Kline Creek Farm

Cloudy, gray, unattractive. Rainy. And cold. The weather on Saturday a week ago had pretty much talked me out of heading to Kline Creek Farm for a photo visit during the Ice Harvesting Season. But when I went to the mailbox, it felt passable outdoors, the rain was slackening, and I decided to give it a try. An excellent idea as it turned out.
A reasonable hike through snow gave me a view of the 1890s farm house, and I picked up a lucky picture of a horse shoe print on the way. In the next post we will see the historical concept of harvesting natural ice in the winter to save for use during the spring and summer. Careful on the ice!

Flight

Only a moment more, and it was time. Off he flew. I was pleased with one of these two images immediately; the other looked like a 'just missed' shot, but in the days since I have come to love it, too. It sure shows the terrific beauty in the intracy of the feathers.
As he flies off, we head to Kline Creek Farm to harvest some ice.

Still Posing

My hawk shot as posted yesterday was unexpected; I never thought he would wait for me. But then he kept watching, posing, so I snapped another. I can't decide whether I like yesterday's or today's better. But in both cases I enjoyed developing the vector images (cartoon styles) that join them.
The hawk flies in the next post.

Across Maple Lake

At Meacham Grove, an asphalt loop runs around Maple Lake beginning quite near to the parking lot. In January, the path is all ice, flattened by many feet but not conducive to running or walking quickly. I had walked up and started to the left, thne noticed a light color smudge in the bare trees across the lake. Through the telephoto, I could tell it was a large bird, probably a hawk, but I was too far away for a decent shot. Waiting, I did see the bird fly a short route to another branch, still across the lake. I waited again, then set out, walking carefully and assuming I would never make it around the lake, perhaps a half-mile trudge. As this image shows, I did make it.
The Red-Tail waited, posed, stared at me. I got at least two close shots I like and I had some fun with generating a vector image from this one. The other shot is set for the next post.

Frozen Bench

Even the sunny day in January is generally quiet, with the park bench not nearly so welcoming in the snow as it would be in the summer sun.
Our Red-Tailed Hawk shows up in the next post.

Meacham Grove

Meacham Grove Forest Preserve in Roselle and Bloomingdale is another nice place to visit on a sunny day in winter. Here are a pair of sun-soaked tree photos.

Extreme Color

Color and Texture are fun to experiment with in the camera and in Photoshop. Here wee see a stylized silhouette of trees and sky from Spring Creek Reservoir, color pushed and varied in the laptop, along with a convenient and interesting closeup of a hand-drying pillar at the DuPage Children's Museum. A always look for interesting colors and textures in my photos.
Next post moves to Meacham Grove in Bloomingdale for a nice closeup of a Red-Tailed Hawk.

Color

Lots of color is generated in winterscapes under the bright sun, which has been pretty rare in the Chicago area all this month. The blue shades inherent in the snow blanket is there to backdrop everything else.
These images are from Spring Creek Reservoir. From there we headed to Meacham Grove, just west on Lake Street.

Hope of Spring

Once that single sunny day comes about in January, it is likely that the beauty of winter might dovetail with that look of spring not here but on its way. With the sun lower in the sky, the 'golden hour' of photography comes earlier and the rays of the sun are softer.
It might be the wider angle that shows the early-setting sun. It might show the path that later will be filled with walkers and joggers. Ot it might be the drips in the puddles under the picnic pavilion. These shots show the promise of nicer weather.

Sunny Day in Winter

The Chicago area has been socked in by clouds and fog for much of the first three weeks of January, but Tuesday this week was a one-day respite from gloom and clouds. Takaing advantage of it, I grabbed the Nikon and spend a portion of the afternoon at a pair of nearby forest preserves.
DuPage County has wonderful forest preserves, and the first one I visited was Spring Creek Reservoir. Here are the first two looks at a sunny day in winter.

Jump For Joy

In one area after another, Gianna & Joey seemed to jump for joy as they played, experimented, felt and listened and touched. The visit was a true joy for the grandparents who have actually been back to the museum already.
The comment so graciously appended to yesterday's post was marked on the site at the very time we were driving to the museum with Joey. Gianna is busy in first grade, so she was not with us and I opted not to bring the camera. I have already made contact with Allsion, the writer, and am now anticipating joining the museum's volunteer staff to contribute photography. A great coincidence of time and a wonderful opportunity to assist a most wonderful organization. Thank you!

Mirrors

Anyone can enjoy a good set of mirrors set up for fun and the various mirrors at the DuPage Children's Museum are no exception. Kids laughing, surrounded by . . . themselves!

More Exploration

Pull yourself up to peek over the edge. Walk down the hallway. Get your hands on tools or get them wet in bubbly water. Hear sounds. No other place is as tactile and enjoyable as the DuPage Children's Museum. And the children just call it fun.

Exploring

Every way you turn, children find something interesting to explore and experiment with at the DuPage Children's Museum.

Bubbles

One of the features of the water room at the DuPage Children's Museum would be the chance to make and break bubbles. Bubbles of all sizes -- big enough to be inside of -- and all shapes will allow every child to have fun with bubbles.

Water Park

At two, Joey is not using the word museum so much. When we left the DuPage Children's Musuem, he referred to it as the 'Water Park.' With two large areas for the children to don aprons (holding down the effect of splashes) and play with water, it is a highlight of the museum. Gianna crawled under the water course to pop up in a bubble where other children sprayed at her. Joey was busy concentrating on pouring.

Gotta Love the Goggles

As noted in the previous post, the goggles provided in the wood workshop and other locations within the DuPage Children's Museum are there as safety tools. But they sure do yield some great photos!
We wondered whether the dynamic duo would mind wearing the goggles, but they did not mind at all. It just quickly became part of the experience.

Wood Shop

It is all fun and games at the DuPage Children's Museum, but it certainly look like work in the wood shop. With wood blocks in a bin, each child gets a workbench with a vise and access to a saw, screwdrivers, hammers, sandpaper, nails & screws. And labels to attach the to items they make which can be taken home.
And goggles. Each child gets goggles. For safety, of course, but I found the goggles to look great in my photos as well!
By the way, today marks the first day of my second year in blogging. On this date a year ago I gave it a start, hoping for one post per week. I wound up with nearly one post per day and have no plans to stop. Enjoy!

Art That Fits

Inside and out, the DuPage Children's Museum is attractive to the eye. Here we see an excellent wall decoration filled with details about how things work and how they work by interaction. And here we also see the statuary across the front of the outside of the building, which is interesting and attractive in its own right. Even better for me, my grandson Joey loves Choo Choos and asked Santa for Choo Choos this past Christmas. Needless to say, Santa came through.

Great Museum

When I was young, I always liked going places, and living in Chicago gave my family several museums to visit. I liked them all, but I recall some of them being very static, where quiet people walked down quiet aisles reading and looking at dusty display cases. One was different: the Musuem of Science and Industry had buttons to push, telephones to listen to, things to do. Fun things to do that promoted learning.
That institution is as good as ever, but this weekend we took two of our grandchildren to the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville. Suffice it to say that an hour after our arrival, I went back to the desk to exchange my one-day admission for a full year's membership which includes all four grandchildren. A bargain, loaded with fun and lots of learning. Some images from the museum in the next few days.

European Flyovers

Our last aviation photos in this series are two from a flyover we saw in Europe last July. Perhaps it was Paris; it might have been Berlin or Helsinki. I could look through the location albums, but it is more enjoyable to watch the planes fly and remember all of the wonderful cities we visited in 2009.
A new topic is scheduled for tomorrow.

More Private Planes

Occasionally a private plane will appear to be radically different in design when seen parked at a smaller airport. The one parked here looks almost like a cross between a plane and a helicopter. The likely thing, though, is that it will look a lot like others when it is in flight.

Private Planes

DuPage County Airport and Schaumburg Airport are both closer to my home than O'Hare is, and some interesting shots are avaiable there. As was the case with the pontoon planes in Alaska, the size of the planes and of the airports allows the photographer to get in close for these photos.

Into the Sky

Boring winter clouds forming a completely gray sky this morning make it enjoyable for me to look at some blue sky -- backdropping another pair of airplane photos.

Flying High

At O'Hare there are so many takeoffs and landings that there will be something to see every few seconds. Literally.

Yonder

More views from the daily Irving Park Road aircraft exhibit, which most drivers drive under without stopping to watch. Including me, most days!