Tessera

Jim Lindstrom

@jimlindstrom.bsky.social

Chicago (prev NYC, orig Iowa). Cycling and photography enthusiast. Dad to 2 boys, 2 cats and a dog. History junkie. In an alternate life: a 19th century composer. Photos: http://jimlindstrom.com/portfolio/

643 Posts618 Follower 265 Folgt

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2w ago

Watched some young rockers at Reggies today.

A keyboardist a guitarist and half a singer are distantly visible on stage. We're watching from the balcony, above. On the right, a sticker of a skeleton looks off to the right of the image.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · last mo.

10/4/24. Streeterville. #chicago #photography

Photo (extremely high contrast black and white) of a woman ascending a staircase. The stairs begin at the bottom right, move diagonally up, level out briefly (where the woman is), then begin to ascend again on the top right. Below and above the stairs the image is entirely underexposed and black, with no detail in the shadow. On the top right, some graffitti'ed metal is barely visible. The image is very nearly literally black and white, as in without any shades of gray. The woman's hair (died red in reality) shows up as streaky white strands emerging out of the darkness. Her pants below the knees are also visible in the dim light behind the bars of the staircase railing next to her.

aows @aows.co · 2mo ago

Mountains of Asturias, II. June 2026 #aowsimages #blackandwhite #photography

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 5/5, Segment 2/2: Harvard to Chicago. #cycling #chicago #bikeTooter 406.5 miles later, home at last. (I have gripes with Google Maps. See dirt track photo. Also, it led me via a concrete yard, where a kindly concrete truck ran me off the road and yelled at me.)

This was a segment of the Prairie Trail near Crystal Lake. I had hoped to meet up with @cetan there, but the timing didn’t work out this time. Next time!

Okay this photo STILL makes me mad. This is in the Deer Grove blah-blah-blah forest preserve. I swear there were 20 decision points leading up to this and they all seemed kinda okay, but then I ended up literally picking up my 60 pounds of bike+gear to .. let’s say “portage” it several times. At this point Google Maps really should have said “oh, shoot … what TYPE of bike do you want directions for?” Ahead of me is a muddy, semi-dry creek bed with sticks, and then a fallen tree. I’m god knows where in this stupid presever and just WANT OUT. I anger-biked down the side of Dundee Rd (thrilling and unsafe) for a few miles after this to blow off steam.

A random gyros/burgers/tacos place that I passed on West Belmont. It’s got super saturated red and yellow stripes on the siding. Name is “Mic Duck’s”. Feels like Chicago, without obviously including the Sears Tower.

Which, speaking of, here you go. Obligatory downtown shot, with a graffiti-covered life ring in front of the Chicago River.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 5/5, Segment 1/2: Rockford to Harvard. #cycling #chicago Up at 3am to begin the century ride home. I'd love to do the first part of this again in daylight, but the sunrise was gorgeous too.

Sunset photo at Rock Cut State Park Campgrounds, just northeast of Rockford. This is where I stayed (just 100m to the left) the last night. This photo is taken on an asphalt path, as the path loops out into the distance behind some trees. In front of the nearest tree is a sign reading “Prairie View: Sites 500 - 531”. Behind the trees the sun is setting and the horizon is a beautiful peach shade. Above the sunset part of the sky the rest of the sky is dotted with wispy white/gray clouds.

Sunrise photo taken near Capron on a trail that I think is called the Long Prairie Trail. It runs east-west-ish, through multiple townships and has every surface type you can think of depending on the segment. This portion was two dirt paths, with low tree covering on both sides. The top of the sky is still night, but at the horizon, today’s sun is rising.

This is such a forbidding, weird scene. We’re looking south from Streit Road—which, let’s talk about that first. Is it like “street” (weird and redundant sounding) or “straight” (which is very much is). Across a simple wire fence, we see a well-mown (or well-eaten by cows/goats) grassy area containing a lake that I can only describe as the color/texture of pea soup or maybe a creamy pesto. In it are a half dozen dead trees sticking up. Above them is this crazy chaotic cluster of birds flying in a tornado pattern.

Around this spot, Harvard, I started wondering “are these the last cows I’ll see today?” These weren’t. There were maybe two more fields of livestock. But these were unfearful, friendly cows in a pasture next to the road—maybe 50 of them.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 4/5, Segment 2/2: Stockton to Roscoe. #cycling #chicago I thought the heat might end my day earlier again, but powered through and am celebrating at a pub with a beer. 95mi to home!

Photo taken off a gravel road outside Lena IL. There’s no street or building or city structures here. It’s a small meadow of tall prairie grass in front of a line of tress. White and purple wild flowers in the foreground. Behind them is a green metal gate (like you’d see to let cattle in/out of an enclosure) with the skull of a horned animal and some kind of hunting vest hung on the gate.

Photo of the Jane Addams Trail. It seems to run from Freeport to the IL-WI state line, but I only took it from Buena Vista to Orangeville. It was unexpected (I didn’t seek it out, but Google Maps took em there) and really pleasant. This stretch is a dirt path through a little canyon cut through stone. This day was super hot again, so this trail and its tree covering were very welcome.

A brick building in Orangeville with the words “CENTRAL HOUSE” on the front. It’s a 3-story brick building with stone “trim” between floors and little arched fanciness above each window. In front of it is a burgundy-colored RAM truck with the word “Faith” on the back driver’s side window.

Photo taken at Colored Sands Bluff Nature Preserve, west of Rockton. Today was crazy hot again for a few hours, though not as bad as yesterday. When I saw that there was a picnic table in the shade with free abundant water to stick my head in, I audibly gasped, “yes. YES!”. I was taking breaks like this for about 10 minutes every half hour during the hottest part of the day.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 4/5, Segment 2/2: Elizabeth to Stockton. #cycling #chicago This was my favorite day. Getting to Iowa was good for the ego. But the area between Galena and Rockford is so beautiful and fun to bike and was good for the soul.

Looking west across US West 20, just west of Elizabeth. We’re looking across the highway, straight at a roadsigns pointing in both directions, as if to say, “Check out this view.” Beyond it, we see a valley filled with fields, trees, and grass. The sky above is lit up with sunrise colors. It’s 6:33am

A large flightlless bird (emu? I’m not sure) has been racing next to me within its enclosure. It is giving me side eye. Although to be fair, I think it is a prey animal whose eyes only look sideways. Its neck is cocked just so. Behind it is a field, some farm structures, and some morning sunrise clouds.

The “BICYCLE MUSEUM” in Elizabeth. I didn’t have time to go in, but it looked adorable It’s in a 2-3 story brick building and appears (by virtue of the wheels visible) to occupy not just the ground floor retail, but also the higher floors.

Looking at a street corner on Front Ave in Stockton. In a beautiful old building with fancy, antique wood interiors is the Copper Leaf Cafe, where I had a hearty and delicious omelette to start the day.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 3/5, Segment 2/2: Clinton to Elizabeth #cycling #chicago Morning: Yay, didn't get rained on. I win, weather! Noon: WOW HOT Afternoon: Farmer Steve kindly throws my bike in his pickup and drives me to a motel so I can take a cold shower and recover from insane heat.

Photo of the Thomson Illinois rail museum, taken when I still cared about seeing things, versus just getting through the day alive. It's a cute little red brick building next to the rail tracks coming into town.

One of the MANY spots where I sought refuge from the sun, this is a Lutheran church near Hanover, where some beautiful person put a bench right under a huge shade tree, and put a faucet on the near wall of the church, where I could dowse myself in a gallon of freezing water. The church is a wooden building painted white, with 5 narrow arched windows on our side, and two towers adorned with crosses on the roof.

By mid afternoon, instead of stopping every 10-20 miles, I was stopping every 2-3, then every 1. At some point I threw in the towel and rolled into a gas station nearly dead. This kind soul, a farmer named Steve, recommended a nearby motel and even drove me there. After a cold shower, some A/C, and a lot of water, I was feeling better, but ended my ride 30 miles short of my target.

After a few hours recuperating, I ventured out for a truly great pulled pork sandwich. This was the view on the way back. We're looking across Highway 20, to the south. Rolling hills with a mixture of farms and trees stretch to the horizon, where a low band of billowy clouds is just visible in the distance.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 3/5, Segment 1/2: Morrison to Clinton. #cycling #chicago Last night's camp was super close to the Mississippi, so I finished my first half of the journey on the Fulton side, then popped over to an adorable bike shop in Clinton IA for spare tubes.

A foggy morning scene. I'm on the left side of a road, looking past a pair of mailboxes, across a grassy lawn, toward some white and red barns in the distance that are blurred by the fog.

Selfie taken in Fulton, IL, looking out across the Mississippi at Clinton IA. In the right side, you can see the bridge I'm about to take. If you could smell my clothes in this picture (after a few very hard days of riding), ... well, fortunately you can't.

Photo taken entering Clinton, Iowa in the pedestrian lane of the Gateway Bridge, which carries US Rte 30. A big sign over the roadway says "Welcome to Iowa. Clinton. On the Mississippi".

Chad Jensen's "The Bicycle Station & Jensen Oil Company". Former gas station and auto parts shop turned bike shop. My bike is leaned up under an awning, hiding from the sprinkles.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 2/5, Segment 2/2: Ashton to Morrrison. #cycling #chicago Nothing like rolling into camp with a feels like of 110 🫠 Made it through the night, though, and got a good shower in. Met some friendly campers at the Morrison Rockwood State Park Campgrounds

Sterling Illinois. It's hot. I'm leaned up next to a tax prep office with enough awning to give me respite from the sun. My legs protrude into the scene, looking collapsed, and shoes splayed wide. In front of us is an asphalt parking lot and then a street with a gray SUV passing. More strip malls are positioned across the street.

Another shot from Sterling, Illinois. I'll let all the architecture nerds chime in (hopefully!) with style and notable features of this building. It's mostly white brick or stone with a greenish copper terraced dome atop.

Another shot from sterling. This shows a mural on the side of a brick building depicting some of the history of Sterling, in the form of the Sterling Hydraulic Company, and a man on a wagon being pulled by two white steeds.

My camp night for the second night. This time I'm in a legit spot in Morrison Rockland State Park. My bike is covered up with a tarp because of threatened thunderstorms overnight.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 2/5, Segment 1/2: DeKalb to Ashton. #cycling #chicago Frustrating day with bike issues, but lot of friendly people, great weather, and quiet, dusty roads.

My first camp site, and my only stealth camping that isn't in a state park or hipcamp. Cornfield on the right, tree line on the left, narrow stretch of wild grass in the middle. you an just make out my bike in the trees. My tent is badly pitched, with the poles rotated 180 degree from how they're supposed to be.

Photo taken in a little town just west of DeKalb. We're looking across the street I'm biking on, at a small one story brick building with a marquee of sorts and all-caps letters that say "CHICKEN"

I tried to befriend some horses in a field, near Rochelle. The one in front center is backing up slowly and has orange boots on. In a cute display of nurturing, it backed right up into the "arms" of the white speckled one in the back, like a shy kid standing on his parent's shoes and burying his face in their pants.

In this photo, outside of Ashton, Illnois, I'm on a yellow-ish dirt/gravel road, pulled over to the left side. Across some grass is a low leafy crop (maybe soybeans). Beyond them, a green house with white trim is nestled into some large, mature trees.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 1/5, Segment 2/2: Wheaton to Sycamore. #cycling #chicago

Photo taken across a grassy lawn at some grain silos and grain elevators arranged into a cluster in the center of the image. This is, I think, on the outskirts of Sycamore, or else on a town just east of there.

A pair on a motorcycle passes in front of me as I take a photo across the street of the St. Charles Municipal Center, which has an ornate dome on top of a 2 story brick/concrete building.

A wooden Victorian residence in Sycamore, IL. It's painted pale green, and has white trim. In the yard is a giant hydrangea plant that sure looks a lot healthier than the one I have at home.

Shot looking down a wooden plank bridge on the Illinois Prairie Path, in the Oak Hill Cemetery, in Geneva, Illinois. There's a sign imploring cyclists to walk their bikes because of wavy lines.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Biking Chicago → Iowa → back. Day 1/5, Segment 1/2: Lake Michigan to Wheaton. #cycling #chicago

Selfie taken at Diversey Harbon. I'm a 40s white guy with a t shirt and a bike helmet. My bike is behind me: a silver touring bike with a sleeping back strapped to the handle bars, two water bottles, and some panniers and a tent on back. In background is Chicago's skyline looking down at Streeterville / River North, where the Hancock Tower is.

Selfie taken under the L tracks on Lake Street. I'm in the foreground on the left, holding the camera. Above me are the yellow/brown support beams of the L overhead. Behind me the road and L extend to the vanishing point. A few cars are visible in the distance.

My bike in a verdant side yard. Behind it is the brick wall of a 2-story residence, but on the side is a faded painted sign/mural that you can't quite make out.

A shot taken while biking the Great Western trail, which begins in St. Charles IL (just across the Fox River from the near western suburbs of Chicago) and heading WNW to Sycamore IL. In this segment, it's a crushed gravel/limestone path with a tree line on either side, and power lines behind/above the trees.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Man this was a gorgeous video. I'm headed out on a bikepacking trip next week myself (assuming air is nontoxic 😶‍🌫️ by then) and am getting excited :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGUn...

The Perfect Midwest Bikepacking Route

YouTube video by Leigh Foster

youtube.com

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Kelly's Bay, 6/1/26 #photography #LandscapePhotography

Color photo looking out from a bluff that overlooks a bay. In the foreground, at the base of the photo, two cornhole boards catch the evening light. A tree frames the left edge of the image. Out past the bluff, we see the water of the bay meandering from left to right across the middle of the image. We also see a narrow channel further out into the bay, after which, the bay opens up into a wider section we can't really see the extent of. sunset clouds line the back of the image. The image is blurred in a kind of buzzing vertical way, where sharp burrs appear on lines that would otherwise be straight, giving a kind of "on edge" feeling to the otherwise serene landscape.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Another horizontally-motion-blurred sunrise shot from my last long ride (8-10 days ago, in NW Indiana). #cycling #photography

Landscape photography. Looking down an accrss road next to some high-voltage pylons receding into the distance. In the foreground is the shoulder of the road I'm biking on. In the midground, the grass is a really pretty dark, saturated, blurred shade of forest green. Some darker trees dot the horizon. Behind them, a layer of pink/peach clouds hug the horizon. Above them, the sky is somewhere between twilight and the full blue of morning.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Deep River, Porter Co., Indiana #cycling

My bike (a silver touring bike with two water bottles and green pannier bags) parked on the Central Ave bridge over the Deep River, southeast of downtown Gary.

Michelle @michelle345.bsky.social · 3mo ago

See the beauty in everything

View onto the colorful lights of Belmont Ave in Chicago through train window raindrops

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This tshirt is badass and I’m tempted to get one.

Joseph S. Pete@nwi-jsp.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Hammond Bears, Indiana Bears merchandise flying off shelves nwitimes.com/news/local/a...

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Chicago people: if you're looking for something to do Sunday afternoon, some friends and I are playing a show at 2pm. Mostly 90's and 00's rock. Family friendly. Should be a blast 😎 bookclubchi.com/event/megada...

Megadad + Davey Allen | BOOKCLUB

This gig is conditionally all-ages; fans 16-and-under must be accompanied by a parent/guardian at least 30 years old; parents/guardians need not purchase a ticket; fans 17+ may attend unaccompanied.

bookclubchi.com

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Gary homes in motion (shot from the hip on Central Ave east of Gary's downtown yesterday). #indiana #photography

Color photo of a u-haul shop, white, with a thin red stripe on the roof, sitting in a green lawn, with an interesting-looking green light

Photo of the back of 4 single-family homes taken from the back. Each has a fairly large yard, with a portion of it fenced off. Behind the houses are trees, and behind that there is a thin strip of pinkish clouds in the morning light.

Color photo of the front of a home, with the sun rising behind it. In front is a parked black long 80s/90s-style car, and in the extreme foreground a black garbage bin is motion-blurred into near oblivion.

Bottom third of photo: a blur of grass. Middle third: a wooden fence occluding the back of 2-3 homes. Peeking over the fences: the tops of single family homes and their roofs. A few large green trees poke out of the top of frame. Behind, you can see the same thin pink strip of early-morning clouds.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I woke up at 1:30am for a century ride out to Chesterton, IN (stopping for breakfast at Cherries & Berries). Here's a batch of 4 "first light" shots from the road next to Gary Airport, between East Chicago and Gary. #indiana #cycling #photography #NightPhotography

Color photo taken at twilight, showing a building at the horizon, with some construction/industrial equipment poking above the horizon and shown in silhouette against the sky.

Color photo taken at twilight showing some wild grasses in the foreground, a small lake behind it, and the back edge of the lake mirroring the line of trees above it.

Color photo taken at twilight, looking diagonally across a road and into some wetlands. On the far side of the road, a lone street lamp illuminates a smaller sign next to it, but not much else. Behind it, the treeline is in silhouette but most of the rest of the wetlands are just black.

Color photo taken looking down a canal, with a highway overpass on the right, and a bank of trees on the left. On the overpass, a truck with headlights pointing at us is just visible in the distance.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 3mo ago

5th Ave Foods #chicago #photography

Black and white photo of a three story brick building with vacant land on either side. On the ground level is a defunct retail shop whose signage clearly begins with "5" and ends with "FOODS". The afternoon sun is shining harshly on the right (west-facing) side of the building. The (north-facing) side facing us is in shadow.

Eric Allix Rogers @ericallixrogers.com · 3mo ago

Drivers can't kill us all 🚲✊

Photo of a Chicago Street with a police car and a semi truck and all over the street are bicycles and bicyclists laying down on the asphalt under a late afternoon cloudy sky.

Photo looking down at my legs on the asphalt and my bicycle lying down on the road next to me. Beyond you can see a number of other bicycles and bicyclists on the asphalt in the street.

Photo looking down a street with several brick buildings and trees along it. All across the asphalt. There are bicycles and bicyclists laying down on the ground.

Photo looking down a street with several brick buildings and trees visible on either side. All across the middle of the street There are bicycles and bicyclists laying down on the asphalt.

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 4mo ago

2/28 - 5:56am - northern/central indiana

Photo taken out a car window as it passed by a gas station just before/during sunrise. A reddish sign (maybe Casey's) is blurred past legibility, near center of the frame. a streetlight above it is green-tinted and streaked by motion. Other structures on the right of the frame are squiggled by motion and hard to make out. The picture just gives a vague sense of sleepy roadside filling station that is just pre-dawn and zooming by.

@ e d e l s u e s z <3 @edelsuesz.bsky.social · 4mo ago

VEB Kombinat Fritz-Heckert-Werkzeugmaschinenbau heute das ITC Heckert-Hochhaus in #chemnitz #Fensterfreitag #WindowFriday #streetphotography #Classicmono #blackandwhitephotography #edelsuesz

Aufnahme in schwarzweiß, Vorbeifahrt an einem Hochhaus aus DDR Zeiten (1980er Jahre) mit 12 Etagen und jeweils linienförmigen Fensterreihen, dazwischen graue Beplankungen, links ein verwischter verschwommener dunkler Baum

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Accidental pocket photos, while biking. #chicago #photography

A cluster of white lens flares, with some green smudging and vignetting.

A seeming shot of the ground, showing some paver blocks on the right

Photo of a boat in a parking lot, but the boat is pointing nearly straight up. The sky is cloudy behind the boat.

landscape photo of a tree across a road. the image is rotated 45 degrees and motion blurred.

Marcus @marcusjmerritt.com · 4mo ago

Oak Park, Michigan, September 2025

Color photograph looking at a corner of a small industrial building at night. A lone streetlight casts a warm glow across the white-painted cinderblock of the building's corner face, a metal door painted white next to a large loading dock bay door, the light fading across empty asphalt with a few leaves littered here and there, and what looks like maybe part of piece of signage that's blown into a part of the lot and lies sort of curled in a partial cylinder, almost like a sunken concrete pillar. It's very dark outside the small pool of light. A rectangular sign over the metal door reads "Superior" in very prominent large white letters on a black background, the smaller words "Tool rental & repair" in white on a strip of red. Much smaller, directly above the metal door, lettering reads "Shipping & Receiving."

Jim Lindstrom @jimlindstrom.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Lakefront, today, around 5am. #chicago #photography

Photo of a meadow on Chicago's lakefront. On the bottom is grass loaded with dandelions in their post-yellow phase where they're just white bulbs. Above the horizon, the sky is midway between black and blue. A tree emerges from the grass on the left. But the whole scene is slightly motion-blurred, and with some unexplained bright streaks zigging and zagging through the foreground like fireflies.

Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 4mo ago

NASA just dropped more than 12,000 photos from the Artemis II mission. It'll take me a few days to go through them all, but so far it's one stunner after another. Link: eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos... Credit: NASA/Artemis II Crew (h/t @jonostrower.com)

Crescent Earth and some delicious lens flare

The Moon eclipsing the Sun, with the corona and zodiacal light forming a diffuse glow behind the satellite