Heating Up

Posted by Dottie at 21:36 commute diary Add comments
Apr 152010

A fresh drink of water – my parched mouth would have appreciated that during the ride home today. The weather is suddenly extremely hot for Chicago in April, with temperatures in the 80′s the past couple of days. Soon I’ll have to start strategizing for freshening up at the office. After the long winter, I’m not complaining!

I rode along the Lakefront Trail again today. Irresistible with this beautiful weather! These photos are from my lunch break walk along the Magnificent Mile, where there’s a lovely public space for reading and people watching. I took these pictures with a 1979 Minolta XG-1 SLR camera that my mother-in-law pulled out of an old storage box for me. The camera is fully manual and a bit temperamental, with occasional leaks and a light meter that keeps dying, but it’s free, fun and film!

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  • http://lovelybike.blogspot.com Lovely Bicycle!

    Dottie, it’s so great that you’re inching your way into film – keep going! Out of curiosity, what colour film are you using in these and the Holga & Diana shots?

    • http://letsgorideabike.com Dottie

      The rolls I shot today were Fujifilm 200 for both the Minolta and the Diana Mini. My previous Diana shots were Fujifilm 400. For the Holga I’ve been using Kodak BW400CN so I don’t have to send it away to be developed. I bought whatever was most accessible and least expensive, so let me know if you have any tips or favorites.

      • http://lovelybike.blogspot.com Lovely Bicycle!

        It depends on what effect you want to achieve. There are different types of film for a grainy vs fluid look, natural colours vs super-saturated colours, and so on. If you go to my “real life” photography account on flickr (you know how to find it), I label my photos with the film I use, and you can see how the different effects play out. Oh I feel the tentacles of the film world closing in!… : )))

  • http://www.bikeskirt.com Elisa M

    It is in the mid to high 80′s here and I am already arriving everywhere I go looking not so fresh. My problem is that my job consists of meetings all over town so I don’t have the get to work and freshen up scenerio…I have to arrive and freshen up about 3 times a day! Ah, well. Such is the life, right?

  • http://www.sheridesabike.com Karen

    Tulips! I do miss the midwest and the flowers that just burst out of the ground come spring time. I don’t miss the humid 80′s and above so much but the long flower season is the best.

  • http://www.bikecommuters.com E A

    Love that top photo of the fountain – perfectly framed. :-)

    I should start trying out my film slr’s, too.

  • http://www.frolic-blog.com chelsea Fuss

    lalalove the film photos!!

  • http://suburbanbikemama.blogspot.com/ Vee

    10 years ago I spent my weekends playing in a darkroom and was totally annoyed with this digital camera thing. And now my poor film camera ( 35mm given to me by my dad and perhaps a few years older than I am) is in the closet. I do miss it but I sucked at getting film developed- in fact there may be a roll of film that is 10-12 years old somewhere in the dregs of my house. I also ( and my dad did as well) had issues withthe camera as sometimes loading hte film was funky and you’d take a whole roll of awesome photos in the south of france ( my dad) or India ( me) only to find out that they never went through. I remember in france at 12 watching my dad see that the film didn’t go through and he sat down and said ” Oh, I could cry”. I had the exact same feeling 14 years later after my trip to India.

    Digital never brought out that kind of artistic emotion huh.

    sorry for the OT comment! Love your photos. Scanning worked well and they look flawless.

  • http://braiseandbutter.wordpress.com Sarah

    Hi Dottie!

    Just came across this site for the 1st a few days ago, and oh, what wonderful timing! I haven’t really biked in ages, but last weekend traded in my uncomfortable hybrid for an old 1970′s (I think) schwinn world tourist, and I’m already SO happy. Never thought I could ever commute to work via bike (I’m vehemently anti lycra and scared of cars), but after reading my way through the archives you have me convinced! I’m going to try it! Thank you for being awesomely inspiring. Love the photos, too. I recently bought an old Pentax K1000 of of ebay and have been monkeying around with it….i think film is going to be an addiction. Even the process of taking a photo, the sound, the twisting of the lens, is so much more fun!

  • http://kd5tmu.blogspot.com Rosko

    As an avid photographer and retail photo employee, I say keep up the good work! Film is a great medium. If you ever catch the Metra out to Glen Ellyn, stop and see us at PJ’S camera, we’re a short ride from the train.

  • Dottie’s Gram Bev

    Ilove watching the seasons change on this site.

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