fourpointedstar

The day of the most recent solar eclipse was very sunny in southern Indiana, and this little hoverfly was taking full advantage of the sun and the spring flowers.

Last year, we began completely recreating our south-facing yard as a prairie with native plants. I have always loved the look of these and their gorgeous stringy mop of a hairdo!

Watching the ants crawl across the peonies is a special kinda of therapy; my goal when attempting to capture this photo was to get an ant in the photo. The ants, however, we’re very cooperative, so instead I captured a bit more abstract of an image.

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When I purchased my Sony camera, I knew that I would want a macro lens (since my old one was for Nikon). I settled on the Laona 100mm f2.8 with manual focus – mostly because it was the least expensive 2x macro (by far). It can be exhausting to get the focus correct, but when it’s right, it’s absolutely lovely!

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For the past few years, Sarah and I have visited Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in downtown Chicago; they have a wonderful year-round butterfly sanctuary/exhibit. In the winter, it’s a wonderful break from the cold and grey.
This winter it was way too busy, but we finally made it down there for our anniversary last weekend.

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There are definitely times of the year when Upper Bear Hollow Falls are flowing enough to be impressive, but early April is not one of them.

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At Turkey Run, Bear Hollow is the intersection of 2 different canyons or valleys. The one valley always has flowing water, but nearly every canyon or valley has been formed by flowing water, and if you look closerly enough, there is water flowing down the tiny canyon at the top of the photo…so that obviously counts as a waterfall.

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Just a little trickle of a falls that I captured on my way back from the eclipse earlier this year. This waterfall would probably not make it onto anyone’s map or highlights, but at 3 to 4 feet tall, it is just a fun little falls to enjoy.

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When I visited Turkey Run State Park the first time, back in 2022, I ran out of time and walked right past Bear Hollow without capturing any photos.  However, the first photo that I saw from Turkey Run was from Bear Hollow with its iconic ladders – so adding Turkey Run and Bear Hollow to my return trip was an easy decision.

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As I headed north from Cataract Falls to Turkey Run, I mostly meandered through the back roads. On one road there was a sign “Cagles Mill Dam” pointing to a side road. The road ended right before it crossed the top of the dam wall; honestly, it was a pretty impressive view. But I noticed that the downstream area appeared to be a rocky canyon, and as I drove down to the bottom of the damn, I was rewarded with this tiny waterfall – maybe a total of 4 or 5 feet tall.

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When I arrived at Cataract Falls in Indiana, I asked one of the park rangers if she knew of other waterfalls in the area. She pointed out that if you walk AWAY from Mill Creek (and Lower Cataract Falls), you’ll encounter Little Sister Falls. Little Sister Falls ended up being 2 distinct small cascades about 60 feet apart; the perfectly intimate waterfalls that I love being near.

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Upper Cataract Falls is listed as the largest waterfall in Indiana (by volume); it wasn’t easy to photograph due to the vegetation, but it would likely be even harder to photograph when the vegetation has filled in.

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Why yes, of course, I did visit several waterfalls while I was in southern Indiana for the eclipse. I am legally obligated to visit waterfalls anytime that I travel farther than 45 miles from home.

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I told my boss after the 2017 eclipse “slap me if I choose not to travel for the eclipse in 2024.” I chose Spenser, Indiana because it was a small town along the path of totality, and I wanted to avoid the crowds. I ended up shooting the eclipse from a grassy field outside of town along with maybe 50 other folks. The group shared Oreos and stories, and we generally enjoyed the warm, sunny weather.

As totality approached it was a very odd feeling; it was almost like dusk, but the colors in the sky were all wrong – an unnatural hue. Totality was more like a nice moonlit scene; the frogs in the pond didn’t understand what was going on and were discussing their confusion very loudly. But the humans were in awe of the scene; it’s an incredible experience.

Photographically, I had prepared myself to be content and happy no matter what – weather, camera malfunctions, etc. So, I am thrilled to have gotten this image during totality (and many other great images).

Anytime that I attend an event, there is always the question – “how many of my photos do OTHERS want to see from this event?” After all, I take way too many photos and seeing 38 images of the exact same car/plane/waterfall isn’t how most people want to spend their time.

So, as I was driving home after the Eclipse (confident that some of my photos were good), I wondered how I could share the Eclipse without 38 photos of a smaller and smaller wedges of yellow. How about a video? Just 2 minutes long.

Anyway, you should watch it. In fullscreen. On the biggest screen you can find. Obviously.

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I was unable to track down exactly where this location might have been. It may be the valley in between Kingman, Arizona and the Arizona & California state line, but when viewing the desert from 25,000 feet, it’s a bit hard to determine specific landmarks.

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I think most people think of the Golden Gate Bridge or Hollywood or the beach when someone mentions California, but Bakersfield and the surrounding area in the south is so very different. As we flew over the mountains, my coworker mentioned how much he enjoys the mountains and the vistas they afford – something that California can definitely offer in spades.

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While flying over the dry and monochrome desert areas of northern New Mexico, we passed this one snowy cap. From my vantage point it looked quite out of place, but the Sierra Grande summit is all that remains of an extinct volcano. From a general Google search, it doesn’t look that steep or tall, but it is about 2,000 feet taller than any peak in the Appalachian range.

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I love photographing abstracts, and some of the coolest abstracts are in landscapes. On my recent work trip to Bakersfield, CA I took a few photos of the various landscape features that caught my attention.
This is St. Joseph, Missouri; and while that airport is in Missouri, everything else to the right (west) of the river is Nebraska. Rivers wind and change course over time, but state lines don’t.

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What an odd viewpoint – looking north down the Black River after Rainbow Falls, you can see a straight(-ish) river for about half of a mile, before the river turns and enters the Black River harbor.

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I was very excited about visiting the Presque Isle Kettles during my October waterfall trip, but I’m not thrilled with my photos from the kettles. While I did get some cool photos; overall, I feel like I didn’t capture the location as well as I could have – guess I’ll have to make a trip back, right?

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