A spring hike with Sierra.

A few weeks ago I went for a picnic and a hike with my friend Sierra and her pup. It was a sunny and warm spring day, perfect for spending some time out of doors, tramping through the valley and woods of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

Downtown La Crosse

This past Saturday I met up with my friend Katy - you'll recognize her from a couple of previous posts. She's someone who I've come to enjoy having photo adventures with, all of which have been unplanned and pretty spontaneous. We enjoyed a patio lunch at 4 Sisters, right along the river, and then headed downtown to see what we could see. We walked up and down streets and in between buildings, capturing images of things that caught our eye.

Great things in small packages.

My grandfather gave me a brilliant little Sony camera at Christmas. With it I plan to practice my composition. I would also like to start taking more candids and doing some street photography. This little thing will help me to do that without people becoming aware of it (like they do with my big, bulky Nikon). Here are some shots that have been my favorites thus far.

 

Psalm 121

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.


The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Fall of 2013

It was a foggy morning a few weeks ago and I was driving home after visiting a friend. I started out taking the backroads only to avoid construction, but it turned out to be a beautifully unintentional photographing adventure! The trees were nearly at their peak of fall color, and the fog just added to the fall splendor.

So here are some photos to show how I perceive the beauty in valleys and on the ridges of Southwest Wisconsin.

Adventures on a road less traveled.

Last night Bridge and I went in search of a backroad to adventure and take photos on. We saw a "Rustic Road" sign and decided to give it a try. It was a fairly narrow road, and parts of it ran along (what I think was) the Kickapoo river. It was a beautiful little valley! We found an old abandoned barn in a field that we stopped to take some photos at.

I shot some film, but I won't be sending all my film in to get developed until I get back from Chicago and New York City in August.






























And of course, last but not least, the two of us goons. :)

Begin again.

Sometimes I forget how much I love having a camera in my hands - capturing small, but beautiful moments of life with a weighty piece of metal+plastic that is embraced by my fingers and palms. I especially love when the moments I've captured are ones that usually go unnoticed, or are easily forgotten. Those are my favorite. I often find myself absorbed by those moments, even when I'm not shooting. It's the little things that sometimes mean the most.
I loved this shoot that I did with Beth because it was unplanned, and I didn't really have much of a vision for what I wanted until we pulled off the side of the road and I looked around at my surroundings. It had been a long time since I'd shot, and it took me a while to really get the feel of things again. It was a beautiful evening - a warm wind was blowing, clouds were fighting to take over the sky, and the sun fought back, shining it's beams through the cracks in between, and sometimes losing and becoming blocked all together. It made for some fantastic lighting.
Below are my favorite shots.