Fog in Winnetka

Last night it rained, and this morning it was unusually warm,

 so when I woke up and looked out my window everything was

 enveloped in fog. I went through my morning routine and

 decided to take the later bus to school so that I could take my tripod

 and walk over to Elm Park to take some landscape shots of the 

fog and the trees.

I thought that shooting with a small aperture and slow shutter

 speed would make the fog more prominent, but it really didn't, so on

 my way home I quickly snapped these photos of the trees in Elm

 Park next to the sidewalk and this tree with the sun behind it in my 

backyard. The bottom photo has an interesting Dr. Seuss-like effect,

 and the top photo works because of the old house behind the tree.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Moss in Harms Woods

Harms Woods is devoid of plants during winter, but midst the mud

 and fallen leaves are occasionally some picturesque fungi, 

such as this moss I found on a log.

In the top photo, I put my camera in "Shade" light setting, which gives

 sunlight and orange tones more saturation. With both of these I used

 a wide angle and a large aperture.

Skokie

Taken in January 2012

Swans on the Skokie Lagoon at Sunset 3

This is a photo from when I spotted two swans on the Skokie Lagoon

 during sunset about a month ago.

I found a website that tilt-shifts photos, so I decided to try it out with a few 

of mine. Because of the colors and the centralization of the subject, it

 sort of worked with this one.

Winnetka

Taken in January 2012

Under the Snow

It snowed yesterday, and since it'd been somewhat warm up until then 
there's still some undergrowth that's managed to survive. The snow has already 
started to melt, so as I was hiking through the Crow Island Woods and the 
Skokie Lagoon I happened upon some small shrubs and burrs which 
were poking out of the snow.

I tried out b&w with these photographs because anything contrasted with 

snow usually looks nicer without any color (also, natural light usually produces 

some great b&w tones). I used a small aperture with both of these to bring out 

every detail and also used a wider focal length to make the subjects seem 

like they had more prominence in the scene despite their actual

 tiny size.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Goldeneye in Flight

Goldeneyes, winter birds on the Skokie Lagoon, have 

very yellow eyes.

One of my favorite things to do with photography is use panning

 techniques with my camera. If the results aren't indistinct and

 blurry, then they look great.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Mallards on the Skokie Lagoon

There's a log on the Skokie Lagoons that usually has a few ducks

 sleeping or resting on it. 

In some cases, mallards can be somewhat tolerant and allow 

photographers to get close enough to get a shot where the duck

 has a significant presence.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

A Hawk in Glencoe

Every now and then there'll be some sort of large bird of prey circling around
 in the sky. Usually it's a kestrel, but this one looks 

large enough to be some sort of hawk.

I like the simplicity of a uniform background and a fully detailed

 subject. It's an interesting sort of composition that usually

 doesn't work, but here it looks nice and sort of contrasts with the 

angry looking hawk.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Bell Tower at the Botanic Gardens

The bell tower at the Botanic Gardens in Glencoe is a pretty 

interesting structure. It's located on a large hill and surrounded by 

scenic shrubs and trees.

I used f/22 with all my photos at the Botanic Gardens, and I noticed

 these little dots that kept on showing up in the sky. After doing some 

research, I discovered that they are in fact not UFOs but bits of dust on

 my camera sensor, which is a somewhat of a problem that will persist if I 

want to continue landscape photography.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Red Breasted Mergansers on the Skokie Lagoons

In my previous experience photographing this bird, I was very frustrated 

with tracking it down and getting close without scaring it off. On Saturday 

morning I awoke early-- 8am-- and biked down to the Lagoons, where to 

my surprise I found an large flock of Red Breasted Mergansers (+ a few hooded 

mergansers, which is the one with the white head). I found a shady spot

 next to a tree to perch my telephoto lens, and waited patiently until 

the mergansers floated by; I remained totally still and they didn't notice 

me, and as a result I got some super close -up portraits of them. They're very

 interesting looking birds, I think.

After several months of futile bird photography I decided it was time to 

reform my habits and research what other people are doing that makes 

their photos so much more intimate than mine. I employed all of these 

techniques on Saturday and spent four hours successfully photographing 

all sorts of birds. Here are the basics: birds are usually out from sunrise to 11am,

 a telephoto lens is required, and find a comfortable niche to patiently

 hide in until the birds float by.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Skokie Lagoons in Winter at Sunset

While biking on the Skokie Lagoon scanning for birds to

 photograph I happened upon several breathtaking scenes that I tried 

to capture with my camera. For both of these, I didn't take any time to

 set up the shot because I wanted to preserve that feeling of seeing

 the giant cloud or red ice for the first time.

I'm giving the vertical landscapes a try. I've recently started studying

 Ansel Adam's photography and I've noticed that he splits his landscapes

 into vertical sections and puts a lot more emphasis on the section

 which attests to the landscape's immensity. I think I successfully 

did that in the bottom photo, and the top one just has nice colors.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Common Goldeneye on the Skokie Lagoon

So these birds are officially Common Goldeneyes, not waterfowl 
or Barrow's Goldeneye- which was at the Skokie Lagoons a few 
weeks ago and brandished a slight but infamous physical distinction.
 While attempting to get a close-up shot of one of the unique
 winter birds at the Skokie Lagoons yesterday this goldeneye
 floated past me as I hid behind some shrubs on the side of a mud 
covered cliff. Thus far (after about two months) this is the closest and
 most detailed shot I've been able to get of this bird.

I recently googled photoshop techniques which would improve my
 photos and the most effective one I found was by duplicating the
 image, blurring the duplicated layer, and then selecting "Overlay"
 as the layer setting. This makes the photo pop and have more 
contrast. It certainly adds something to the bird.

Glencoe

Taken in February 15

Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, and Hooded Mergansers on the Skokie Lagoons

Left to right is a common goldeneye, common merganser, and a male 

and female hooded merganser. Since I've started learning about all

 the interesting species of waterfowl on the Skokie Lagoons I've 

started thinking about the Lagoons as sort of a backyard zoo, 

because it's only a ten minute bike ride from my house, and after 

school today I decided to bike to the canoe launch on Tower Road to 

see if I could get a shot of one of the interesting looking duck-variants. 

This is probably the most fortunate nature shot I've ever been

 able to get because I was specifically looking for a merganser

 and I spotted these birds the moment I entered the bike trail

 and I got a photo of them all in the same frame. This was shot 

through a small wooded area between the path and the water,

 and of course as I tried to get closer moments later they all

 flew away. I was still able to get a few individual shots of the

 hooded merganser, which is a beautiful bird.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Colorful Mallard on the Skokie Lagoons

Pretty much the quintessential bird on the Skokie Lagoons is the mallard. 
They're everywhere, usually in pairs. They always take off when I 
approach them (supposedly I'm a very zealous nature photographer),
 so I've made a habit of trying to catch them flying with the trees blurred
 behind them. 

The sun was right above this part of the Lagoon, so the birds' feathers 

had a very vibrant look. I was in a densely wooded area so it was 

difficult to get a clear, up close shot of the mallards.

 

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Brown Creeper in Glencoe

Another obscure bird from the Erikson Woods (forest preserve on the 

Skokie Lagoons). I found it's name out while investigating about 

the merganser on a birdwatching website: as I was scrolling through

 all the photos of birds all of a sudden there was the little speckled 

brown thing with the label "Brown Creeper". It was very small and

 looked like more of a rodent then a bird.

While circumventing the Lagoon on an ecological adventure 

yesterday there was a point where it was silent, and then I heard a

 bird, so I decided to follow the noise and find the bird. It was 

climbing around a tree, so I propped up my camera and took some

 photos. It was pretty preoccupied, so it was difficult to 

get a shot showing its face.

Glencoe

Taken in February 2012

Male Red Breasted Merganser on the Skokie Lagoons

Today I discovered the Red Breasted Merganser 
(I found its name after doing some investigating on Google); one 
of the many species of winter ducks on the Lagoon. Mergansers look like
 mallards from a distance, but through a 300mm lens you 
could see that the male merganser is characterized by it's spiky 
hair and narrow beak, and the female by its orange eyes and 
long narrow brightly colored beak. 

It was kind of a surprise to see these sort of birds.  
The male merganser was perched on a log in
 the Lagoon when I approached him. The mallards that were with 
him had flown away, and I wondered why the merganser had stayed 
and then noticed its hair and realized it would make a phenomenal 
photograph because of how close I was to him. Then I made
 a mistake which will probably haunt me forever (or at least for a
 little while); I tried to climb down towards the water because I 
thought a lower angle would work perfectly as a photograph 
and the merganser would surely not fly away, and of course he 
did fly away and wasn't able to get a quality picture because his 
back was to me until the moment he landed in the water 
(bottom photo), and he flew to another part of the Lagoon when I tried 
to move closer. So I followed the merganser to that other part of the
 Lagoon and took a bunch of shots from afar (first photo, as close as I 
could get) while he was midst many other ducks, and after waiting for 
twenty minutes hoping that he would move closer I lost sight of him in 
the crowd of ducks and I decided it was hopeless. Seeing these sort of
 birds makes me wonder what other sort of obscure birds are 
lurking in the Lagoon.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Two White Tailed Deer

 While photographing waterfowl on the one of the slimmer branches of the Lagoon

 I heard a rustle in the leaves behind me, and so I turned and saw a mother deer 

and her two offspring. I was overjoyed to be having a chance to photograph 

deer in the daytime with my telephoto lens, and as I began to snap pictures the 

deer looked on suspiciously. One of the offspring was grazing behind the other,

 and it heard the shutter of my camera and craned its neck over the other to see 

what all the fuss was about. I thought the pose was perfect and they held it for 

about ten seconds: long enough for me to get a correct aperture, shutter speed, 

and focus. Hence, a arbitrary moment turned into a human scene of comradery and 

the intimacy of family.

The top photo was photoshopped because it was originally shot in 

'raw'. I tried to make the deer more red and prominent by blurring the

 foreground and brightening/saturating the deer, but now I think it looks

 like the deer are popping out too much. Either way, quaint pic.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Some More Waterfowls on the Skokie Lagoon

 While hiking along the Lagoon I spotted, on two separate occassions, waterfowl 
that had wandered away from the flock- in the top photo, two ducks followed 
another different colored duck along the water in a sort of regal procession, and in 
the bottom photo, a small lone waterfowl joined several mallards and was 
floating a little ways behind them when I took that picture.

These waterfowl really hate when I take photos of them. In both 

instances they flew away shortly after I began to follow them. Maybe 

I should try to keep a farther distance next time. The duck [Update: I found out 

that it's a female bufflehead] in the bottom photo was pretty tolerant of me taking

 photos, and I think the perspective I gave with the trees in the 

background is a bit haunting.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

More Waterfowl on the Skokie Lagoon

A bunch of waterfowl repeatedly took off, circumvented the Lagoon, and plopped
 back into a little bend in the Skokie Lagoon along Forest Way drive in Winnetka.
 They're really bizarre birds and I have absolutely no idea what to call them 
other than 'waterfowl', which is a word which describes ducks and geese. Bird 
watchers love them and photographically their white coats and crayon colored
 eyes compliment the dark brooding tones of the forest in winter.
[Update: they're called Common Goldeneyes]

These birds were very far away, and the only way I could have possibly

 gotten any detail of them was with my telephoto lens. In the top photo,

 the birds had started to float towards me, so I was able to get a few in

 front to make the birds have more presence in the photo.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Waterfowl on the Skokie Lagoons

 There was a huge group of these birds (presumably some sort of duck) on the

 Skokie Lagoons today, which is significantly more than are usually on the Lagoon.

 It might just be that they only stay around of winter and then migrate during the 

rest of the year. The design of their feathers and the color of their eyes are-- I think-- 
somewhat mesmerizing and a bit alien; like the cormorants which are
 around during the summer.

There were several bird-watchers who were admiring a flock of these 

birds and I feel sort of guilty because when I approached the birds to take 

a photo they flew away and the bird-watchers were forced to follow the 

flock to the other part of the Lagoon. At an rate, these two photos of the

 birds as they were flying away from me are pretty nice.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Golf Course at Sunset

 I haven't taken many nature photos as of late because of the cold weather, but 

it's starting to get warmer and I happened to have my camera with my during a

 really fantastic sunset and so I hopped on my bike and tried to get to the 

Lagoons before the sun receded over the horizon but I was too late so I 

settled on setting my tripod at the side of the golf course and photographing 

what dull embers were left of the sunset.

It was very muddy and I ruined my crocs and I originally tried to get

 photos of some deer which were grazing nearby but they were walking 

away while I was using a slower shutter speed so I didn't really intend to get 

either of these photos but they look nice.

Winnetka

Taken in February 2012

Ducks on the Chicago River

After I finished photographing things in Harms Woods back in November I 
walked over to a bridge on the Chicago River to see if there was any wildlife. 
It was already dusk and I wasn't really expecting anything, but there were a
 few ducks so I took a few pictures with my telephoto lens from the bridge, 
and then tried to get some closer photos by going up to the edge of the river.

Like always, the ducks kept on trying to get farther away from me and

 hid behind a densely forested part of the river so a bunch of branches ended up in the shot.

Skokie

Taken in November 2011

Insects on the Skokie Lagoons 2

One of the more interesting insects on the North Shore are fireflies, although they

 aren't very interesting in the daytime- which is when I took the above photo.

 The bottom photo is of a monarch butterfly, which are pretty majestic and ostentatious.

Both of these photos are heavily photoshopped, as were the ones in the

 previous post. Images saved as 'raw' files certainly work very smoothly with editing

 and the results are much cleaner than photoshopping 'jpgs'.

Winnetka

Taken in July 2011