One is the Loneliest Number

Boo!

Serenity Now

Rusty Viking

 

Nature Doing Jazz Hands

Octopus' Garden

 

 

Parallel Parking

 

From Her to Eternity

One of my favorite places in Chicago is Graceland Cemetery. It's part park, part sculpture garden, part history lesson and, oh yeah, part cemetery. I have a few favorite monuments that remain compelling season to season, year to year. This deteriorating angel is one of them. I prefer to think that she's not decaying, but rather that she's gaining character and poetic metaphoric depth.

(all of her)

Wild Blue, Yonder

...and then you remember the only things between you and "out there" are some metal and plexiglass.

Refraction Reflection

Orangey

Apple Storage

There's a road in the upper lower peninsula of Michigan, inconspicuously called M-22, that offers delights of all types - especially visual. It winds along Lake Michigan,through the southern Cherry Belt so the primary industry is fruit farming. Some of the orchards are thriving, others...not so much. So the scenery along the road is a cacophonous juxtaposition of prosperity and dilapidation.

Sunset on Lake Michigan from M-22. I'm not much of a sunset/sunrise photo person, but...given Lake Michigan's bag of tricks with clouds, the colors and textures are an ever-changing tableau that is sometimes impossible to resist snapping.

Taking Flight

Firefly taking flight (and starting to glow, note the tail/abdominal area).

Firefly...not firing or flying. Just another beetle.

Light My Way

My parents' yard is chock full of fireflies this time of year. I took on the challenge of trying to photograph them. I quickly learned catching images of fireflies is tricky, to say the least. One positive aspect: Fireflies are attracted to the flash of the camera (their "glow" is how they attract mates). So attracting them isn't the problem...snapping them when they're 1) in focus and 2) glowing is ridiculously difficult, especially when you factor in the fact that you're shooting in near darkness and when they're not glowing they're black. After some internet investigation I learned that capturing fireflies in photos is one of the most vexing and complex nature photography challenges.

Hot Barbecue

It's July in Michigan and that means...it's blueberry season!!! The best blueberries in the world are grown in Michigan. It's a fact. I know. I've eaten a lot of blueberries in a lot of places and Michigan's are far superior in every way.

 

I found my thrill on blueberry hill...

Drying in the Rain

In spite of the nonstop rain dandelions are running their course and drying up.

Lilac Impersonating a Dog

While I was shooting my mother's lilac tree I kept feeling like someone was watching me. I thought it was one of the many chipmunks, rabbits or squirrels playing cat-and-mouse with me. Then I saw this bunch of blossoms. Not exactly a Jesus in the toast or a Richard Nixon potato but way cuter.

New Day Dawns

The morning after the non-Rapture. All seems well.

...in a Pear Tree

I know, I know, I'm going to get my license to shoot revoked if I keep snapping flowers. It's just that time of year when everything is screaming, "Shoot me! Shoot me!" And every time I snap I hear the photo police in my head saying, "Step away from the flowers..." This one has some sentimental value - this is the last tree my dad, an avid yard guy, planted. It was just a tiny, spindly twig when he gave it a home in the front yard. The following spring it was still standing and growing. The last photo he took before he died was of his latest "tree rescue," the pear tree in the front yard. It's growing and flourishing, it gets prettier every day and blossoms magnificently.

Told ya.

One thing I notice, though, obvious in this shot, is that designers tend to observe the world, everything they see, in terms of layout and selling the product. Marketing baby, marketing. I have to fight the urge to set up/frame my shots leaving room for (and good juxtaposition of) text. When I was shooting the pear tree blossoms I had to keep reminding myself, "You're not actually selling these pear trees..." Still...it does leave me with a huge archive of shots ready for layout should the need arise. (Read: Clip-art hoard.) Because, you know, you never know when you're going to get a call to do some ad work for a pear tree. 

Dew Point

Field to Fork

Sometimes a client project requires PhotoShopping that wanders too close the the edge of *hack* territory.  I don't love these projects but I don't dread them, either. I take them as challenges to make cringe-worthy trite ideas less hack, more visual message. Not always easy. I'm halfway happy with this one. It's for a food production safety tri-fold brochure (avoiding ecoli outbreaks and the like, fun stuff), the graphic spreads across the inner folds. I massaged two photos to convey the field-to-fork theme of the company's food production testing services. What say you? Visual message or PhotoShop hack (or both)?

Happy Mother's Day

I seem to be on a flower kick lately. Spring's in bloom...

Fuzzy

Pussywillows impersonating caterpillars.

Birds Do It, Bees Do It...

One blooming forsythia...one very, very busy bee. Something really weird happened yesterday. The sky was blue with these wispy white things floating in it! And there was this big yellow glowing orb in the sky, like fire! And everything looked super ultravivid, colors were so saturated and bright everyone was wearing special glasses so their eyes wouldn't hurt.

"Cue the bee! Send in the bee stage left!"

The original intended (beeless) shot.

Tilting at...

It's Tulip Time! I can't make it to Holland this year, but last year's festival was lovely. Here's one of my favorites from my '10 archive.

While my f-stop is on a slower speed have a look at some great photography.

First, of course, my big brother and photojournalist extraordinaire, David Crane and his photoblog One Second.

Like most of us photo enthusiasts (and especially those of us in Chicago), David is captivated by the Vivian Maier story and her work. I have not noticed many recent additions to the official site, but it's a great starting point for discovering this gem of a photographer.

I like to check in on the MCoP blog to see what's happening photo-wise in Chicago - it's not updated often, but worth checking now and then for info on local photo shows.

I never miss a day of National Geographic's photoblog. I especially love the underwater galleries.

The Hubble Telescope photo gallery which is updated a few times a week and boldly goes where no man has gone. I've had a soft-spot for the much maligned Hubble since it was launched and love the results of many years of technology refinements.

While I'm in Michigan (and not shooting much, I'd give a thumbs down to that...if I could) I've been poking around (literally with one finger) looking for creative Michiganders (and there are a ton of us...something in the water, perhaps?)

I'm really digging Cybelle Codish's work and her blog Shoot Happens.

Jenny Risher is doing the project I have fantasized about for years. According to Hour Detroit mag, she's shooting notable Detroiters' portraits for a book. There was an exhibit at the DIA years ago (late '80s) that showcased portraits of famous/infamous Michiganders. It was good, but I always thought it could have been a little more dynamic in both the subjects and how they're shot. I have been compiling my dream list and how I'd shoot them ever since. I'm anxious to see Jenny's results, looks promising!

That's a Wrap

So,  that  happened...

Happy Easter

Is half a tulip a onelip?

Visual Cacophony

The Fox Theatre in Detroit gets my vote for the most bizarrely beautiful place on earth. That being said, it's also the most difficult to photograph. Best to focus on details rather than try to get a full shot...but...even the details are detailed and there's way too much information in the photo and it becomes an enigma wrapped in a riddle and you put the camera away and say, "You just gotta see it in person..."

Winter...Spring...Winter...Winter...Winter...

I've tried to mimic this effect in PhotoShop more times than I care to admit. Nature always does it best. "Nature: We're just better."

One of the reasons I love Michigan is that for several months of the year it can easily be confused with Narnia.

This is the typical Michigan "snow in April" shot. Add a robin freezing it's red tummy off and you've got the quintessential above the fold shot.