I just about lost all my fingers to frostbite getting this shot. This is under the Hennepin Ave. Bridge in Minneapolis. I took a time lapse of the Mississippi river because there were huge chunks of ice floes slowly making their way down the river, and I wanted to blur them out (otherwise, they would have busied-up, an already very busy picture).
Kept looking over my shoulder as I was taking this, as there was a group of guys loitering under the bridge smoking and watching me. Ever since a friend of mine showed me this video (don’t watch it) of a man getting a horrible beating (just blocks away from this spot), I have been overly watchful for groups gathering too close.
So I may have overreacted once, when fixing a flat tire, a group started asking me about my bike. They said it was pretty, and they wanted to get a better look at it. They were touching it a started to pick it up. They said they wanted to take it for a test ride around the block. They would wait for me to finish fixing the flat tire before taking the bike for a spin. I thanked them for their compliments and politely declined their offer to steal my bike. When they started to surround me I started shouting and walked right out into traffic with the bike.
It may have been an overreaction, but it certainly worked. They left me alone and I hastily rode away on a partially inflated tire.
The group under the Hennepin bridge didn’t bother me though. They just watch, sadly pitying this dumb guy, freezing his fingers to get a shot of the bridge.
Above the Hennepin Ave bridge from the other side. Shot last June when I'd just moved to Minneapolis.