{"id":1326,"date":"2023-04-07T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2023-04-06T21:35:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T02:35:16","slug":"searching-for-chicagohenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/07\/searching-for-chicagohenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Chicagohenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I set my alarm for 4:30 am on a Sunday in March. It was 9:30 pm on a Saturday and I was already in bed, praying that insomnia didn’t pay me a visit. \u00a0I was meeting a new photography friend downtown the next morning at 6:00 am to photograph Chicagohenge.<\/p>\n

Chicagohenge is a phenomenom that happens twice a year. During the days before and after the spring and fall equinoxes, when the sun rises and sets, it lines up perfectly with the east-west streets in the Loop and you can see it framed between the buildings.<\/p>\n

When my alarm went off at 4:30 am, I reluctantly pulled myself out of my warm bed and asked Alexa for the weather report. It was 19 degrees and windy. \u00a0I must have still been asleep when I got dressed. It’s the only explanation I can come up with for choosing a thin pair of leggings, my running shoes and a long sleeve shirt.<\/p>\n

By the time my friend and I picked our location I was quite cold. \u00a0The wait for sunrise felt interminable. \u00a0We took pictures as we waited and chatted about our mutual love of street photography. 6:25 am came and went. It was still pretty dark out, but we were pleasantly surprised that there were cars, buses, trains and people around so early on a Sunday morning. Surely in another 15-20 minutes, we’d see the sun, take our photographs and I could go home and crawl back into my warm bed. \u00a0I was uncomfortably cold. \u00a0My legs stung from the cold and my toes were numb.\u00a0I wondered how long it would take for my toes to get frostbite and if they’d have to be amputated. Can a person walk without toes?<\/p>\n

\"\"
6:40 am. We can see the light of the sun as it starts to peek over the horizon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Twenty-five minutes passes and we can see a little bit of light appearing over the horizon, but I’m getting impatient and my anxiety of the possible amputation of my toes is nearing panic attack levels. I start pacing and walking on my tip toes hoping that will keep the frostbite at bay. \u00a0I can’t remember ever being this cold.<\/p>\n

\"\"
6:50 am.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 7:20 am, we should definitely have seen the sun. I’m disappointed. \u00a0Did we pick a bad spot? \u00a0We decided wander a few blocks to see if there’s a better spot. \u00a0It hurt to walk and I mentally berated myself for not wearing my boots and warmer pants. The wind has died down a bit so the walk helped to warm my legs a little. I was positive my toes were going to be amputated and I made peace with it. I couldn’t feel them anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"
7:20 am. Corner of Monroe and Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We made it one block south to Monroe Street and my fears were confirmed. We were not going to see Chicagohenge. \u00a0The light from the sun was bouncing off the south facing side of the buildings. I could see the glow of the sun hiding behind the buildings on the south side of Monroe Street.<\/p>\n

\"\"
7:40 am. The Art Institute of Chicago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We weren’t alone in our disappointment. We had run into a few others who were downtown to photograph the event as well. \u00a0After comparing notes, I suspected we were a few days too early. I’ll try again in September. It’ll be warmer then too.<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nBec<\/p>\n

P.S. I’m happy to report I still have all of my toes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I set my alarm for 4:30 am on a Sunday in March. It was 9:30 pm on a Saturday and I was already in bed, praying that insomnia didn’t pay me a visit. \u00a0I was meeting a new photography friend downtown the next morning at 6:00 am to photograph Chicagohenge. Chicagohenge is a phenomenom that … Continue reading “Searching for Chicagohenge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[75,17],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chicago","tag-chicagohenge","tag-street-photography"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/payQKs-lo","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccaflorenphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}