January 1, 2019. I am driving Highway 2 to D’Arbonne State Park to lead a First Day Hike. As usual, my camera is on the passenger seat and I am keeping a sharp eye for photo opps along the way. I should have a bumper sticker that reads “I brake for raptors on power lines.” Because I do. And I have gotten good at spotting hawks along Louisiana country roads. Seeing them on poles is more common, but this one was sitting on the powerline, which sagged significantly between the poles. I pulled to the side of the road about…

Ironic. The thing that requires patiently standing still scanning the trees and shrubs for the slightest movement must be done in winter when many trees are bare of leaves, no matter the damp and cold and chill wind. In 2018, I participated for the very first time in the Christmas Bird Count, a national event started in 1900 by the National Audubon Society. It is one of the longest running citizen science events in the world. I’m hooked. This photograph is part of how I got hooked. It might be the most perfect photo I have ever made. No matter…

Since I usually stay in a hotel in The Loop when I visit Chicago, my typical approach to Millenium Park is from the west. I walk east on Madison or another of the streets perpendicular to the lake and wait patiently for a pedestrian light to give me permission to cross Michigan Avenue–a somewhat perilous experience most days. If I want to get all the way to Maggie Daley Park, usually worth the effort, I make my way to the BP Pedestrian Bridge over Columbus Dr., after an obligatory pause at Cloud Gate for the quintessential Chicago selfie in the…

Every photograph ever taken is “forced perspective.” To the extent that you look at a photograph, whether willingly or under duress, you are looking at some part of the world from a perspective “forced” on you by the photographer. Does that seem obvious to you? Perhaps. But I have encountered many, many people in this world who are at least somewhat mislead by the literalism of photography. This particular image was submitted to an online photo scavenger hunt for the term “forced perspective, and it was awarded an Honorable Mention by one of the judges. For this category, many of…

Iowa! Iowa! Best state in the land, joy on every hand. We’re from Iowa! Iowa! That’s where the tall corn grows. I was born and raised in southeast Iowa, and in September 2018 I went home to celebrate my, ummmmm, 55th high school class reunion. Wow. How can that be? In fact, I do not remember high school fondly, but that story is of little interest to me now. More important is that I and my classmates have matured well. I enjoy our gathering now more than I ever did in high school! I do miss the Iowa landscape: the…