“Awkward Walking”
September 7th, 2024
a daily photo from joshua l. smith
On my visit to the Sagawau Canyon waterfall, you can imagine my surprise when I encountered the same ailanthus webworm moth from the previous photo (and from the photo in 2010.) However, when I looked up the photo from 2010, I found that the photo was from the Sag Quarries Forest Preserve, which is right next to the Sagawau Environmental Learning Center (where the canyon waterfall is located).
This moth wandered all over this particular group of blossoms, seemingly enjoying the buffet. I would love to read an explanation of the coloring for this moth; it doesn’t appear to blend into any flower that I’m aware of.
Back in 2010, I photographed this type of insect with my iPhone. We were on a trip to see a friend on the south side of Chicago, and I remember the photograph because it was one of the first “good enough quality” photos with an iPhone that I’d taken.
Two weeks ago, when I took the above photograph of the same type of insect, I thought to myself “that’s odd that I haven’t see an insect like that in a very long time.” I photograph insects every year, and I wondered why I hadn’t seen such a unique insect in over ten years. According to Wikipedia, they only travel this far north some summers and are more of a southern insect.
The NENA Butterfly Garden doesn’t just have butterflies, but like the variety of plants and flowers, there is a variety of insects as well. I always love finding these damsel flies and watching their movements.
If you’ve known me or followed my photography for a while, you’ll know that I love photographing waterfalls. I’ve lived in the Chicago area for the past 15+ years, and I assumed that I knew about all of the naturally occurring waterfalls in Northern Illinois. But…one of my friends visited Sagawau Canyon Nature Preserve; well that sounds cool – a “canyon” in the Chicago area! And when I looked up the location, I found a random photo on Flickr that indicated that there was a waterfall in that canyon!
So, the next free day, I drove down to see the canyon and waterfall. Well, both the canyon and waterfall within are protected areas due to rare and endangered species of plants, and that is why there are very few photos of either. However, if you stand at the right spot on the walking trail’s bridge, you can see the waterfall … in all of its mid-summer trickle! Needless to say, I’ll be back to photograph this location when the stream has more volume.
Since many of the cars were crowded or muddy, I had to come up with a different strategy for photographing at Sonny Acres Farm. So I turned to the iconic nameplates that showed up, including the embossed Porsche on this 928.
ChiTown Exotic Car Club hosted a car show at Sonny Acres Farm. It may have been the oddest site that I’ve been to for a car show; and it had been rainy recently, so it was very muddy. Overall, I did see quite a few rare cars, but it was very difficult to capture interesting photos due to the large crowd and the fact that the cars were so tightly packed.
I looked inside of this car and thought, “Did he have to pay someone to paint the engine parts to match the car? Or maybe he painted it all himself?”
I love the fact that this car’s owner has chosen red accents for his engine but left the dipstick blue. It’s perfect.
This engine sits flat underneath the Corvair’s “pickup” bed; making it even more of an oddity, not simply because it’s a van front end with a pickup back end.
During her interview, Lauri Novak showed us her photo project where she photographed shadows around the house – this photo is an homage to her project!
Sure, if you go to a classic car show, the mid-50’s Chevy BelAirs are almost as popular as the late 60’s Mustangs, but it’s for a reason. The BelAirs are simply rolling works of art … absolutely stunning, eye catching, and head turning.
Another wonderful photo from the Elgin History Museum’s annual Classic Car Show. Everyone knows what a 1957 Chevy Belair looks like, so it’s always challenging to find a unique take on this incredibly classic of the classic cars. But, if there’s a late 60’s muscle car with awesome rims next to it? Well, now that’s kinda unique.
…someday I will learn to take a photo of the entire car, or at least of the tag with the car’s information at car shows, but the day that I photographed this car was not that day…