Urban Guardian
On a walk through an urban area, we noticed this hawk perched on the utility pole. As we got close it would fly and stop at the next pole along our route…a few times. I kept hoping it would swoop down and snatch some prey while I had my camera ready. Of course, it didn’t or you’d be viewing a different picture here. He/she just seemed to be surveying the surrounding urban landscape.
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Cloud Formation
Garden Cafe
On a walk though the woods I came upon this crab spider enjoying his freshly caught lunch.
The crab spider will just sit still near the center of the flower, doing it’s best to blend in. When an unsuspecting insect lands to gather pollen, the snatches it and lunch is served.
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Peacock Proud
It’s impossible to ignore a hot air balloon as it breaks the bonds of gravity and fills the sky with color. It was part of the balloon rally at Seymour, Wisconsin’s annual Hamburger Festival.
This balloon’s colorful pattern on a blue background reminded me of the NBC Peacock logo.
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Pick A Color
Algoma’s annual Shanty Days celebration wraps up with a fireworks show on Sunday night. I was there, on the beach, near the water’s edge with my camera to catch the colors in sky and on the water.
Those familiar with the Algoma harbor will recognize the red light on the lower right of the photo as the lighthouse at the end of the pier.
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Black Forest Light
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. ~ Elliott Erwitt
There is nothing special about these leaves. There are innumerable other leaves just like them in the woods. It is the light – at this intensity, at this angle, at this very moment – that make them extraordinary.
Ten minutes beyond this moment, these leaves will fade into the mass of countless, unnoticed, ordinary…again.
This, my friends, is the “art” of photography.
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Pathway to Glory
These are all images taken at AirVenture in Oshkosh Wisconsin – the annual convention of the Experimental Aircraft Association. These are long exposure images snapped during the night airshow. The above photo was a 32-second exposure, the image to the right was 8, the image below was 35.
How were these graceful forms created? An airplane flew an acrobatic routine with some kind of sparkly fireworks shooting from the wings. To capture the action, I had my camera on a tripod and positioned on the area of sky where I guessed the plane would be flying. These were my best guesses and even these have moments where the plane went beyond the camera’s view…and came back.
The long exposure captures the brightest light from the aircraft’s flight pattern. In the dark, the aircraft, itself, wasn’t bright enough or in one spot long enough to be registered by the camera’s sensor.
If you look closely, you’ll see stars that show up as little white dashes. The whisps, particularly noticeable in the bottom photo, are the smoke left behind from the fireworks.
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Blue Velvet
The combination of lazy waves, pre-sunrise orange, an opening in the clouds that provided the blue reflection and the lighthouse in the background make this one of my favorite images from this summer.
This image is almost ruined by a swarm of tiny bugs (common around the lake shore this time of year) picked up by the lens as faint black markings in the sky, about the middle of the photo. You may have to view the larger version to see them. Most people wouldn’t notice them, but I do, and it almost got me to scrap this image. I could probably remove them with some tedious, time-consuming work – but no time for that at the moment.
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Oh Happy Day
Glimpse of Heaven
When people learn that I often get up and out while it’s still dark to try and photograph a sunrise, they think I’m a little kooky.
When I capture a scene like this and look around to see I’m the only one there to experience it, I think the rest of the world is a little kooky.
On this particular morning, as the sun began to rise, a small opening appeared in the sky over the Sturgeon Bay, WI lighthouse. Lake Michigan seas were calm that morning.
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