Happy New Year

Happy New Year. Along with another Minnesota Winterscape, I have jotted down the dates of the various topics covered in the blog this year. As we turn the page of the calendar tomorrow, we will continue to look at some of the photographs that I have taken. Hope you enjoy the visits!

2010 Topics: 1/1 Airplanes, 1/12 DuPage Children’s Museum, 1/22 Spring Creek & Meacham Grove, 1/31 Kline Creek Farm Ice Harvest, 2/13 Lincoln Marsh, 2/17 Chicago Auto Show, [2/21 one day for Sign of the Crab, poems on fighting cancer], 3/3 Army Trail Nature Center, West Branch FP & Norris Woods, 3/10 Brookfield Zoo animals in winter, 3/22 Arizona Spring Training & Cubs, 4/12 Grandchildren in the Park & Amber’s Birthday, 4/16 Rooftop at Wrigley Field, 4/24 Form & Shape Studies, 5/5 Greyscale Images, 5/9 Color Studies Blue, 5/11 Color Studies Green, 5/13 Mother’s Day, 5/14 Color Studies Red, 5/16 Barrington High School, 5/18 Bridge Walk Against Cancer, 5/23 Brookfield Zoo Bear Wilderness, 5/30 Tall Ship Windy, 6/4 Naperville Riverwalk, 6/9 Elgin & Fox River Photos, 6/15 Cancer Survivor Picnic at Morton Arboretum, 6/17 Kenyon Farm Forest Preserve, 6/19 Youth Baseball/Photo Restoration & Collage, 6/21 Fabyan Forest Preserve and Japanese Garden, 7/4 Grandchildren Visiting from Boston, 7/12 Color Studies Orange, 7/17 Hot Air Balloons, 7/26 Carnival Cruise Vacation, 8/4 Washington DC, 8/28 Andre Dawson Softball Game, 8/31 DuPage Airport Show, 9/3 Cantigny Park, 9/7 Chicago Skyline & Lake Cruise, 9/13 Dunham Woods Horse Show, 9/25 Northside Park, Spring Valley, Kenyon Farm Forest Preserve, Crabtree Nature Center, 10/7 Millennium Park Segway Tour, 10/18 Wayne DuPage Fox Hunt, 10/29 American Pickers in Iowa, 11/4 Kline Creek Farm Corn Harvest, 11/10 Fireworks, 11/15 Churchill Woods Forest Preserve & Hidden Lake Fall Color, 11/29 Animals, 12/6 Chicago Buildings, 12/13 Sunset at Meacham Grove & West Branch, 12/23 Christmas, 12/30 Minnesota Winter Wonderland

Branches on Ice

Here we see two more images of Minnesota countryside, looking for all the world to be set up for a holiday Sleigh Ride.

Winter Wonderland

A short trip into Minnesota to deliver some Christmas presents to Mom allowed my camera a look at some true Winter Wonderland scenics. At home in Illinois and all along the Interstate through Wisconsin, the ground was covered with snow but the tree branches were stark and naked against the sky. Only in Minnesota did we find the tress arrayed in full-branch frosting. We will look at a few of these scenes in the next few posts. Warm clothes are a good suggestion for you!

Hearth

Two more Christmas decoration images. First is the hearth, complete with stockings for the children and grandchildren; the painting on the mantel is a Kinkade depicting a winter family get-together. Directly to the right of the hearth is the main Christmas tree. We do not have room to keep gifts under the tree; we bring them up as they are about to be opened.

Holiday Decorations

Today we take the first steps toward getting the holiday house turned back into the house we love the other 11 months. A few images of the decor seem appropriate, starting with the Disney tree in the living room, and the shelf above the large-screen TV. Last night I watched a 1968 BONANZA rerun, in which Charles Dickens came to visit the Cartwrights and Virginia City. As you see in the image, that shelf holds a special holiday Dickens Village collection. Good thing Dickens in the TV photo could not see up and out of the screen; it might have been traumatic!

NEW YEAR'S CARD

The Happy New Year card I have written and illustrated for my friends at LvinigWell Cancer Resource Center. Enjoy the ride!

SUNDAY POSTER

A Very Merry Christmas

Just five days ago we had a family-and-friends party in preparation for Christmas. Here is a photo of Gianna and Joey, all excited for the upcoming visit from Santa. Tomorrow they will come back to our house for gifts, for dinner, for lots of fun. Christmas was great for me in the 1950s as a child, better in the 1980s as a Dad, and absolutely the best, now, as Poppa.
Here is hoping your day will be as wonderful as mine will.

Merry Christmas

"The true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart. . . . As I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who believe." If you have not watched THE POLAR EXPRESS as yet this year, Christmas Eve is the time to watch, to listen, and most of all to hear. Hear the bell, believe, and have a most Merry Christmas!

Vixen and Rudolph

Hours after posting a reindeer shot taken a year ago at Morton Arboretum, I spotted two deer just outside my fence in the back yard. I stepped out of the house, they looked at me in a pose, and I snapped the shot. I thought the first one was Vixen, but I only recognized the one on the right when I blew the photo up. Bet you can name him, too! Guess Santa is preparing for the possibility of fog this Christmas.

Christmas Transportation

One of Santa's reindeer was seen snacking at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. Certainly tamer than the average wild deer, Donder (I think) continued munching as I snapped more than one photo.

Have a good flight tomorrow night; make sure to get to Gianna & Joey and to Carolyn & Bobby. To me, they are the heart of Christmas!

Geese at Sunset

My final two sunset pictures at West Branch look quiet, but the geese were not as much at rest as they look here. One and then another honked and honked for a good ten minutes, the sound dying with the light.

After I had turned away from the water and headed toward the car, the wonder of a set of branches etched into the darkening sky became the last image of the shoot.

Thin Line of Color

As the sun continued to set at West Branch, darkness set in and the sunset line condensed to a thin stripe of color. The impression was one that perhaps the sunlight, such as it was, was shrinking in tightly to preserve a bit of the warmth. Coldly impressive.

DuPage River West Branch

Shortly after my trip to Meacham Grove, I wound up at the West Branch Forest Preserve, a part of the DuPage River, for some fading twilight shots. Love the drama of the changing light.

SUNDAY POSTER

This week our poster is in the form of a Christmas Card. I wrote this poem and selected this picture to donate to the LivingWell Cancer Resource Center in Geneva. It will be posted on their Facebook site as well. It conveys some of the difficulty of fighting cancer . . . but also the strength that fuels so many cancer fighters and survivors.
Merry Christmas!

Shooting Star?

As the sun finally disappeared, on the only evening all week that would light up the sunset sky, I caught my favorite shot of the day. A shooting star? Meteor? Or a vapor trail of a jet? What difference does it make if the image is worthwhile?

Light Thickens

As a former English teacher, I was well-known for loving Shakespeare, whether in book form or live on stage. He was a master of great writing, of course, with towering stories of powerful heroes and villains. But he was also a master of that perfect image, that one detail that really works.

I watched the wintry night falling over the horizon and I thought of one of the greatest tragedies, MACBETH: Light thickens, and the crow makes way to the rooky wood. Never saw a crow that evening, but the scene was set perfectly for one. Light does indeed "thicken."

Lone Walker

As the sun sinks toward the horizon, another shot of the dramatic sky at Meacham Grove. Meanwhile, the only other sign of human visitors in the preserve trudges in the direction of the parking lot. I would be soon to follow!

Sunset Seed Pod

Another view of the recent sunset at Meacham Grove, along with a staple of forest preserve photography. Some of the seed pods growing in the preserves are beautiful, complex works of art. Perhaps all of them are.

Heading South

Shortly before sunset, we see an asphalt trail, covered in well-trodden snow, rounding a stately tree. Naturally, the formation of geese flying by were headed south.

I'll Follow the Sun(set)

Fortunate to be so busy with photo shoots that I had not been out on a just-for-me shoot, no client or agenda. Last week an afternoon gave me that narrow window of time to catch a late-fall-early-winter sunset or two. No need to drive far, the sun sets everywhere. I went to Meacham Grove right here in Bloomingdale. This week we will look at some of the images I collected.

All we need is a setting sun, a hill and a tree.

SUNDAY POSTER

Perhaps my favorite Old Testament quote. Some dark days during two cancers can instill some fear into anyone; this quote steeled me through a few. It had to be paired with this eternal flame. Perhaps it will work the same way for you.

Classics

Downtown Chicago architecture features every sort of building. The first of these, shown with the Artist's Snack Shop on the first floor, was originally a Studebaker factory. Yes, they built cars right on Michigan Avenue, with the process beginning with parts of the top floor and the final product emerging down on the ground level. The other image shows the classic frontage of a turn-of-the-century building a century ago, when windows were so much more important than they are today. Windows were the major method of lighting and cooling at the time, and bay windows provide more of both of these.

Reflections

Two images collected by seeing the beauty of reflections. Modern architecture often seeks to make buildings fit into existing skylines, and reflective windows are perfect for the job.

Riverfront

One of the more fascinating and unique things to see in Chicago is the water curtain developed as a memento for the centennial of a great engineering feat. Every river in the world save one drains into a lake or an ocean. The Chicago River was reversed and now ultimately drains into the Mississippi River. The water curtain is launched from a Sanitary District memorial on the banks of the river just west of the locks that generate the change.
Nearby is Lake Point Tower, a majestic high-rise residential building just west of Navy Pier. I often have wondered how difficult it might be to decorate and furnish rooms that are all rounded.

Wrigley Building

Directly across Michigan Avenue from Tribune Towers, the white Wrigley Building is an anchor for the north bank of the river. Bathed in bright light at night, the tower stands tall on a sunny day as well.

Clock towers are interesting to me, reminding us of the time when most people did not have watches, let along BlackBerries and iPhones and so many other electronic time devices.

Water Tower & Marina City

Two towers from downtown Chicago. The Water Tower hardly seems tall enough to be called a tower today, surrounded by high-rises on every side, but 14 decades ago it was indeed the north side tower which marks the edge of the devastation of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Several blocks away, the corncob-look twin towers of Marina City have been a mainstay of the River North area for over 40 years.

River Neighbors

This week we will look into some photos from a collection of Chicago Architecture visits over a period of years. We begin with a pair of shots of the Merchandise Mart, right downtown along the Chicago River. In the lower image, we see the Mart from the south bank of the river in its familiar configuration.
The upper image looks back toward the south, and at the building directly across the river at the fork, where it splits into south and north branches. Built in the modern reflective style, we see the Mart along the left side of the image. Buildings featuring such large mirrored surfaces are in part designed to fit into any skyline, reflecting the neighboring buildings clearly.

SUNDAY POSTER

In choosing the poster to share this week, I came upon one that brought a smile to my face as I thought about the passing of Cub hero Ron Santo. I see him at a ballpark in heaven, today . . . a Sunday, just as his first Cub game was on a Sunday. I see him with legs, with spring in his step, without cancer, trotting out to third base. All the greats he will be playing with up there, the true Hall of Fame, and he will certainly be kicking his heels after every win.

And then I see my dear grandfather, Louis Mezner, who has been attending games there since he left us in 1974, seeing the rookie and remembering watching Santo back on earth back in the 60s. Watching with me. Enjoy the games, Grandpa Mezner!

SUNDAY POEM

One of my poem posters for LivingWell Cancer Resource Center. While the photo is too summery to be right for the season, living our lives well is truly the essence of the season. We all live in GIFT TIME, don't we?