Skokie Lagoons at Night

I predicted that I would spend most of the summer strolling around

 the Lagoons and photographing plants, animals, and landscapes that 

hadn't been out during the school year; but the sweltering one 

hundred degree weather attracted swarms of gnats and mosquitos,

 as well as crowds of fishermen from the city. Additionally, 

having explored the Lagoons for the past year, the same scenery 

is sort of boring to walk by. Still, to combat boredom, I've tried 

to be more creative with the little photography that I've done this past month.

The other night I noticed that long exposures of a field can lead

 to fireflies showing up in the photo. A clutter of trees by the

 Lagoons was (literally) sparkling with fireflies, and the bottom

 photo--although the computer darkened the colors for some reason--

is an attempt to capture that.

Winnetka

Taken in June 2012

Swaying Canopy in Elm Park

Somehow I got an idea that a photo of leaves swaying in the 

wind at night would look interesting and artistic, so I brought my 

camera to a nearby park and positioned it to look up directly at the 

canopy and set the shutter speed to 4 seconds and the aperture to f/1.8.

To capture the movement of the leaves, I used a tripod; which is 

something which I've found to be particularly useless. Other than

 nighttime landscapes or time-lapse, there is no situation--at least that 

I've been in-- where a tripod hasn't proved to be anything more than 

a cumbersome burden. Still, the movements of leaves in the wind or 

water can look fantastic if taken with a tripod.

Winnetka

Taken in June 2012

Birds in Middlefork Savannah

The great thing about prairies is the variety of birds they attract. 

At Middlefork Savannah in Lake Bluff, I was able to get

 pictures of, among other birds, cedar waxwings and white 

egrets; both of which usually can't be found near Winnetka. 

Lake Bluff is a two hour bike ride from Winnetka, and with the

 temperature at 80+ degrees and the amount of effort it takes

 to track down interesting birds, bird photography has

 become progressively more difficult and tiresome. With 

summer birds being smaller and quicker than the birds which 

were around for the winter, it's almost impossible to get 

a close-up with just a 300m lens. 

Lake Bluff

Taken in June 2012

Middlefork Savannah

The Skokie Valley Bike Trail ends in Lake Bluff and leads 

into a large prairie forest preserve called Middlefork Savannah. It's 

a great place to visit during the summer, and is probably the largest

 and best example of Illinois prairie in Cook County. There's a path 

that leads through the tall grass and is surrounded by all sorts of

 wildlife and fauna.

During the winter I biked to Middlefork Savannah and I

 remember not finding anything worth photographing, and when I

 biked there again a few weeks ago there were all these birds and 

wildflowers and fields that hadn't been there before which was 

somewhat overwhelming and I couldn't really decide what to 

pursue. A stream passing through the prairie and a red-winged blackbird 

flying through the grass were among the things I ended up photographing.

Lake Bluff

Taken in June 2012

Fallen Tree by the Skokie Lagoons

Fallen trees make for interesting pictures. Either they can look 

zoomorphic or like some sort of ancient archeological find. On the

 Skokie Lagoons is a little enclave of forest with a few broken

 trees lying on the ground.

Short depths of field actually make nature scenes look really neat. 

I'd like to make a series of photos of nature taken with large apertures.

Winnetka

Taken in June 2012

Yellow-Rumped Warbler at Elm Park

Among other summer birds are warblers, which can usually

 be found in wooded areas or near the suburbs. They don't have 

anything particularly unique about them, but their colorful

 feathers make for nice pictures. 

Ever since I bought a telephoto lens, my backyard seems more and 

more like a zoo. Elm Street Park, a small patch of trees and grass

 by my house, is full of all sorts of birds and mammals that you 

usually wouldn't see without a far-zooming lens.

Winnetka

Taken in May 2012

Canopy by the North Branch

While walking through the woods by the North Branch the 

other week, the canopy looked tranquil and each towering tree stood

in an orderly fashion next to the other. It was much more picturesque 

and less disorganized then the forest by the bike trail. Despite the

 mud and the bugs, it was a very pleasant view.

Black and white photography looks nice when the scene has a 

wide range of tones, and being in a forest on a sunny day can produce

 dramatic lighting because of the limited amount of light let in 

by the leaves. Unfortunately, due to modern day stigmas with

 b&w photography, it can often look sort of pretentious.

Glenview

Taken in May 2012

White Tailed Deer by the Skokie Lagoons

 With very little to do with my abundant amount of free time this

 summer, I've sporadically gone on long bike rides or devoted some

 time to wandering through the Lagoons. While biking along the trail,

 the green expanse that covered the ground and trees made an 

interesting atmospheric effect when it reflected the sunset, so 

later I came back with my camera.

After wandering around for a short while and being eaten alive by 

swarms of mosquitos, I noticed a deer watching me in the distance. 

As I inevitably wandered closer to it down the shore, the deer acted 

very peculiarly and actually started to approach me with curiosity. 

After discarding a theory that the deer had somehow gained human

 emotions and was trying to see if I was friendly, I looked around 

see if there were any of its offspring nearby, and in fact there was. 

Before speedily exiting the woods, I got a couple of nice shots of the 

nosy deer.

Winnetka

Taken in June 2012

Cedar Waxwing

While biking along the Skokie Valley Trail, which goes through

 Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff, I spotted a bird that I

 hadn't seen before- a cedar waxwing. There were a lot of waxwings 

on the trail, and because of their feathers they look pretty neat: 

they're shaped similar to cardinals but instead being red their 

feathers are yellow and sand-colored. 

Ever since I bought a pocket guide of birds in the Chicagoland 

area, I've begun to notice more different species of birds on bike

 trails. It's sort of like learning a new language, except it's not really 

that useful. Still, it's nice when I happen on a bird that I've never

 seen before and know its name.

Lake Forest

Taken in June 2012

Robin on the Skokie Lagoons

Probably the most common bird on the North Shore is the robin.

 Since they're everywhere, it's difficult to take a interesting picture of 

them. This one was at the top of a hill surrounded by dandelions, so

 the angle and the unique scenery elevated the photo from being just of a robin.

The low perspective/narrow depth of field sort of warps the reality 

of a photo and gives the viewer a different way of looking at a scene. 

Here, we're at the same level as the robin and the towering dandelions 

are the only things (next to the robin) that aren't out of focus. Isolating

 this as a separate reality in a sense is what I try to do with nature photography.

Winnetka

Taken in April 2012

Wildflowers in Watersmeet Woods

I drove to the bike trail in Watersmeet Woods while it was raining

 and took pictures all the different sorts of wildflowers I could find. 

Since Watersmeet Woods is more densely forested than other woods 

around the Winnetka/Northfield area, there was more variety

 to the types of wildflowers.

To be able to focus closer-up to the flowers and have the raindrops

 in focus, I used macro extensions on the lens I was using. I'm surprised

 that many photographers don't use macro extensions.They're really nifty.

Northfield

Taken in May 2012