After being on the go for the last couple of months with trips to Colombia and Argentina, we’ve returned just in time for spring in Wisconsin [it comes pretty late around here]. It looks like we will have a busy summer in many ways... and are looking forward to some new photographic challenges that are coming our way.



5x5: Here are 5 of my favorite photos from 5 talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and check out the rest of their work!!!

My wife and photography partner... "AKA" my "better half"!

We recently went out west to visit my daughter and her family in Paonia, Colorado and happily found time for photo-shoots in the Moab, Utah area [especially Arches National Park] and in Colorado [Colorado National Monument and the Rocky Mountain National Park areas]. My wife and I asked a friend to join us and the three of us rented some long lenses [hoping for wildlife] and flew off into the sunset.



5x5: Here are 5 of my favorite photos from 5 talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and check out the rest of their work!!!

Once again I'm leading off with my life and photography partner... "AKA" my "better half".

We used our summer-long hiatus from dA to work on several outdoor projects: redid our deck, put in a sidewalk, put in a patio and planted nearly 30 bushes and shrubs [half nectar producing... to bring in hummingbirds and butterflies and the other half berry producing... to attract additional birds to our yard]. It’s working pretty sweetly so far... the birds and insects are getting what they like and we enjoy having them on hand to watch and photograph. We each have a set of extension tubes to use on a Canon EF 70-300mm 1:4-5:5 IS USM lens. I love the results compared to what we could do back in the 70’s before the digital revolution.



5x5: Here are 5 of my favorite photos from 5 talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and check out the rest of their work!!!

Again I'm leading off with my wife... it's easy to see that she is indeed my "better half".

I love the return of the spring-summer weather and am hoping that the rainy forecast doesn't interfere with our plans to head up to Marinette County and its waterfalls in a couple of days. We included that area in a February shoot but the waterfalls were covered in mountains of snow so we drove up the other side of Green Bay to Peninsula State Park and the "ice shoves". We're finally armed with decent tripods and are looking forward to the challenge of some longer exposures.



5x5: Here are 5 of my favorite photos from 5 talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and check out the rest of their work!!!

I'm leading off with my wife... she constantly
amazes me with her continual acquisition of new abilities.

After a week of rain and warmer temperatures, which was enough to change our focus from winter’s snow and cold to thoughts of spring, we are back into the deep freeze. The groundhog hasn’t even supplied his prognostication, yet our minds are firmly fixed on the end of “shovel season” and the start of “swat season”. Like children awaiting the end of the school year, we are already fixated on the idea of the long, warm, sunny days ahead... but oh, so far ahead!

5x5: Here are 5 of my favorite photos from 5 talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and check out the rest of their work!!!

I'm leading off with my wife...
  I really love her touch on land and waterscapes.

We were in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the last couple of weeks. It’s winter there and we had a pretty full itinerary, so although we didn’t have much time for photography, we did have a couple of warmish days to indulge our itchy trigger fingers. We had very limited access to the internet so I didn’t exercise my dAddiction while we were there… so I’d like to thank you for your continued support. I was pretty far behind even before we left and now I am in pretty deep but I will be visiting and catching up [if possible].

Here are some of my favorites from several talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and sample the unique talent that each one brings!!!

About a year ago the Wisconsin Dells made the national news as millions watched the flooded Lake Delton overpower its banks, wash out a highway and break apart homes as it drained into the Wisconsin River. There was no more lake... just a creek running through mud flats. “Rain or Shine” as the Tommy Bartlett "Ski, Sky and Stage" show exclaimed on its billboard and somehow they were able to put on a show throughout last summer... even without water.
Through a massive undertaking the breach in the lake has been repaired; the lake has been dredged, cleaned up and refilled. Now the “Dells” is open for business [at least those merchants who have been able to hang on financially through the devastation of the flood and last year's resulting “non-tourist season”]. Here’s to the valiant effort of all who worked so hard for the past year to restore the Wisconsin Dells… I hope you have a GREAT season!!!



Here are some of my favorites from several talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and sample the unique talent that each one brings!!!

Last night we had a photo shoot near the Wisconsin River and found that the mosquitoes were already accepting blood donations… spring IS here!!!

I’ve been having problems with my dA images: didn’t realize that photos for the web and for prints are totally different. Now I’ve resized my last dozen or so shots, used different sharpening parameters and took off the ICC. profile before loading them into dA… what a difference [if anyone has additional pointers I’d be happy to hear them]!!! I really thought there was something wrong with my computer or with dA. I’m still learning my way around digital photography [sure is different from film] and will probably never get over my fascination with the incredible results that were unimaginable thirty years ago.



I'm happy to have the opportunity to share a sample of the work of several amazing photographers. Please visit their galleries for the full tour!!!

Spring is finally arriving… yesterday I heard a small chorus of frogs serenading in the afternoon sun, the Goldfinches are molting into their summer wardrobe and the Wisconsin River is flushing out the last icy remnants from her bays. Sooooon there will be green growing things and hopefully a resurgence of the butterfly population that was all but eradicated here in the extreme flooding of last spring.


Here are some of my favorites from several talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and sample the unique talent that each one brings!!!

We went twice to Harrington Beach State Park for sunrise shoots and were mesmerized by the beauty and majesty of an ice shelf that extends out onto Lake Michigan. Even this morning we were out on the ice of a nearby lake catching another sunrise... but we could see that our weather pattern has shifted and we are starting to warm into spring. The Robins, Red Winged Blackbirds and Sandhill Cranes are back and very active even though there are still large numbers of ice fishermen out on the lakes.


I'm happy to have the opportunity to share a sample of the work of several amazing photographers. Please visit their galleries for the full tour!!!

It may be March but in the middle of Wisconsin, winter still has us in a pretty tight grip with lots of ice over the snow. We’ve been out on Lake Michigan twice this winter and will try again in a couple of days: this time starting our two and a half hour drive from home early enough to catch the pre-sunrise light… we hope!

Here are some of my favorites from several talented photographers on dA… please stop by their galleries and sample the unique talent that each one brings!!!

Today is the warmest we’ve seen in months… into the fifties and feeling like spring. It’s such a pleasant reminder that something else is already in the air [even if there is still a month or so of winter ahead]. This winter has been a visual disappointment so far… not much snow staying on anything but the ground and too deep to trek without snowshoes. Now maybe we’ll see some wetter snow in our transition into spring as our temperatures slowly start to rise.

I really appreciate the opportunity to share a sample of the work of these fantastic photographers with you. Please visit their galleries and see the rest of their work for yourself… you will be amazed!!!

Well it’s official: we have moved out of “Swat Season” and into our “Shovel Season”… at least with the white stuff we have a nice contrast to the dark remnants of the year. Last year we set our all time “seasonal snowfall” record on February 12… and still had another three feet of snow before it was over. This winter is expected to be worse in both frigid temperatures and snowfall so I should have ample opportunity to “jump into it” [if it is too nasty I still have lots of shots from last year].
Winter is a season that we specialize in here in Wisconsin… so with an “itchy trigger finger” off I go into the “wild white yonder”.

Thanks for the visit… I really appreciate it!!!!

“A man never rises so high as when he knows not where he is going.” Oliver Cromwell



Some spectacular photography around dA:
check out these galleries each one is packed with more great photography!!!!

We have just returned from a three week - 5,800 mile journey that entailed meeting and visiting with members of our families; traveling through several national parks and viewing and photographing the continually changing face of the of the incredible landscape that is called the American West.

Most of the places we visited really called for a much longer stay to get to know the territory and take advantage of lighting conditions at specific locations… three months would probably have not been too long to do them justice.

But the most amazing part of the trip was returning home from Des Moines to Wisconsin Dells surrounded by incredible “early summer” greens in mid-August: the result of major flooding two months ago.


“A man never rises so high as when he knows not where he is going.” Oliver Cromwell

Some of my favorites around dA:


I'll start with my multi-talented wife with whom I share this dA adventure and my life. She continually amazes me with her ability and timing.




I've been amazed by this Canadian gentleman's water and ice photographs since I arrived at dA. These are from his Lake Superior collection.




This young German's macro photography is an absolutely fascinating eye opener to the small world that is in front of our eyes but seldom seen.




Some of my own photos:
     


Clubs

“God screens us evermore from premature ideas. Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened – then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not is like a dream.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

The way I organize my thoughts is really just the set of limitations through which I view the world. When I stop organizing my thoughts for a moment I find myself in a different state of mind. My judgments, my ideas ABOUT are the only impediments because I already think I know… so I am not open to new experiences. I am not capable of learning anything new as long as I am pre-occupied with the meaning that I have given everything. In the moment that I let go of my old ideas I am set free: to see beyond my own limitations, to find myself in a state of mind not bound by my understanding, to be in a state of communion with everything… unbound by time and space.

“A man never rises so high as when he knows not where he is going.” Oliver Cromwell

Some of my favorites around dA:

















Some of my own photos:
     




I have discovered that the routine act of thanking everyone individually for every one of their comments, or for choosing my work as a favorite, is too time consuming. I much prefer to spend my time visiting your galleries and discovering your gifts - and so it will be my joy to regularly visit those who visit me, and that will be my expression of gratitude.

Clubs

I am trying something different in regard to responding to faves and comments since I have a tendency to become completely bogged down in the mechanics. Some artists that I watch have moved into a “No Need to Reply” modality… and through a modified version I have decided to join them. There are so many great talents who frequent my gallery that I feel I am doing them a total injustice by not allowing myself to take a leisurely walk through their work. I am also feeling a real need to move into enhancing my skills through the use of tutorials and mentors that are being offered here.

So I am opening my mind to a new way of responding to you… I will visit your gallery, but I may not leave rote comments and responses. I want to use my dA time to devote to my art and yours! Art isn’t art unless it is communicated and I really want to be more interactive with you… not on a mechanical level but at a creative level where we are part of each other’s art!!!

Some of my favorites around dA!!!!


I'll start with my multi-talented wife with whom I share this dA adventure and my life:








A very talented young nature photographer who instinctively knows where the shot is and has the timing to capture it... I really hope he makes photography his career:






Another very talented young man who likes to take extremely great photographs in extreme surroundings:






This amazing newcomer to dA from Malaysia has an uncanny gift for close-ups... I find his photographs of birds and insects stunning but I am most intrigued by his photographs of butterflies:






Some of my own photos:
     


Clubs

I am trying something different in regard to responding to faves and comments since I have a tendency to become completely bogged down in the mechanics. Some artists that I watch have moved into a “No Need to Reply” modality… and through a modified version I have decided to join them. There are so many great talents who frequent my gallery that I feel I am doing them a total injustice by not allowing myself to take a leisurely walk through their work. I am also feeling a real need to move into enhancing my skills through the use of tutorials and mentors that are being offered here.

So I am opening my mind to a new way of responding to you… I will visit your gallery, but I may not leave rote comments and responses. I want to use my dA time to devote to my art and yours! Art isn’t art unless it is communicated and I really want to be more interactive with you… not on a mechanical level but at a creative level where we are part of each other’s art!!!

Some of my favorites around dA!!!!


I'll start with my multi-talented wife with whom I share this dA adventure and my life:








A very talented young nature photographer who instinctively knows where the shot is and has the timing to capture it... I really hope he makes photography his career:






Another very talented young man who likes to take extremely great photographs in extreme surroundings:






This amazing newcomer to dA from Malaysia has an uncanny gift for close-ups... I find his photographs of birds and insects stunning but I am most intrigued by photographs of butterflies:






Some of my own photos:
     


Clubs