Every tourist who comes to Chicago should take a ride on the “L,” which is Chicago’s elevated train system. The same goes for photographers. The system offers an interesting view of the city’s urban environs, one that differs significantly from the pedestrian’s viewpoint down under.

Tonight, I headed home on the Brown Line, catching the train at the Merchandise Mart. Rather than going directly home on a northbound train, I boarded a southbound car, which took me through Chicago’s main business district, known as the Loop. Many assume the area was named the Loop because the “L’ circles the district. They are wrong. At one time, the streetcars stopped on State Street in front of Marshall Field’s, the large department store that is now a Macy’s. There was circular turnabout that the cars used to change direction so that they could head southward.

Turns out I picked the right night for my frolic. The skies had some well-formed clouds, and the setting sun cast an orangish hue onto the purple canvas that was the sky. The resulting images, made with my Sony RX 100vii, a point and shoot camera, are quite interesting. I converted the “people” images using an infrared filter (there may be an exception). I left the urban landscapes in color. It was not necessary to boost the saturation. The light was perfect.

The effort was inspired by photographers William Klein and Daido Moriyama, although the shadows need to be crushed more if I am to emulate their efforts.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It]

Photographer’s Notes: The Sony RX 100vii exceeded my expectations, particularly given that this was my first outing with a point and shoot camera. I normally shoot in Manual exposure mode, but I was on a moving train so I opted for Speed Priority. I generally was shooting at 1/1000th of a second or faster. I set the ISO to auto, with 100 to 6400 as the range. As for focus, I went back and forth using Manual either set to five feet or infinity.