Waterfall Glenn, DuPage County, IL.
A beautiful reserve that Jason wanted to visit for the first time. We hoped for lots of animals and birds on this fine day.
But we were to be disappointed. However, we still had much to please the cameras!
I did capture this wild thing in the woods! Son Jason takes amazing pics. I love following him on Instagram.
Here's the stream below the waterfall. Sparkling water in the bright sunlight.
In anticipation of wildlife, I had my 150 to 600 mm lens on the camera. No filters. So it was hard to get slow shutter speeds in the bright sunlight. f32, 1/5 s.
Jason setting up with filters to soften the waterfall. The result was excellent.
I tried to capture the "ice sculptures" formed along the branches and hanging into the water.
Pratt's Wayne Woods, DuPage County, IL
The morning was disappointing in that we didn't see any animals at all. So we decided to go to Pratt's Wayne Woods, closer to Jason and Miku's home.
This is a smaller park, but Jason usually sees many different birds along with deer, coyotes, and other small game.
A snow covered crocodile? Naw! Just some snow and thin ice around a log in the pond.
What saved the day for us was wonderful weather and as the sun lowered in the sky, the light became simply awesome.
Here's a scene where the golden sunlight filtering through the grass was simply stunning - even more so in person!
The light on the tree on shore as well as on the partially submerged logs in the water was fascinating.
The road less traveled.
We finally saw some birds!
I'm not sure what kind of birds we have here, but there was a whole flock of them in one tree.
This Mourning Dove insisted on posing for me. 600 mm and hand held. Thank goodness for image stabilization!
I love the lighting . 1/125 sec, f/9.0, 600 mm and ISO 64.
I must have said something that ruffled her feathers!
Nobody home.
We decided to "save the day" by sticking around for sunset shots. It made the day worth it.
Blue hour.
