Sunflowers as big as your head

A little taste of the farm life at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo.

The Stairs to Nowhere

Night Vision

A bit of an experiment today; some Polaroid shots taken just before evening fell

Right-Wentworth Avenue, Chinatown.
Left-Sunset from the El track (Chinatown station).

Mystery Sign

I'm not sure if the drink Orange Crush is more of a regional thing but I'd never seen street signs for the soda before moving to Chicago. When I came across the above sign I was particularly fascinated by the fact that the 'grocery store' lacked a name--it was identified only by Orange Crush.

After doing a bit of digging, I've concluded that the sign is probably from the 1970s. Flicker user Afiler stumbled across a similar sign in Vancouver though the grocery store actually has a name (Quebec Grocery). In St. Paul, Afiler also found another Orange Crush sign like the one above, this time at a laundromat.

Colour on Chicago Street

Due to the rerouting of the 66 bus today I found myself wandering along an unfamiliar stretch of Chicago St. in the West Town area. It was rather desolate over there--I was the only one walking along the rows of shuttered stores and warehouses--but the colours of several of the buildings served to brighten the rather gritty area.

The pairing of these two images was partially influenced by a File Magazine Project I discovered a few weeks ago: Two Thirds Primary by Chicago residents Rod Hunting & Tiffany Paige. As the name suggests, they take polaroid photos of blue & red imagery around the South Side. The project is quite inspiring, it's one of the reasons I've started using my (slightly crappy) Polaroid camera again.

My 'hood: Chinatown

Though I'd always had an affinity for LA's Chinatown (dim sum, cheap Mary Janes and parades throughout the year, what's not to love?) I never expected to live in a Chinatown.

This summer in Chicago, however, I'm subletting an apartment right on the main drag of Chinatown. Every day I must fight flocks of tourists and knots of elderly Chinese gentlemen smoking & chewing on bbq pork buns just to reach the Red Line El Stop. Living in a such a tourist destination can have its drawbacks but being in such a colourful area provides me with ample photo opportunities.

Tonight I used my Polaroid camera to capture details of buildings I pass regularly on my walk home. Unfortunately I don't have a scanner at the moment so this is a digital photograph of two of the pictures I took today.

On the Left- Side of a Christian church. On the right-Jars of Chinese candy lined up in the window of a market.