My favorite photos of 2018

Normally in December of each year I publish a post of my favorite photographs of the year.  This was a difficult task for 2018.  Most of my favorite photos were taken during my Days of Summer photography project.  Truth be told, I spent so much time photographing things from June to September that it seemed like I barely used my camera during the final three months of the year.  So instead of sharing my favorite pictures from the entire year, I am going to share my top ten from the summer (plus a pair of bonus pics from earlier in the year).

This first image is my favorite photograph of 2018.  I photographed this small native bee on a Fragrant Water Lily bloom on July 13th at Mill Pond Park in Mt. Pleasant.  To get all of the details in the flower and bee I deliberately underexposed the image to prevent everything from being washed out by the late morning light.  I would have loved this picture even without the bee, but its presence just makes everything come together for me.

I photographed lots of insects in 2018, not only bees, but also dragonflies, and grasshoppers (among many other species).  Two of my favorite pictures of the year are of dragonflies.  The first of these images took me two days to photograph.   I spotted this Halloween Pennant at Chipp-A-Waters Park on July 31st, but was unable to get close enough to take a picture.  I returned to the park the following day and waited, and waited, and waited for the dragonfly to appear.  When it finally did show up, I was ready.  I shot several pictures that morning, but this is my favorite of the bunch.

This next dragonfly photograph did not take nearly as long to get.  I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  This Twelve-spotted Skimmer was resting on a grass stem backlighting and a background in deep shadow, this was an instant "winner".  This image was taken at Forest Hill Nature Area on the evening of July 18th.  I never spotted another dragonfly in that same location the rest of the summer.  If it wasn't for the water lily, this would be my favorite photo of the year.

This image of a Carolina Grasshopper was taken at Chipp-A-Waters Park on July 31st.  While dragonflies are almost impossible to approach closely, this grasshopper let me approach so close that I was using my camera at its minimum focal length.  I love all the details on this image especially the mottled camouflage coloring, the veins on the wings, and the small hairs on the legs and thorax.

I spent a lot of time looking up at the sky this year, specifically at the moon.  The next two photographs were taken from my driveway in Alma.  I still am not good at photographing the moon.  It seems that the settings I use for lunar pictures will work during one photo session, but won't the next time I try.  This first picture of a waxing crescent moon was taken on July 17th.

This waxing gibbous moon was photographed two months later on September 17th.  While I can get away with hand-holding my camera for most photos, I always use a tripod when shooting the moon.  It's the only way to get really clear images.

This picture of a rising full moon was taken on June 28th at Forest Hill Nature Area.  I drove home from Iowa earlier that day and despite being tired I wanted to go photograph the moonrise.  I'm glad that I did.  I love the dark indigo sky, the dark line of trees, and the glowing moon perched atop the tallest trees.

In addition to looking up at the sky, I spent a lot of time looking down at things on the ground like this dead American Robin.  I discovered it in the woods at my parents house near Laingsburg, MI on August 18th.  I love all the fine details of the feathers and the varying shades of color, especially the little "pop" of orange in the bottom left corner of the picture.  I took more than a dozen pictures of this bird from varying angle; this on just seems to work best to me eyes.

Clouds remain a favorite subject for me.  I took this image of goldenrod plants and clouds at Forest Hill Nature Area on September 2nd.  I like how the curved lines of the clouds, the trees on the horizon, and the goldenrods all fit together.

Sometimes the clouds are good enough to change your plans.  I photographed this sunset near St. Johns, MI on the last full day of summer (September 21st).  While driving home from Lansing I kept an eye on the approaching sunset and decided that it was going to be good enough to exit the highway and find a place to photograph.  I drove a few miles off the highway and found this field of soy beans with a line of trees about 1/2 mile away.  The clouds and the light just continued to get better as the sun went down.  The best part of the image to me though is how the bean pods are all backlit by the sun and seem to glow.

The final two pictures were not taken during my summer photography project.  The next image dates to June 7th and was photographed in the native pollinator garden at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy. I sometimes like to take pictures from unique perspectives.  When we look at flowers, it's usually from above.  What do they look like when viewed from below?  This picture shows a group of Beardtongue flowers against bright backlit clouds.  I just think it's a pleasing image because it is different.

My final picture is a favorite not because of the quality of the image, but rather for the subject.  It is not all that unusual to see Wood Ducks perched in trees, but until May 7th 2018 I had never been able to get a good photograph.  This pair of ducks at the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Audubon Woods Preserve obliged by hanging out long enough for me to not only retrieve my camera from the truck, but also take about a dozen photos.  While I did get closer photos of each bird individually, the drake (left) and hen (right) stayed far apart and this was my favorite image of the pair.  This picture is definitely more about the memory for me than the picture itself.

Photography (03 - 16 November 2017)

 Here are a few photos that I have taken since November 1st.

Full Moon - Alma, MI (03 November 2017)

Cattails at Chipp-A-Waters Park - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

American Beech and pedestrian bridge - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

 

Blue skies and golden leaves - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

Milkweed seeds at the Isabella Conservation District office - Mt. Pleasant, MI (10 November 2017)

Quaking Aspen trunks at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy - Mt. Pleasant, MI (10 November 2017)

Mushrooms and moss - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Buck rub at Chipp-A-Waters Park - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Chinquapin Oak leaves - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Jack Pine - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

 

Swamp White Oak leaf and moss - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Scots Pine - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Closeup of a buck rub - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Cattail - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Motherwort - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Favorite Photos of 2016

We've reached the end of another year.  Every year I post a sort of year-in-review of my favorite photographs from the year.  This is the 2016 edition.  My favorite photos from past years can be found here, here, and here.

The first photograph comes from a post I made back on January 13th.  It shows a miniature forest of Wild Leek stalks and tree seedlings poking up through snow at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.  I like the stark, almost abstract quality that this image has.

 

The second photograph come from February 25th.  The night before saw about 8 inches of snow dumped on Mid-Michigan and caused all local schools to be cancelled.  I paused for a moment while shoveling out to take this photo of the sun trying to cut through the overcast sky.  The snow covered branches belong to a large Honey Locust tree right outside my back door. 

 

Some of my favorite photographs are a bit more abstract than others.  This picture was taken at Dow Gardens in Midland on March 30th.  Every year Dow Gardens hosts an exhibit called Butterflies in Bloom in their conservatory - the 2017 Butterflies in Bloom exhibit is scheduled for 03 March through 16 April.  Shara and I attend every year to see and photograph the butterflies.  There are often so many people packed into the conservatory that it is almost impossible to get good pictures of the butterflies.  I often find myself spending more time taking pictures of the tropical plants than I do of the butterflies.  I especially liked the fan-like leaves of this plant.

The next picture comes from Mill Pond Park on April 14th.  I don't spend a lot of time photographing birds.  I generally lack the patience required to be a birder (and frankly most birds don't excite me all that much) so I spend very little time looking for birds.  However, there are times a bird shows up that just demands to be photographed.  Although not a rare bird, and becoming quite a nuisance in many places, the Canada Goose is an attractive bird.  This goose was casually swimming around the pond and approached quite close, which allowed my to take a large number of portraits of it.

 

This next picture might be my favorite image from the entire year.  I frequently take students out into the woods to study trees and learn about forestry.  Although I have been bringing students from Winn Elementary to the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy's Audubon Woods Preserve for several years, this was the first year that I have ever brought students from the Saginaw Chippewa Academy to this location.  While measuring tree diameters, some of the students found this Grey Tree Frog hanging out on the bark of one of the trees.  I love how this frog just disappears on the bark - camouflage is an awesome adaptation!  This images dates from May 17th and appeared in a post the next day.

I take thousands of photographs every year.  Most of them never make it onto this blog.  That doesn't mean that I don't like them or that they aren't good photographs.  Sometimes I just don't have time to write about everything I want to.  This year a disproportionate number of my posts were about wildflowers so other subjects often went untouched.  Back on June I spent several days meeting students at various ponds and rivers to sample aquatic invertebrates.  None of the photos ever showed up on this blog.  One of my favorite pictures was this one from June 7th of a student from Shepherd Elementary holding a small Wood Frog that she found along the Little Salt River.  Why do I like this photo?  The contrast of the pink sweatshirt with the greens and browns of the frog - girls rock at science!

I spend a significant part of July away from Mid-Michigan.  I attended the Michigan Department of Natural Resources 2016 Academy of Natural Resources.  Later in the month, Shara and I traveled through parts of four states while on vacation.  My favorite photo from the month isn't necessarily a great picture, but it documents my favorite place that we visited during our travels - Great Serpent Mound.

Great Serpent Mound is what is known as an effigy mound - this means it is an earthen mound created in the shape of a person, animal, or symbol.  It is the largest effigy mound in the world.  It measures approximately just over a 1/4 mile long (1348 feet) and is several feet tall.  When you remember that this was constructed entirely by hand using wood, stone, and bone tools the achievement of its construction becomes even more remarkable.  The exact age of Great Serpent Mound is unknown.  Several burial mounds on the site date from Fort Ancient Culture (1000 - 1500 AD) and the earlier Adena Culture (800 BC - 100 AD).  Great Serpent Mound probably dates to one (or both) of these cultures as it was likely rebuilt several times over its history.

The next photograph was taken the morning of  August 22nd.  It shows a band of low clouds rolling across the landscape.  This unusual cloud formation is known as an arcus cloud and is usually associated with thunderstorms, but can also occur when a cold front passes through.  This specific type of arcus cloud is known as a roll cloud, because it appears to be rolling through the sky completely detached from all other clouds.

 

If you haven't figured it out by now, I am sharing one photograph from each month of the year.  September is the time that the school gardens really their stride.  Almost everything is in bloom and many pants are starting to develop their seeds.  Back on September 14th and 15th I spent some time photographing the native pollinator gardens at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy and Winn Elementary.  This picture of Butterflyweed s my favorite garden photograph of the year and a strong contender for my favorite photo of 2016.  I love the full exploding fluffiness of the ripe seeds bursting from the pod to the right and how it contrasts with the still closed pods to the left of the photo.

October was one of the toughest months to pick a favorite.  I had lots of images of fall color to choose from.  Instead I picked this picture of the sunrise from October 26th.  I often lament the fact that Mid-Michigan does not have any dramatic landscapes, but if you look hard enough there is still drama to be found.

November was one of the most difficult months from which to choose a favorite photograph - photos of leaves and tree trunks, the full moon, Lake Michigan, etc..  The photograph I chose was an instant favorite.  It shows three fourth-grade students from Vowles Elementary posing during a woodland ecology activity at the school.  Why do I like this photo?  It reminds me of the painting The Son of Man by René Magritte.  It shows the students, but the leaves hide their identities.  As soon as one of the students picked up a large leaf I thought of posing them like this.  I rarely ask people to pose in photos, but I like the results in this image.

December was probably my lightest month of the year for photography.  I hardly took any photographs - I know the month isn't over so I have a few more chances.  My favorite picture of the month is sort of an abstract one - it shows ice pans covering the surface of the Chippewa River at Mill Pond Park on December 14th.  Although I shared several photos from this date, this picture was not one of them.  Is it s great photograph?  No.  Is it even a good photograph?  Probably not, but I like how it shows how small pans of ice come together to eventually cover the river with a layer of ice.   I started this list with a winter scene and bookended the year with another winter scene.