Nora's Keyboard

The light on the keyboard, the open window, the orange door – it was a photo waiting to be taken.

Variations On A Urinal

Fine Art or Public Men's Room?

Shared Doorway

Green Heron

This Green Heron was hunting insects from the downed log in the marsh behind our park yesterday. The bird seemed to know that I couldn't get any closer – there was gooey mud and open water between us. My zoom lens was extended to its maximum 200 mm, which didn't get me as close as I would have liked, but then wildlife photography really isn't my forte.

I have photographed the Least Bittern in Texas,which, as it turns out is very similar in size and shape to the American Bittern, which is so closely matched to the size, shape and coloration of the Green Heron that I incorrectly identified it.

Thanks to my good friend Sharon for the correction.

Afternoon Scenics

A short walk down to the river this afternoon reminded me that we really do live in a beautiful part of the country.

Gorgeous summer days like today generally bring people out to the Fishing Bridge, even if the fish aren't biting.

Upriver the expansive clouds were even more dramatic. The thunderheads on the horizon are 50 to 60 miles away; probably floating over Grand Rapids.

Immediately behind the park a field of wildflowers stretches to fill in what was an overgrown woodlot last season.

Toward the back of this field, down in the cattails, a family of Sandhill Cranes hatched a pair of babies this summer. Within the past week, there have been sightings of adults teaching the young birds to fly from the wildflower field.

Incongruous Poppy

Such a delicate flower, sitting on an impossibly long, thin stem. Nevertheless, it stands tall in the aftermath of powerful winds and heavy rain to display its magnificence.

Two Sides of Buttermilk Creek

Life Force

Poplar Trees leaning to the right as a result of the dominant westerly winds blowing in from Lake Michigan.

Sundown in the Channel

Limestone boulders lying in the channel's edge near Lake Michigan at sundown. The nuance of pastel colors and symbolic turtles mating caught my eye. 

I bumped the vibrance just a bit in Photoshop CS5 and sharpened the photo with the "high pass" filter.