FAVORITE PHOTOS 2018

Keeping with a tradition I have followed for a number of years, I am posting some of my favorite photos for 2018.  Because we didn't take any major trips this year and I had some additional responsibilities and commitments, all of the photos were of local subjects, several of which I have shot previously.  Here they are in chronological order.

First is a shot of the Coast Guard lighthouse at Milwaukee's harbor, a subject that I have shot a number of times.  This was taken in January on a bitterly cold day, which gave rise to the winter fog several miles offshore and to the mist rising off the still liquid waters of the lake inside the breakwater.

Next are a couple of abstracts shots of rusted metal that I took later in the spring.

The first actually earned third place for macro in a local photo contest.  But I have come to like the second for its diverse colors.  It was simply rusted sheet metal of an old piece of farm equipment at Pioneer Village, in Saukville, Wisconsin, an outdoor museum that features a collection of reconstructed 19th century buildings and equipment.  I realize the shots are not everyone's cup of tea, but for me they represent my attempt at an outlet in abstract art.

Pioneer Village is located about 20 miles from my home and I found myself going there two or three times over the course of the summer.  Here is a shot of lace curtains that graced a window in one of the village's reconstructed houses.  I was happy with the resolution of this shot, which I took handheld at f/11 for 1/80 second.  I realize that the image is monochromatic, but I liked how the screen behind is faintly visible and that I caught off center the gap between curtains.

Milwaukee is known for its ethnic festivals each summer.  The one I took in this year was Bastille Days, the French festival.  I took the following shot while strolling around the downtown festival grounds.  The shot is not of the festival, but it did include candid shots of four (if you count the baby in arms) individuals in an alley leading to the Federal Courthouse.

On another visit to Pioneer Village, I shot this of weathered wood of an old barn.  I liked the shot both for the grain of the wood and for the overall composition.  I thought the conversion to black and white helped to bring out the weathering.  My criticism of the shot is that I might have increased the depth of field to bring more of the wood grain into focus.

In September, as part of the annual Doors Open Milwaukee event I had the opportunity to photograph some of Milwaukee's landmarks not ordinarily open to the public.  This time I visited Milwaukee's North Avenue water tower, including the interior's helical staircase, which visitors are not allowed to climb.

I also paid a couple of visits to Milwaukee's Mitchell Park Domes, a three-domed conservatory.  Here is one of the shots I took.

The original image included the entire flower.  However, for whatever reason, I chose to crop the photo to include only about 3/4ths of the blossom.  The flower looks largely two-dimensional, but in fact it had a fair amount of depth, with the center of the blossom significantly further away from the lens.  As a result, even at f/25 the focus on the petals is a bit "soft" compared to the center.  I liked that effect, actually.

Late in the fall, I came across a katydid just outside our front door.  The temperature may have been in the upper 30s and the katydid was quite lethargic.  When I brought her (?) inside, she began to move more quickly making photography more challenging.  Nevertheless, after some experimentation I managed the following shot, which is cropped down a fair amount.  (Note the dust motes on the eyeballs.)

Later I took the following shot of acorns fallen from a massive bur oak outside a church about a mile from our home.

Then it was winter.  Here is a shot of an early snow in our subdivision.  I did like the composition, even though it is a bit trite.

A later wind-driven snow resulted in an unusual effect on the trees in a local park.  I liked that the pattern of snow on the trees made for a drawing-like effect.

In between snows, I wandered in some woods in our subdivision and took these shots of leaves that were carpeting the floor of the woods.

Finally, in December I came across this composition of ice and rocks in a rain-retention ditch in our neighborhood.  I did like the gingko leaf that served as an accent for the shot.

John

FENG SHUI ICE

On one of my recent morning walks I came across a water detention ditch in our neighborhood in which the standing water had frozen, thawed, and refrozen, creating some interesting abstracts.

First, just the plain ice, which I converted to a black and white.

What might have been more interesting were areas where rocks were poking up out of the ice or whee leaves had been trapped in the ice.  (Note the ginkgo leaf.)

Sort of a feng shui effect.

John

LEAVES UNDER ICE

I had thought that the fall color season was entirely over, particularly after a couple of early snows, as well as considerable wind that blew virtually all of the remaining leaves off the trees in our neighborhood.  However, this morning I noted that a light snow from last night, along with a bit of wind, had left a very modest drift on the small pond in our subdivision and thought there might be a photo op as we transition to winter (ugh).

So I walked back to the pond with my camera.  The drift was hardly an interesting opportunity.  I cropped the image a bit, turned it into a black and white, and increased the contrast.

Meh.  Abstracts are all right, but this one is essentially unintelligible.

However, when I was at the edge of the pond, now covered with a layer of ice, I noticed that the ice had trapped leaves from a variety of trees, including those from the trees in the neighboring woods. I thought that the distortions created by the layer of ice were interesting and gave the images an artsy look.

The definition in the leaves is dependent on how far they are below the surface of the ice.  Here is a closeup of a portion of the above shot.

I thought that the "white" leaf in the above shot added an interesting focal point.

I wish that the ice had not incorporated air bubbles, but there they were.  I think I should point out that I did ramp up a bit the color saturation and the contrast in order to bring out the colors in the leaves.

John

EARLY SNOW

We had our first snowfall of the season last night. On my morning walk I noticed that some of the trees still bore leaves, along with the 2 inches of new-fallen snow. So I grabbed my camera to capture what I could before wind and sun eliminated the opportunity. Here is what I got.

First, a few photos of the trees in our front yard.

Below is a wider shot of the pond and woods in our subdivision.  I tried to frame the shot with a foreground shrub and overhanging branches of a tree still laden with leaves and berries.

On my walk I had also spotted a couple of trees, one still bearing red berries and one hanging on to leaves on its lower branches.

I thought what helped this shot was the fact that the snow had reduced the apparent color in the shot to just the leaves and the flag.  The flag could be seen as a bonus.

My walk also includes passing by a small creek.  I enjoy the scene that the creek and woods provides, but I find it difficult to capture that scene in a photo.

I enjoyed the following tree in the neighborhood.  Even though it did not feature any leaves, I thought the complexity of tree's branch structure offered some interest.

Then it was on to a nearby park, Virmond Park, which is situated on a bluff above the Lake Michigan shore.

The park features a large open field that serves to frame a small but well-proportioned evergreen that I have shot many times previously.  I felt this shot offered some placidity.

The park also includes a nice cedar fence that is backed by a line of trees at the north side of the park.

Finally, I visited a stand of trees in the park.  I was shooting to the east, toward the lake, and it was apparent that the snow and wind had come from the west, setting up an interesting snow pattern on the mature trees.

With these shots I was interested in trying to keep the depth of field as large as possible, to keep as many of the trees as I could in good focus.  So I shot these images at a narrow aperture of f/22.  As to this last shot, I generally avoid placing the object of interest--in this case the large tree trunk--in the center of the image, but I thought that composition worked OK in this shot.   The unusual snow pattern on the tree trunks, I thought, gave these photos the appearance of a painting or drawing rather than a photograph.

John

FALLEN LEAVES

The fall color season is essentially over.  And yesterday we had a major rain and wind storm, which did its share to strip the trees of their remaining leaves.  As a result, virtually the only place left to look for color is on the ground, and that is what I did this afternoon--before another bout of rain came through.

In looking over the images that I kept, I noted that they could be divided into two sets, one emphasizing color and one texture.  First, the color.

As might be assumed, I took these shots in an area that featured a number of different species of tree.  My favorite of these is the image that includes pine straw as well as leaves from deciduous trees.  I think I should point out that these colors are natural, though I did brighten up the images a bit.

The second set of photos is more focused on texture and composition.

Even though the colors are muted, I like their complexity.

John

ANOTHER WALK IN THE WOODS

We are definitely close to the end of the fall color season.  And, frankly, it was not a particularly good one from the point of view of richness of color.  This morning was cloudy, but it was a bright overcast and there was very little wind, so I decided to pay one more visit to our subdivision's woods to get some final shots of the fading color.

But first, I did take note of a shagbark hickory in the woods.  Most of the trees are varieties of maples, oaks, and the mundane deciduous trees, so this tall and very straight hickory, recognizable by its distinctive bark,  stood out.

I am still working to capture good shots of the foliage by pointing up and allowing the light to illuminate the translucent leaves.  I thought my results were mixed.

Here is another shot that I cropped down quite a bit.

For these shots I felt the dark branches gave the images a stained glass look, and they are generally where I set my focus.

Here is the shot that I thought was the most successful of this group.

I also too a number of "horizontal" shots.  In the following photo I was focusing on the clump of leaves and the tree trunk, planning to have the background be out of focus to draw attention to the subject for the shot.  This was shot at a wide open f/4 aperture to minimize depth of field.

Finally, I looked down and took a shot of the two leaves of a maple seedling that was surrounded by fallen non-maple leaves.

John