2 For the Show

No post yesterday and probably no post on Wednesday due to my daughter and I are heading out towards Galena Illinois for a little photo trip and there might not be a connection wherever we end up. So tonight, we'll go with two from the last couple of days.  The first is another from my discovery of a new heron rookery and the second is of a grove of trees that I've driven by for years, but never really noticed.  A few days ago I noticed it and today my work travels took me toward it so I investigated and got this shot.

This Gift I Bring You

I'm not sure if this was parent to child or husband to wife or brother to sister or what, but I do know I found a new nesting area for herons in the area.  I shot off a ton of shots trying to pick my spots through the thicket I was standing in.  Of course, when I decided I had enough and started driving away, I saw where I could have gotten closer and unobstructed views.  Oh well, lesson learned.  There must have been about 20-30 herons up in the trees and one or two at a time taking off bringing back branches for their nests or I suppose food for their young.  They look like 747's taking off and landing. There were alot of yearlings in the nests and once in awhile they would go at it like my son and daughter do on occasion.  I wonder if their parents have to step in at times, too.

Mirror Mirror

No chance for shooting today(why is it I seem to be able to shoot more on workdays?), too busy doing "springtime" stuff around the house.  Here is a shot from the other day.  Driving along the Fox River at high noon on a bright sunny day where everything within 50 yards was being reflected off the water.

Go deep

Even though I know where this road leads to(it's someone's driveway), you get the feeling its taking you deep,deep into the woods.  I think how nice it would be to come home from work each night and drive this path to your home tucked away, out of sight.  On a side note, my daughter and I are taking an overnighter to the Galena, Illinois area this next week to do some shooting while she's on spring break.  If anyone knows of some picturesque places, feel free to leave me a comment.  It's appreciated.

Fore!!

It sure didn't feel like it today, but since it is close to golf season, here's one from a course I drove past today.  Cloudy skies all day until I came across this.

Walk this way

Normally, once spring comes, the kids and I go for a walk either before or after dinner.  Its usually to the park, but, sometimes I win and we venture over to a walking path alongside a creek that's a couple blocks from my house.  Tonight, my boy and me did the first walk of the season.  He got his excitement from seeing 3 deer that didn't know which way to run once we walked up on them.  They were running circles around us trying to find the best way around us.  Tough task considering you have house about 75 yards to one side of the walkway and you have a creek and houses 75 yards to the other side.  But, all deer survived and got away unharmed.  My excitement came at the 1/2 way point when we reach the end of the trail and you can get a good view of the creek running through the woods.  The clouds above diffused the light enough to really let the colors of the brush and trees take on a golden color and the clarity of the water let you see its sandy bottom.  Usually, I don't know if I got a good shot or not until I load my pics into the computer and go through them one by one. This time, I was pretty sure I got a good one immediately after clicking the shutter.  What do you think?

No barrel necessary to get over this one

Nice to see the waters in the area flowing freely once again.  Here's a shot to check out and then I'm on to the big news.

Alright, drumroll please!!!! Many of you have asked me to make some pics available to whoever would like them.  I finally have a small store open on the site Imagekind.  The site was recommended to me by several other photographers.  I checked it out and really liked the community and browsing other people's stores.
It's not just about photographers.  The site contains many items from artists and other creative fields.  What I liked best about it is you can choose what size picture you would like to purchase and the paper you want it printed on.  You can even choose a mat and frame from them if you like. My site address is:
http://www.imagekind.com/evilbearphotography_poster
You can get there by clicking on the link above, or click on the banner on the right side of this page, or click  here and do a search for evilbearphotography.  The selection is limited at this time, but I am going through the archives to find other worthy shots.  If a shot from the past is not there and you would like to see it there, let me know and I will try to accommodate you.  Also, let me know what you think.  No matter what, though, thanks for looking.

New and Improved

Just like our nation's health care reform plan.  Just kidding about the health care reform plan.  That's a subject for another blog.  But, Evilbear Photography is, I think, new and improved.  Just some tweaking of layout and colors.  Nothing major.  I've had a few comments that the color scheme made it hard to read on some computers.  So, in the interest of accepting constructive criticism, I made some adjustments.  Let me know if you like the changes.
Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to,once again, shoot some winter weather shots due to the dumping of snow we had on the first day of spring.  I resisted.  I thought about it.  I resisted.  Instead I got this shot of a beautiful sunset sky.

Epic Edits

I've been under the weather off and on for the last week or so, so my shooting schedule has been light.  But, a fire got lit under me when I learned I was one of the featured bloggers on a site called Epic Edits run by a guy I respect and listen to regularly on photography podcasts.  He wrote an article  about how to start up a blog and put the call out to people who are fairly new to blogging.  I wrote back and said I liked his article and of course included a link to my blog.  He did a followup post listing some of the blogs he got and included these nice words,

"My feed reader is almost filled to the brim, but I found several of these blogs worth adding to my list of follows. So, really… check ‘em out and welcome them to the community."

His website is:  
http://blog.epicedits.com/2010/03/18/say-hi-to-the-new-photography-blogs/  and this is where he posted the kind words if you want to check it out.  He's got great photo tips and articles for anyone interested in learning.

On top of that, I got some nice shots of my favorite bird today, the Great Blue Heron.  I drive past their nesting area on an almost daily basis, but I never really stop to see if they are actually up there in there nests.  Yep, they are there, alright.  Got some shots of some "yearlings" and probably saw 20-25 herons in total.

No wide angle tonight

If you were waiting for a great wide angle shot tonight, you'll be disappointed.  No time today for photography and, besides, I'm not going to turn this blog into "Look at all of Mark's shots with his new lens".  Instead I'll keep it as "Look at all of Mark's great shots with all his camera gear."  That will make for a better blog, won't it?
I did get a shot, though, this last weekend that would have turned out really nice with a wide angle lens.  Unfortunately, I did not have it yet.  I was excited when I came across this piece of land since the winding river within a small patch of land was interesting.  Once I looked at it in my computer, though, it lost some of its luster.  The shot had no real pop to highlight the river or the willows around it.  Pretty dull.  Well, my theory is that with post processing software, there is no reason for any picture to not pop, only poor composition.  I could have adjusted some of the tones to give a little zip to it.  But, instead I decided to really go for the gusto.  Let's jack those colors up to 10.  I know its not everyone cup of tea, but I like it.

Hooray for Amazon

Even though they are not a sponsor of my site (Actually, I have no sponsors), I must put a plug in for the online shopping site, Amazon.  They are incredible.  I ordered my new Sigma 10-20mm Super WideAngle lens on Sunday around 6 PM.  It arrived at my house sometime before 5 PM on Tuesday with no extra special shipping requests.  On top of that, they said it should arrive sometime on Wednesday (which I thought was pretty fast), so it came a day early.  Alright, let's go a step further and add that shipping was free.  That's right, F-R-E-E.  They are truly a great shopping experience
Anyway, I got home tonight and saw it had arrived.  I opened the box and yelled at the wife that I'd be back home in a little while.  Oh yeah, I'm sure I told her I love her, too.  I ran out the door with my son and headed over to the beach.  I didn't know what I was going to shoot, I just knew I had to check it out.  So, we got there and I fired off a ton of shots.  First thing I learned is I've got alot to learn about shooting with this lens.  It has such an extremely wide angle of view that you've really got to be careful of what you capture in the shot.  I normally pride myself on my composition and I really work on that.  Tonight, I had issues trying to compose like normal.  I'm sure it will come with alot of shooting and time, but, I had to post at least one shot of tonight's shoot.  Not one of my best, but........................
I can tell already I'm really going to like this new addition.  Now, what lens should be focused on next?  I'll come up with one.

Shame on me

Yes, shame on me.  Tonight's post will be from the vault.  Between the rainy weather and numerous things to get done, I have not had much of a chance to do any shooting the last couple of days.  But, ohhhhh, that is gonna change sometime this week.  Today I ordered my new super wideangle lens that I have been lusting over for about 6 months.  I've been saving my pennies diligently for this one not to mention doing any odd job that will pay me a buck to get this lens.  Should be here Wednesday and, of course, I will have to go do alot of shooting to learn how to use it.  So, for now, here's a shot from my Michigan trip this last fall that I have not posted yet. It's one of my favorites.

One last taste of snow....hopefully

We have finally lost, for the most part, our snow for this winter.  And with today, the changing of the clocks, we must be home free, right?  We'll see.  I decided to give one last shoutout to winter and post one from my day by the river last weekend.  Hopefully, no more pics with snow in them.

Fly-In

I don't usually shoot much of birds in flight.  Very difficult without the right equipment.  But, the opportunity arose in this situation so I lined up and fired some shots.  They were headed up right at me. Yeah, I was scared, but I composed myself long enough to get this shot.

Cloud City

I'm torn.  No, really.  I am really,really torn with the Chicagoland weather over the last few days.  I need sunshine.  No, really.  I NEED sunshine.  But, at the same time the weather around here has created some conditions that are a photographers dream.  At least this one's dream.  Warmer weather is moving in as it should.  This is also creating quite cloudy skies.  With the warmth, the clouds, and cold ground cover, a foggy atmoshpere has been the norm. A lot of photographers have mountains to photograph when the fog rolls in.  I get jealous quite often of people who live in those areas or can travel to them.  No mountains here.  We do have a city of tall buildings, though. And a lake.  And it all can look just as magnificent in cloud cover as the mountains.

Pillars of Light

I"m not a big "architectural photographer".  But, there is architecture within nature, I guess.  My Saturday morning was spent down by the river and, of course, you come across bridges.  This pic was grabbed while walking the shoreline under a bridge.  It had huge pillars holding up the roadway which allowed light beams  to filter through.

Smoke on the Water

Well, like I said, Saturday morning's shooting session was a good one.  So I'm still sharing some from that time.  Here's one that emphasizes the foggy sunrise that I saw.  I especially like how some of the trees at frost on the tops which was probably mist from the water flowing over the damn.

More from my morning on the river

After going thru all my shots from Saturday morning, I realized I had a pretty productive couple of hours of shooting.  Usually, I look for about 2-3 keepers, but I got several more than that on this excursion.  Here's a shot of some kind of shack along the river's edge.

For all you sleepyheads

So, did everyone see the beautiful sunrise this morning?  Yeah, a little chilly, but beautiful none the less. I found myself awake before the sun came up and after a sip of coffee I grabbed the camera and headed out.  Its been awhile since I did any sunrise photography so I wasn't sure where to head out to in order to get the best shots.  I ended up down by the Fox River near the closest dam.  I think I made a good decision since the sun was just rising and there was a nice mist rising from the downfall of water.

Peace

There have been whole books written on ice fishing and what it's all about.  I think this pic kind of captured the whole deal.  At least this is what its about for some people.  Alone time.  Catching some sun.  Solitude.  Focus.  Kind of looks like he's thinking about everything besides what is down in the hole.

Duotone

A duotone is a shot that is reduced down to just a couple colors for creative effect.  Usually one of those colors is black, but I changed this one up some.  This is one from the vault since the duotones  I saw today included only white snow and black mud from the spring melt that is upon us.

Time to relearn

Most people shoot in automatic mode in their cameras.  With mine, since the capability is there, I shoot in what's called manual mode.  This allows me to be more creative and adjust the settings to what I see or what I want to capture.  Therefore, when conditions around you change, you must adjust settings in your camera to get the best possible image.  Well, its evidently been awhile since I shot with full blown sun out.  Today, I spent some time shooting, but with bright blue skies and no clouds, I must have forgotten how to photograph it.  None of my shots today would be what I consider "keepers".  Time to do a little review of how to shoot in sunny, cloudless weather.  I'm sure it will come back to me quickly.  Until then, here's a waterfall shot from trip to Michigan that I haven't posted before.

Here comes the sun

I don't profess to speak "Geese".  But, I know what they are thinking.  The same thing as me.  "Keep looking for it.  Yeah, keep looking.  It's coming. It is coming.  Sunshine!!  Sweet glorious sunshine is coming.  And warmth.  Wonderful, beautiful warm air is coming this way.  Don't stop looking or you might miss it in this frozen place on earth."  Finally, I think in the next few days we will break the 40 degree level with a possible 50 degree day coming.  I'm tired of winter (if you can't tell).  I think I even convinced the kids to hit the beach with me Sunday if it hits 50.