Briefly, in Mid-February - 2/17/16

Classical symphonies, sonatas, and fugues cracked over the radio of a Dodge Caravan en route thirty minutes outside of the city. Time was precious, but so was getting in a quick hike on a rare sunny Wednesday during one of the coldest months in the Midwest.
My friend Chris and I took our cameras on a simple little jaunt through a small section of snow-filled landscape. The groundcover was loose,  powdery, and often glittering; and offered some traction over the slick layers of ice beneath the snow on the trails. Across the snowscape, we noticed tracks of deer, rabbits, hikers and their happy canine companions. We had been here many times before, and in fact Chris was the friend who had showed me this place many years ago.

Because duty called, it was a quick walk. All the times I had been to Indian Lake, I had noticed some ruins of an old homestead across the street from the entrance. A passerby on the trails earlier had mentioned that the spot was seemingly popular to photographers.  I think the best way to capture the rubble was against a stark white landscape and a cornflower blue sky. I do not know the identity of this property or to whom it once belonged, but there were once humans here making a life for themselves. To think about that and who they could possibly be, is almost enough to know about this space and its history.

 I discovered a wonderful gallery of icicles that had formed behind the shed or barn (the more intact of the two structures). As photographers, we reacted to these formations like we were children at a zoo gazing at some exotic creature. These are just collections of frozen water to many, but they are an artistic opportunity to paint with light and shadow by the use of lenses to us.

 

Bleak Mid-Week, Mid-December Adventures - 12/16/15

Everything feels off lately, especially with this 50-60 degree weather going on in what is supposed to be a Wisconsin winter. Instead, it more feels like springtime in Seattle. The landscape is brown, wet, colorless, and lifeless...there's not much to look at.

As a creative, it is vital that I do not let the not-aesthetically environment keep me from being uninspired to make work. If anything, I owe it to myself to stay motivated and find something in these conditions...I need to at least try.

At first we tried the river, the water was torrential but there was no good way to get down the steep hill to the riverbank, it was best to let the water move and be mesmerizing over a still capture. The wind was biting, anyways. Continuing to drive through the rural countryside, we found a quaint chapel in the center of a graveyard surrounded by flat farmland. We decided to stop and step foot in this moldy chapel with a charming old pipe organ that no longer worked. We took a few shots here, and decided to call it a day.

We may not have found much, but we found something.

Spontaneous Portraits (Summer 2015)

Sometimes you just need to ask to take pictures of people to stay inspired. It helps when your friends are these people. Here's a look back to that impromptu photoshoot from Late July.

Of course, we ended our day with pizza.

Favorites from Summer 2015

Not everyone values photography with the same intensity as a person in the field may.  Regardless, I discover the importance of capturing memories in this manner when it's an icy, rainy, gray November day and I'm huddled in my sweatshirt nasty and congested. I think back to summer, taking my camera everywhere from sun-up to sun-down, capturing whatever caught my eye. I miss that presence of sunshine that goes away so early this time of year.

Here are just a few of my favorites I took from this summer.