This months photo was taken just 10 days ago on 3-6-2011 and shows a fleet of tug boats in winter storage on Sturgeon Bay here in Wisconsin. We have always wanted to see Sturgeon Bay in winter and when the opportunity came for us to make the overnight trip, we jumped at it. Early, on Sunday morning, we walked out onto one of the bridges that cross the bay and shot some images. It was about 12 degrees with a windchill near zero. The wind wasn’t blowing very hard, but just enough to cut right through you.

I was intrigued by the way the tugs were docked here, even though they have been in ice all winter, they look ready to continue their work as soon as the ice leaves. I also like the soft lighting this morning brought. The sun was nicely defused by some high clouds to the east creating a soft but bright light.

I think what I like most about this image is that it says Great Lakes Winter so well. It also shows the maritime feel and history of Sturgeon Bay very nicely, that’s one of the reasons this is a favorite place of mine in Wisconsin.

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I just realized that I’m running very late on the photo of the month. Between the blizzard and our trip to California, I forgot all about it. Better late than never I guess.

This month’s photo is of the Kenosha Pierhead Lighthouse and was taken during a frigid sunset on Feb 12, 2010. Lynne and I went down to the harbor to get some pictures of the ice shelf and lighthouse at sunset. During the warm evening light I spent most of the time shooting from the ice shelf, but once the sun went completely down I wondered onto the pier in hopes of getting the lighthouse with some color on the horizon.

I could only walk out so far because of a slippery sheet of ice that lay across the pier. I was able to make my way to this yellow post though. Once I saw the post I knew the shot I wanted. I set up my composition and waited for some color to appear. Thankfully a little bit of color did appear on the horizon.

I love the contrasting colors in this shot. The bright red lighthouse, yellow post, and magenta horizon contrast so nicely with the cold blue of the lake, ice and sky. It’s like a battle of warm colors with cold colors. To me, this contrast really shows the feeling of what it was like being there.The other thing I like is the slight reflection of the lighthouse in the ice. It’s just enough to add a little bit of color to that icy blue.

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This month’s photo comes from a chilly morning in the Eastern Sierra back on January 7, 2006. I ventured out to Round Valley to shoot the sunrise after a heavy snowfall had blanketed the foothills of the Eastern Sierra.  Low clouds from the storm still hung on the mountains, but the sky to the east was clear, a perfect scenario for a beautiful sunrise. Mother Nature didn’t disappoint that morning as soft pink and purple light  bathed the clouds and reflected in the snow on the valley floor.

I love when heavy snow falls in the foothills of the Eastern Sierra. The sagebrush and rabbit brush become covered and the cool looking humps you see in this photo are formed. The humps make great foreground material for photos of the mountains.

I shot many great images that magical morning, this one has always been my favorite though.

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]]> http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-january-2011/feed/ 2 http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-december-2010/ http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-december-2010/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:48:15 +0000 Steven http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/?p=5023 December’s Photo of the Month: Ice Formation on Kitchen Window, Kenosha WI

When the temperature outside drops into the single digits, magical things can happen on the north facing windows of your house. December’s photo of the month is a perfect example of that. This beautiful ice landscape formed overnight on December 12, 2008. While I’ve seen many beautiful ice formations on windows, I had never seen anything like this. It’s a perfect winter landscape. The coolest thing is that it’s never happened again, so this is a one of a kind image.

I recently started playing around with this image in Lightroom and Photoshop. The original image is pretty, but it’s very gray and colorless. By changing the color of the image into blueish tones, the coldness and wintry feeling come out much better. I also decided that this would make a great holiday greeting to all my online friends. So Happy Holidays to everyone out there. I hope your holidays are filled with the same joy and magic that was created on my kitchen window the morning this image was taken.

This month’s photo was taken on November 1, 2008 at the Lakewood Forest Preserve in Lake County IL. Lake County has a wonderful forest preserve system that offers many recreational opportunities for folks. All of the preserves are kept in wonderful shape with park like settings mixed in with wilderness. One of our favorite preserves is the Lakewood Forest Preserve.

On this trip to Lakewood we were primarily photographing the beautiful fall colors found there. While walking along one of the lakes though, I heard Lynne yell “Incoming”. I looked up, saw the geese, grabbed my camera and was able to fire off four shots of them as they came in for a landing. Of the four, this is the only one that came out decent.

This image is the only action animal photograph I have. In a way I know I was lucky to get it, but I also know that if my camera hadn’t been hanging from my neck, ready to go at the time, there’s no way I could of got it. Like a good Boyscout, the nature photographer must always be prepared.

For more info on the Lake County IL Forest Preserves, check out their website at www.lcfpd.org.

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October’s photo of the month was taken on 10-11-2006 up Bishop Creek Canyon in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada. I drove up the canyon on this morning hoping to get some nice shots of the fall colors with the snow that had fallen the night before. Mother Nature didn’t disappoint as she created a perfect blue bird sky and great light for this image.

This image was taken in an area that’s very popular with photographers during late September and early October, but on this day I had the whole place to myself. The reason? This grove of trees is one of the last to change in the area. Most of the trees in the upper basin were bare at this time and all of the photographers had moved on to other places in the Sierra.

Some of you may be wondering where I shot this from. Well I’m not talking. You’ll just have to figure it out for yourself, just like I did ;-)

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]]> http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-october-2010/feed/ 3 http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-september-2010/ http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-september-2010/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:21:08 +0000 Steven http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/?p=4412 September’s Photo of the Month: Sunrise Fishermen on Lake Michigan, Kenosha WI

This month’s photo was taken on September 18, 2009 along the shores of Lake Michigan in Kenosha. Every year in September,where the Pike River flows into Lake Michigan, fishermen line the shore trying to catch the Chinook Salmon that have come into the area to head up river to spawn. These salmon can be weigh up to 40 pounds and put up quite a fight for the fishermen. I decided to head out for sunrise one morning last year to to do some fishing of my own. Not for salmon, but for photos of the fishermen.

I knew going in what kind of pictures I wanted. I wanted the fishermen silhouetted against the rising sun. There were plenty of them there on this morning to choose from. I hadn’t expected a boat out in the lake though. It was actually getting in my way most of the time, but in this image the boat helped more than hurt.

This image reminds me of the many sunrises I’ve spent with my dad fishing Sierra Nevada lakes. I’ve seen this scene so many times in my life that it’s burnt into my soul. There’s nothing like a quiet, peaceful sunrise on a lake, waiting for a fish to take your bait.

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This month’s photo was taken on August 15, 2009 at the Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival in Port Washington WI. The tall ship in the foreground is the Denis Sullivan out of Milwaukee. I can’t tell what ship that is in the background. It may be the Friends Good Will out of Michigan.

I didn’t care for this photo at first. It was taken on a very hazy day and the light was horrible. The sky was washed out, there was a grayish cast to the colors and to my picky eye the image just didn’t look good. Then, one night last June, I looked at this photo again and realized I could use that bad light to my advantage. By washing out the image even more, I was able to create a very simple scene of two ships heading out into the foggy unknown.

This image sets my imagination on fire.

Where are they going?

Why are they going there?

What awaits them in the fog?

Will they ever return?

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]]> http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-august-2010/feed/ 11 http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-july-2010/ http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-july-2010/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:49:15 +0000 Steven http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/?p=4039 July Photo of the Month: Sunset over The Minarets, Sierra Navada, CA

July’s photo of the month comes to us from California’s beautiful Sierra Nevada. It was taken on July 23, 2007 from Minaret Summit near Mammoth Mtn Ski Area. I had been on a drive to the Sonora Pass area and was heading back home when I saw the clouds over the Minarets and thought there may be a nice sunset over them. So I headed up to Minaret Summit and waited for the sun to go down.

Though this wasn’t the most spectacular sunset I’d ever seen in the Sierra, I really like this photo. I love the soft colors of the sky against the dark blue shadows of the mountain. The jagged crest of the Minarets contrast nicely with the sky too.

And how can you complain when you get to enjoy a beautiful sunset all by yourself while standing on top of the world!

]]> http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-july-2010/feed/ 2 http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-june-2010/ http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/photo-of-the-month-june-2010/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:12:53 +0000 Steven http://www.sierravisionsstock.com/sierravisions/?p=3775 June Photo of the Month: Sturgeon Bay, Lake Michigan WI

This month’s photo was taken in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin on June 13, 2009, the day Lynne and I got married. There’s really not much else to say about it, other than it’s a very special photo to us, from a very special place.