November’s Photo of the Month: Canada Geese Coming in for a Landing, Lakewood Forest Preserve, Lake County IL

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: Fall Aspens with a dusting of snow, Bishop Creek, Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA

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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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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August Photo of the Month: Two Ship Heading Out, Port Washington, WI

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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