It may be the least effective barrier ever placed in a specific spot on this Earth ever, but it was placed there, and you should not… park there? Cross it? Protest? Approach construction workers?
August 6, 2016. Google Nexus 6P cell phone, focal length 4.67 (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/2, 1/1,800, ISO 60.
The closeup, or macro, lenses from Nikon are capable of a lot more than closeups, and they really excel at landscapes where there’s just one item you want to highlight. These purple asters are already quite pretty, but they’re really set off nicely from that colorful background thanks to the quality of the lens and the aperture’s wide setting. It’s a nice composition and a colorful image.
October 10, 2010. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/2.8, 1/2,500, ISO 640.
A crusty, gritty manhole cover uses holes to give a little leverage to the poor workers who have to lift it from its base. I loved the wear and tear, the color, the textures, the shapes. It had not yet snowed that season, so that road salt had been there for some time through wind and rainstorms.
October 14, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 13.3mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 70mm), f/2.6, 1/375, ISO 50.
In a beautiful old building in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, a century-old phone awaits callers trying to connect with the past.
November 6, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.6, 1/40, ISO 2,000.
I love how symmetrical the markings on this turtle’s face are, and how complex they look. Those stripes on its eyes are pretty badass, too. But it still manages to look pretty friendly as it checks out the crowd that had gathered to watch it. It didn’t do much, and it did it very slowly. But it looked pretty cool.
May 19, 2012. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/19, 1/125, ISO 400.
Once again from a trip down Calumet River, here’s another look at the mountains of road deicer stored along the riverbank, zoomed in quite a bit this time to give us an abstract in shades of blue and white. It feels a bit to me like a modernist painting, and it was one of the rare moments on the tour during which we saw colors that weren’t somewhere between gritty and rusty.
July 15, 2012. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/16, 1/350, ISO 200.
This photo makes me so happy. I thought I captured the moth approaching the milkweed plant as it paused while the wasp finished its business. But I wasn’t sure until I got home and went through the photos, and felt the joy of being in the right place at the right time and knowing how to take this picture on the fly. That’s why I love this photo.
July 28, 2012. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D90 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/8, 1/1,500, ISO 400.
Here’s another curiously named bird. I didn’t hear a note from this yellow warbler. We looked at each other for a moment and then it flew away. At least it’s cute.
June 2, 2019. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm lens at 400mm (35mm equivalent: 600mm), f/8, 1/1,000, ISO 560.
A frozen Lake Michigan is not a welcoming sight for returning travelers. But with both the lake and the clouds receding to the horizon and giving us interesting patterns to play with as we approach the lake shore en route to O’Hare, we get to enjoy the unusual sight of waves that don’t go anywhere.
January 20, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 6mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 23mm), f/1.35, 1/400, ISO 50.
Spending part of a cold afternoon at the nature preserve paid off when I spotted this kingfisher among some branches near the edge of the pond. I was happy to be able to photograph it at all, but once it started watching the pond more closely, I paid more attention, and while this picture isn’t perfect, it’s a decent little capture of a kingfisher about to score a koi on a chilly day.
November 13, 2022. Cropped from a larger image. Nikon D850 (FX sensor), Tamron 100–400mm at 400mm, f/8, 1/1,000, ISO 800.
“We traveled all this way. We can’t just sit in our hotel room all night.”
“OK, OK. Let’s take a nice walk down the hall and watch the ice machine.”
September 10, 2016. Google Nexus 6P cell phone, focal length 4.67 (35mm equivalent: 26mm), f/2, 1/40, ISO 300.
My thermal camera takes another look at a busy street in downtown Chicago on a wintry day. It’s fun that you can see the wet street, a little snow still around here and there, which buildings are better insulated than others, and who’s keeping warm.
December 16, 2015. Flir thermal camera with Google Nexus 6P cell phone. Exposure information unrecorded.
When I’m at the nature preserve in the Winter, there’s no guarantee I’ll see any life, maybe for weeks. But it can be nice to see signs of life and to imagine the secret life that’s still very active, just wary of being out when some sightseer is in the way.
January 19, 2015. Samsung Galaxy Camera, 20-483mm built-in lens at 20.3mm (35mm equivalent: 113mm), f/7.2, 1/1,600, ISP 100.
We’re back on the third Forgotten Chicago trip along the industrial South Side rivers of Chicago, and this is one of my favorite shots from that trip. The color, texture, detail, and light are all just perfect. Sometimes photographs like this benefit from a conversion to black-and-white to bring out detail, but it’s all there in color and it needs no enhancement.
July 21, 2013. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), 70–300mm Nikon zoom lens at 185mm (35mm equivalent: 275mm), f/5, 1/8,000, ISO 1,250.
Well, it might be a little stronger than a mere grimace, but we’ll ride on the polite side for a change. Pareidolia is the brain’s insistence on convincing us that just because something has a vague resemblance to, oh say faces in anguish, we should interpret that as faces in anguish. Considering these little sights come around as one of the earliest signs of Spring, they amuse me to no end, and although there are hundreds of these shots in my collection, I’ll try to make sure one is enough for public consumption. You’re welcome.
April 20, 2014. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), 105mm Nikon macro lens (35mm equivalent: 155mm), f/13, 1/45, ISO 320.