Chicago was the next city that I had planned to photograph after my New York City trip in 2019. I had started developing the plans around the beginning of 2020. However, once the pandemic delayed everything for a couple of years, I had to postpone this to October 2022. Having the down time during the pandemic gave me more time gather inspiration to make this trip count.
The trip started out rough because I was still recovering from a Metric concert that I went to two nights before at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. I didn’t get home from that show until close to 2 AM. I had very little sleep that night which led to me feeling lethargic that Friday during work. After getting through that day, I spent the night packing for what was going to be a 7:00 AM flight Saturday morning. I had to pray for no flight delays as I had to stop in Denver briefly before changing planes to Chicago. I was very fortunate that it all worked out. Once I arrived in Chicago, I had to rush to the hotel to check in and immediately start the trip with a concert that same night seeing KMFDM , an industrial band at the Metro, which is an iconic Chicago venue. The put on a great show that night. Very fortunate I was able to rope that show into the trip. The Metro was one of the smallest venues I have ever been in, but definitely much more intimate.
Finally had some time to rest. I ended up sleeping in the next morning to recover before starting the day. First order of business was checking out the John Hancock building and capturing the iconic Chicago skyline. The observation floor is easily one of the best places to view the city from. Later that evening, I made a side expedition to head down to Lansing, IL to do the aerial photography. The reason why I had to head down to Lansing, IL to do it was because Breeze Helicopters, who is the primary Chicago helicopter tour company after Chicago Helicopters got shut down during the pandemic cornered the market, and wanted to charge a lot of money for a short flight. It wasn’t worth it. I ended up going with Summer Skyz and they proved to be far more cost effective.
As for the aerial experience, being up there for an hour photographing Chicago at night was definitely my second favorite aerial flight behind the NYC night flight. Chicago was so well illuminated and it showed through the photos.
While in Chicago, I also got to see Joe Satriani play at the legendary Chicago Theater. I could have caught him in LA, but he was playing the day before I was supposed to travel up north and it made far more sense to see him in Chicago. I also got to see a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center. It was a preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks, but I can at least say that I saw a game there, which was awesome! The weather that week was around 40 degrees and some strong winds, but sunny as well. Definitely layer up if you plan to go in October.
Overall, this was a fun week. I would love to come back if the opportunity happens again. Definitely one of my favorite cities I have photographed to date.