Mary Angelini Photography

And the Winner is....

2011-10-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, maybe I didn't win outright, but I did win 2nd place with this image of an old barn in Livingston County, Illnois.

It was submitted to an online contest on the Photos2Win.com page: http://photos2win.com/winners.php?id=9310&y=2011

Today and online photo competition, tomorrow, who knows...?

Glacier National Park - 8/6/11

2011-08-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

For our last morning in Glacier we decided to go back and visit the Avalanche Creek area. John wanted to hike to Avalanche Lake and I wanted to shoot the gorge some more. So we each did our own thing. John's hike would have taken several hours, so he decided to only hike that trial for an hour and a half. I made sure he has the bear bell so he could make as much noise as possible and there were a lot of other hikers out too so I wasn't too worried. Thought the next morning we did read about a bear attack elsewhere in the park of a hiker from Minnesota who was alone, armed with a bell and bear spray and still was attacked!

We also made a pit stop on the way out to another turnout area along McDonald Creek where we hasn't stopped previously.

Since it had rained the night before there was a really large mist/fog bank that was rolling in a providing nice clouds.

This was literally the last picture of the trip!! We kept saying all we we'd get the touristy shot in front of the park sign and literally pulled off as we were exiting! After this picture we went into Kalispell and Whitefish and fell in love - they are really cute, especially Whitefish - that is where we want to retire!!

Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (McDonald Creek)

2011-08-21T12:50:00.001-07:00

Because we liked this area so much we decided to return to this section along McDonald creek before going to dinner and back to the chalet. Big dark clouds were starting to roll in so we didn't have long to work, but they did make for some good lighting and moody effects.

I think this is my favorite - the clouds were magnificent!

This shot was taken literally seconds before the sky opened up one us!

This was another pano I took when we first got there.

Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (Mountain Goat)

2011-08-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

My reward for successfully negotiating the return along the cliff that is Highline Trail was to come across this beautiful male Mountain Goat. These quickly became my favorite animal there (next to the juvenile triplet puma sighting!). I was able to get within 7 feet of this one and he was pretty cool with that, thought I probably should have not gotten so close. Oh well, I got some great shots so it was worth the risk!

YOu have to love their little chicklet teeth - they are so perfect!!

Glacier National Park 8/5/11 (Highline Trail)

2011-08-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Another hike we attempted was the Highline Trail. John had made it a little further than I did because I was again mortified of the icy snow on the trail close to the edge of a cliff - I thought it more prudent to stop before I ended up part of the landscape.

Thankfully the snow had melted and I was able to go a lot further, but again, as with climbing an ice covered mountain, venturing out always seems considerably easier than getting back to where you started.

The hightline trail, as I previously mentioned, starts out pretty easy in a semi-wooded valley between mountains. However, it take this turn and is literally carved into the rock on the side of the mountain with a pretty sheer drop off on the one side. Mercifully you are provided a lifeline - a 1/4 steel cable covered with garden hose. Again, going out is easy - you are on the side of the "road" with the cable - coming back, you are on the wrong side of the "road."

It took me little while at our turning around point to psych myself up enough to go back but at that I made way for hikers coming in the opposite direction to go around me - I wasn't gonna be the one on the cliff side of the road if you know what I mean. Thankfully the other hikers must have seen the fear in my eye and were pretty cool!

See, the beginning of this starts of pretty nicely!

Then you get to this cliff action and it starts getting a bit scary - at least for me!

That line along the middle is the GOing-To-The-Sun road...which was below us!!

After the cliff face, the trail mellowed about and looked like a big pile of rocks. That snow patch up ahead was where I called it quits...the idea of slipping and sliding off that this was too much for me! Yea, I know, I'm a sissy!

Still, the view was pretty spectacular!

This is Garden Wall up close and personal.

You can see this is where the trail heads back to the cliff part of the trail.

See those teeny tiny hikers? This will give you an idea of scale - note the sheer drop off! Somewhere in there is my friend the garden hose covered cable.

Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (Hidden Lake Trail)

2011-08-21T11:59:00.001-07:00

Yes, the saga of Hidden Lake trail continues. We thought certainly by the end of the week we would be able to make decent progress up this trail and at least get some better shots that we did previously. So after the initial thrilled of shooting the Big Horn Sheep wore off we set out to give it another go!

While the snow had significantly receded since our first attempt nearly a week earlier, there was still quite bit there. One thing about climbing this stuff, it is super easy to kick in your boots and make snow stairs to ascend. It is an entirely different matter getting yourself back down!

Given that my knees are fairly unstable since my knee surgeries, and since my center if gravity is a lot higher than it used to be, I was not feeling at all comfortable with my ability to extricate myself from that mountain once I'd gotten up.

So I told John to continue on without me and I ended up sitting on the boardwalk steps (the few that were snow bare) and shot the following series of pictures in between tears - yea, I kind of cried a little up there because I was frustrated at my inability to safely get where I wanted to go, especially since the WIld Goose Island sunrise shoot was such a bust, but at least I ended up with some nice images.

This is the boardwalk that heads up to Hidden Lake - it looks a hell of a lot steeper coming back down, trust me!

This 'dead tree' laying in the snow is a trail marker for when there is a lot more snow. When we first arrived these were being held up by snow and went down pretty deep. However, the fact that they get 48-100 feet of snow annually means they are as effective as toothpicks in the dead of winter!

This is actually looking north. This is the famed Garden Wall. On the other side of this (and there is a trail that goes here) is the Grinnell Glacier and a bit beyond that is Many Glacier.

These are Glacier Iris and they were blooming in increasing numbers the whole time we were there. They look like a cross between a lily and a tulip, very pretty and very abundant!

This is that sam marmot from the week earlier that loved to pose for photographers.

Glacier National Park - 8/5/11 (Big Horn Sheep)

2011-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

After we were don e shooting we assumed our rightful place at the head of the line to continue up Going-To-The-Sun Road to the Logan Pass visitors center. When we arrived I was thrilled to see a small herd of Big Horn Sheep right there in the parking area. Surprisingly, one of the big males was munching away on cardboard that was in this construction area. We walked right up to within 20 feet of them.

Out of my field of view there was apparently a marmot that scared one of the younger sheep and they all bolted for up the hill. I kind of like the action feel of this shot (though I could live without the pallet in it!)

This is the bog bo that was eating the cardboard - after the marmot scared all of these I think he really wanted to come back for more cardboard!

They kept going further and further up the mountain.

I like this shot because the one was rearing up and head slamming the other. It really is as loud as they say on the nature shows!

Glacier National PArk - 8/5/11 (Sunrise Shoot)

2011-08-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we are gong to break down this day into smaller segments since we seem to have done quite a lot -then again we did get up at 3:00 a.m. so that is to be expected.

All week we kept seeing a flashy sign on Going-To-The-Sun Road that said the road would be closed from Monday through Thursday from 9:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. then 2:15 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. We both consider ourselves to be pretty intelligent people so we naturally interpreted that to mean that Friday at 4:00 a.m. we would be good to go to driver over the pass and do a sunrise shoot at Wild Goose Island - the one set of images I was determined to get while we were there!!

Apparently in Montana, however, Thursday really means Friday because we when we arrived at the Loop we saw that the road was still closed and were told that Thursday really meant Friday and we would just have to wait until 7:00 a.m. when the road reopened.

Ok, so we didn't wake up at 3:00 a.m. for nothing so, we parked at the loop and tried to sleep in the car until the sun came up. John did a much better job than I did. For reasons I cannot fathom, I was extremely paranoid - despite applying the emergency brake and being abutted against a stone wall - of rolling off the cliff that was in front of us so I really didn't get any sleep. I didn't want to get out and wander around because I was certain there were bears watching us, so we stayed in the cart until about 5:30 when it started getting lighter. Heaven's Peak was in front of us and while it was not Wild Goose Island it would suffice for sunrise pictures.

Actually, I was certain mine wouldn't turn out because my creativity felt blocked by my aggravation at having not b e permitted to my preferred destination. However, I tried to make lemonade out of lemons and think I did a pretty good job!

I experimented a bit with shooting panoramas while there and I think they came out pretty good. This is another favorite from our trip - the thin ribbon of sunlight hitting the peaks was awe-inspiring!

I looked to my left and between these two mountains was this intense orange glow, it was incredible!

Glacier National Park - 8/4/11

2011-08-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

These pictures are all over the place, but basically this day we spent more time driving than we did actually getting out and doing anything. In the morning we went to McDonald Falls with the hope of shooting the falls from the other side of the river. Due to a wrong turn on the trail (which wasn't maked very well) we walked a mile out of our way and ended up away from the river and on a service road! Worse than that though was the impenetrable cloud of mosquitos that never seemed to leave us! They were unrelenting. Eventually we did make it to the correct trail and got some pictures. After which we made the really long drive to Many Glacier and hiked the entire perimeter of Swiftcurrent lake.

This is a little family of Common Goldeneyes that we saw, they were really cute!

This is the Many Glacier Lodge as seen from across Swiftcurrent Lake.

This is the beginning of the trail to the falls.

We finally made it to the falls!

These are female common mergansers at Swiftcurrent Lake.

Glacier National Park - 8/3/11

2011-08-19T04:21:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most exciting days of our trip! We decided to take a helicopter tour of Glacier National Park and really get some amazing and unique shots. This was a real learning experience for me as well.

As a photographer I know that the best light is before 10:00 am or after about 4:00 pm so I thought that a 9:00 am tour would give me the best light. That might be true if I were on the ground, but it isn't true when you are housed in a glass bubble.

Unfortunately, a lot of my shots and angles were obstructed or obscured by oddly shaped reflections in the windows of the helicopter. Still, when the sun was at our backs I was able to get some pretty good images.

They asked for a volunteer to sit in the cockpit and my arm shot up like a rocket. I figured that would be the best place for shooting. I had forgotten that you could see through the floor to the ground. I thought I would be a little nervous, especially after being freaked out by the shuttle bus being so close to the edge of the cliff on Going-To-The-Sun Road, but I must have been so excited it overrode my terror! In fact, I thought it was really awesome and wasn't scared at all - I would do it again in a Chicago minute!!

This is us before we boarded and took off.

This is a view of the mountain range looking northwest .

I was intrigued by the amazing array of rock formations and the way the glaciers were cracked!

I think this is Gunsight Lake.

This is what Logan Pass looks like from the sky - you can see the parking lot and road in the lower right of the picture. The trail that goes off to the top left is the Hidden Lake trail which is usually not covered in so much snow. This is a good thing though because it will help rebuild the glaciers!

This was my view from the cockpit!! I still can't believe I wasn't terrified!

This is Hidden Lake - this is as close as I got to it on our entire trip. After seeing all the snow on that trail I realize without ice climbing boots there is no way I would have made it - too much potential to slide off a mountain!

Kind of looks like a volcano!

This is Lake McDonald from the sky - it is ginormous! All of that lighter green and brownish area is from a fire in 2003 which burned about 8% of the park!! You can also see a little reddish strip of trees to the bottom right which is evidence of a parasite that is descimating the trees in the park - similar to the Pine Bark Beetle damage in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Thanks global warming!

This is after we came back - we really wanted to go again. Next time we're taking the hour long tour!!

After the heli tour we drove to Two Medicine then up and over the Going-To-The-Sun road and made a pit stop here to scout out a good spot for a sunrise shoot of Wild Goose Island - one of the most photographed features in Glacier. More on that saga in a subsequent post!

On our way to Two Medicine we saw all of these possibly wild horses and stopped to take pictures. We did see a lot of wild horses when we were driving around on our trip. I wasn't sure if these were wild or not because there was a barbed wire fence where I was standing to take this picture but at the end of this road where it meets the highway there was no fence!! I would really like to imagine that they are wild.

Here is a mamma and her foal - so cute!!

This was another stop along the McDonald Creek - sooo many places to shoot along here!

This is McDonald Falls.

This is Running Woman Falls. If you go, read the story about Running Woman, it is intersting but kind of sad.

This is the lake at Two Medicine.

Another shot of Wild Goose Island.

Glacier National Park - 8/2/11

2011-08-17T04:07:00.001-07:00

On our many trips up to Logan Pass, we kept passing the Trail of Cedars/Avalanche Creek turn out so this morning we decided to investigate. We'd seen pictures of the Acalanche Gorge, and wanted to shoot there, but were not able to find it specifically on any of the maps we had. Our intention was to just go for a hike, maybe take a few pictures then move along.

The Trail of Cedars is a really nice and well maintained boardwalk that meanders through a beautiful grove of Cedar trees and makes a loop up part of one side of Avalance Creek and down the other. It is really nice there too because it is handicap accessible so it is not difficult for all people to go and enjoy it. When we reached the turning point it was at Avalanche Gorge and we quickly ran back to the car to get more gear to properly shoot this breathtaking feature.

The gorge is this slot that has been carved by water into the piled up rocks from the glaciers. It has sliced a beautiful meandering path through these rocks that is pretty deep and narrow. It is quire spectacular!

The moss is everywhere from all the spray of the water and, with the use of stacked ND filers, I was able to slow the shutter enough to make the water look like milk!

To the right of the bridge that straddles the gorge is a trail that goes up to Avalanche Lake and follows the creek.

Eventually you get above the rocks and the creek flattens out a lot. Again, this trail goes to Avalanche Lake which is a 4+ mile round trip and is apparently an upward hike for the most part.

The surrounding forest was pretty darned thick, but occasionally you would see little patches like this where the light made it through and lit up the ground cover.

Because the creek is pretty fast moving it does cut into the sides causing errosion and subsequently trees falling into the creek, like this one. But because of all the water they still manage to thrive, just horizontally!

I loved th color of the water - again, glacier fed.

All totalled, we spent about three hours shooting here. John got bored waiting for me (and who can blame him), so he hiked a little further up the trail while I continued to shoot within a 1/4 mile stretch along the water's edge.

We left Avalanche Creek and went to the Lake McDonald Lodge where we grabbed some lunch then took the free shuttle up to Logan Pass as we were determined to try and hike the Hidden Lake Trail. Of course we needed t o get a picture next to the Continental Divide sign!

This was taken on the drive up. That road to the right is the Going-To-The-Sun Road amd is literally carved into the side of the mountain. It is the only road that traverses the middle of the park.

Having determined that there was still too much snow on the Hidden Lake Trail, we opted to see what we could manage on the Highline Trail. This one too had a little too much snow patches in all the wrong places so I didn't continue, but John went a little further and said it was a bit intense.

This is a panorama from on the Highline Trail (at the beginning).

This is a panorama from Logan Pass near the visitor center looking to the east.

After picking up the shuttle and making our way back to Lake McDonald, we drove to a turn out for John Lake. We'd seen the signs all week and it looked like a pretty reasonable hike. Naturally John wanted to take a gander since it shared his name. It turned out to be more of a large pond - or mosquito sanctuary!

Glacier National Park - 8/1/11

2011-08-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

On the fourth morning, knowing Logan pass would be closed before 7:00 am due to construction, we decided to get up early and go back to Many Glacier since we really liked it when we went the day before. When we arrived we had a lovely buffet breakfast in the historic Many Glacier lodge then waited for the 9:00 am ferry across two lakes to start our hike to Grinnell Lake which rests at the foot of the Grinnell Glacier. One boat takes you across Swiftcurrent Lake and then you hike a "strenuous" quarter mile over a portage to Josephine Lake and catch another boat across that lake to start the mile hike to Grinnell Lake. There is actually a really long trail that follows both lakes and takes you all the way up to Grinnell Glacier, but it is a rough and long hike, even without the boats so we (mostly me) woosed out and just went to Ginnell Lake.

After breackfast, while we waited for the ferry, we took a little hike near the entrance road to Many Glacier Lodge where there is a series of waterfalls leading up to the bridge you drive over. It was really nice in this area and I would have liked to spend more time shooting here because it was so picturesque. This is one of my favorite shots from the trip.

This is actually a panorama of Interstate 2 which follows the southern border of Glacier National Park which is directly adjacent to Lewis and Clark National Forest. This was really early and we loved how the early sun looked on these mountains.

This was a really scary bridge we had to cross on the trail to Grinnell Lake. Only one hiker is allowed on it at a time and with good reason as it is nothing more than 2x4s and cable and the closer you get to the middle the more it start undulating like the Tacoma Narrows bridge in Washington did that fateful day! The key is going really slowly with baby steps!

This is a panorama of the view at Many Glacier . It was taken from the shore of Swiftcurrent Lake.

This is Grinnell Glacier as seen from the bow of our boat as we crossed Josephine Lake.

These are just some canoes you can rent and paddle around the lake.

Another view from on Josephine Lake.

This is where we caught the boat across Swiftcurrent Lake.

Here is our boat coming from the other side of Swuftcurrent Lake to pick us up.

This is the landlocked boat on Josephine Lake that takes you back and forth from the portage.

This is a view from Grinnell Lake. You can see the pale blue/green color of the water which indicates this lake is glacier fed.

A panned out shot of Grinnell Lake.

This is another one of those Columbian Ground Squirrels who was checking me out and was kind enough to oblige me with a picture before scurrying off.

Here he is again.

Glacier National Park - 7/30/11

2011-08-12T04:16:00.001-07:00

For our first full day in the park the plan was to drive the entire length of Going-To-The-Sun Road. You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? We got up pretty early and hit the road with the first stop being Logan Pass, which is the apex of this road. There is a visitor center and a whole lot of construction and port-o-potties there! Once you get past or around all of that, the view is magnificent and the hiking even more amazing!

This is a Columbian Ground Squirrel and they are all over the place up there and around the park. As you can imagine they are losing their fear of humans so I was able to get pretty close. They are super cute!

If you walk to the far left of the Logan Pass parking lot as you enter there is a very low wall and a drop off and this incredible view!!

This is another shot from the left side of the parking lot. This picture does not nearly depict the vastness of this view - it just goes on and on! Logan Pass was instantly a favorite stop for us during our trip!

So we went hiking (see below) and when we came back, there was a Mountain Goat chilling out in the shade of the pine trees behind the visitor center. Naturally I b-lined up there and started firing away!!

I guess he wanted to cool off because he got up and meandered to the snow (there was quire a bit from which to choose - more about that in a later post!).

Despite the gathering crowd, he just sat down and caught some rays!

One of my favorite things about Mountain Goats is that they always seem to be smiling!!

He then kicked his leg out in front of him and really got comfortable.

You should have heard all the cameras firing (including mine)! One of the things I was determined to shoot was a Mountain Goat I was super happy I was able to get this close to one!!

After our initial poking around the visitor center at Logan Pass we learned that there is free shuttle service throughout the park, so we left the car at the pass (knowing the lot would fill up really fast) and took the shuttle to St. Mary's. Funny story about that, when we were waiting for the shuttle we met this 61 year old toothless mountain woman who was originally from New Hampshire and was carrying on her back over 50 lbs of hiking/camping gear which was her entire existence. She got on the but with us to St. Mary and she and I ended up in the gift shop together at the visitor center there. Suddenly, in the corner where she was standing a shelf gave way and kind of fell on her. So she comes walking back from that area coughing and eyes watering and I didn't really think anything of it. After a minute I start getting a weird itching in my throat and them my eyes start watering. It turns out that when the shelf fell a can of bear spray went off. When I say this stuff is powerful that is an understatement!! This stuff was so potent it cleared out the entire visitor center for over an hour!! She, I and several other people had to go to the restroom to flush out our eyes and mouth! Afterward, when I walked past the open doors, I got another wiff and it made me cough again!! It was really a bizarre experience.

After leaving St. Mary we took she shuttle back towards Logan Pass and got off at the Sunrift Gorge stop to do a little hiking. After checking out the gorge (see below), we took this trail (Sun Point?)towards St. Mary's Falls.

The lake to the left if St. Mary Lake, which is almost as big as Lake McDonald .

This is part of the Sunrift Gorge - it was kind of awkward and hazardous to shoot down here so this was as good as I could manage.

I do not recall the name of this waterfall, but there were people climbing all over it to get their pictures taken. This is really exceptionally stupid because the water is really cold and really fast and there is a lot of it. It is not surprising that the #1 cause of death in the park is drowning!

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories...

Glacier National Park - 7/29/11

2011-08-11T04:49:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Kalispell, MT at around 1pm, picked up our rental and hit the open road for West Glacier where we would be staying all week, but not after a pitstop at the local grocery store to pick up some trail mix, snack bars and, of course, beef jerkey for the trails!

After getting settled in at the historic Belton Chalet, we decided to recon the Going-To-The-Sun-Road a little before the sun went down. The first part of this road follows the eastern coast of Lake McDonald, which is the largest lake in the park, measuring nearly 10 miles long and 400 feet at its deepest. After the lake, the road follows the McDonald Creek which is really more of a river if you ask me! The following pictures (due to my perpetual inability to load these right) are in reverse order, but I hope you enjoy them!!

In the upper right corner is one of the ubiquitous "Red Buses" that are a common sight in the park. They provide tours all over the entire park, but will cost you a hefty sum to partake in them! They look pretty cool though!

I was really fascinated by the rocks in the foreground here - they were sheered off and as flat as can be, looking like someone just stacked them up along the river's edge.

This was about as far up as we went that afternoon. This was one of the cooler places to stop as it was a lot more wide open than the other turnouts. By the way, if you are ever at Glacier, do take advantage of all the turnouts because there are hidden gems in all of them!!

For these last few shots I climbed out onto this gigantic rock in the middle of the river where the water was forced to turn. It was kind of dome-shaped and there was a bit of a wind at my back so I really had to be careful not to lose my balance and fall - the perfect shot is (much to John's shagrin) sometimes worth a little danger!

In this shot I loved the little patch of daisies along the river bank.

This was a seriously fast moving river - there is nothing creek-like about this, let me tell you!

Again, I loved the delicate little daisies clinging to the ground.

This is a shot from the southeastern shore of Lake McDonald with its iconic view of the mountains.

Listle Balloon Festival - 7/3/11

2011-07-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning we got up at 4:00 am to drive to Lisle, IL to was the hot air balloons inflate and take off. It was not something any of us had done before so it was pretty cool to see! Unfortunately, the ill-informed security guard I approached when I arrived told me we weren't allowed near the ballons so we ended up standing on the periphery trying to get pictures. I later found out photographers were allowed in...live an learn! I'll be better prepared next year!!

You could really feel the heat coming off flame throwers, even from a fair distance away!

The flame throwers were pretty loud too!

Valley Forge National Park

2011-07-05T03:58:00.000-07:00

Another place we visited while we were in Philadelpia last month is Valley Forge National Park in Valley Forge, PA. Honestly, I lived in Philadelphia for 15 years and only went to Valley Forge once and the bugs were so bad I quickly left. This time the bugs were just as bad, if not worse, but I presisted and was rewarded with the following images...

I loved the iron of this picture - a hawk sitting on an eagle's wing! LOL

Clearly George Washington was living a lot larger than the troops!! Some things never change!

As we were driving around the park we saw this little red fox eatting something close to the road so we stopped to get pictures - this is the first time I have ever seen one in the wild and miraculously had my camera at the ready!!

Eastern State Penitentiary - 6/7/11

2011-06-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

While we were in Philadelphia we visited Eastern State Penitentiary in the Fairmount Park district of the city, near the downtown area. This is the world's first true penitentiary. It was built in 1829 and, shockingly, remained opened until 1971!! Notorious criminals such as Al Capone and Willie Sutton were housed wihtin its walls. When it was constructed, it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever constructed and became a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.

In 1924, then governor Gifford Pinchot purportedly sentenced "Pep" the cat-murdering dog to Eastern State for allegedly killing his wife's cherished cat. In 1945 a major prison break was carried out by 12 inmates, including Willie Sutton, who apparently dug a 97 foot tunnel, undiscovered, underneath the prison walls! During renovations in the 30's another 30 incomplete inmate-dug tunnels were discovered.

After being abandoned in 1971 a "forest" grew within the prison cells until the late 80's when the City purchased the property with the intent of devloping it into a mall and luxury apartment complex. However, Mayor Wilson Goode successfully petitioned to halt development (the only good he did while in office) and it was opened to the public in 1994. This facility is a wonderful place to visit and especially to photograph. It is even said to be haunted!!

In the picture above you can see where major plant live found conditions right to flourish inside the cells!!

The plaster cats on the stairway in the picture above were part of an art installation by a man who would come to the prison and feed the hundreds of stray cats that roamed inside the walls.

This is a view looking into the infirmary.

Definitely not a place I would like to be sick in!!

The picture above is meant to demonstrate what a typical cell would look like.

I believe this was the "death row" cell block, which really wasn't a true death row, but only housed prisoners with death senteces who were awaiting execution.

This is actually still inside the walls of the prison, the fence is to cordon off an area to the public.

This is my favorite shot of the lot - it really depicts the stark and depressing living conditions of this facility.

Holland Tulip Festival - 5/7/11

2011-05-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know what you are thinking, Holland in one weekend! Ha, we actually were in Holland, Michigan for their annual tulip festival!! While it was a scheduled Meet Up shoot, we did celebrate our 5th anniversary as well and had a wonderful time!

After we had a nice dinner at this little Italian place we went the beach to catch the Big Red Lighthouse at sunset and I got these images....

I think this one is my favorite of the lighthouse series...

SLIDESHOW!!

2011-04-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

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ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

2011-04-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to report that I was a runner up in the Chasing the Light, Marco Photography - Small Things Matter competition: http://chasingthelight.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/MACRO-PHOTOGRAPHY-SMALL-THINGS-MATTER-WINNERS/G0000fz7wGNjRT9o/I0000uFTjaQCtqmo

More Shameless Self Promotion...

2011-03-31T09:51:00.001-07:00

Here is another one. Thank you again!! yosemite national park art

Shameless Self Promotion!

2011-03-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

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Black and White Exploration - Part III

2011-03-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the third installment in my black and white exploration series. This time I have selected photos from our travels last year to California and Oregon, so some of these will look familiar. Again, I went back through my images from last year and converted a bunch that I thought were worthy of experimentation...

View from Cape Lookout.

A typical Santa Ynez field near Dad's place.

I was about as entranced with the clouds as I was with Half Dome and the vastness of the mountain range.

This was a leafbare rain covered tree that just looked so pretty with the sparkling water covering it like jewels.

The beach at Cape Kiwanda.

These are the sequoia trees in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite.

I was amused by this no trespassing sign. Not only was this taken completely seriously, but it just seemed so pointless!

I think this is one of my most favorite shots from our trip to Yosemite last year. It makes me want to go hiking in those mountains over to Half Dome.

Black and White Exploration - Part II

2011-03-11T04:50:00.001-08:00

Here is the second in a series of posts of photographs I took last year that I have explored in the black and white genre. This series is of rural scenes and some miscellaneous things that didn't otherwise have a home. Please enjoy...

Livingston County, IL

Dwight, IL (birthplace of Ronald Reagan I beleive)

A forest preserve near home.

Same forest preserve.

Same.

Crabtree Nature Center, Barrington, IL

Binnie Woods, Carpentersville, IL

The next several were taken in Livingston County, IL

Black and White Exploration - Part I

2011-03-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been entranced by black and white photography and have been experimenting a lot with pictures from my catalog that I took in 2010. While I haven't gone through the entire library, I have made pretty good progress and thought I would share someof thework Ihave done over a few series of pictures.

The of the first series will shots taken in Chicago in 2010...

Oregon Vacation - Nov 2010

2010-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here are all the pictures I took in Oregon over Thanksgiving...

As usual they are in ass-backwards order, but I'll explain as we go...

John and I went to the coast overnight and stopped at Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda to do a little shooting and hiking. This first set is of Cape Kiwanda which we visited last, after a exhausting hike at Cape Lookout. The sun's angle in relation to the cape was kin of funny and I keep getting some lens flare, but tried to make it work for the angles I was shooting...

I was standing on a rock that protruded out into the water and just as I set up, the waves started getting higher and washing near my feet so I had to abandon this spot because the water was too cold to deal with.

I love that the seagulls seem uaffected by the waves as they lined up on this rock.

I liked the little jud handle that was on the side of this haystack rock (not THE Haystack rock from Canon Beach)

I think the surfers packing it in at the end of the day added something to this shot.

THis was the beginning of what seemed like an endless hike at Cape Lookout. The objective was to make it to the end of the peninsula then turn around go back and get lunch, but it just never ended so we turned around at 11:30 and got back to the car at about 1pm exhausted!! Beautiful hike though.

This was a pretty spectacular view towards the beginning of our hike!

These cliffs were pretty impressive!!

This is a shot looking towards the haystack rock at Cape Kiwanda and the clouds just looked off the hook with their silver edge and how they creeped into the hills!!

One day we all went into town to see the Chinese Temple in Portland and after Katie Leah, Cody and Emmy left to get some pizza and stuff, John and I decided to visit the Japanese Gardens. Photograhpers, beware of the fascist gate police who make you sign away your rights before you are allow in!!!

I loved how the rain drops on this tree looked like little jewels in the light.

I think this is my favorite picture from this little adventure.

I am obsessed with the moss and things that grow on the trees out there!!

One day we went to the Abbey at Mount Angel and into the really interesting library they have

there... (I call the one above "Book Worms")

This reminded of the August Raurica area near where Robert and Melinda live in Switzerland...

The library was a big half circle and designed so the person at the desk can see down just about every row of shelves!!

This was a little cemetery at the Abbey.

They had a little herd of goats on the Abbey property which seemed surprisingly shy of humans!

These are shots from the Chinese Temple we visited in Portland before parting ways and going to the Japanese Gardens.

This was a nice family picture of Leah Cody and Emmy!!

On Thanksgiving Day Emmy helped Leah in the kitchen making sweet potatoes....NUMMY!

Emmy digging her marshmallows!

This is my favorite picture I took of Emmy!

Thanksgiving morning I woke a little early and decided to drive around the neighborhood with my camera and see what I could see. It was really nice quiet misty sunrise.

Graceland Cemetery, Chicago - 11/14/10

2010-11-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, were were supposed to visit Graceland Cemetery a couple of weeks ago on Halloween with our Meet Up group, but at the last minute cancelled because we had a ton of things going on and just couldn't fit it in. We have been meaning to go for quite a while, but just never got around to it so we promised ourselves that we'd go this last weekend.

Graceland Cemetery is a pretty big one out here and is very old and famous. Many Titans of industry are buried here in some of the biggest crypts and memorials I have ever seen - you can really feel the opulence. It really made me ask myself what the heck is the point of spending all that money when eventually only strangers ever really come around...if you are lucky.

Being mid November the weather was pretty crispy and windy. However, speaking for myself, I warmed up a bit once we started walking around. Anyway, here are the pictures I took...

These were a patch leaves growing on the wall outside the perimeter.

This is what it looked like in the patch that had already lost its leaves - we kind of had a late, dry fall here so leaves predominantly gone, or just getting around to turning, hence the yellow surrounded by nothing.

I liked this one for the ground level statue that seemed to me to be hailing someone...a taxi maybe?

I was intrigued that these were completely blank, clearly they'd been there quite sometime...or they didn't get a warranty from their headstone maker!

This is the memorial for a fireman that perished in a "large fire" (although not THE large fire) in 1927.

I wonder what this statue looked like when it was placed here. The ones from Roman times hung around a lot longer in better condition!!

A lot of people really into their columns and obelisks!

Another taxi hailer!

I was struck my the little tiny one next to the two bigger ones...makes you wonder what happened.

I dig the pyramid one in the background...I meant to get closer pictures of that one but it was cold and I needed to tinkle!

Not sure if there was really a dog in there of if the resident was just a fan!

The person on the right was largely responsible for the creation of what is now the secret service!!

This is one of my favorite shots of the day - I just like how the colors turned out.

The Mount Olympus style memorial there is of someone named Palmer who was pretty big time in this neck of the woods back in the day.

I think this one was one of my favorites because of the view and how awkward it is to get to the front!

FOUND HIM!!!

Loved the flaming red bush!

Again, is it worth all the money spend to build this? Doubt it! Fry me and spread my ashes all over the globe - that is what I want!!!

I removed all the color except for the flower, some errant petals and leaves. I think it works.

Not really sure who would want to break in to there - it would be pretty darned creepy!!

If you look closely into the doors of this one you can see a stained glass pane illuminated.

This one looks ominous slightly up on the hill with the clouds and such!

This is probably the freakiest one in the place. I am not sure of the history, but it is apparently famous (probably because it is so creepy!)

Texture Madness!!

2010-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a photoshop class at one of the local camera stores and it revolutionized the way I post process my photography!! That night I was so ramped up from what I learned that I woke up at 3:15 in the morning and couldn't sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour I decided to get up and go downstairs to star playing with skills I learned. That started me on an odyssey that hasn't let up. So I thought I would post the pictures that I have been tinkering on all week so you can see the products of my recent obsession...

Midway Village WWII Days (9/25/10)

2010-09-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

This was another Meet Up outing that the whole family attended. Midway Village WWII Days is an annual event that draws over 800 participants from 40 different states. People dress in period attire, both allied and axis, civilian and military, as well as assembling weaponry, machinery and implements of daily living in settings that are demonstrative of life during World War II whether in a town setting, tent city or wooded campsites.

In addition to having mock street skirmishes, they have field maneuvers complete with pyrotechnics! It is very impressive and anyone who is interested in all things WWII should make a point of visiting.

For my photography I wanted to maintain the period theme and take pictures that did not contain anything or person that was non-period. I also decided to post process these images in a manner that reflected the time period so I converted them to a sepia/black and white color hybrid and added varying degrees of grain to simulate old photographs. While this was largely experimental I was quite pleased with how they turned out. Here are the final images from my visit...

This one made me think of the stories of Dad, Many and Granny trudging over hill and dale to escape the war in Belgium.

(The one above is a shout out to my former unit - Huah!)

For the one above, I really enjoyed the irony of the German troops in the foreground and the American troops in the background oblivious to one another - in reality they'd have been shooting each other!

This is the guy I bought my authentic "Official U.S. Army Photographer" patch from - I LOVE that patch!!!

You can see my patch on the desk between the drawer and the flash bulb!

This guy was every bit the a-hole of a German soldier - he took his role a little bit too seriously!!!

This guy above actually had an authentic Italian accent which I thought was also amusing.

This was one of the odder vehicles on display - Katie and I failed to see the point of the front wheel, it seemed oddly disproportionate and useless.

There were some extremely rare vintage German vehicles on display, this was one of them.

Some of these German soldiers wore the uniform so well and looked the part so authentically I secretly wondered if they drank the cool-aid, if you know what I mean!

This was before a mock street skirmish...

...and this was during the mock street skirmish.

If I am not mistaking the narrator said that this particular German vehicle was only one of four left in the world.

Needless to say it was pretty darned loud...though not as loud as the narrator in the ginormous speaker directly behind me!

Run away, run away!!!

The Sherman Tank!!

This was in the wooded encampment area - all kinds of different small camps were set up including, American, German, British, French, Polish, Russian and Japanese.

Wait! That little soldier girl looks familiar!!!

Kaitlyn, show us your war face...now let me hear your war cry!!!!

Bill, I mentioned that Katie's dad served in Iraq and he said to give a shout out to you from the 509th!!

Apparently this is his war face!

The German's had a mock awards ceremony.

This is the Japanese soldier and unfortunately he was not actually japanese or even of any dicernable Asian descent - they need some authentic Japanese people there!

This is a hand-operated machine used to load rounds into the bandoliers that are fed into the large machine caliber guns.

A Russian soldier - they were seriously probably about this young too!

A female Russian soldier.

Another ironic shot of an American Soldier walking past the oblivious eye of two German soldiers at a check point.