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

Two Insects by the Skokie Lagoons

During the summer there are a lot of bugs by the Lagoon; mainly because 

it's a swampy climate. Two of the bugs that I photographed were milkweed

 bugs and bees. Milkweed bugs are fun to photograph because they're

 usually on milkweed plants, which have large leaves and flowers, but it's

 frustrating to get photos of bees because they refuse to stay still and may choose

 to attack the photographer.

When I originally took these photos I had set my camera to the 'Raw' setting,

 thinking that it meant high quality. When I uploaded the photos to my 

computer I discovered that my computer couldn't view 'Raw' images, and so

 I had about fifty photos that I wasn't able to look at. I researched 'Raw' and

 found out that it's a type of image format that's preferred for photoshopping

 because it retains more data than a 'jpg' does. So, I used photoshop to edit 

these photos and then convert them into 'jpg' so I could upload them to this blog. 

Winnetka

Taken in July 2011

Algae-Covered Waterway by the Skokie Lagoons

Over the summer I went to the dam on Willow Road a few times to

 take photos of plants and insects, and after crossing the dam one 

day I happened upon this little algae-covered waterway with a small

 path made by ducks running through it. 

I think it looks kind of peculiar.

Winnetka

Taken in July 2011

White Tailed Deer at Sunset

I spotted a few white tailed deer while looking for animals to photograph 

along Forest Way Drive next to the Skokie Lagoons. They were pretty 

suspicious of me but I stood still for a few minutes and they

 stopped paying attention and went back to grazing. After a while though 

they started getting suspicious again and looked as if they were about to charge, so I left.

It was almost dusk and I tried to utilize what remaining light there 

was, but the deer were in a densely wooded area and wouldn't tolerate me 

approaching them to get a better angle with the orange sky behind them. 

I tried using a flash and the resulting photo looks like something out of a 

National Geographic from the 90s (or at least I think it does).

 

Winnetka

Taken in January 2012

Bridge in Fort Sheridan

 In the beginning of November I biked to Fort Sheridan to photograph the nature

 preserve with my f/1.8 and got a lot of great shots of the prairie foliage.

 In the midst of the quaint scenic landscape is a small rusty bridge which 

stretches over a deep, ravine. 

I was a little hesitant to walk over it but it didn't collapse so I took a photo

 from the trail right in front of it and a little ways up the trail in the 

middle of a field, where you can see the forest to the left and 

the cliff/Lake on the horizon.

Fort Sheridan

Taken in November 2011

Winter Sunset on the Skokie Lagoons

A week ago I went to the Skokie Lagoon to photograph sunset, 

and tried to get some landscape shots of the trees next to the snow. 

The sunset gave the trees a red glow that contrasts the 

snow and gives the landscape a minimalist look to it.

Winnetka

Taken in January 2012

Lincoln Park Zoo in Winter

 About one year ago I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to take photos of the animals.

 I didn't have any fancy equipment and was still only shooting in "Auto" mode.

 While walking around the zoo I didn't really have a set goal in mind for

 what I wanted to get photos, so I just got photos of whatever I happened to pass

 that looked interesting. 

The top photo is of a pond in the middle of the zoo with a bunch 

of different kinds of ducks and a few swans, and the bottom photo is of some

 sort of buffalo from Asia. The buffalo was trying to stay out of the sun and 

hid in the shade of its little shelter.

Chicago

Taken in December 2010

Stream in Harms Woods 2

When I biked over to Harms Woods a couple weeks ago looking for

 new things to photograph and not finding anything I ended up taking a

 few more shots of that small stream which flows down into the Chicago River.

 This was before it snowed and dropped 50 degrees.

I used a wider lens and utilized the pre-sunset light to be able to use a 

smaller aperture, which made the landscape much more detailed, which is nice

 for a day scene as opposed to a sunset scene which looks nicer with the 

background completely blurred out or with bokehs of the sun floating above

 the horizon. I also tried getting a good angle of the stream going through the woods:

Glenview

Taken in January 2012

Two Swans on the Skokie Lagoon 2

Same swans as I posted yesterday. I recently watched a documentary from

 the 80s on National Geographic Photographers and I noticed one of the 

photographers was using a flash when photographing animals at night so I 

tried it out on the swan(s) as the sun began to fall behind the trees and the

 swans were slowly floating closer to the shore. I was surprised that they weren't

 annoyed by the flash at all, and I have to say that though I am not a fan of 

using flash it works very well with close-up night nature photography. It makes 

the animals/plants more detailed and tangible looking.

The top photo was one of the last photos I took of the swans, and the 

bottom photo is one of the first. The swans were paddling in an area of 

the Lagoon that wasn't exposed to the sunset yet, but I really like the 

bleak colors and the blur effect my telephoto gave the landscape. The juxtaposition 

between the looming crooked trees and the upright dignified swan is interesting.

Winnetka

Taken in January 2011

Two Swans on the Skokie Lagoon at Sunset

It was very bizarre to see swans on the Skokie Lagoon. While I was 

photographing the sunset yesterday these two swans were slowly paddling 

towards the other end of the Lagoon, and they reached the sheet of ice at 

about the same time as sunset. I walked towards them slowly so they eventually 

grew used to me and didn't  fly away, and even floated right up to me on the shore later on.

To get the orange to be as vibrant as it is in the photo, I used a low 

aperture to get the colors to be more saturated and a slow shutter speed to

 make the reflection of the sun brighter. I used my telephoto lens, so there

 isn't much detail in the ice behind the swans which makes it look like a sky/horizon. 

Here's a wider photo that better illustrates the setting of the previous photo:

Winnetka

Taken in January 2012

Flock of Waterfowl over the Skokie Lagoon

I've noticed that ducks are genuinely intolerant of humans. Usually they float away

 anytime I walk up to them- as opposed to geese, which stand their ground and

 hiss menacingly, or herons, which just find a higher place perch. Half of the ducks 

on the Lagoon today weren't your typical mallards and I can't seem to find out what they are.

I drove to the Skokie Lagoon earlier today at sunset and 

as I approached the Lagoon the ducks saw me and immediately flew away.

 I pointed my telephoto lens up into the flock and got a photo of them 

all flying together by using a panning technique and a low aperture/high shutter speed. 

 I also got a landscape shot of the Lagoon as they were circling it a few times:

Winnetka

Taken in January 2012

Crow Island Woods Autumn Colors

Crow Island Woods is really scenic. It's small, but it's fun for 

nature hikes and the plants are very picturesque.

I had just gotten my 50mm f/1.8 and I was looking for something to

 try it out on, and I guess the low aperture saturated the leaves and left 

enough shadow to give these photos a distinct artistic look.

Winnetka

Taken in October 2011

Fallen Trees in Harms Woods

 Forests around the Chicago River contain a lot of things that would normally be 

blocked out by dense lower canopy and are noticeable only in fall and winter. 

Among these are trees that have fallen over.  

I biked to Harms Woods and hiked through the mud to an area with a

 bunch of fallen trees. That's pretty much all there was. Some moss, fungi, a

 squirrel, and fallen trees. I hoped to find something interesting but overall everything
 was mundane. The tree in the bottom photo was pretty grotesque.

Glenview

Taken in January 2012

Over the summer I tried taking an alternative route home after biking to

 Mundelein and ended up in Hawthorn Woods, which is fields, a few farms, 

and several planned communities. 

This one field I passed by looked so expansive that I 

decided to photograph it.

Hawthorn Woods

Taken in July 2011

Artwork in Long Grove 2

After looking through my old photographs of the artwork in Long Grove

 I decided to spend a Saturday driving up there and seeing if there

 was anything new. It was all pretty much the same but I was able 

to get a few good pics of some abstract lawn ornaments and

 paintings, as well as some windmills/chimes. 

I used my f/1.8 with each of these.

Long Grove

Taken in November 2011 

Cardinals

 On New Years Eve I went on a trek through the forest by the Skokie Lagoons 

in search of birds that haven't migrated yet and happened upon some seagulls,

 mallards, and cardinals. Cardinals are the only ones that stay around all winter,

 and I was surprised to see the other birds but I guess the weather still isn't cold 

enough for them to leave.

The forest was very dense and it was nearly impossible to find an angle

 where branches weren't in the way, but my telephoto lens and a wide

 aperture were a big help and I was able to walk away with several quality

 shots. On the top is a male cardinal which I spent a half hour chasing

 through the woods by following its chirping, and the bottom photo is of a

 female cardinal who was kind enough to stop and pose while I found a good angle.

Glencoe

Taken in December 2011