Cardinal

MALE CARDINAL, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, MARCH 9, 2021

Sony A7Riii

Sigma 100-400 DG DN at 400mm

1/1250 f8

ISO 400

Having gone from Pentax APS-C size to Sony full-frame  format, this is one of my first efforts with the new Alpha A7Riii camera and a new Sigma 100-400mm full-frame zoom lens. The scene is the sidewalk under the bird feeder in the waterfall garden at Three Crowns Park.

Daybreak No. 5

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 28mm
1/2500 sec. f8
ISO 800

This is a faux high-dynamic-range photo created with Lightroom 5.0. One simply racks the highlights slider all the way to the left and the shadows slider all the way to the right, then lightens the photo by half a stop or so. Next, one adds a bit of contrast with the Clarity slider, then deepens the blue with that color's Saturation and Luminance sliders. Last, one sharpens the photo slightly and smooths out the noise.

Fall colors

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, OCTOBER 4, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 36mm
1/800 sec. f9
ISO 800

Even at midafternoon on a cold and overcast day, there are good shots to be found at the Lake of the Clouds when the fall color season is only about a week away from its peak.

Daybreak No. 4

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, OCTOBER 1, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 21mm
1/125 sec. f8
ISO 1600

"Fire in the sky" would have been a more appropriate title for this shot of the Lake of the Clouds. It was 8:04 a.m. EDT when the sun finally peeked above the ridge line. Deborah Abbott captured the image.

Daybreak No. 3

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 88mm
1/160 sec. f8
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott captured this view of another photographer atop the escarpment above the Lake of the Clouds. It was the third consecutive dawn we spent at the site, hoping that a dramatic screen of clouds would form in the distance to add color and interest to the scene. It didn't, but we didn't come away empty-handed, either.

Daybreak No. 2

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 135mm
1/25 sec. f8
ISO 400

Another "barenaked," or nearly cloudless, break of day at the Lake of the Clouds was saved by low fog in the hills that added a touch of Georgia O'Keeffe style to the composition.

Daybreak No. 1

LAKE OF THE CLOUDS, PORCUPINE MOUNTAINS WILDERNESS STATE PARK, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 68mm
1/40 sec. f8
ISO 400

Deborah Abbott captured this view of the celebrated Lake of the Clouds just before the sun peeked over the horizon. I opened up the shadows in Lightroom and slightly saturated the red, yellow, orange and blue to make the composition more dramatic.

Hybrid transportation

MULES NEAR ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 2000

These two beasts belonging to Upper Michigan hobbyist-mule skinner Dale Venema posed for their portrait by a country road. They are often put to work dragging freshly felled logs through the woods and giving small children sleigh rides at Christmastime.

Valves

OLD FIRE ENGINE VALVES, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 31, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 107.5mm
1/250 sec. f8
ISO 400

The bronze piping and fittings on a restored 1929 Stoughton fire truck belonging to the Ontonagon Volunteer Fire Department glowed in the morning sunlight before the town's annual Labor Day festival opened.

She serves and protects

DEPUTY AND CHILD, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 31, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 88mm
1/1250 sec. f8
ISO 1250

Yes, the image is marred by the harsh shadow the child's head throws across the deputy's face, but subject and tone largely seem to overcome the flaw. The young woman seems to be the newest hire in the Ontonagon Couty Sheriff's Department.

Overgrown

VACANT HOUSE, ONTONAGON, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 18, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 40mm
1/2000 sec. f7.1
ISO 1600

One of many vacant and abandoned houses in the struggling small town of Ontonagon, Michigan, this one has been empty for so many years, perhaps decades, that the yard plantings have all but overwhelmed its front, making it look like a dwelling in a Brothers Grimm tale.

Kitchen corner

KITCHEN CORNER, RESTORED MINER'S HOUSE, OLD VICTORIA NEAR ROCKLAND, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 18, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 24mm
1/200 sec. f7.1
ISO 1600

It took some work with Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 to save this photograph, which was badly underexposed, resulting in almost black interior shadows. First I turned the Highlights slider all the way to the left and the Shadows slider all the way to the right, then opened up the exposure by almost two stops and added zip with the Contrast slider. A little sharpening and denoising, and the picture was done.

Window

WINDOW IN RESTORED MINER'S HOUSE, OLD VICTORIA NEAR ROCKLAND, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 18, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 78mm
1/8000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

This study in colors and textures—vertical cedar shake siding, old horizontal hewn logs, plaster chinking, flat window casings, and a lace curtain—immediately appealed to me when I arrived at the Old Victoria historical site. Although the K-5 yields very good image quality at ISO 1600, if I had remembered to do so I would have dialed the ISO down to 200 or 400 to get even better IQ.

Curtain

LACE CURTAIN IN WINDOW, OLD VICTORIA HISTORICAL SITE NEAR ROCKLAND, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 18, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 78mm
1/2000 sec. f11
ISO 1600

The sunlight through the window struck the simple but intricate lace of the curtain in the old miner's shack just right, giving it an interesting texture against the out-of-focus grass outside. Click on the photo for a larger version that gives the best texture.

Copper teapot

TEAPOT, OLD VICTORIA HISTORIC SITE NEAR ROCKLAND, MICHIGAN, AUGUST 18, 2013

Pentax K-5
Pentax 18-135 at 31mm
1/100 sec. f11
ISO 1600

Old copper utensils and ancient wood stoves are a magnet for still-life photographers, and this tableau in one of the restored miner's houses at the Old Victoria historic site called to me as a study in color, light and shadow.

Backyard intruder

GARDEN GNOME IN FRESH SNOW, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Pentax K-5
Pentax-DA 18-135 at 78mm
1/400 sec. f8
ISO 400

Another capture from Deborah Abbott's foray onto the breast of the new-fallen snow a few days ago. This little fellow lives in our immediate neighbor's back yard.

Think they mean it?

SIGNAGE ON LAKE SUPERIOR BEACH NEAR SILVER CITY, MICHIGAN, MAY 30, 2010

Pentax K20D
SMC Pentax-F* 300mm f4.5 ED (IF)
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 400

Notwithstanding riparian right-of-way laws that permit folks to walk on the beaches of Lake Superior, the owner of this property seems to have his own views. Or maybe his lawyers advised him to CYA for liability reasons. In any event, these stern signs are daily honored in the breach by beach hikers, and the local wolves seem to keep any watchdogs scarce.

Carolus Linnaeus

SCULPTURE OF CAROLUS LINNAEUS, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2010

Pentax K10D
Tamron SP AF 90mm DI Macro
1/750 sec. f8
ISO 400

Robert Berks's huge bronze sculpture of the Swedish botanist Linnaeus (1707-1778), done in 1982, famously anchors the northeast corner of the Heritage Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It's always photographable, and in early afternoon a high sun vividly set off the rough planes of the bronze against the sky.

Mare's tails

HIGH CIRRUS IN THE CHIHUAHUAN DESERT EAST OF EL PASO, TEXAS, JANUARY 26, 2010

Pentax K20D
Sigma 17-70 DC at 17mm
1/250 sec. f11
ISO 400

I took this shot from my sleeper window on the westbound Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited. The train's windows were dirty, but holding the camera to the glass until the lens hood almost touched it helped keep specks of grime from showing up in the photograph. A little post processing deepened the blue of the sky and outlined the fine tendrils of the clouds.

Smithy

BLACKSMITH SHED, HANKA FINNISH HOMESTEAD MUSEUM NEAR BARAGA, MICHIGAN, JULY 21, 2009

Pentax K10D
Sigma 17-70 at 58mm
1/90 sec. f9.5
ISO 400

Conventional wisdom is that it's not good to photograph a house full on, but at an angle instead, the better to get an interplay of light and shadow. Still it seemed worth breaking the rule to capture the astonishing texture of the logs and remnants of cedar-shake siding on this century-old building in Upper Michigan. Click the photo for more detail.