I have a 7 year old granddaughter and that gives reason to go places I wouldn't normally be going, children's museums and zoos to name just a couple. Mostly, I take pictures of her when out and about.  She loves the attention, we all love the pictures.

This photo was taken at the Milwaukee County Zoo one afternoon a few years ago.   I was struck by the  pattern of sun light illuminating the elephants eye as it shown through the surrounding trees.

Carry your camera wherever you go.   You never know where a good photo opportunity will turn up!!

Trying to take a picture of a butterfly in the wild is a little like herding cats!! I don’t even try. This picture was taken at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, WI. Every year they have butterfly hatch, kids love it and so do photographers. Aside from the brilliant orange color and the butterfly detail what helps to make this image is the exceptionally under exposed background which emphasizes the main subject. To achieve the under exposed background I used the auto FP high sync mode on a Nikon D300 in combination with an SB 800 flash unit. This mode allows the flash to sync at high shutter speeds by reducing power to the flash. Stopping down to ~ f5.6 on a Nikon 70mm-180mm macro lens to reduce depth of field resulted in a main subject that was properly exposed but did not significantly expose the background due to the reduced flash power output. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the different features of your camera.

Every photographer and artist has a few pieces of work that they call their favorite or has some sentimental value.  The latter is true for me and this photograph.  Its the picture that started me down the path of learning the craft of photography.  For the full story of how I got interested check out the blog post "A baby girl and a sand hill crane got me started"

There are wide ranging sets of tools available today that the photographer can use to stylize a digital photograph. Wether it's creating a black and white version or simply adding a bit of sepia tone the visual impact for the viewer can be dramatic.

I made a lot of modifications to this image, its highly cropped from the original to put the flower in the lower right, the background as been blurred and darkened, the color of the flower adjusted to create the purple hue and a dry brush texture added to make it look like an original painting.

Check out my water lily conversion blog post if you want to know more about how this image was created.   It's really pretty easy and I am happy to share what I know.

I love close-up photos of flowers.  I like them even more if they have a few droplets of rain on them from a recent shower.   The original photo here was taken while walking through Olbrich Gardens, in Madison, WI during a warm summer sprinkle.

This photo was taken with a Nikon 70-180mm macro lens  on a D800 camera.  If you like to take pictures of flowers and you can find a used 70-180mm lens in good shape, get it!!  Its the best lens I have ever owned for this kind of photography.

The original imaged was cropped to the square format and s slight dry brush effect added in Photoshop to give the image the appearance of a hand painting.

The simple elegance of a lone bright yellow flower and its symmetrical reflection in a pool of blue water are what make this photo interesting.  This photo was taken at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, WI with Nikon 70-180mm macro lens on a D800 camera.  If you like to take pictures of flowers and you can find a used 70-180mm lens in good shape, get it!!  Its the best lens I have ever owned for this kind of photography.