Tuliptree Blossom with Guest
Another Day at Work
Apis Workers' Party
Predator
Some of Your Beeswax
Sedum Bumbler
Look of Defiance
Chicory Bee
Bumbling Bees
Garden Cafe
Buzz By Here - To Infinity and Beyond
Pick Your Poison
Blind Side Attack
On a Mission
Honey Bee on Sedum
Covering the Cosmos
Center of the Cosmos
Three's a Crowd
Popular Spot
On A Pedestal
Big Harry Fireworks Display
To Impress the Girl
Different Perspective
Sweet Ride
Perfect Little Piggies B&W
Flipping the Light Fantastic
Festival of Flights
To the Crowd's Delight
Amish Go Round
Wondersome One
The Stars In Her Eyes
Tuesday's Child
Sleeper Hold
Considering the Next Move
Sugar and Spice
Front Porch Portrait
Caged Competitor
Early Adoration
Child In the Ligtht
Stroll Through the Weeds
Attention Grabbing
Eye Contact
On the Line
Eyes of Wonder
Rounding the Curve
Troubadours of Basin Spring Park
Down by the Creek
Sun Day
Catching Some Light
EAA Fireworks
Hear Me Roar
Bill Pevlor
Colors of Calm
The sky was interesting enough to warrant a wide, panoramic view. This, of course, is the Kewaunee, WI lighthouse with a beautiful background provided by the wispy clouds and the sun rising over Lake Michigan.
These are the kind of mornings I wait for, when I’m looking for a sunrise to photograph. Haven’t had the opportunity to catch one like this in awhile. This one was taken the morning of September 6, 2013.
You really should look at the larger version that spreads across the whole screen. Click the photo to see it.
Fiery Fungi
This was a great find on the forest floor at Potawatomi State Park, near Sturgeon Bay on Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula. I don’t know what kind of mushroom this is, but it sure stood out among the dead pine needles and other decaying matter.
To view a larger version of this image, click on the photo.
High Flying Five
These vintage Navy planes were part of the air show at this year’s E.A.A. AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. I think it would be very cool to fly with a group like this.
I’m not positive about the type of aircraft, but I think some might be the North American SNJ-4, an advanced trainer for WWII aviators. (It was also called the T-6, the AT-6, and the Texan.)
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Japanese Lantern
Star Bright
I went out to photograph a full moon…but ended up focusing on a star.
This is a long exposure, early evening view of the Kewaunee, Wisconsin Lighthouse. This is not the shot I was going for, but that’s the way it works sometimes.
I’d been watching the lunar calendar and decided the best evening to capture the full moon rising over Lake Michigan would be Friday. When it was time to head for the beach, I noticed a band of clouds in the sky but thought they might be high enough to not block the horizon. Turns out, there was enough “atmosphere” between me and the moon, I didn’t see it until much later in the night.
Since I was at the beach and had everything set up, I thought I’d fiddle around getting a night shot of the lighthouse. While fiddling, I thought the star filter I have might add a nice effect to the bright lighthouse light. The star filter is threaded so you can screw it on to the end of the lens. It creates an X pattern over any bright light source in the photo’s frame. I’ve often wanted more lines then the four it’s designed to create, but it is what it is. …or is it?
I took the star filter off the lens and decided to try and just hold it very still, by hand, in front of the lens. That worked better than expected. Next I took a shot and held the filter still it for a few seconds and rotated it a few degrees and, again, held it still. That gave me more points to the star…and it looked pretty good. I experimented a bit more to end up with this version.
This is a 20-second exposure. (20-sec, f/11, ISO 200) I was holding the filter in front of the lens – as close as I could without actually touching the lens. When I tripped the shutter (with a remote), I would count to five, rotate the filter, count to five, rotate the filter, count to five and quickly remove the filter for the remainder of the exposure. As you can see, that gave me three separate sets of star points.
Let me point out a few other interesting effects from the long exposure time. The lake wasn’t as smooth as it seems in this image. The long exposure has a tends to smooth out any motion. You might also notice a small, dark, oblong spot near the corner of the pier, just to the right of the lighthouse. That is actually a man who was fishing off the pier. He moved enough over the 20-seconds that all you see is a blur. And finally, there are a couple of thin lines of light that run horizontal through the frame…about level with the deck of the pier. Those are lights from a boat that was leaving the harbor, traveling left to right over the span of the 20-second exposure.
To view a larger version of this image, click on the image.
Chicory Bee
On a cool, cloudy day, I caught this bumble bee in a sluggish mood. He wasn’t buzzing from bloom to bloom but seemed content to rest on this common chicory flower.
You can get a close-up look by clicking on the photo to view a larger image.
Gold Fusion
The morning light provided a beautiful scene for a lone fisherman next to the lighthouse on Kewaunee’s pier.
To view a larger version of this image, click on the photo.
Crooked Spine Pine II
This is another view of my Crooked Spine Pine – a true quirk of nature. (See earlier post: Crooked Spine Pine – 2013)
Like Jack’s magic bean stalk, this pine tree is growing in a spiral at Potawatomi State Park in northeast Wisconsin.
It reminds me of a natural example of a rule of composition known as the Golden Mean, Phi, or Divine Proportion. It was made poplar by Leonardo Fibonacci around 1200 A.D. You can learn more about it in an excellent article from Digital Photography School.
To view a larger version of this image, click on the photo.
Zeros
Three vintage fighter planes circle back for another simulated strike during a reenactment of the attack on Pear Harbor. This was part of a spectacular air show at the 2013 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Though I’ve had little opportunity, I could really get into aviation photography. I am not a pilot, but I love to fly and love all type of aircraft.
These planes are Japanese Zeros. Here’s some info gleaned from Wikipedia…
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long-range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was usually referred to by the Allies as the “Zero”, from 1940, the year in which the aircraft entered service with the Imperial Navy. The official Allied reporting name was “Zeke”.
When it was introduced early in World War II, the Zero was considered the most capable carrier-based fighter in the world, combining excellent maneuverability and very long range. In early combat operations, the Zero gained a legendary reputation as a dogfighter, achieving the outstanding kill ratio of 12 to 1, but by mid-1942 a combination of new tactics and the introduction of better equipment enabled the Allied pilots to engage the Zero on more equal terms.
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Cluster
This delicate bloom is known as Crown Vetch or Axseed. It is a summertime wildflower classified as an herb in the legume family. (The same category as peas and beans.)
These flowers seem to be popular with bees and butterflies. In the area I found this, bees were busy working the few flowers there.
On the downside, it is a serious invader of prairies and dunes and, apparently, it’s poisonous to horses.
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