Breach

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It was the first hot day of the year, right in mid-April. I was at my favorite nature preserve, and a great blue heron was preening — I imagine discarding old feathers not only for new growth but also appreciating the extra ventilation — and sticking close to the pond’s edge. Here and there, he’d splash around a bit. Those got me some fun photos, but the keeper was when he happened to emerge from the water perfectly aligned with my view, drops of water flying every which way. During one of his quieter moments, I’d set my exposure settings to a faster shutter speed, and that is why this one, the moment after he breaks the surface to cool off on such a warm day, is a photo I love.

April 15, 2023. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400 mm, f/8, 1/750, ISO 800.

Noodling

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As you face the stage in Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas, this is the right side of the stage. Before the music started, the guitarist in the opening band sat down at the steps and played for a few minutes for no one but himself.

I love the color — somehow the blues and purples feel more warm than the cool end of the spectrum they’re usually assigned to. It feels to me like it evokes a different time, maybe because Gruene Hall is coming up on its 150th anniversary; that stage probably isn’t that old, but maybe it didn’t look that different back in the day. And mostly I love a musician sitting down and playing for himself for a little while, losing himself in the moment.

This was the cover to my 2019 calendar.

February 10, 2018. Samsung Galaxy S8+ cell phone, 4.25mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/1.7, 1/60, ISO 800.

Red Barn in Red Wing

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Here’s a bucolic little scene, a nice, traditional farm with a windmill and a red barn outside the Minnesota community of Red Wing. Clouds are breaking up, a number of train tracks cross the scene to give your eye more to look at, and it just feels like a bit of the country we think might have vanished, but there it is in front of us.

I also like it because I took it from my seat on an Amtrak train going 60 mph with my cell phone. There are going to be a lot of cell phone shots on this site, and someone interested in photography might be interested in seeing how the technology has improved over the years.

This was the cover photo to my 2025 calendar.

October 14, 2024. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6.06mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.35, 1/640, ISO 100.

The Nature Lesson

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It’s early spring in 2018 and I’m at a nature preserve on Chicago’s northwest side. Color is just starting to come back to the world, and there are signs of life: blossoms just pushing out of their buds, goslings clinging near mom and dad as they learn the lay of the land. I take a few photos of those and this and that; then I see, over at the far edge of the pond (just a couple of hundred feet away), a mother and her daughter crouched low to the ground taking a close look at something in the water. You can’t tell in this smaller version, but if you could see this full-sized, the girl is reaching into the water, moving something with a stick.

And that’s the story this tells. Whether mom is showing her daughter something or the daughter is sharing her discovery, the world is fresh and coming back to life, and these two people, who look all but tiny in this setting, have found something in the pond to share, among all the trees and reeds and grasses towering above them that sustain the preserve.

May 5, 2018. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Nikon 70–300mm at 70mm (35mm equivalent: 105mm), f/16, 1/60, ISO 100.

Oh! Hi!

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I’m Bob. I used to have a portfolio site for my photography, but the host was bought by some Russians. And I thought it would be more interesting to do a blog.

So yes, it’s another photo-a-day blog with a bit of a story for each. I think there’s a nice mix of photos. Some of them are attempts at Art; others are just snapshots of a moment.

(When I say “Each morning, I’ll post,” yes, I’m writing this in mid-April and I’ve already scheduled the first few dozen, and I hope to have the better part of 2025 scheduled by the time you see this.)

The last line of each post will include the date I took the photo and, in case you like cameras and want all the camera settings, I include those where they’re available. (Some have lost that information.) If you’re familiar with why photographers choose an aperture or shutter speed or ISO setting, it’s there for you. Other than that, there are no ads, no notifications, no emails — really just one photo a day and the shortest story I can tell about it.

I haven’t ruled out posts on other topics but I’m not thinking about them right now.

There are no comments. The point is to have a photo and a bit of the story behind it. It’s a low-maintenance site where I can not deal with what I hate about Facebook and other sites.

Very briefly: I’m between my mid-to-late sixties; I spent my first 39+ years around Boston, have lived in Chicago since late ’97, and have used cameras since grade school thanks to my father, whose photography in the ’50s and ’60s was exhibited around the country and in Europe. I have a number of cameras, from basic to professional Nikons, point-and-shoot models, thermal cameras, panoramic film cameras, and so on. I have also worked with glass in blown, fused, and neon tube forms. I love and study light and color, whether reflective, refractive, or transmissive.

The first photo is on its way. Have fun and come back as often as you like.