Humble beginnings at Dixie Square

Someone asked me recently how I got into photography. Well, I guess that's a good question.

One day back in 2005, I was sitting at my desk at work surfing the internet. I stumbled across some 80's movie trivia website, and it had a page about the movie "The Blues Brothers." It had a list of trivia facts about the movie, and one of those facts stated that the iconic mall chase scene was filmed at a now-abandoned mall in Harvey, Illinois. It also stated that it was still standing. It had a link to a website called deadmalls.com which had photographs of the mall. And from the moment I viewed those photos, it changed the way I viewed the world. In a very short amount of time, I became obsessed with Dixie Square Mall. I made my first trip to the mall with a friend of mine and my brother in May 2005, and I am pretty sure that this is the first photo I ever took there. Now, nearly 4 years later and over a dozen trips out here, I have hundreds of photos of this place.

But ever since my first visit to Dixie Square, a passion was born - my passion for photography. I started out taking a lot of pictures of abandoned buildings. From abandoned shopping malls, to abandoned Jewel stores, I explored it all. Over the years, my love of trains has come through in my photography. I am also starting to do more portraits. In the last 4 years, my photography has grown in leaps and bounds. And to think.... it all started with an abandoned shopping mall.

Lucky sunlight

OK, so most people will look at this photo and think that it's just your typical train shot. Maybe it's composed a little differently than your typical "wedge" shot, and the lighting is great, but it's just a train, right? To someone that's not a train geek, yes. To a train geek like myself, it's not just any ol' train.

The locomotive at the head of this westbound train headed to Elgin, IL is none other that Metra #611, one of two remaining EMD F40C locomotives left in existence. Originally built for service only in Chicago on the Milwaukee Road lines, the EMD F40C is a 6-axle diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in 1974. There were only 15 of these units ever built. They are unique to other types of Metra locomotives because of 2 main reasons: they are 6-axle vs. 4-axle, and they have these very shiny stainless steel panels on the sides. From 1974 until about 2005 these F40Cs chugged along the Milwaukee Road Lines which originate at Chicago's Union Station and terminate in Elgin and Fox Lake. In 2005 all but 2 units were scrapped and replacement locomotives were brought in. Metra decided to replace all 15 F40Cs (numbered 600-614) but kept #611 and #614 as back-up units.

In 2009, some of the other Metra locomotives were also starting to show their age, so they were sent off to be rebuilt. Metra then made the decision to bring the two remaining F40Cs, the oldest locomotives in the fleet, back into service.

OK - history lesson over now. So knowing that there are only two of these type of locomotives left in existence, I have to get my shots when I can. Nobody is really sure how long these units will stick around. So today, I set out for Bensenville. I decided to try and get a shot of one of these F40Cs from the Route 83 bridge. I got to Bensenville around 430pm, right at the beginning of rush hour. I parked my car, and started walking towards the bridge. There was only a sidewalk on the east side of the bridge, which was great for catching west bound trains. There's only one problem - there's an 8' chain-link fence. And the traffic noise was awful. 6 lanes of cars, trucks, semis blowing by me at 55 MPH, not to mention the planes roaring overhead taking off from O'Hare.

The weather was partly sunny at best. The skies were pretty much clear to the east, but to the west there were giant clouds that kept blocking my sunlight. After about 40 minutes, 4 trains had gone underneath me, and each time it was cloudy. And there were no signs of an F40C anywhere. After almost an hour, I was getting ready to call it a day, when I saw the headlight of a west bound train rounding the curve about 2 miles down the tracks. I looked behind me at the sun, and it was behind a cloud, but the cloud was moving pretty quick. I didn't think I was lucky enough to have the sun come out at exactly the same time as the train was approaching the bridge, so I really thought nothing of it. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. 5 minutes later, the train was about 3/4 mile away from the bridge. I had my camera ready, but I knew that the lighting would be horrible. Then, without warning, the sun came bursting out from behind the cloud at just the right time, and at that moment, I saw the numbers on the front of the locomotive - 611. It was an F40C!!! My waiting paid off big time!!!

The shot turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Sometimes you get lucky. I guess today was my day.

The Lone Passenger

Part of the reason I started this blog was because I enjoy talking about my photos. Here's one from my past.

Let's go back to December 26, 2008. The whole month of December had been very cold, but on this particular day the temperature climbed all the way up to 50 degrees! I remember it like it was yesterday... it was cloudy and foggy all day, but at least it was 50 degrees! That night, I was having coffee with my Mom and stepdad at Caribou Coffee in downtown Downers Grove. It was getting kind of late, and the fog was getting really thick - I just knew I had to be out taking pictures. So, I bid them farewell, and walked across the street to the 1930s-era Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad station which is used today by Metra. Looking down the tracks, visibility was probably less than 1/8th of a mile. I mean, this fog was thick! However, the serchlight signals down at Forest Avenue were showing a green board on the west bound track, so I set up my tripod and waited for a train to come. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. After 35 minutes, and the signals still displaying a green board, I decided to pack it up and call it a night. It was 9:09 p.m. All of the sudden, literally out of nowhere, this individual appeared. Almost like he (I'm assuming it was a he - I guess it could have been a she) was sent by the photography Gods from above, there he was. He stood still, silent and smoking a cigarette. I quickly snapped a few shots, and left. I'm not even sure if he saw me standing there, even though I was only about 50 yards away. Despite the fact that I didn't get to see a train that night, it turned out pretty good. In fact, it's probably one of the best photos I have ever taken.

Sometimes, the best shots are the ones you never intended to take.

Red light bridge

I know, I know..... the title is kinda lame. But sometimes I have a hard time coming up with creative titles for my photos - other times it's easy.

This one is not particularly one of my favorite self portraits. In fact, it's probably not even in my top ten. But it turned out halfway decent, so I figured I would post it here.

While driving home from a friend's house late on a Sunday night, I was kind of reflecting on a few things in my life. As I was driving, I drove right underneath a pedestrian bridge that spans at least a 1/4 mile over Route 59 in southern Naperville. The photographer in me saw a photo< I just wasn't sure where. So I found a place to park, and set up my tripod. I stood there for at least 15 minutes before I took the shot, taking it all in. The noise of the traffic, the hum of the red chinese take-out sign, and the power lines strewn high above my head. I just let it all soak in for a good 15 minutes. Then, I fired off about 10 exposures. This was the result.