“Beautiful you are.”
My neighborhood has a lot of features I really like, from prairie yards to dollhouses for kids to play with, and there are a few homes with baskets of chalk outside. Kids draw hopscotch grids and adults write self-help books, and as someone who was an editor for most of his 45-year career, I’m here to say that kids never need an editor.
August 10, 2022. Samsung S24+ cell phone, 5.4mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/1.8, 1/60, ISO 160.
Part of the joy of flight for me is seeing light in so many new and different ways, and this scene — as some gaps in a mostly overcast sky let light through and the slight haze nearby showed off all its different intensities — is a perfect example. The people on the ground, likely very far away, probably had no idea that so very far above them, those weak sunbeams were so beautiful.
January 27, 2023. Samsung S24+ cell phone, 5.9mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 28mm), f/2, 1/330, ISO 25.
A waxing gibbous moon and an amber streetlight have a close encounter one night on a cold late Winter night. One of my favorite bits in this photo is the glow of the ventilation holes in the top of the streetlight.
March 11, 2019. Samsung S10+ cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 52mm), f/2.4, 1/30, ISO 64.
This photo will come around again to show the entire scene, but in this version, both the turtle and the wood duck seem nonplussed at the idea of sharing their sunning spot. Their questioning reciprocal stares seem very human to me.
June 15, 2024. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400mm, f/6.3, 1/350, ISO 100.
While waiting for a band to hit the stage, I noticed how nicely a candle was backlighting my glass of beer to create a nice ambience photo. Between the white candle, the amber beer, the clear glass, and the condensation, there’s a lot going on in a small space to create that warm glow.
September 14, 2016. Google Nexus 6P cell phone, focal length 2 (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/2, 1/60, ISO 160.
Although I mostly photograph dragonflies, I really like damselflies too. But they don’t seem to have the personalities that dragonflies have. Their eyes are more googly, and they’re smaller and more delicate, but I don’t see them chasing each other or just chilling out as often. But one summer afternoon, one paused for a few minutes in decent light, and I managed to get a decent picture of it.
August 22, 2015. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/5.6, 1/750, ISO 560.
It may be the least effective barrier ever placed in a specific spot on this Earth ever, but it was placed there, and you should not… park there? Cross it? Protest? Approach construction workers?
August 6, 2016. Google Nexus 6P cell phone, focal length 4.67 (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/2, 1/1,800, ISO 60.
The closeup, or macro, lenses from Nikon are capable of a lot more than closeups, and they really excel at landscapes where there’s just one item you want to highlight. These purple asters are already quite pretty, but they’re really set off nicely from that colorful background thanks to the quality of the lens and the aperture’s wide setting. It’s a nice composition and a colorful image.
October 10, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/2.8, 1/2,500, ISO 640.
A crusty, gritty manhole cover uses holes to give a little leverage to the poor workers who have to lift it from its base. I loved the wear and tear, the color, the textures, the shapes. It had not yet snowed that season, so that road salt had been there for some time through wind and rainstorms.
October 14, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 13.3mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 70mm), f/2.6, 1/375, ISO 50.
In a beautiful old building in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, a century-old phone awaits callers trying to connect with the past.
November 6, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.6, 1/40, ISO 2,000.
I love how symmetrical the markings on this turtle’s face are, and how complex they look. Those stripes on its eyes are pretty badass, too. But it still manages to look pretty friendly as it checks out the crowd that had gathered to watch it. It didn’t do much, and it did it very slowly. But it looked pretty cool.
May 19, 2012. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/19, 1/125, ISO 400.
Once again from a trip down Calumet River, here’s another look at the mountains of road deicer stored along the riverbank, zoomed in quite a bit this time to give us an abstract in shades of blue and white. It feels a bit to me like a modernist painting, and it was one of the rare moments on the tour during which we saw colors that weren’t somewhere between gritty and rusty.
July 15, 2012. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/16, 1/350, ISO 200.
This photo makes me so happy. I thought I captured the moth approaching the milkweed plant as it paused while the wasp finished its business. But I wasn’t sure until I got home and went through the photos, and felt the joy of being in the right place at the right time and knowing how to take this picture on the fly. That’s why I love this photo.
July 28, 2012. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/8, 1/1,500, ISO 400.
Here’s another curiously named bird. I didn’t hear a note from this yellow warbler. We looked at each other for a moment and then it flew away. At least it’s cute.
June 2, 2019. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 400mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm), f/8, 1/1,000, ISO 560.
A frozen Lake Michigan is not a welcoming sight for returning travelers. But with both the lake and the clouds receding to the horizon and giving us interesting patterns to play with as we approach the lake shore en route to O’Hare, we get to enjoy the unusual sight of waves that don’t go anywhere.
January 20, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.35, 1/400, ISO 50.