Be like water

"A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

Henry David Thoreau

The poet Rumi said, “You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop”.

"Uninterrupted the macrocosmos reflects off and through the water making it plain the significance of the insignificant."

J. H. Arnold

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless."

Bruce Lee

Autumnal Admiration Activity

Transitioning from summer to fall in the upper midwest can take you by suprise.

One day you notice a single tree burst into fall color and before you know it every road you drive down, every trail you bike is a cascade of nature’s flannel of colors.

The radiance of blazing colors cast back off the water’s surface.

As you look at the photos can you hear the wind blowing through the trees rustling their levees, the sound is known as psithurism.

The swans know it’s time to head south

The never-ending tempo of time builds to a crescendo before reaching diminuendo and we hopefully pause to take in another cycle of life.

Lake Superior calling

Late September warm weather summoned an old quote to my thoughts.

From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free. Jacques Yves Cousteau

Lake Superior was calling me, and it was calling collect, time to be free.

I tossed the camping gear, snorkeling gear and whatever non-perishable food I could find in the house into the car and was off, back to the Keweenaw and a favorite camping spot.

Temperature was in the mid 80's the breaking waves on the shore called as I unloaded my gear and set up my tent.

The eight-year-old in me would not wait and I grabbed my mask, snorkel and fins and plunged into the inspiriting 64-degree water.

I warmed up in the setting sun before finishing setting up, starting a fire and watching the moon rise.

A sunrise replaced the moonrise, and I headed out to snorkel the red and white sandstone flats of Betsy Bay.

I enjoyed another night of watching the moon crossing the sky Infront of a fire until my eyes would no longer stay open.

In the morning, I packed up and had time for one more swim before I headed out for a hearty breakfast.

Esrey park

Sometimes it seems like summer will never end.

Nearing the final days of August the heat and humidity can still be extreme in the upper Midwest, but the wildflowers are done blooming, birds are getting ready to head south and the sun sets sooner every night.

A signal goes off inside me reminding me that Lake Superior will be at its warmest and it’s time to get up there and do some snorkeling / photo’ing. A few days in the Keweenaw Peninsula will be good for the soul.

I find myself at Esrey park, a tiny roadside park, at 8:30am. the air temperature is already in the high 70's as I prepare myself and my gear to snorkel this ancient bed of lava.

I plunge into the 62-degree water (warm for Lake Superior) ready to be entertained by this morning’s encounters.

Large formations of rocks great me.

Some with long veins of quartz

I am in 2 different worlds

Waves colliding with the rocks producing air bubble mosaics with the sunlight

Sunlight also creates the reflections on the underside of the lakes surface

The only living creature I encounter is an inch and a half long Sculpin

I see sun refracting through the wave’s casts dancing patterns on the rocks.

After an hour and a half in the cold of Lake Superior has penetrated deep into the core of my body and I crawl back out onto dry land.

The air temperature is now in the high 80's soon to be into the low 90's I load up my gear, get in the car, the radio tuned into Rock 94 Thunder Bay and coming out the speakers is U2 singing "It’s a beautiful day" I agree, roll down all the windows and join in singing with them as I roll of down the road.

A busy world

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

Living in two dissimilar worlds.

Generating reflections on the edge of air and water.

And I try to capture and combine them

While a freshwater mollusk does what freshwater mollusks have done since the beginning, filtering it all out.

Bike and photo adventure

The long and warm days of summer are embracing Northern Wisconsin and that gives me the opportunity to throw a camera or 2, a banana and some water into my bag, hop on my bike and ride off into the early morning light looking for something, anything or everything to photo.

The morning dew hanging off a spiders web

Or reflections tumbling over an impoundment dam from different angles.

It was a morning for reflecting.

And blueberries starting to turn colors

And the going on of lives around me.

Photoing on a wing and prayer

Getting that amazing photo can come down to equipment, talent and skill or asking the photo musses' to let me be in the right place at the right time along with equipment, talent and skill.

After a cold swim I was laying on a picnic table warming up in the sun when a shadow of an immature bold eagle (they don't get their white heads till after 2 years of age) crossed over me and I somehow got a photo of the eagle and a dragonfly.

Then I was returning to my car after one of my snorkeling adventures that was fun but proved to be uneventful in capturing an award-winning photo but on the ground next to my car was this colorful butterfly.

The butterfly took off and I chased it trying to get a better photo but lost it in the sun, so I returned to my car to find the butterfly waiting for me on my windshield.

On a bike and photo expedition photo’ing wildflowers I found this butterfly when I came back resting on my camera bag.

Summer is here and I'm out snorkeling every chance I get but not everything I photo is under the water like this dragonfly I noticed resting on a Lilypad.

On this same snorkel I dove down to shoot skywards to capture Lilly pads reaching for the sun when out of nowhere a loon swimming underwater comes up to me and checks me out, goes around me and disappears.

Gob smacked I remember I need to surface and breathe. I grab a gulp of air and try figure out what just happened when two loons’ surface right in front of me. there is no panic amongst the 3 of us, they let me get a couple of photos before they go back to the business of being loons.

Form and flow

Photo’ing the period pieces at a local boat show I was trying to capture not only antique boats and their hold on the past and different time.

I was also seeing the craftsmanship, flow, functionality, style and the complexity of combining all these forms and structure.

I even found myself in the reflective curves in time.

Turning the simple and utilitarian into a magnum opus.

Skin divers dreams

Last week I started the 2024 season of snorkeling the lakes of northern Wisconsin, the water was ... crisp, gelid, sharp, biting, numbing, nippy but mostly it was exhilarating to be back in the water exploring my fascinations.

I got into the water, my heart rate quickened, my breath sharp and short through my snorkel until my mind settled into the task at hand.

The fish approached me, and I wondered if some of them remembered me from past years of my snorkeling here.

How many eyes can you see watching me?

As I calmly piloted my way through the water the fish went about their everyday chores and fish lives and after reading this so will you.

Stay safe out there

Summer season is coming at us like a speeding train - try not to miss your connection get out and enjoy connecting to the non-connected.

The sun and clouds play the day away.

Let your mind wonder and you might see a monster at play ... or it might be stick ... who’s to say.

I traveled hundreds of miles to see Sandhill cranes - did this one travel to bugle at me as I rode past it a mile from my house?

Geese, moths, dandelions and mushrooms have no excuses to not do.

May Day - May Day - its the first of May

The first day of May is here and in northern Wisconsin that is a signal that spring is here - even though the remints of winter are still hanging around.

The swirls of time move down the streams of life.

Nature also knows how to tell time.

And nature begins a new as the sun warms the water and the aquatic plants prepare for a new season.

And so do the muskrats' and tadpoles.

Spend a night in the box

In the clasic prison movie Cool Hand Luke there is a quote from Carr the floor walker "Them clothes got laundry numbers on 'em. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man forgets his number spends the night in the box. These here spoons, you keep with ya. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box. There's no smokin' in the prone position in bed. To smoke, you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Any man caught smokin' in the prone position in bed spends a night in the box. No one will sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man with dirty pants on sittin' on a bunk spends a night in the box. Any man loud-talkin' spends a night in the box."

The box is the prisons solitary confinement cell.

I spent almost three hundred dollars to voluntarily spend a night in a 6 foot long 5 foot wide 5-foot-tall plywood box.

You may be asking why would I drvie 792 miles to spend a night in the box?

After wintering in northern Mexico, Texas and New Mexico One million Sand hill cranes (80% of the worlds population) from late February to early April make their way to Nebraska's Platt river Valley to rest and refuel on there way to ther breeding grounds in Canada, Alaska and Siberia.

The best way to see and photograph the cranes is to go to Gibbon Nebraska and the Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary and spend a night in the box on the edge of the Platte river.

I was driven out to my box (they have 6) around 5:30pm, unloaded my gear and was left alone until 9:00am the next morning.

The sun was shining, the temperature was 50 degrees as I set up my camera gear, ground pad, two sleeping bags, put on my long underwear, down jacket and every piece of warm clothing I owned - the temperature was expected to drop to 29 degrees overnight, but the view was great.

Fossil records place sandhill cranes in Nebraska more than 9 million years ago, 80,000 cranes a day can be on the Platte river.

The sun was setting, the temperature was dropping and a 3/4 moon was rising and there were no crains to be seen. I waited.

I leand out one of the 4 rectangle cutout's to photograph the rising moon when I heard the loud, rattling bugle calls of the sandhill crains that can be heard from up to 2 1/2 miles away. I crained my neck to look for them when a small group passed between me and the moon.

I could hear the "whooshing" of the flying cranes as they passed over my box and landed on the other side of the river.

The sounds of cranes flying and bugling filled the air when they crossed back over the river and landed on the sandbars Infront of my box.

The sun had set leaving me no more light to photograph by so I sat a listened to sandhill cranes chattering in the moonlight.

I awoke before dawn crawled out of my sleeping bag, looked out my window and hundreds of cranes were still there, quietly waiting for the day to begin.

As the sun rose the more vocal the cranes became filling the air with their prehistoric calls and it was amazing to be a part of. All of the sudden something caused them to take flight, cranes heading off in every direction the sound was symphonic.

Check out time for the box was 9am so I began packing up my gear, said goodbye to the cranes and headed back to my reality.

Reflective confusion

A mirror of time and place spiral into a maelstrom of complacency while my shadow and I wander a snowless swamp.

A normal month of March in northern Wisconsin brings hope of spring warmth to melt the customary accumulation of snow.

2024 finds this intrepid photographer capturing images of a cluster of carnivorous Pitcher plants uncovered and waiting for insects to eat.

A possible slime mold (I think?) glows bright in the sun pondering why it is not asleep under a thick blanket of snow.

And I wonder how this dried out minnow found its way to the rock?

Ice, water and sun combine to mesmerize the photographer.

And the frozen water encapsulates a twig and if you look closely, you will see the intrepid photographer frozen in time.

Feels like spring

The sun rides higher in the sky and you can feel its warmth making the shadows and Reflections come out and play.

And swans lull away the day.

Into the shadows

It's that time of year when we pin our hopes on shadows to predict the future, our optimism in the silhouette of a fury 14-pound rodent that is for one day relegated into celebrity status alerting us to the proclamation of what lies ahead.

Should we look for signs in all shadows?

Are shadows foretelling the future?

Or are they just shadowing us?

Into a new year

Winter has finally arrived in northern Wisconsin bringing snow and below zero temperatures adorning all it can in frost and snow.

The sun shines bright but gives no warmth as it travels low across the horizon casting long shadows on the silky snow and across animal tracks.

Water that has not turned to ice gives up its heat in the form of vapor creating a mysterious backdrop.

In the unfrozen waters ducks feed and wait for a spring break.

the cattails of last year stand lookout for next year’s rhizomes to sprout.

A crisp wind blows over a bridge and across the stream biting at my face and hands siphoning the life out of my cameras battery as I get the last 2 shots off, one in color and one in black and white while my mind and body request hot chocolate.

Cheeres to a new year!

As we exit the old year this could be the time to make a resolution or two

We will drive down new roads.

And take paths less taken.

Have discussions with new and old

Climb to new personal heights!

I myself have been trying new things with my photography that I will take in to the new year.

Taking away all the colors except one.

Trying to gain more awareness of parts of the whole to better understand the uncensored.

Enjoy more of the photos and be entertained by the new year.

The Christmas Otter

The holiday season is here even though in Northern Wisconsin we are lacking are usual amounts of snow. The Christmas cookies have been ... bought and I will not lie some have been eaten.

The sun made an appearance, so I went on a favorite hike to see how Mother Nature decided to decorate for the season.

Ice ornaments were hung with care as the sun highlighted them.

And I Whitnessed the tracks of the Christmas Otter where it slid across the ice not that long ago.

I walked further down the trail when through the trees I spotted an eagle sitting in a tree on the other end of the swamp and I wondered what he was doing there?

As I tried to stealthily get closer for a better photo I noticed the eagel was watching something. On the ice bellow him I saw the Christmas Otter had come out of the ice with what might have been a small fish and the eagle was hoping to steal it.

The egale took flight, the Christmas Otter went back under the ice and I kicked myself for not bringing along a telephoto lens to get a better photo of this amazing experence.

But I had seen the Christmas Otter and felt the warmth of the winter sun as I turned taking the trail back to my car and back home to maybe have one more of the Christmas cookies ... shhh don't tell anyone.

From sea to mountain to into the sea

On my recent trip to the west coast trains seemed to be a theme, from riding them to being on their track.

I was where the sea and the mountains have mingled for melena making it easy to go from one to the other it a short amount of time. Biking on the shores of the Pacific one day and hiking on Mount Baker the next.

And some time to aimlessly wander and adventurer around the city of Bellingham photo’ing things not in guidebooks.

Catching the sunset from Taylor dock and shaken it to Sunset Silent Disco.

The ocean temperatures being in the high 50's and the sun helping warm the air into the 70's I had to put on the snorkeling gear where I encountered these creature's before, I had to crawl out and warm myself in the sun.

ALL ABOARD!!!

Having driven croos country and flowen cross country I thought now would be the right time to go on an adventure and ride the rails the 1,932.2 miles from my home in Wisconsin to Bellingham Washington.

I caught the Amtrak train in Portage Wisconsin named the Empire Builder and headed west parrelling the Candian boarder for most of the route.

I passed the time starring out the window watching the vastness of the great plains roll by.

There were brief stops to get out and stretch your legs.

Then back to watching as the past passed by.

My mind found time to be quixotic triggered by the sight of windmills and cattle.

I tried to capture out the window the everyday oddities of the small towns we rolled through on the train.

Nearing the end of my journey in Everett WA.