THE LOOP — For most downtown commuters, the first phase of the 18-day Wells Street Bridge construction was nothing but a headache.
But freelance photographer Joe MacDonald saw the beauty in the mammoth bridge's facelift, and camped out for hours to enjoy one of his new hobbies: time-lapse photography.
MacDonald, a shutterbug since he was 13, recently moved to Old Town from Honolulu after his media company moved to Chicago.
He said the transition has invigorated his interest in catching unique angles of the city, including the bridge.
"When I moved out here it was a new environment, kind of like a concrete jungle [compared to Hawaii], so it was fun to explore as much as possible," MacDonald said.
He passes the bridge every day on the No. 37 bus en route to his office at Franklin and Randolph streets, "so I figured I might as well get out there and see what comes of it," he said.
On Saturday, he camped out for two hours to watch the bridge's transformation.
"I wanted to go longer, but it got a little cold and I forgot to bring my gloves," a "Hawaii problem," he joked.
The end result condenses hours of work into just over 30 seconds.
"I was really happy that the boats were moving," MacDonald told DNAinfo.com Chicago about the finished product. "The first half hour of doing it not too much was going on, and I was like, 'Oh, this is gonna stink,' and then the boats started moving, and the cranes."
MacDonald said he was thrilled with the finished product (embedded above) and hopes to catch more footage when construction resumes in late April.
