much like darkness, it can turn a sightseeing attraction into a contemplative moment.
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
Passing by the homeless, I don’t typically stop to take a picture. I don’t know if it’s an aversion to objectifying a person, or if it’s simply not my business unless the Trib is doing a story. But I don’t want to hide the homeless either. In this case, I stopped to photograph the scene – maybe because of the state of the economy and its rampant foreclosures, or maybe because the stairs resembled an altar to me. I was plumbing the depths of the Lower Wacker and Lower Michigan network of streets for a weather picture, and actually ran into my supervisor who was commuting to work at that moment. It is a peculiar place that gives many homeless at least a dry place to sleep, and commuters a chance to avoid rain for a stretch of pavement. It’s also a place that offers one pause to consider the circumstances and results of birth, life and choice. As my mom once said to me as a child when I made a careless remark about a homeless person, “There but by the grace of God go you…”
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
No, no, not yet…hang in there little buddy. Just a few more nice days and weekends. We’re in no hurry for winter. Don’t fall yet!
Was back on campus at Northwestern University for my 20th year reunion and felt the urge to take pictures on campus..not just because of the fall foliage, but because as the former photo editor for the campus yearbook, there was a sense of wanting to close a circle of photography. My interest in photojournalism had started here on campus, lugging around a camera in between classes. The career interest brought me to both coasts, numerous papers and countries for assignment, then back to the Trib whose front page down the street had one of my photos that day. What a long, strange, but blessed, trip it’s been…
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
I’m on antibiotics and cough syrup shooting rainy day photos. I’m feeling just Grand…:-)
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
It has been a revelation for me to work the early morning shift – morning by morning new glories above the Chicago skyline. It’s amazing. Every sunrise is like a new painting (ok, when it’s not overcast)… Not that I would get up earlier on a regular basis, because I’m such a night person, but why haven’t I ever heard people talk about the gorgeous sunrises over the city? It’s quite different than watching the sunset over the Eisenhower in the evening and the red color caused by brake lights from a traffic jam. Here the skyline and sky create this momentous promise. You half expect to pass the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing on an overpass or sidestreet. I can’t believe I’ve been snoozing through this for so many years…
©2009 ChicagoTribune/Alex Garcia
It’s early in the morning on the lakefront, and sleepwalking is my current form of exercise. A joke, but I’m a night owl trying to adapt to a 6 a.m. morning shift, so I’m out of sorts. I like being able to see the sunrise, but all the activity I see – it’s all just a blur. I’m here at the lakefront because these glowing leaves caught my attention while driving by looking for pictures. Now I sit and burst off frames as I wait for the elements to line up. To run, powerwalk, bike along the lake as the sun rises must be a wonderful way to start the day. Especially with the slight chill of the morning to whisk away sweat and fatigue. Wonderful..must be…I’ll put it on my list of experiences to have…
©2009 Chicago Tribune/Alex Garcia
Like many people, I enjoy looking at the interplay of the skyline and the day’s weather. Yesterday I was coming in with the sky largely clear. Off in the distance, I could see something that looked like white smoke from an extinguished fire. Turned out to be morning fog coming in off the lake to engulf the Hancock. I pulled off to the side of the Kennedy for a moment to shoot the scene before it was gone.
Having lived away from Chicago for many years, I tend to forget the fragility of an outdoor gathering, such as one my family had over the weekend. Maybe it’s because the weather during my time in Southern California was always in the 70’s and partly cloudy. If you had a party, of course it would be outside. It’s perma-weather. But in the Chicago area, it’s one thing to get everyone together at one house - especially if it’s a group of south-siders, north-siders, out-by-O’hare-ers, and Chicagolandia suburbanites…but then to have nice weather? No sweltering heat, no rain, no oppressive humidity…just a very pleasant summer’s eve where you can dance and move freely outside among friendly faces? It usually takes being in the moment for me to truly appreciate it – to want to hold back the passage of time and to enjoy any kind of dancing to “stay the moment”…
“Friday nights and the lights are low…”
Welcome to AssignmentChicago.com! It seems appropriate that to start a blog in Chicago, to publish a recent skyline picture. I was heading to another assignment when I saw stormclouds and lightning on the horizon. Shooting weather is a question of timing, timing, timing…and location. Sensing something big was about to happen, I decided to drop all my bags and get the camera ready. Although a few thunderbolts materialized, they were too far in the distance to be thought of anything more than a stray hair on my CCD. As clouds began to rotate, I thought for a moment we actually see some kind of funnel cloud. What did materialize was a fascinating beam-me-up-Scotty cloud formation – which left as quickly as it came.
