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As I mentioned in the last post, we ended up in downtown Chicago just as the celebration for the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup win was getting underway. There were a lot of people on the streets. One of the news reports I heard put the numbers at two million along the parade route. I’m not sure we saw that many, but they clogged the streets for blocks.

Blackhawks

Blackhawks #2

Blackhawks #3

As usual, I spent the weekend up in Chicago last week for the annual Blues Festival. It was great music and a great time as always. I’ve unfortunately been very busy since I got back though, and am just starting to get around to looking at the photos I shot. I should be posting them soon though.

Chicago River

You can just barely tell at web resolution, but there are a few hundred thousand Blackhawks fans on that bridge and beyond it. We happened to get there right as they were having the Stanley Cup celebration.

I ran back out to Fox Island after one of our many rainstorms this week to snap some pictures. Fox Island really is a nice little park; I suspect (but don’t know) that with all of the swampland on the property it’s probably more closely representative of what this area was like before civilization moved in than most of the other parks in the area. It helps that it’s only a few minutes’ drive out of town.

After the Storm

Of course, the downside is that the mosquitoes are absolutely terrible. I’ve been to a lot of parks and “wilderness” areas in northern Indiana, and I don’t think I’ve ever found anyplace that’s as intolerable as Fox Island in the summer. So this is unfortunately likely to be my last trip out there until we get a frost this fall.

Toad

On the upside, there’s an impressive amount of small wildlife out there for being so close to town. Songbirds and waterfowl especially like the woods and swamp that the park affords. Sadly my wildlife photography skills leave a lot to be desired. I scared up a pair of wood ducks while I was walking around but wasn’t quick enough on the draw. The best I could manage was this toad, who was kind enough to hold still for a brief photo shoot.

Autumn Olive

I managed to snap a few shots of a turtle that had wandered out in the path as well, but, well, he did what turtles do. Alas, a shell with an annoyed turtle face sticking out of it does not make for great photography.

It’s too bad the place is so bad in the summer. Maybe I’ll have to load up on the bug spray some weekend and head out there again.

Been suffering a bit of photographic writer’s block lately. (Photographer’s block?) I haven’t been out shooting much this spring, and haven’t been motivated to go back and worked on old photos much either. I suppose the best way out of it is to just start posting things. I keep opening Lightroom, looking at this one, and going “hm”, so I suppose it’ll do as well as any, for starters.

Rainstorm

Snapped out my window when it was bucketing down rain a few weeks back. Maybe I should start a series of “weather phenomena out my window”.

Rainbow

This has been making the rounds, so I’m hardly the first to post it. It’s still pretty amazing though.

(Click here to watch a larger version on Youtube. It’s worth watching full-screen.)

I’m never quite sure what to think of these whiz-bang features in new versions of Photoshop. They’re great tools for artists, to be sure, but our culture already has a real problem with photography and how it reflects reality, and I’m not sure this kind of thing really helps. What do you think?

Spring Thaw

I’m pretty sure this is actually the first robin I’ve seen this year. I ran out to Fox Island over the weekend and he was flying around eating berries off of the Sumac bushes. (You can just see the berry in his beak in the larger shot) I’m guessing pickings are kind of slim for a robin in Indiana at the end of February.

First Robin of Spring

Sadly, I don’t have one of those huge telephoto lenses that costs as much as a used car (and I’d probably never carry it around if I did), so I had to make do with a little wider framing. Considering I was experimenting around with old manual-focus lenses, I’m pretty pleased with what I got.