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.