REFLECTION

Few people know about Chicago’s Secret Underground City and even fewer have the know-how to navigate it. Consisting of a series of underground tunnels, walkways, and bridges, the Pedway connects subways, underground railway stations, highrise buildings, hotels, eateries, and a variety of businesses. The Pedestrian Walkway System, or the Pedway offers respite from the heat and humidity the summers, and snow, cold, and wind throughout the long, infamous winters. The transitions between older and newer portions vary but mostly, there are stark differences between places that are massively busy where people are rushing to get to where they need to be or dining in cafes, versus areas and blocks where there is not a soul to be seen, often with forks in the road without proper guidance.

My narrative surrounds the manner in which people use the Pedway System during the evening rush hour and the striking contrast of the number of people in various parts of a small portion of the Pedway, often within 1-2 blocks. This difference noted, during a busy time, creates the backdrop for the narrative, where there seems to be a correlation with sections of the Pedway which are either old and run down or portions that appear overly ornamental or extravagant being avoided.

From a technical perspective, I struggled with my camera. I am usually unable to get my f-stop lower than than 4.5. Even the ISO options are very specific, going no lower than 100, and with very hard options at 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. I did have to deal with low light but I was able to make some modifications. I do wish I had a wide lens to be able to capture certain scenes that were not possible with my lens. There was a lot of motion, so I took advantage of those shots where there was enough light. I had to try to keep my shutter speed high enough to prevent blur but low enough to prevent my photos from being underexposed, but increasing my ISO did help in some situations, as I chose not to use a tripod. Some post-production, auto-adjustments and exposure adjustments were necessary in Lightroom. All images were adjusted for white balance and some required that horizon and vertical lines be straightened. No images were cropped to maintain integrity. For the captions, I used the guidelines offered by the Associated Press, as provided in the course early in the semester.

Note: One photo — #3 — was taken a few days before on Nov. 29, and I do have an exact photo from around the same time Friday Dec 2, but when I went to reshoot my set, this was a much better photograph and neither had a high chance for people coming into frame. I have evidence, if need be. I realize it may download out of order, due to date.

The main reason I took this course was to understand photography because I teach DGMD E-50 - Introduction to Visual Communication Design at Harvard Extension and I had no concept of the terms shutter speed, ISO, or f-stop when briefly discussing them in my classes. I now feel more confident in using and understanding these tools and may consider upgrading to a better quality camera. I also hope I gave people a better sense of what a great city Chicago is.