Afloat in Lake Superior

DEBBY SWIMMING IN LAKE SUPERIOR, GREEN, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

DJI Mini 2
DJI 4.49mm lens (24mm equiv.)
1/500 f2.8
ISO 100

Camera drone photos can be aesthetic as well as fun, and I think this is the best one I've taken yet. I hovered the Mini 2 at about 100 feet above Debby as she swam with a pool noodle. In post processing I doubled the image resolution from 4000 x 3000 pixels to 8000 x 6000 for a little better detail, which really cannot be seen here.

Juggling nuthatch

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 23, 2022

Sony a7Riii
Sigma 100-400 at 333mm
1/1260 sec. f8
ISO 1600

This quicksilver little nuthatch seems to be shaking cayenne pepper off a sunflower seed plucked from a feeder. The hot cayenne discourages rodents from raiding the feeder but does not affect birds. The image was cropped hard from a much larger photograph.

Chippie on a pole

CHIPMUNK, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 17, 2022

Sony A7Riii
Sigma 100-400 DG DN at 400mm
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Even the lowly and extremely common chipmunk can make a good backyard wildlife portrait when captured in an unusual pose, like a pole dancer in a honky-tonk. This one dashed up a bird feeder standard before stopping to make sure I wasn't a threat.

Hairy Woodpecker

HAIRY WOODPECKER, GREEN, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 21, 2022

Sony A7Riii
Sigma 100-400 at 400mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Few birds greeted us on our second trip to the UP this summer, because we hadn't been feeding them. Only chickadees and white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches came to call at the feeders . . . until at last this fine specimen of a female hairy woodpecker landed on a suet cage.

Fishing boat at Ketchikan

FISHING BOAT IN APPROACH TO KETCHIKAN, ALASKA, JUNE 22, 2022
Pentax K-3

Sigma 18-250 at 73mm

1/500 sec. f8

ISO 400

Once in a while it's fun to return to the ten-year-old APS-C format Pentax K-3 and its lenses, which still give superb photo quality when the frame is left uncropped. A previous passing ship left wake "stripes" that make this photo more interesting than a completely flat sea would have.

Main drag of Skagway

MAIN STREET, SKAGWAY, ALASKA, JUNE 29, 2O22

Sony A7Riii

Sony 28-60 AT 60mm

1/1600 sec. f8

ISO 400

My new 28-60mm kit lens—the smallest and lightest one Sony makes—turned out to be a very good performer in this street shot in the Alaska town. I was pleased with its tack sharpness and vivid color rendition in the sunlight. The air was a bit hazy on this rare sunny day in June, but that didn't hurt the photo at all.

Perils of the WP&Y

ROUNDING A CORNER ON THE WHITE PASS & YUKON, JUNE 23, 2022

Sony A7Riii

Tamron 28-200 at 65mm

1/1000 f8

ISO 1600

Just before the train plunged into a tunnel, I leaned over a railing and caught this shot of the rear of our White Pass & Yukon narrow-gauge tourist train rounding a curve in the high mountains between Skagway in Alaska and Carcross in Yukon Territory.

Feast of St. Lucia

FEAST OF ST. LUCIA, THREE CROWNS PARK, EVANSTON, ILL., DEC. 11, 2021

Sony A7Riii
Tamron 28-200 at 200mm 
1/25 f5.6
ISO 6400

One of my favorite shots from 2021, this photograph shows an actress sitting atop a stool and portraying St. Lucia while a chorus sang Swedish carols in the background. For the better part of an hour she held that pose without moving a muscle, enabling me to capture a sharp picture at a very slow shutter speed.