Do The Flamingo

On our Chicago night photo shoot with Chris Smith and Out of Chicago we stopped at the famous Flamingo sculpture by Alexander Calder.  We were there about sunset and watched the lighting in the sky change and the lights come on in the city.  We stayed to photograph in the different light and from different angles.  This is a good idea wherever you are shooting.  Here are the results.

 

 

Chicago at Night

I took a night photography workshop in Chicago with Chris Smith and Out of Chicago this past weekend.  It was fun looking at things in a different light.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

 

All you need is love and a dog

Every once in a while I get a fun offer from Shutterfly.  This time it was for a free mousepad.  I couldn't resist because the design they showed was with a dog "All you need is love and a dog."  It was easy.  I just uploaded a few pictures of our dog, Sebastian.  Then I dropped them into the three spots provided and added his name in the heart.  It was done and I clicked to order.  I like to do little creative stuff like this when a cute template is already provided.

Weather- Good or Bad

Sometimes when you think the weather might be bad, it is really good.  So it happened on a trip to Chicago Botanic Gardens.  It was predicted to rain and it looked like it could at any minute, but it was very calm out.  What I got was fog.  I really liked it as a black and white.

 

The gardens have many interesting little corners to photograph.  The fog gave a nice diffuse lighting for scenics and flower close-ups instead of a harsh look if it had been sunny.

 

 

 

 

The Story of the Robins

      One day my brother heard a knocking at the door.  He went to check who was there and there was no one.  He went back to what he was doing and heard the knocking again.  Going back to check, he still found nothing.  The sound came once more and this time he realized it wasn't at the door but at the living room window.  When he went to check, he saw a bird fly away.  So that was the culprit.  Each time he left the window, the knocking would return.  He would try to scare the bird off, but it would fly into the bushes and return to its tapping when he left the window.  How was he going to stop that incessant noise?  He decided to put a scarecrow in the window.

     That seemed to do the trick.  A while later, whenever he would walk outside via the garage door, he was dive bombed by a couple of birds.  What was going on?  He soon found out that there was a nest with little blue eggs on the engine of the tractor in the back yard.  It was a perfect spot, protected from the wind and the rain by the tractor hood. 

 

A few weeks later the eggs hatched.  My brother told me about the nest and I was able to take pictures of the four little ones.

 

 

I also decided I needed to take a picture of the tractor to remember the event.  It wasn't until after I looked at the pictures at home, that I realized I had captured one of the parents on the top of the back hoe with a worm in its mouth.  Now that's a story.

 

You Don't Always Get What You Wish For

        My brother had told me there were coyote pups out in the back of my parents property.  He saw their eyes in his headlights when he drove in the driveway one night.  They were under the tree in the back yard.  He said he could hear the parents howling at the train when it whistled as it went by.  The pups gave out little barks.  My mom use to get upset because they would sit on the back stoop which is under the bedroom window and howl in the middle of the night.

            My brother said they came out at sunset, so I was hoping to catch them.  I went out just before sunset and set myself up in a corner of the house with my telephoto lens and a tripod.  As it was getting darker, I saw something move in the tall grass in the back.  Wow!  It was huge!  I kept my eyes glued on the animal as it came closer.....oh, it's a deer.  The deer looked in my direction and came just so close and turned around and went back out.  I continued to sit and waited until it got dark.  Nothing.  I knew I couldn't get any pictures in the dark, so I went home.    

          I went out the next morning on a hunt.  My brother said he could hear them close by and thought they might have a den in the back of the property where there are a bunch of trees and brush. I carefully and slowly scouted around.  I saw the one trail the deer had taken and some deer prints.  Otherwise no other trails and no other footprints.  I went home disappointed.  As the saying goes "You don't always get what you wish for."
            The day went on and as we were coming home from lunch, I spotted something in a neighbors yard.  Here it is, my wildlife pic of the day.  Happy Memorial Day!

Spring is Finally Here

Spring is finally here.  That means little ones are arriving.  This year I went out to one of the ponds I usually find goslings and ducklings and I was not disappointed. There were 3 geese families, one even having 11 goslings.

And there was one duck family with 10 ducklings. 



 

I was early this year, as I even found nests with eggs in.  Most of the nests at this park are rather flat and right out in the open.  I was surprised to learn that the geese don't sit on the eggs all the time.  However, they stay rather close and keep a watchful eye.

I have gone back to check on the goslings and ducklings every few days.  The 3 geese families are intact, however the ducklings don't seem to fair so well.  Just one day later there were only 5 left of the 10 and today there are only 4.   It is probably because there are more geese in the park and they are larger and more fearsome acting when you get close.  The ducks are smaller and their little ones are so little and seem so fragile.



One Picture Can Say It All

One picture can tell the whole story.  Like when my niece, Lynne, surprised all the ladies at our Tuesday lunch group this week (before Mother's Day) by giving us free ice cream and some beautiful roses.

 

The problem is that the picture didn't start out like this.  It was like the picture below where it is hard to see the people in the picture, we are just too dark.  I knew this would be a problem because of all the windows in the background.  The camera was fooled by the outside brightness and underexposed us.  I could have used my HDR app on my phone, but my husband was taking the pictures.  If I had to set up the two boxes to expose correctly for the brighter windows and the other for us, then run around and get in the picture, then have him hand me the camera after each shot so I could adjust the HDR and contrast and color and save it, no one would sit still for that.  So I just decided to have him take the shots and  throw the best one in Photoshop Elements afterwards. 

      At home, once I found the best shot with the best expressions on each face, I made a selection of just us ladies.  I opened the levels and brightened the mid tones.  Then I sharpened this selection.  I then reversed the selection and darkened the mid tones to tone down the background and foreground a bit and I did not sharpen.  I then cropped the picture to cut out the uninteresting ceiling and have the picture just concentrate on the main subject, us.  Now you can see us better.  Happy Mother's Day! 



 

The Old Truck

My motto is to always have a camera with me.  It came in handy tonight.  We were driving down Greenbay Rd and had to stop for a long line of traffic.  (Don't you just love road construction.)  I then noticed an old truck on the side of the road.  I grabbed my camera out of my purse, rolled down the window and took a few shots before we had to move on.  When I got home I had fun playing around with a few photo apps to add a grunge look and blur and vignette the background and put a frame on it.  Below is the results:

Taking Matters into Your Own Hands

  Just when we thought the snow was gone for the year, it snowed an inch over night. So sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. I found these cute tulip sidewalk night lights at the dollar store, but the ground is so frozen I had to lean them up against a tree to stand them up.

Spring is Coming

Time to get out and take some pictures as spring is coming.  Wayne and I went out to Fox Lake a couple of days ago and saw a flock of migrating American White Pelicans.  They are coming up from the Gulf Coast and heading north.  This flock will probably summer on a nice lake in Canada, but I like to think they are part of the group going to Yellowstone.  Sigh!

Jellies is More Than a Grape Flavor

I took a trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago this week.  I finally got to see the "Jellies" exhibit.  It was fascinating to watch these creatures. It has been one thing on my bucket list to be able to see and photograph them.  The entire museum was amazing.  I know about your every day bass, whitefish, salmon and cute little Nemo, but here are so many fishes, so many sizes, so many colors, so much variety from all over the world. Sea life is not just fishes either.  From whales and sea lions and penguins to sea horses and sea dragons and jellies.  Also snakes and sea turtles and little poison dart frogs.  Then there is all the plant life as the multicolored coral reefs.  This is all stuff we don't generally see, all tucked away in our rivers, lakes and oceans.  On the fifth day God created whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly.  And I was surrounded by them....AWESOME!

 

 

Inspired by the Olympics

The winter weather has been lingering on.  So what is a person to do? Well, I have been watching the Olympics this past week and they are pretty inspiring.  Say,  I still have my old cross country skis in the attic.  Could I still possibly use them?  I hate to say that the last time I used them was in my mid 20's, but hey, why not give it a shot.  I waxed them up and headed to Illinois Beach State Park.  The first time on them was not too pretty.  I probably didn't wax my skis quite right and I spent more time on the ground than skiing.  And my gear is pretty old and so the rubber lock releases broke off as did the pole baskets.  The next day at work I was pretty sore, some serious muscle strain.   I came home and watched a few videos on You Tube on how to wax skis and how to ski correctly.  I went out today and things were a bit better.  I had a goal of going around one trail at Illinois Beach and I made it.  Senior Olympics here I come!  Ha! 

Extreme Window Frost

What is there to do on a cold winter afternoon?  I did something I haven't done in years.  Took pictures of window frost.  The last time I did it was when I used a film camera.  All of our downstairs windows have been replaced since that time and so there is no window frost.  We do still have some older windows upstairs.  With the cold weather we have had this winter I was able to think again about doing some shots.  And now digital is great as you can see immediate  results and make changes as needed to get the picture.  Lenses have also improved.  I have a 1:1 close-up lens.  I used some of my older close-up filters with this to get an even closer look and it was pretty easy.

 

Winter Sports

At this time of year many people are in watching the Superbowl playoffs.  I prefer to do some outdoor sports.  And what better thing to do than to go photograph the American Bald Eagles at Lock and Dam 14.