American Kestrel On A Streetlight Kestrels are compact little suckers with beautiful plumage. The blue and orange combo makes them fairly distinct.

Pied-billed Grebe I saw a few of these guys tonight while birding the Ballona Marsh Wetlandshere in LA. While not this particular bird, they are easy to tell from a distance with their beak length and shape and head size.

Imperial Cormorants On A Nest The blue on these South American birds, known as Imperial Cormorants (Leucocarbo atriceps), and the blue in their eyes makes them a beauty to behold.

The Joy Of The Freedom To Fail Last night I went to a spot overlooking the Santa Monica Pier to film a timelapse and it didn't go as planned. The overall lesson that I was reminded of was this: Creating Art requires failure and there is not greater freedom in Art than the freedom to fail. Over and…

Evening Cloud Break In Torres Del Paine National Park One of the best parts of being in Patagonia in Torres del Paine National Park is just sitting and watching the weather go by.

The Drama Above And Below Flying West toward Los Angeles, I was lucky enough to catch the light before a storm came in this past Fall. I think this might have been the storm that dumped a record amount of rainfall in the city for November. It sure looks like it could have been. If this had been…

Three Views Of Lake Michigan, Four Hours Apart Those times at the beginning or end of a change in the weather are ripe for photos. The shifting winds and clouds and light make for vastly different views while sitting in one spot. These three images were taken recently in Chicago looking out into…

Just Before Angel’s Landing

How To Help Your Local (Or Any) Public Broadcasting Service

Exploring Zion’s Empty Western Road As mentioned in yesterday's post, the road along the west side of Zion National Park doesn't get nearly the same traffic as the valley. Some same it is just 10% of the main attractions. I love a good, empty road and this one has vistas to spare. Truth be known,…

Last Light On Zion National Park’s Less Visited Highlands One day of stellar light in Zion fills my soul for a week. I was lucky enough to spend two nights up there recently and while the weather was a mixed bag, one of the evenings produced some splendid fall light. Like many people visitors, the…

Southern Crested Caracara Such a lovely bird and spotted right next door to downtown Buenos Aires in Argentina. Caracaras can be found in many areas around the world, including North America. Guess what the talons are for?

Capitol Reef National Park Aerial I love exploring the Southwest from a plane. The colors and patterns offer a way different view than from on land. It took me a while to realize exactly where this was. I knew my flight path and that is was likely Capitol Reef National Park but it is a long park,…

Emerging From The Winds

All The Blues In Chile Exploring fjords and glaciers in Chile was (possibly) a once in a lifetime trip for my wife and I. Patagonia has a number of ecosystems and the icy blue in and out of the water has a severe calming effect.

Ushuaia Sunset Timelapse Ushuaia is also known as the End of the World. While this can't be literal when we live on a ball, it's fun to think it's the last reasonably modern location before jumping off to Antarctica. It's also wayyyyy do there and takes effort to arrive. If you don't see the video…

Andean Condor Soaring We are fresh back from a trip to Patagonia that has been on my mind for decades. Back then I wasn't as into birding as I am these days, but I can tell you; you don't have to be into birds to appreciate the Andean Condor. Be on the lookout for more Patagonia content as I get…

Stairwell – LAX Parking Continuing with the stairwell series, because for some odd reason I keep seeing something in them I'm compelled to photograph, here's a random stairwell at LAX Airport in the parking structures.

Unique Brutalist Spaceship Known as the Gisele Library, this architectural wonder sits on the campus of the University of California Sand Diego

Curbside Desoto A classic cat like this deserves black and white treatment.

Black Windows Freak Me Out, Still Growing up in Washington, black widow spiders were something exotic from far away lands. Then I moved to California and started finding them in place I did not want. I can still remember seeing my first one when we lived in Orange. It got my heart racing with an…

Chicago River Nightlife While some talk of Chicago being on fire and overrun, the view from the Chicago River seems pretty chill.

In The City Of LA It’s a good song, from Dr. Dre…

Los Angeles Alley Black And White Los Angeles has no shortage of interesting back alley scenes. Sometimes they need a little help with composition, but this one, for me, was pretty much perfect when I’ve viewed it on my screen in black-and-white.

Fall Foliage In The Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains I'm just back from two days attempting to climb Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 United States. It's an odd distinction, for sure, but it's also a good challenge. The hike up proved unsuccessful in the "reach the top" sense, but it…

Black And White Hills And Clouds Not from Bishop, but from down the road at Manzanar, in California.

Colorful Can Of Parts A lot of rust happening behind a mechanics garage. Main'y driveshafts and brakes.

Subtleness At Sunset Another photo from the Bishop area after the brighter sunset colors had passed.

Looking Up At Marina City I’ve only been in Chicago a few days and I’ve already seen a handful of artistic renditions of these unique towers along the river. Locally called the Corn Cob Towers, their official name is Marina City, which also seems odd. More than a dozen of the lower floors are…

Compact Chicago Crop I recently upgraded my main camera….my iPhone. The specifications on the 17 Pro looked like a solid upgrade from my old phone. It was worth waiting a few years for better cameras. All the other cool stuff aside, I really want better quality images from my everyday camera. And…

2266 Above, Crab Claw Hands Guy Below Sometimes the picture titles just wrote themselves, no thinking involved. I love how this Northbound train just south of Chicago was hanging out right above pedestrian traffic.

Nice tribute to a nice woman at Chicago’s Field Museum

Chicago hellscape particularly hellish and on fire today.

Phoning It In Phoning it in today, playing with the macro lens. I don’t use this handy and useful feature on my phone often enough. Usually you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a specialty macro lens for a DSLR and now most phones have a decent version. Get out and macro more!

This is pretty fucked up. The wording.

Hard Light Before Night Back to Bishop, CA for more wonderful autumn light. A few sprinkles had started by the time the last of the sun was peeking through the western clouds.

Sunset Rays And Swirls This photo is in the category of ‘Most interesting sunset photos happen from parking lots’. Technically this was in a dirt lot next to a parking lot, but the magic was the same. Had to duck and dodge powerlines.

Parasite Storyboards Today I got to do that fun thing where I play tourist in my own city. With a good friend from out of town visiting, we decided to go to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Amongst other exhibits was a section highlighting Director Bong Joon Ho complete with tons of…

Bird Of Paradise Second View Sometimes when you get addicted to a flower, you just can’t stop. Also, when you get a new camera, even familiar subjects become moments of fascination. In my case, I got the new iPhone 17 after a number of years of not updating because the cameras just weren’t…

Deep In A Bird Of Paradise Growing up in Washington, I had never heard or seen a bird of paradise plant. Maybe I saw one once when visiting California, but I wasn’t the kind of kid to remember odd plants. Now that I live here, I take them for granted. Which is a good sign it is time to stop and…

Small Start Amongst Giants A small fern nestles against the base of a towering tree.

Into The Sequoia Forest It's hard to find a Giant Sequoia without some kind of burn scar. Something we think of as a negative is just a way of life for a tree that lasts hundreds of years and has a natural armor against certain fires.

What To Do With It This weekend I found myself in Bishop, CA at more than one auto shop as one of my brothers' car had break issues and he needed help towing a trailer while his car went on a flatbed. He was lucky in that Monday afternoon had his car all better and I also had a bunch of photos of…

Bright Clouds, Danger Clouds The Sierra Nevada Mountains are phenomenal for afternoon clouds and light.

Evenings In Bishop, California This time of year can create dramatic sunsets along Highway 395 in California. It just happens that I was in Bishop yesterday and grabbed this image from the road.

The Most Beautiful Of Days in White Sands National Park It's that time of year/season/computer getting full when I go through an clean out folders. You might see more of this past year's trips for the next couple of weeks. From back in Spring, White Sands National Park has been on my list for a…

Same Arch, Different Angle Same as yesterday's Gateway Arch photo, but from a few minutes later and lower.

Gloom And The Gateway Arch This is part of what I love about photography: bending reality. This day at the Gateway Arch National Park in the Spring was actually a nice day. But a set of clouds passed by at the right time. Add in some contrast and it's a whole other feel.

Tree Swallow Ruckus: The Chase After yesterday's photo was taken, two of the Tree Swallows had a chase.

Tree Swallows Making A Ruckus Tree Swallows have a beautiful iridescence in the right light. And they are some fast suckers! That's why hanging out near a bird house makes for a bit easier targets. In this case, the bird on the right had some tweets for the other two before the one on the bottom…