fourpointedstar

Once you’ve gone to your third car show, you’ve seen the “normal” cars – the 1994 and newer Mustangs, the 57 Chevys, and the brand new Corvettes. But every once in a while you see an unusual car like this one. Did I keep track of what car this was? No, of course not.

I’m certain that the goddess is holding something from greek or roman legend, but to me it looks like a discus or a small tire and made me chuckle.

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Who decided that a flying bird was the best emblem for this Ford’s hood ornament? What person walked into a business meeting and said “Yeah, I think a chicken looking bird is perfect!”

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Every time that I have been to the Wauconda Cruise Night, there is at least one Duesenberg at the end of the main street. They’re absolutely spectacular cars, and I love photographing them!

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When I purchased my Sony camera, I knew that I would want a macro lens (since my old one was for Nikon). I settled on the Laona 100mm f2.8 with manual focus – mostly because it was the least expensive 2x macro (by far). It can be exhausting to get the focus correct, but when it’s right, it’s absolutely lovely!

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There’s a certain delight in seeing the shag carpet look of this moth in the daylight. This beautiful insect just hung there for the entire hour that we were inside the butterfly house at Peggy Notebaert.

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For the past few years, Sarah and I have visited Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in downtown Chicago; they have a wonderful year-round butterfly sanctuary/exhibit. In the winter, it’s a wonderful break from the cold and grey.
This winter it was way too busy, but we finally made it down there for our anniversary last weekend.

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Whenever I attend car shows, I try to take some time to walk through the spectator’s parking lot. This Mustang was just sitting there, looking angry, waiting for someone to take a photo.
While I was taking the photo, another Mustang owner parked right next to this car and asked me if it was my car – sadly no.

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This was an interesting concept, but poor execution. The idea was that the sparks from the steel wool would look like they were coming out of the tailpipe, but – well, you gotta have your angles right. And since that’s me spinning the steel wool, well, my camera angle was all wrong. Oh well, I still think it’s a cool shot of Keith on his bike.

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Over the past 10 years, the Elgin Area Camera Club has hosted a steel wool photography opportunity three times. This image is from our most recent outing, and I’m actually the one who is spinning the wool in this image – I set up my camera and someone else pushed the shutter, so this is more of a collaborative image, you might say.

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I alway enjoy finding new locations to photograph light trails, and I found this particular spot about 2 years before I finally got down to photograph it. Grand Avenue crosses I-90/94 with a perfect view of the Willis Tower, but there’s also a Metra track there too!
However, that Metra line is not used that often on the weekends, so I will have to go back to capture a better photo with the train light trails too. (Oh, and LED billboards are terrible…)

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Most folks from the Chicago area will recognize that darker building, but why is the light blue building taller? I didn’t notice this trick of angles and perspective when I photographed this scene, but now I love the photo even more.

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The concrete and glass exterior of the building on the south side of Wells becomes the perfect canvas for abstract architecture presented by the stepped exterior of the top of the building on the north side of Wells.

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This fantastic oddity was captured from street level, and I just love all of the distortion. I’ve photographed the curved fascade of the building on the corner of Wells & Hubbard a few times, but always from the 4th or 5th floor of the parking garage with light trails in mind.
(This photo was from a photo walk that I led back in April.)

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The shadows from the melting ice or snow rolling down the glass were the perfect addition to all of the angles in this photo.

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Santiago Calatrava’s buildings never fail to impress. They’re almost always futuristic, but often can be mistaken for an animal in some kind of animated reality. Even his art installation in Chicago has a fluid and natural motion to it.

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If you crane your neck and look UP under Calatrava’s wonderful design, the view is magnificent!

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Perhaps someday I will grow tired of capturing the Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum, but for now, I love visiting that building. The whites and blues and sunlight are the perfect painters of abstract patterns; I can’t wait to go back!

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There are definitely times of the year when Upper Bear Hollow Falls are flowing enough to be impressive, but early April is not one of them.

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At Turkey Run, Bear Hollow is the intersection of 2 different canyons or valleys. The one valley always has flowing water, but nearly every canyon or valley has been formed by flowing water, and if you look closerly enough, there is water flowing down the tiny canyon at the top of the photo…so that obviously counts as a waterfall.

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Just a little trickle of a falls that I captured on my way back from the eclipse earlier this year. This waterfall would probably not make it onto anyone’s map or highlights, but at 3 to 4 feet tall, it is just a fun little falls to enjoy.

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I’m drawn to reflections; the warbling that a window provides adds so much more interest to the scene. In this photo, you are actually looking at 3 different buildings, can you see each one?

Not all buildings are architecturally interesting. But every building has aspects that can lead to an interesting photo – like this stairwell in a parking gararge! And yes, I know that these doors are not in the correct stoplight order.

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Maybe it’s just me, but seeing the Sears/Willis Tower poking out from a scene was THE Chicago moment growing up. For a few years, my family lived on the south side, and it was a contest among the siblings to see who could see the skyline, specifically the Sears Tower, first when we would drive into the city.

On a recent photo walk, I found this little “window” created by the L tracks, the incredible rusty exterior contrasting with the sky, the Willis Tower, and the Merchandise Mart. I had to hop in between traffic on 2 different occasions to get this exposure correct; the afternoon sky was quite the contrast compared with the shadowed steel. This photo is one of my Top 3 favorite recent Chicago photos.

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The simplicity of this photo is what allows the three distinct shades of blue to stand out.

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I took this photo while on a walk with my daughters.  While the effect of the straight roofline “feeling” curved is fascinating, but overall, the complex simplicity of the facade is what drew me to this capture.

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Sometimes photos just work better in monochrome, but this photo was nearly monochrome all by itself. This Corvette was pristine white and all of the dark accents were DARK – including the windows. Normally I’ll give a nod to the driver of a nice, well kept car like this one, but I don’t know if there was even a human driving it because the window tint was so dark.

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At nearly every car show or meet, it’s difficult to get a great photo of a “cool” car. However, capturing an iconic detail is often a matter of patience.

Everyone has seen a photograph of a Lamborghini which makes photographing a Lamborghini in a unique way an interesting challenge.  How can I photograph this famous supercar in a way that is familiar but also new and interesting?  The direct sunlight helped so much in this photo, bringing out the shine in the rim and the paint job, but I am also fond of the double point in the nose of the car.

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As we were walking out of a store in South Elgin, we watched this highlighter colored McLaren drive by. He parked a few lots down, so naturally I walked over to take a few photos.

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When I visited Turkey Run State Park the first time, back in 2022, I ran out of time and walked right past Bear Hollow without capturing any photos.  However, the first photo that I saw from Turkey Run was from Bear Hollow with its iconic ladders – so adding Turkey Run and Bear Hollow to my return trip was an easy decision.

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As I headed north from Cataract Falls to Turkey Run, I mostly meandered through the back roads. On one road there was a sign “Cagles Mill Dam” pointing to a side road. The road ended right before it crossed the top of the dam wall; honestly, it was a pretty impressive view. But I noticed that the downstream area appeared to be a rocky canyon, and as I drove down to the bottom of the damn, I was rewarded with this tiny waterfall – maybe a total of 4 or 5 feet tall.

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When I arrived at Cataract Falls in Indiana, I asked one of the park rangers if she knew of other waterfalls in the area. She pointed out that if you walk AWAY from Mill Creek (and Lower Cataract Falls), you’ll encounter Little Sister Falls. Little Sister Falls ended up being 2 distinct small cascades about 60 feet apart; the perfectly intimate waterfalls that I love being near.

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Upper Cataract Falls is listed as the largest waterfall in Indiana (by volume); it wasn’t easy to photograph due to the vegetation, but it would likely be even harder to photograph when the vegetation has filled in.

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Why yes, of course, I did visit several waterfalls while I was in southern Indiana for the eclipse. I am legally obligated to visit waterfalls anytime that I travel farther than 45 miles from home.

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