fourpointedstar

Each winter, I make a sacred trek to Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. They have a wonderful year-round butterfly exhibit, and those colors are the perfect break from the dull nature colors. Even when the Illinois winter blesses us with snow instead of 43 shades of brown and grey, more of nature is still monochromatic.

Typically I focus on the butterflies; small pops of color whose unpredictable nature and flight paths make them a challenge to photograph, but this visit, I was inspired by a photo that Sarah took years ago – a simple image of the end of one of the vines. What images could I create in the butterfly house that weren’t of butterflies?

Back in 2023, I wanted to photograph the 4th of July fireworks, but not from the normal location on Chicago Street. So I found this little hole in the trees along the river. I nearly dropped my camera and tripod into the water because the hill was steep, but I really like the uniqueness of the photos.

I always want for my next photo to be better than the last image; a better composition or representation, or maybe a different, unique view. I’ve photographed fireworks many times, and I’ve seen some fantastic ideas using zoom and focus that I’d love to try…but what if I took my idea from Christmas lights – spinning the camera during the exposure – and tried it during a longer exposure of fireworks?

There’s a bit of a story behind this photo:
In late August and early September, the sun is at the exact correct spot for wonderful sunrise photos on my drive into work. A couple of days before this photo, the mixture of sunrise and fog was perfect. I took a dozen photos that I was very excited about, and once I got to my office, I turned my camera back on to see the images that I’d captured.

And that was how I discovered that my Sony doesn’t have any alert when you press the shutter that there are not SD cards in the camera…I’d missed all of those (in my imagination) wonderful photos. So, for the next week, I stopped at the same three locations and captured sunrise photos, attempting to recreate those images that in my memory were perfect.

Anyway, I simply love this photo. I’ve shown it to a few people, one of whom said that it needs more tonal range or the addition of another color (roll back all that yellow to get some blue into the image)…but I like that early morning punch of yellow.

This insect would be terrifying if it were larger.  The ambush bugs can attack and eat insects that are up to 10x their weight, and those forearms are meant for holding onto the prey.  Every once in a great while, I’ll spot one of these monsters who has ventured out of their hiding spot, and their angular body makes for a fantastic photograph.

You know that feeling after your dad bought a Ford Taurus growing up, and then it seemed like you saw Ford Tauruses everywhere?  That’s how I feel about this orange speckled insect!  Back in 2010, I took a photo of one with my iPhone, and I love the photo.  Then last year, I found another one at a local butterfly garden.  This year I’ve seen them in my yard, on a client’s landscaping, and at the same butterfly garden; maybe they’re not as rare as I thought!

There is something magical about a bee that is the size of a grain of rice.  Well technically, it’s not a bee; maybe a hover fly or a sweat bee, I can never remember which is which.  Either way, the way they flit and float around is wonderful, and then they choose a spot to land; but I can’t imagine that the tiny fraction of an ounce is even noticeable.

This particular morning, I saw very few spiders. While I do enjoy capturing a bee in a flower, it’s more fun to photograph other insects as they pollenate.  Spiders are even more unique; typically they’re “hiding”, hunched in an area of the plant that is out of the way, but paying attention to YOU the photographer.  It’s a cat-and-mouse game, but for the spider, it’s a monster-and-mouse game.

I took a much closer photo of this tiny jumping spider but the photo lacked any sense of scale. While the photo doesn’t show nearly any detail for the spider, this photo gives a much better sense of scale and shows how hard it can be to see these spiders, let alone capture them.

I will never admit how many photos it took to get this particular image: the bee would fly off, the bee’s face would be too dark or too light, the focus wouldn’t be correct, etc. As it is, there are still elements that I wish I could fix; I dislike that the center is so out of focus, and I wish that the bee’s were just a little more in the sunlight. But I love that the image implies that the bees are circumnavigating the flower, an insect Juan Elcano if you will.

It’s amazing how the simple addition of the pointy tail on this insect makes it go from “cute, like a bee” to “terrifying and menacing”.  I love photos like this one; all the texture in the head and torso, the contrast in the vibrant flower and the insect body, and the hint of sunlight in the eye.

Any photographer knows that there are acceptable photos, there are good photos, and then there are photos that you feel lucky to capture; and you have to display all three types.  Bees rarely stay on a flower for longer than a few seconds, and this image took advantage of a flower’s askew petals; lining the two up wasn’t skill, it was luck.  But a good photographer knows that the more often you go out to take photos, the more likely you are to get lucky. 

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As the sun crests the hills, a photographer has a few minutes when the tips of trees and plants are radiating the sun’s fresh light, and the rest of the plant rests in the shadows … a solar spotlight of sorts.

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Any time that I go on a photo walk, I start capturing photos before I find inspiration; generally, I’m visiting a specific event or location, so that means that I have a subject in mind.  On the photo walk to the Black Partridge Woods, I knew that I would be capturing early spring flowers, but there is always that first photo that kicks off the inspiration at a photo shoot (at least for me).  

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I’m always amazed at the people who can go on a nature hike and name most of the flowers, leaves, trees, or moss. My brain just doesn’t work that smoothly; do you want to know what generation of Mac laptop first had the G3 chip? I know that, but common names for flowers … well that’s never going to stick in my brain.

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The soft purple hue mixed with the greens in this image bring my mind to a peaceful familiar space.

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Don’t center the subject in your photo.
Well, what it I center it in the bottom third?
And what if there is a well lit leaf providing contrast and balance?
Sometimes, it’s ok to break the rules.

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There’s something magical about the beaded drops of fresh dew in the morning.  I was searching for a tiny scene where I could capture the dew on one of the early spring flowers, and this vignette seems so perfect.  

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Nearly every year, I take at least one trip down to Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to photograph the butterflies. The Nature Museum has a wonderful year-round habitat for the butterflies, and in the middle of winter with all of the dull colors of nature, it’s relaxing to photograph something with rich colors.

But a friend challenged me to photograph something unusual in black & white; so I chose the butterflies in my second trip to Peggy Notebaert. Can I create interesting images without depending on the vibrant colors of the plants and insects? I am very pleased with the results of my experiment.

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One of my favorite things to do in the winter in Chicago is to visit one of the conservatories to see the plants and blossoms. The splash of color does wonders to invigorate my spirit.
But then I tend to create monochrome images out of my trips because I love the textures.

I have some friends who will bring along spray bottles to add water drops to plants to make the image pop, but for this flower, the staff at the conservatory did the work for me!

Sometimes a photo is already lined up for you, like this blossom. I did have to stand on my tiptoes to capture the image with the green leaf behind the red blossom, and then take the photo several times in order to get the pistil in focus.

I walked right past this plant while complaining that I hadn’t taken enough photos of blossoms. Sarah kindly pointed out that the purple blossoms were almost radiant; I’d walked right past the plant because most of the blossoms were wilted and past their prime. The yellow stamen are almost creepy.

I love seeing other people’s photos, and recently I saw a photo of a single cactus blossom from a photographer that was perfect and beautiful. I don’t like my image quite as much as theirs, but this cute blossom was absolutely perfect for the photograph.

The tiny blossoms on this cactus were the perfect cluster of beauty for my macro lens. The sad thing about macro photos is that I have no clue what the remainder of the plant looks like now.

I love visiting an indoor garden like Chicago’s conservatories in the winter. The garden’s colors and vibrance are refreshing against the backdrop of the grey and browns of our winters.

Growing up, my Mom always had Christmas cactus, and if I remember the original plant may have come from her brother had quite the green thumb. I definitely remember playing football in the house with my brother and knocking the plant over and the blossoms falling off and KNOWING that we were in so much trouble.

But when I told my parents that Sarah and I were moving in together, my Mom gave Sarah a cutting of the Christmas cactus as a “home warming gift”.

I felt very bad for this little spider; it was just blowing in the wind on this tiny flower and twitching its legs every time that another insect came by. There was just 1 problem, this little spider was about the size of a grain of rice, and the bugs that were coming by? They were several times its size.

This was the busiest of the busy busy bees. This little worker buzzed all over gathering pollen and in the meantime, got themselves absolutely covered in pollen. Just take a look at this zoomed in version of the same photo!

When you’re growing up, you learn “facts” that stick with you and you later learn are more “general rules”. Two that come to mind are “humans have five senses” and “moths have antenna that are fuzzy or comb-like”. Well, this is a Ailanthus Webworm Moth, and not only does it not have fuzzy antenna, but Wikipedia says that until it’s in flight, it resembles a beetle. Second grade science class was just full of lies!
(The senses of motion and balance are great examples of “other” senses.)

On my visit to the Sagawau Canyon waterfall, you can imagine my surprise when I encountered the same ailanthus webworm moth from the previous photo (and from the photo in 2010.) However, when I looked up the photo from 2010, I found that the photo was from the Sag Quarries Forest Preserve, which is right next to the Sagawau Environmental Learning Center (where the canyon waterfall is located).

This moth wandered all over this particular group of blossoms, seemingly enjoying the buffet. I would love to read an explanation of the coloring for this moth; it doesn’t appear to blend into any flower that I’m aware of.

Back in 2010, I photographed this type of insect with my iPhone. We were on a trip to see a friend on the south side of Chicago, and I remember the photograph because it was one of the first “good enough quality” photos with an iPhone that I’d taken.

Two weeks ago, when I took the above photograph of the same type of insect, I thought to myself “that’s odd that I haven’t see an insect like that in a very long time.” I photograph insects every year, and I wondered why I hadn’t seen such a unique insect in over ten years. According to Wikipedia, they only travel this far north some summers and are more of a southern insect.

During her interview, Lauri Novak showed us her photo project where she photographed shadows around the house – this photo is an homage to her project!

The day of the most recent solar eclipse was very sunny in southern Indiana, and this little hoverfly was taking full advantage of the sun and the spring flowers.

Last year, we began completely recreating our south-facing yard as a prairie with native plants. I have always loved the look of these and their gorgeous stringy mop of a hairdo!

Watching the ants crawl across the peonies is a special kinda of therapy; my goal when attempting to capture this photo was to get an ant in the photo. The ants, however, we’re very cooperative, so instead I captured a bit more abstract of an image.