Archive for the Outdoor / Wildlife Category

Indiana Photography: Indiana Dunes

Today, we (Grant and Corey Hilz) explored some of the many state parks located at the Indiana Dune’s waterfront. It was hot with a lot of hiking involved, but once the sun started to set, the shots were worth the sore feet I had when I got home. In several of the sunset shots, the skyline of Chicago can be seen on the right side of the photo. I couldn’t believe you could see that skyline from where we were. I was grateful to capture some of it.

I had to play around with a lot of settings, as it’s easier to blow out the sky on sunsets than it is to capture some color. I also find it more difficult than it would seem to capture foregrounds, such as the shoreline, while trying not to completely blow out a shot. You have to work rather quickly once the sun gets low in the horizon, as you lose the light quickly, but I enjoyed trying to get a few shots while there was enough light to adjust the settings until I found a shot I liked. Though we got home really late (after midnight), I enjoyed making that trip and hope to make it again next summer.

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Indiana Photography: Bridges and Barns

While nature photographer Corey Hilz was here, he wanted to shoot some country scenes, so I took him out to do what Ginny and I like to do–roam around the country roads until we see something interesting. On this trip, we found some bridges and barns. Corey spends several minutes (up to an hour) setting up a scene shot. He uses his tripod and waits for all the right elements to fall into place. He’ll wait half an hour for the clouds to line up as he wants them. Those who know me know I tend to show signs of ADHD, so I’m not as patient as Corey; however, I did try to pay more attention to my lines, the sky, and composition. Here are a few shots of our day of shooting bridges and barns.

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Indiana Photography: Corn and Country Roads

As noted in other entries, Ginny and I like to hit the country roads and take pictures. For some reason, on this day, we tended to take photos of roads and corn. Maybe it’s because the lines popped out at us, or maybe we were just craving corn on the cob. We ended our day taking shots of some wild flowers along the side of the road. Ginny took several pictures of bees pollinating the flowers. Their wings move so quickly that it was difficult to get a focused shot. Ginny claims she needs to purchase a certain lens from her dream list, so she can take more close-ups of bugs. She did seem to like those bees. She also likes to take wooden posts and signs along the road. We might need to avoid the pictures of signs that say “Private Property.” We tend to not pay attention to details that could get us in trouble. We promise that we don’t cross that particular line and we do stay off private property, however. Hope you enjoy some of lines we discovered among the roads and the rows of corn. 

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Culver Indiana Photography: Country Shots

We like to get in the car and roam around the country roads around Culver and take pictures of whatever we see. Ginny was reading a photoblog of a photographer in Pennsylvania who shoots only within a 15-mile radius of her home. So, we thought we’d try to do the same thing to see what surrounds Culver. What we discovered is that there is beauty all around us. Our first trip out found us wandering the cornfield-lined roads for hours. Included here are a few shots of what we found. We hope it’ll inspire you to take a few minutes to “wander Indiana.” On our route, we saw a woman collecting wild flowers. We found this simple task to have its own inherent beauty. Ginny decided to ask her permission to photograph her as she rode her bike away from us. She smiled and said, “I guess that would be okay.” If for some reason she finds her way to this blog, we hope she will see the beauty we saw in her as she traveled down the road on this day.

 

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Bahamas Vacation Photography: Cat Island

For Ginny’s birthday, I surprised her with a trip to Cat Island. She had no idea where we were going until we reached the airport. It was a lot of fun keeping that one a secret from her. We arrived in Nassau where we had honeymooned about 14 years earlier. We spent one night there, and then we took a small (and I mean small) airplane to Cat Island. Cat Island has literally no commercial development on it. It’s considered and “out” island, in that it’s out there in the Bahamas. :) We had the beach there to ourselves, and we had a chef who prepared our meals. Each afternoon after lunch, the chef would ask what we wanted for dinner. She’d tell us what fresh foods they had on hand, and then she’d prepare these incredibly wonderful meals. We had no television to speak of, so we laid by the beach and read books. In fact, I read photgraphy books while Ginny read fiction for the first time in years. (Ginny is an editor and reads all the time, but she doesn’t often have time to read fiction.) It was, as Ginny says, “The most relaxing time I’ve ever had.” We highly recommend a trip to this part of the world if you seek only the sounds of the ocean, the dogs running down the beach, and your spouse. It was the best vacation I’ve ever taken with Ginny. She claims the same, so I’m sure we’ll be going back. I hope the photos reflect the beauty and relaxation we found on this trip.

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