2021 Desktop Calendar

2020 was a year, huh? I’m sure we’re all ready to turn the page in hopes of a better and brighter 2021. Typically I’d say these desktop calendars are perfect for your office, but you know what, they’re even better for your (newish) home office.

There was one bright spot in 2020 for me. Nick Ulivieri Photography celebrated its 10th anniversary! The time certainly flies. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in business for 10 years. While I thought about doing a calendar with my favorite shots from the past decade, I quickly realized picking twelve photos would be too monumental of a task, so instead, here are some of my favorite shots from a – strange at best – year of photography. Maybe I’ll do a “best-of” in 2022. Twelve months, twelve years in business. You get where I’m going with that, right?

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JANUARY: It wouldn’t be winter without some ice on the lake, right? On this frigid morning, I set out for North Avenue Beach and found these ice shards piled-up high along the breakwater. To create this photo, I focus-stacked multiple images so the foreground and background would both be in focus.

FEBRUARY: Here’s a fun edit of a gorgeous view for February. I captured these two frames exactly 30 minutes apart during a cotton-candy sunset. Crazy how quick the light conditions change, right?

MARCH: Thanks to the pandemic lockdown, I didn’t venture out to shoot Chicagohenge, (the sunset on the Equinox) in March, but this photo is a pretty good consolation prize for the the sun-setting-down-the-concrete-canyon look. Lots of lens flare and a streaking Yellow Cab complete the scene.

APRIL: Skyscrapers and flowers in bloom! While Vista isn’t officially open, yet, its southern facade appears nearly complete. I love this addition to the skyline. Aside from the tower itself, I de-focused the rest of the scene for added emphasis on Vista.

MAY: Despite less traffic on the Chicago River in 2020, there were still enough boats to create some dynamic moments. In this long exposure looking east from River Point Plaza, a Shoreline Sightseeing boat streaks through the scene. By this time next year, the view from this location will have already changed dramatically, as Wolf Point South project begins to climb skyward.

JUNE: I didn’t have a lot of luck with storms this summer – certainly no good bolts – but I did get a few cool shelf clouds. I took this photo from one of my favorite spots – the 18th Street Bridge. Note, this is not from the derecho that swept across the midwest this summer. I thought about using that photo, but worried it would print to dark and lack detail.

JULY: There wasn’t a lot to celebrate this year, but the neighborhood of Pilsen put on quite a fantastic neighborhood fireworks display on July 4th. Thanks to the team at Lacuna Lofts, I was able to watch and photograph the fireworks from their rooftop terrace.

AUGUST: One of my favorite spots to bike to is Northerly Island. And on this gorgeous summer evening, a small apparition was visible above the city – Comet NEOWISE!

SEPTEMBER: After years of procrastinating, I finally went out to the Indiana Dunes (Peter Beach to be precise) to shoot the sunset behind the city (here’s the full gallery if you’re interested). Admittedly, this alignment happens in August, but because many of the autumnal equinox sunsets in Chicago were choked out by forest fire smoke (2020 again, amirite?), I thought this was a good image to close astronomical summer.

OCTOBER: We’re back to the 18th Street Bridge to usher in the color of fall. Most of the times I stop here, I’m trying to catch a storm, but on this day the low fall sun cutting across Ping Tom Park and illuminating the turning foliage was impossible to pass up.

NOVEMBER: Some leaves still cling to their branches in the photos from late Fall. Despite the chill in the air, the sky and yellow leaves framed LondonHouse beautifully.

DECEMBER: We’e back to the balcony from February. I didn’t capture any particularly wintry, snowy, or holiday scene in 2020, so I thought this was an adequate stand-in. The ‘bokeh’ (out of focus points of light) was created by taking a totally out-of-focus photo of the skyline. I then layered a few of these bokeh layers atop the cityscape and played with the opacity to give this image a dreamlike quality.