On the Fox

A recent foray along the Fox River in St. Charles yielded some winter photos from this strange winter, with higher temperatures than normal and a small amount of snowfall. We begin right in town with the statue honoring Native Americans from the area, ever watchful along the Fox.

Winter Continues

Years ago, my grandmother loved to visit Morton Arboretum. While it looked like a big park of some kind, I was more interested in parks with climbing structures and swings. Now I appreciate the beauty of the Outdoor Museum of Woody Plants, located only a mile from the high school I taught at for nearly four decades. Wonderful landscapes are in view at every time of the year there.

During the week after Christmas, I drove down to the Arboretum, built by the Morton family, so famous for salt. Arriving just before that blue hour, the time of the power of the sunset, I saw many trees, roads, snowy hillsides, walkers -- and one buck who seemed as interested in me as I was in him. Since I shot with a 300 mm telephoto lens, I was not close enough to scare him off. He was close enough to fascinate me.

Looking back through my winterscapes, it is clear that winter has its beauty as much as any other season. Good lesson to remember.

More winterscapes

With the Chicago weatherman tossing out scary stories of 6" or more of snow on Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever it gets around to it, a post of some snowy pictures seems to be in order. The snow-laden branches are in my yard; that is a burning bush. The snow-filled creek leads into Mallard Lake, a local forest preserve where dogs were allowed to run off-leash and lots of fishermen seem to have good luck.

Next post should have perhaps one more pair of winterscapes, coming soon.

Winterscapes

It was great fun for me to return to Alaska over several weeks to post photos and relive the great trip. Now, to head in another direction, my first thought was an earlier trip -- Manhattan? The Caribbean? Las Vegas? And certainly we will return to travel. But I wanted to move in a different direction for a while.

Landscape photography is a staple for all ages. Black-and-white, full color, film or digital, the photo that captures a place and records it for the future is a wonderful pastime or profession. As it is wintry February in Chicago, I thought I would post a few winterscapes to see if they remind viewers of places they have seen.

The black-and-white was taken in 1976 on color slide film and more recently digitized and reworked into the appropriate b&w. It was a small woods near my first house. The color image is actually from my yard on one of those icy days.

The next post will look at another pair of winterscapes. It might include a poem or two as well.