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
Sony SLT-A77V
Ladies In Red
If you’re looking for springtime beauty with vivid color, it’s hard to beat tulips. These unique, deep red beauties, surrounded by a sea of pink, yellow-fringed tulips were photographed during the annual Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa.
I struggled with this image. I spent a lot of time trying to get the five red tulips to stand out from the background. The colors are close enough, it’s hard to distinguish the detail of the foreground from the blur of the background. I’m not sure I achieved the separation I wanted the average viewer to experience. I’ve looked at it so much, I can no longer be objective. You’ll have to decide and let me know your first impression.
If you’re a tulip fan, be sure to view a previously posted image from the same outing with a similar name: Ladies In White Try this link for even more tulips: https://popsdigital.com/?s=tulips
You can enjoy a larger, more detailed version of this image by clicking on it.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Limited Shelf Life
On one of my recent hikes through the autumn woods, I snapped a brightly colored maple leaf that found a resting place on a shelf mushroom.
For those not familiar, shelf mushrooms (or bracket fungi) grow on the side of trees (living and dead). When you find them, they’re usually attached to rough barked trees.
There are dozens of shelf mushroom varieties – different sizes, shapes and colors. They are known by a variety of descriptive names – beefsteak fungus, sulphur shelf, birch bracket, dryad’s saddle, artist’s conk, and turkey tail…and others.
The classification, Polypores, is often used for the type of the hard or leathery fungi (like the one pictured here) that lacks a stem, growing straight out of wood. The polypore’s woody fruiting bodies are called conks.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Streaking Past the Avalon
The Avalon Theatre is alive, again, in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood. This historic landmark theater was completely renovated and refitted to offer patrons a unique entertainment experience. The traditional movie theater seating has been replaced by leather chairs with a table between them where movie goers can order and enjoy a meal – with their movie – prepared on site and served by the wait staff.
The Avalon is a distinctive example of the Mediterranean Revival architectural style. The lobby features Moorish arches, twisting Mediterranean columns, figures that resemble gargoyles and a statue of Athena, a Greek goddess — all from the original building. It is the first Wisconsin theater built for movies with sound
I happened to be there (and created this image) on the night of their Grand Opening celebration in March of 2015. The place was full of young professionals enjoying drinks in the lobby and touring the theater. I was hanging out with a photography friend from the area who took me to a few spots in Milwaukee to shoot some night scenes. He, rightfully, thought this would be a promising location.
The photo, itself, is a long exposure (20 seconds). The white and red lines were created by the lights from the vehicles that passed by while the camera shutter was open. Those spots in the upper left of the photo, I believe, are the result of dust that must have been on my lens. Normally they wouldn’t be so prominent. I think the mercury street lights and the aperture setting of f/22 I used for this shot brought them out. Normally, I would work to remove those from an image…but in this case, I liked the effect and left them in.
You can learn more about the Avalon’s renovation, amenities they offer and its interesting history simply by Googling it.
You can view more of the details in this image by clicking on the photo. When you do, a full-screen version will open in a new browser tab.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Sitting Pretty
Creation is teaming with unique, delicate beauties for the observant who are persistent to see beyond the obvious.
Within the Puelicher Butterfly Vivarium in the Milwaukee Public Museum there are hundreds of specimens. This one, a Small Postman butterfly, (heliconius melpomene), was among the tiniest. (To view the largest, visit my previous post: Owl Butterfly.)
Postman butterflies are tropical butterflies found in Central and South America. They are most common along sunlit forest edges with flowers.
As sweet as they may appear, they have little to fear from predators. As caterpillars, they feed on passion flower leaves, storing up toxic chemicals they retained throughout their lifespan that makes them foul-tasting to typical predators.
You can get a better look at this beauty by clicking on the photo and viewing a full-screen version.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Blush of Fall
The last leaves of autumn provide a colorful contrast to their bleak, forest background.
For me, the colorful contrast and moody nature make this a worthwhile image. I think the leaves, with their smattering of red on orange, are beautiful. Take those quintessential autumn leaves and set them before a shadowy, bluish background and I think the eye-appeal soars. It’s a contrast of light and dark – bright and moody.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Orange Overhead
As a photographer, I’m always on the hunt for those elusive, magical moments where the rising (or setting) sun collaborates with interesting cloud formations to paint the landscape with vivid color. This was one of those moments at the Kewaunee, Wisconsin lighthouse, on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
Those familiar with my work know that I feature this lighthouse often. It’s because I live just a couple of miles away. It’s close enough that if I’m up before sunrise, I can look out my window to see if the sky and sun are going to cooperate. If the pre-sunrise sky is showing promise, and I have the time, I can grab my camera and be on the shore in a few minutes. The sky, itself is beautiful, but setting a lighthouse in the foreground makes for a much more interesting scene.
You can view more sunrise images of this and another nearby lighthouse (Algoma) by following this link: https://popsdigital.com/category/lighthouse/
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Gone to Seed
At the end of its season, the milkweed distributes the produce of its summer labor – the potential milkweed crop of next season.
I snapped this image on a recent trip to the woods in my area. I was out to capture some fall color and this milkweed caught my eye. I found it on the edge of the woods, as I was leaving. The fine fibers of the seeds were slowly undulating in the light breeze. It may not be as exciting as brightly colored leaves, but I thought it was a very cool, and beautiful, view of nature.
The milkweed, is an American genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. Milkweed is an important plant because so many species of insects depend on it. For example, monarch butterflies, milkweed bugs, and milkweed leaf beetles only eat milkweed, and could not survive without it.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Dripping with Passion
On a foggy morning, moisture clings to a spider web. I love how the tiniest drops can form on the thinnest of web fibers.
This is a companion to another image taken the same morning that I posted earlier. (Connect the Dots) The first one was photographed with a black background. This one had a maroon background because this spider web was draped from the door to the side mirror of my old van.
This is some of my first work with extension tubes – a lens attachment used in macro photography. I need to work on sharpness. This image is not quite as sharp as I want it to be, but it was interesting enough to share.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Curvaceous
A number of people have told me this stretch of highway, just before you reach Gills Rock at the northern tip of the Door County, WI peninsula, is the most photographed road in the world. I don’t know who’s keeping track, but a number of people stopped and got out of their cars to snap a quick photo while I was there. In fact, I left my home before sunrise just to get there and this shot in the early morning light.
My intent was to make it an “Autumn Colors” tour and get some great fall foliage. I didn’t get much else worth noting. Once the sun was up, it was clear and bright – creating too much contrast and washing out the colors.
I spent a good deal of time in processing this image. A lot of that time was spent removing a power line that stretched across the upper part of the image. Thanks to the magic of software…with a bit of skill and a bunch of patience…an unsightly distraction was eliminated. I thought about removing the mailbox and For Sale sign on the right, but decided it wasn’t too distracting and probably added to the rural feel.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Preview of Coming Attractions
The true magic happens just before the sun breaks the horizon. It usually only lasts a few moments, but it’s worth the effort to catch it. This magical moment arrived behind the Algoma, Wisconsin lighthouse and pier, on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.