09/14/10 Winds of Change

Harvest time at this local
wind farm near Camp Grove, IL

Over the last two weeks I've visited local wind farms east of Bradford, IL and near Camp Grove, IL. I ended up with a few stellar photos to my liking. I don't know why some people are such downers on wind energy. Heck, some can't even stand to even see them in the horizon. I'm not one of those people though and enjoy photographing these wind farms whenever I have some down-time. Anyhow, since it's "harvest time" I figured it was a perfect opportunity to get into these Illinois farm fields and right up next to these wind turbines. These wind farms can be quite photogenic on a daily basis if your passionate about photography. I've posted many photos below:

One of my favorite shots!

Wind power at work along this Illinois prairie

Harvested farm field (perspective shot)

Soy beans (foreground) providing a
spectacular fall landscape

On the road to renewable energy...

Farm field showing tell-tale signs
of the recent change in season

Hard to believe I took this shot here in Illinois...

Here I took two photos that were just average, but look at the results you can gain by goin' black & white. I rarely do any black & white photos, but here are a couple that can also be compared to the original "color" photo.

Original photo, but while taking this photo I pondered
what this would look like in black & white...

That's "old-school"!

An awesome original photograph...

Made even better!

One last portrait shot of the wind farm

That's all for my wind farm photos over the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to post fall foliage photos again this year. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for that future post here on my blog.

09/10/10 Summer: 2010

One of my favorite summer shots over the last

few weeks seen here west of Bradford, IL

Hard to believe autumn is already here folks. Where did the summer go? Talk bout livin' in fast-forward! What's crazy is I haven't updated/posted in nearly a month even though I've been meaning to do so. Bottom-line: too much work that rarely equates to any free time for myself these days. That doesn't mean however I didn't get a lil' bit of photography-work in over the last few weeks. Just not as much as I've been accustomed to in years past. Anyhow, since today officially kicked off fall with the autumnal equinox I figured why not post some photos I've taken over the last few months to remember what was the summer of 2010. Here are several photos for your viewing pleasure below:

A spider spinning its web (macro-lens)

Pampus Grass looking west toward the setting sun

Illinois prairies givin' my allergies a fit

Hibiscus nature shot (macro-lens)

One of my best moon photos to-date
(Canon telephoto-zoom lens)

These "sunflower/daisy-type" plants are
all over central Illinois right now

Beautiful sunset on the late-summer evening...

Here's a portrait shot that also turned out perfect

Butterfly (Painted Lady)

Garden Spider in the yard

Photogenic butterfly (macro-lens)

Below are some twilight photos that I took about a week ago on a crystal clear night around the yard to brush up on some low-light photography:

Starry skies & streaking traffic...

Our above-ground pool under a beautiful night sky

Pasture beneath the starry skies...

One last shot for the night...

Below are photos that I took during the labor day weekend earlier this month of some chaotic lighting that developed in a WAA (warm-air advection) regime:

Kewanee, IL got lit-up on this night...

One of those "gotcha" shots!

Cloud-to-cloud display as well looking out the backyard

Talk about erratic lighting...

Well that's all for this post. I'll be posting more photos though in the coming days. I ended up with a few spectacular wind farm pics over the last week or so. I'm quickly becoming fascinated with these wind farms since one of these may "pop-up" on some of our land by 2012. At least it's already in the works so to speak. I'll update and post those photos in the coming days.