@nick_ulivieri

The yellows of fall have really popped in the last few days. Not too many reds yet though. Back in early September, The 2020 Smoky Mountains Fall foliage Prediction Map showed Chicago hitting peak color around October 19th. Looks like they might be right. //

On this day in 1871 - 149 years ago - the Great Chicago Fire began. By the time it burned itself out three days later, over 300 people were dead, and 17,000 buildings were destroyed across 3+ square miles (~2,100 acres). We'll likely never know if Mrs. O'Leary's cow did in fact start the conflagration, but we do know this: The region experienced an extremely dry, drought-plagued summer; and ahead of the blaze, a low-pressure system moved across the Great Lakes region bringing incessant winds gusting up to 50+ mph. No matter how the fire started, conditions were ripe for any spark to quickly grow out of control. . But here's a lesser known story. Those same dry, windy conditions were present in Wisconsin, too. While Chicago was burning, *massive* wildfires raged in northeast Wisconsin, completely surrounding Green Bay. Not the town of Green Bay itself, like, the actual bay. The Peshtigo Fire, as it's known, burned 1.5 MILLION acres of Wisconsin forest, vaporized communities, and killed an estimated 1,200-2,500 people. It's the deadliest forest fire in American history. . Here's where things get crazy. The Peshtigo Fire burned so hot, the updrafts formed a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud that supposedly spawned an extremely destructive tornado. Survivors described this tornado as a gigantic funnel cloud of fire, sucking up flames into the rotating column of air. Zones *outside* of the fire itself were hot enough for trees to spontaneously combust while the even hotter tornado-fueled flames melted sand to glass. It's said that this molten sand rained down and coated the burnt debris in a layer of glass. // 🌈 🔥

Man oh man, the One Chicago project is really starting to soar. I was in the area and had my tilt-shift on hand to create this 2-frame vertical panorama of @liveonechicago. . Even with maximum shift applied to the lens, I still had to pan my camera up to fit the tower in the top frame of the pano. Long story short, there was a *lot* of digital perspective control going on after the images were stitched to make it nice and architecturey . But, back to the project. Tower A - on the left - currently stands 42 stories tall (out of 76!). Doing some rough math, that makes it approximately 540' tall; just a little over half-way to its final height of 971'! While Tower B - on the right - is up to level 30 (out of 49). It's currently around 350' tall, and will top out at 574’.

I woke up early - a rarity - and went for a bike ride along the lakefront. On my way back home, I zipped through the winding Northerly Island path, and found the wildflowers were popping. There were yellow ones, white ones, and purple ones lining the trail. I stopped and nestled my camera amongst the flowers and used them to frame this shot of Vista //

Cheers to from one of the best cities in the world for it //

It might not have been the easiest day for a bike ride along the lake, but the scenery was worth it. Waves were crashing, and wildflowers were swaying. I flew down to the Burnham Wildlife Corridor with a 14+mph tailwind and stopped to appreciate this oasis of nature. The ride back home into that headwind though...not so quick. But, I’m trying to get as many miles in as I can while the weather isn’t too miserable to ride in //

WPE lookin’ like a glass blade //

⚫️⚪️

✶ ✶ ✶ ✶

I biked over to Wacker Drive to try a less crowded spot for tonight. It's an interesting angle, but doesn't give you quite the same 'canyon' effect as shooting through the Loop. And that wildfire smoke really choked out much of the sunlight, leading to a strangely 'dusty' sunset. . It certainly makes the sun look interesting - like Jupiter - but I really missed that intense, golden light spilling into the city that comes with a clear, *clean* sky. . Not to mention there's something a bit unsettling knowing that wildfires 1,500 miles away allow you to look directly into the sun. Crazy times. Fingers crossed many things are better come spring for the vernal equinox in 2021 //

Happy season! I was contemplating head out to shoot tonight and then the wildfire smoke thickened up. I probably should have gone out anyway, but, we still have a couple days. Either the smoke will clear or it’ll make for a unique ‘henge. . I made this ‘stereogram’ last September after Amy and I took to the sky on the equinox to capture Chicagohenge. We’ll see what the next few days has in store //

⬅️ Reality vs. Rendering ➡️ Last moth I worked with @antunovich_associates to create some photos for them of @helloavenir; a residential tower along Milwaukee Avenue they designed. . To be candid, this project took place as as the first plume of western wildfire smoke was drifting into the midwest in late August. We had a few interior spaces blocked-out that morning so a portion of the shoot was happening regardless of sky conditions. Considering this, I was expecting to photograph the daytime exteriors on a future visit sometime after the smoke cleared. . As predicted, it was quite hazy when I woke up on the day of the shoot, so I assumed the original plan was still in place. But as I approached the building, I saw a break in the smoke, deepening blue skies, and a perfect bank of altocumulus clouds decorating the sky above Avenir. In this case, the best laid plans going awry worked in our favor. That's a rare occurrence, but certainly a welcome one.