Chicago Nightlife – Part 2
For the second part of my Chicago downtown “vintage” photo expedition, I switched to Fuji Superia 400. The 200 film handled itself quite well but it was time for “stronger measures”. I had to to change film while moving quickly through a mass of people, actually moving against the crowd, because we got there late and everyone was going back home. Considering I was moving against the tide, the Quick Load mechanism on the Canonet was a great help. One other problem was that it was drizzling but I managed to keep the camera safe. Anyway, there’s less of a worry with a manual film camera than with a digital one. Here are some of the pictures I took that night.
The mass of people was like a huge organism moving in unison. Of course, I was moving against it. The police was trying to maintain order by guiding people in various ways.
On this occasion, only pedestrian traffic was allowed on the streets that had been crossed by the procession. What procession? I have no idea cos’ I had missed it. Apparently it had something to do with the lights in those trees. There were also some fireworks somewhere up ahead, in between the skyscrapers.
The lighting in this photo probably looks slightly weird. If I had shot this with a digital camera, people would say I didn’t choose the correct white balance. Thing is, that’s exactly how I remember the scene. The weird light came from a combination of halogen, tungsten and neon lights, coupled with the overcast sky. So I’m pretty happy with the white balance of my vintage rangefinder camera 
This is the store front of the Harley Davidson shop in downtown Chicago. They seemed to be doing good business even at that hour (around 9PM).
Another imposing store was Sports Authority. A car almost ruined my shot As it is, I think it’s more interesting this way.
Back on the train, I tried to shoot some candids. There were two girls on the seat in front of me. The train had stopped in a station when I took this picture.
The two girls had crossed their legs the same way. I thought that was quite funny.
The two girls’ knees… The one on my left was still drinking the soda
My short odyssey with the new Canonet rangefinder ends here. For my first two films, I consider the camera handled itself quite well, but of course I have almost zero experience with film cameras so my opinion is 100% subjective. Nonetheless I hope you’ve enjoyed these photos same as I’ve enjoyed taking them.
