Today we’re back to the neon sign museum hidden behind locked doors that I got access to as part of a promotional event by Nikon. I took a couple of photos of this Piggly Wiggly sign from far enough away that you could see the sign reasonably normally, but once I realized there was a reflective surface behind it, I liked the idea of getting both the sign and its reflection at a sharp angle. It worked nicely, I think, and I like the glow from the blue tube above the sign as well.

May 22, 2025. Nikon Z5 II (FX sensor), Nikon Z 24–50mm f/4-6.3 at 50mm, f/11, 1/100, ISO 640.

I published a cropped version of this photo a couple of months ago that zoomed in on the expressions of the turtle and the momma mallard, as they silently negotiated their interest in sharing a fallen branch in a pond on a sunny day. Here’s the full story; mom was very intent on making sure her brood had all the space it needed to enjoy the afternoon. Her “go no further” expression worked.

June 15, 2024. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400mm, f/6.3, 1/350, ISO 100.

in the heat of Summer, the freshly grown needles on a fir tree are so thick and fragrant I can remember that scent 16 years later.

July 25, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/16, 1/125, ISO 640.

I’ve mentioned pareidolia, the tendency for people to see faces or familiar objects on random things, here before, and I love this example, as a hungry robin leans in to examine a berry that it’s already taken a nip from. It’s shaped like a head and has an ear, an eye, a nose, and a screaming mouth. What more do you need to evoke terror as you realize something descended from dinosaurs is about to eat you?

November 23, 2019. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 400mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm), f/6.3, 1/1,000, ISO 400.

Chicago is renowned for its architecture. I think this may not be a reason why, but I also think it’s the kind of touch that makes you want to look at buildings even in off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods.

June 14, 2008. Canon PowerShot SD850 IS, focal length 23.3mm (35mm equivalent: 140mm), f/5.5, 1/200, ISO 80.

A cup of water, a towel, two guitars, and an amplifier shining in the stage lights: The show’s over, folks. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. There’s nothing like a night of good live music, and that’s why I love this photo.

June 8, 2008. Canon PowerShot SD850 IS, focal length 14.3mm (35mm equivalent: 86mm), f/4, 1/60, ISO 200.

Here’s another photo taken with my Nikon F5 on Amber film with my close-up lens. I really, really like the sharpness of that top bud on the onion and the way the focus slowly fades. The hornet looks a little odd, but different film emulsions are tuned to give the user various results, and since this was one of the first rolls of film I shot, I may have been unaware of that. It’s still the kind of shot that makes me happy, from the flower on the left to the negative space on the right.

July 20, 2024. Nikon F5, Amber D100, 105mm Nikon macro lens, ISO 200, other exposure information unrecorded.

Most of my trips the past few years have been from Chicago to either Austin or Minneapolis, but in the Fall of 2025 I visited friends in Boston for a few days. I scheduled an afternoon flight — my love of window seats has been well-documented on this site — and it turned out that my flight took off in the middle of the afternoon and landed well into the evening a time zone east. I had about six hours of different types of daylight in three, including a gorgeous sunset at 33,000 feet. I sure love window seats. I think flight attendants have gotten to the point where they quickly spot me as That Guy Who’s Tuned Out While He Stares.

September 18, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.6, 1/33, ISO 640.

The entire Chicago area gets its water from Lake Michigan, of course, from cribs like this a couple of miles out into the lake. What I learned only recently was that while there are seven cribs like this, this and four others aren’t in operation, so all the millions of gallons of water we consume in this city come from just two holes in the lake’s bed. That feels optimistic, but I’m not the one who makes these decisions.

Fun fact: I’m allergic to seafood, of all kinds, and when I moved here from Boston in ’97, I couldn’t drink the water, because there are colonies of mussels and other filter feeders all around these cribs grabbing whatever chow they can before the water enters Chicago’s pipes. It took nearly a year of slowly acclimating before I could reliably and confidently drink tap water.

July 15, 2012. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/16, 1/500, ISO 500.

The most exuberant people on Earth are soccer announcers anytime a team scores a goal, and the pose of this red-winged blackbird as it landed reminded me so much of the similar pose soccer players use when they score.

May 8, 2011. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 400.

Dragonflies? Birds? Frogs? We’ll never know. But this swallowtail butterfly has three significant chunks of wings missing, and a story for each, probably.

July 7, 2018. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/5.6, 1/1,000, ISO 400.

Here’s a nice look at a bee on a purple coneflower foraging for all the pollen she can carry. I’m really happy with both the sharpness and the nice vivid colors.

July 29, 2023. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400mm, f/13, 1/1,000, ISO 400.

You may remember some months ago I published a photo of two bullfrogs fighting over territory and promised another photo or two. Here’s the moment just before their body slams, as they stared each other down. Eyeball to eyeball, as they were. The water was already just starting to churn as they stared at each other. It was quite a moment. You see photos and videos of magnificent elk and buffalo and moose in rut slamming gearing up to start slamming into each other, but the whole bullfrog body slam is not so well-known.

June 18, 2016. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 220mm (35mm equivalent: 330mm), f/16, 1/250, ISO 1,600.

Don’t you hate when you get something you think is going to be the perfect meal and you have a few bites and realize that no, that other thing you were looking at might have been the way to go?

February 16, 2019. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 400mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm), f/9.5, 1/500, ISO 400.

I’ve confessed a few times to my love of both high contrast and abstract shapes. Here, a high-rise office building photographed after dark shows off a few dots, curves, and lines, along with one single rectangle.

August 15, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 13.3mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 140mm), f/2.6, 1/60, ISO 400.