After I moved from my point-and-shoot camera to my first DSLR, and got a really good lens for it, this was the first photo I ever flat-out loved. I have loved willow trees since childhood, when I’d read under one in its shade on warm Summer days. And here’s one at the nature preserve, on the edge of its pond, keeping its bright green color as the world around it falls into the muddy brown that Chicagoans think of as Fall. The sun is low enough already to give us that great light, and this is another example of the macro lens, designed for closeup photography, just working with the scene to give us some gorgeous color and light and shade. I take credit for the composition and the camera settings it took to capture this, and not much more.

October 30, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 640.

He sat there for a very long time. I saw him before I started taking pictures of him (I took just a few). His head was cradled in his left hand. Did his team lose big? Did no one else show up for the game? Is he only just realizing that he doesn’t have a basket, so he’s going to have to dribble that ball all the way home while riding?

We will never know.

October 16, 2021. IPhone 12 Pro Max cell phone, focal length 7.5mm (35mm: 190mm), f/2.2, 1/750, ISO 20.

Once again, forgive the reflections and crud on the bus window, because I wasn’t in any position to ask the bus driver to pull over so I could take this picture on the lakeshore.

But yes! It had been a stretch of steamy summer days and some afternoon storms had finally started to break the heat. I had scored a window seat on the bus (that’s much harder to arrange than one on a plane), and as we drove up DuSable Lake Shore Drive, I glanced out to the lake and realized the full bow was visible. Somehow, its southern end aligned perfectly with that two-mast tall ship in Lake Michigan. And here too, there’s one person to give us a little scale. I can’t lie: Those clouds still look really great, too. Here’s a photo that would make a great painting, but by itself it’s still a really good picture, and that’s why I love this photo.

August 16, 2024. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6.06mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.6, 1/850, ISO 50.

On one of my visits to Minneapolis, I took the relatively new Borealis train run by Amtrak. It was nice enough, and the second photo posted on this blog was taken from a moving train on that run, if you remember back that far. For the return trip, I got to the depot in St. Paul pretty early, and while this photo isn’t entirely lacking people, there are all of three in the first two rows, far enough away that you really have to zoom in to notice them.

I love that there’s still train service at all, and I love that the Twin Cities and Amtrak have done such a great job of restoring and maintaining this station. I still prefer flight, but the train trips itself were pretty good, and I thought Union Depot was just perfect.

October 14, 2024. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 2.62mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 14mm), f/2.2, 1/60, ISO 200.

Were the librarians stating the obvious, warning us preemptively, or making a request? I stared at this for a few moments before I laughed at the absurdity.

April 5, 2012. HTC G2 cell phone; exposure information not recorded.

Let’s return for a moment to our 2010 journey down the Calumet River under the auspices of the Forgotten Chicago cruise. For all of the industry that was either dead or quiet for the weekend, a very few sites were operating, including this chute very precisely loading the freighter. I was really impressed with how straight the sides of the coal stayed as the stream dropped into the freight ship. And for once, there’s an actual person in the photo, pleasantly unidentifiable, to give us a sense of scale. All of this stuff was just huge and massive, but it’s hard to convey without something identifiable like a person nearby.

August 29, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 70mm (105mm equivalent: 210mm), f/7.1, 1/4,000, ISO 640.

Not only is it a nice closeup of a brown hawker dragonfly (again, I invite the intelligentsia to explain the name), it’s got an unusual feature. For all the dragonflies I’ve photographed and all the ones I’ve seen but passed on, this is the only time I’ve ever come across one with an actual facial feature. Unfortunately, it isn’t big or symmetrical enough to look like a mustache. It’s more like a little smear of tasty, tasty mosquito.

July 9, 2023. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400mm, f/6.3, 1/750, ISO 400.

If you’ve been following these posts for a while, you know I love to defocus and get up close and personal with irises. The colors and swirls and curves can make for beautiful abstract photos. But every so often, there’d be one that would catch my eye and I’d think, I don’t need to get fancy; that’s just what I want in my photo, with a nice background, and here we have just that. Around here, at least, a lot of purple irises fade quickly if they ever seem vivid at all, but this one had perfect, strong color all around.

June 2, 2019. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 400mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm), f/8, 1/350, ISO 560.

Here are 20 glasses with all the nice reflections and patterns and composition. While it reminds me of a great night during a brief getaway trip, I’ve taken similar photos at a lot of bars, and while this I think this the nicest among them, it’s one of those moments we don’t really notice until we do. This isn’t much more than that. It’s a good composition, nicely lit.

January 18, 2020. IPhone XS Max cell phone, 4.25mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 48mm), f/1.7, 1/60, ISO 320.

In some of the dragonfly photos I’ve posted, I’ve mentioned that they are territorial and will claim a nebulous little bit of airspace and chase away all the other dragonflies that approach or pass through it.

Many birds are too, and not all of them are chased away so easily. This great blue heron wandered into a red-winged blackbird’s nesting area, which pissed off that red-winged blackbird a whole lot. He started squawking, then flapped his wings, then jumped up off his reed and squawked a bit, progressing from all the shades of Code Yellow to Code Orange to Code Red.

The heron did not care. It just stood there looking blankly around, which is pretty much the job description of a heron, and it is committed to that role.

Finally, the red-winged blackbird flew over to the heron. It flew behind and squawked. It flew in front and it squawked. And, finally, it just started attacking the heron with its claws.

The heron did not care. It just stood there looking blankly around etc. etc. etc.

I so wish that reed was not there. I was clicking away knowing the blackbird was coming from a different angle each time, not knowing where to stand to get the best angle. Nonetheless, and even with the blur of the speeding blackbird, it’s a recognizable photo of a red-winged blackbird attacking an utterly uncaring great blue heron under circumstances I couldn’t predict, and that’s why I love this photo.

I have captured similar photos with red-winged blackbirds and other birds that will show up here eventually. Tension between animals acting on instinct is a fun subject to work with.

May 4, 2019. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 340mm (35mm equivalent: 510mm), f/6.7, 1/350, ISO 280.

There aren’t a lot of ways to get a picture of the entirety of O’Hare Airport. You’re flying away from it or into it and even if the flight plan includes some sharp banking, it’s a substantial piece of land.

Its little cousin, Midway Airport, isn’t quite as busy as O’Hare, and the fact that it’s barely a mile to the side is a big reason for that. But it has a lot of commercial flights to a lot of destinations, and I’ve used it for my own vacations, as have friends who came to town to visit me. It tends to be a little more regional, for sure.

Returning to Chicago, my plane flew past Midway as it settled into its approach for its runway. It was a rare perfectly clear day, and as we flew past, I captured a few photos, knowing one would be the winner, and that is why I love this photo.

October 23, 2023. Samsung S24+ cell phone, 5.9mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 28mm), f/2, 1/300, ISO 25.

Back when my parents started bringing us kids to neighborhood carnivals, funhouses were one of my favorite attractions at them, and if those had either funhouse mirrors or halls of mirrors, I was the happiest guy on earth. I think it was the first seed put into my mind that light and form were things people could play with.

Here’s another shot of the famous Chicago landmark the Bean, actually titled Cloud Gate. The outside of the sculpture is a nice, pleasant experience that plays a little with your mind. Maybe you’re closer than you think; maybe you’re farther away. The skyline looks great from most angles, especially if there’s a blue sky.

But get underneath it and you get the full funhouse mirror effect. It’s interesting to watch people. The appeal of the Bean is finding yourself, and it’s really hard to do that underneath. I think I know which of these reflections is me.

But I think it’s the most rewarding view the Bean can give people, and because it plays with both light and people’s minds so much, it’s both a concept and a photo I love.

September 4, 2016. Google Nexus 6P cell phone, focal length 4.67 (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/2, 1/20, ISO 400.

If they were people, it would be obvious, but it still works. The gander behind the fence looks like he’s behind bars for some reason, can’t even face his visiting buddy, who has a stoic expression as he considers the situation. As soon as I saw the two of them on opposite sides of the fence, the one in back facing away, I had that story in mind.

May 22, 2011. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 140mm (35mm equivalent: 210mm), f/20, 1/50, ISO 400.

Here’s a nice, moody shot from a bar I used to live near. The bar itself wasn’t the least bit dark or moody most of the time — it was a barbecue joint and they liked it loud and active. But sometimes you’d go in and it would be mellower. I guess that’s why it isn’t around anymore. I like taking photos in and around bars, and this is one of my favorites.

I don’t have any of the exposure information for this, and the best I can do on the date is early 2018.

The boat trips along the industrial Calumet River went past a lot of things that, to return to a phrase I use a lot, If You Knew, You Knew. This is one of them. And I do not know. I have a vague idea, which is that it either loads or unloads… something. I guess you can’t load without also unloading, so there’s that. Just the fact that there are… four? cabins says this isn’t easy to use. Along with its whole design. The far end, at the lower left here, has a pretty narrow hopper, so that must be used to fill trucks, or railroad cars. And the big end way up there must somehow be able to reach down to stuff that’s on the freight boats coming along the river.

I have no idea.

August 29, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 70mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm), f/10, 1/1,250, ISO 640.