Winter at the Garden

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS: CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 22, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 18-135mm
ISO 100

1/80 sec f11 60mm

1/200 sec. f11 78mm

1/40 sec. f18 40mm

The first snow of the season had come to the Garden the day before—heavy and wet, followed by an overnight plunge in temperature into the teens. Normally I'm not a landscape photographer, but these scenes were too striking to pass up.

Great Blue

GREAT BLUE HERON, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/320 sec. f9
ISO 400

Just as the Garden opened this morning at 8, this Great Blue posed nicely just outside the Welcome Center. The low morning light resulted in saturated colors, which I muted using Lightroom to make the bird pop out of the foliage. I wish I had had a 300mm telephoto to cut down the range, but the Tamron-and-extender combination on the K-3 gave sufficient sharpness that allowed some pretty hard cropping of the image.

Footbridge

FOOTBRIDGE, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3

90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)

1/1600 sec. f10

ISO 1600

In the original frame, power wires and a large building marred the background. Cropping top and bottom hard and turning the photograph into a faux panoramic shot improved things.

Leaves and grasses

TREE LEAVES AND TALL GRASSES, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/2500 sec. f10
ISO 1600

Shooting toward the early morning sun sometimes results in a combination of backlighting and deep shadow that dramatically stages the subject.

Leaves

FLOATING LEAVES, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/1000 sec. f10
ISO 1600

A stray bit of "Jesus light," as photographers call rays of sun concentrated through holes in clouds or foliage, settled upon a single maple leaf in this floating pile and made it stand out just long enough for its portrait to be taken.

Shoreline with bench

SHORELINE WITH BENCH, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro with 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/500 sec. f8
ISO 1600

The composition of the grasses lining the garden lagoon would have been humdrum had it not been for the reflection of the bench at the bottom of the photo.

Mallard toilette

MALLARD, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax converter (126mm)
1/250 sec. f10
ISO 1600

Mallards are ever so plentiful in parks with ponds, and photographs of them draw mostly yawns. Once in a while, though, sunlight, pose and placement can combine to provide a photograph that lifts the subject out of the ordinary.

Leaf

AUTUMN LEAF, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
90mm Tamron macro plus 1.4x Pentax extender (126mm)
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 1600

The fall colors in Northern Illinois, say the people who referee such things, are slightly past their peak. Maybe so, but they're still fairly spectacular all over the Botanic Garden. I'm not sure what species this leaf is, but it looks as if it might be a variety of maple.