Category: Water

We took this picture on a very hot, humid day in July of 2016 at Starved Rock State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois. It is a black and white rendition of the form and texture of a rivulet of water in one of the many stream and riverbeds in the park.

It hadn’t been particularly rainy during this part of the summer and the heat had aided in evaporation, so that what were once ample water supplies coursing through the streams and rivers, due to the late winter melt-off or the abundant spring rains, were now absent.

We had considered putting this picture in our Etsy Shop for many months and we finally relented. I love, particularly, the pattern of the “waves,” for lack of a better term, and the rhythmic function, certainly with a mathematical, waveform feel to it.

This picture was taken in November 2008, in Disney World, in Florida. Besides its serenity and beauty, this memory is of special significance to me.

I was still learning much about my, then, new camera. There were many challenges, as many photographers face, but “slowing water down” was especially problematic until this picture. Rather than “freezing” the water, I learned how to manage the camera settings to allow for a feeling of motion in the waterfall.

It was a turning point in honing my skills and a lesson that helped me, in some way, in my understanding of what I could get my camera to do to bring the best, most faithful experience of the moment.

Rodgers-Lakewood Park in Valparaiso, Indiana made for an excellent, day-long, get away for me on that colorful, peaceful autumn day in November 2011.

The lake, that is within the confines of the park, offered many beautiful colors, textures, and shapes reflected in its serene waters.

In this picture, I was able to find an angle that allowed me to get a mirror reflection of that fallen tree in the lake, framed by the fall colors.

The Aon building, in downtown Chicago, has a variety of waterfalls and fountains. This black and white photograph, taken in September 2012, is a portion of the veritable labyrinth of water in motion and its corresponding intricacies, changing moment by moment.

Specifically, as I remember, one of the entrances to the Aon complex was directly off Randolph Street and led down, via staircase or elevator, to the courtyard below, which, itself, has a beautiful fountain.

On either side of the stairway/elevator are two waterfalls which begin very near street level and fall to the courtyard area below.

Another picture in our Etsy Shop taken that day is Flowers – Untitled #6.

Carrie and I visited Matthiessen State Park in LaSalle County, Illinois in November, 2016.

We are walking along a riverbed that in the spring is usually swollen with rushing water from the winter melt-off. On that day, however, the melting snow and Summer rains are past and there is only a trickle compared to earlier in the year.

This once plentiful waterfall is host to just this smaller, gentler cascade that also reveals how the heavier flows have cut into the surrounding rock. We loved the serenity afforded to us on that Fall day and the memories of the gentle sounds of the water and the breeze still remind us of that beautiful beautiful, peaceful day together.

On the north side of the Chicago River, near the Lake Shore Drive Bridge, in the Near North Side, Streeterville, River East area, lies the Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain. It features a very interesting and engaging series of waterfalls and a water cannon.

One feature, in particular, is a circular waterfall that visitors can actually “enter” and view from the inside looking out. There is a circular “roof,” above the enclosed viewing area where the water is pumped, and this water falls in about a 270-degree circular waterfall. If one is “inside,” you can look at the water cascading down, unhindered, to the structure below.

In this August 2010 picture, I am, in fact “inside” the structure with the water falling around me. I was able to use a very fast shutter speed which produced this part of the waterfall as if the motion were frozen in that moment.

It is a fascinating complex of many waterfalls in a relatively small area which treats the observer to countless angels and perspectives; a never-ending array of visual possibilities.

It had been a very snowy couple of weeks prior to this visit to Creek Ridge County Park, south of Michigan City, Indiana, on February 6th, 2009. Some of the pictures I took of the 67 taken that day showed snow on top of the stumps of trees over a foot high. But it’s February and the rays of the sun are shining more and more directly, rather than angled, thereby bringing “more warmth” and therefore a gradual thawing during the sunny days.

This day was no exception and, in this picture, we can see the abstract reflection of the sun, shown in the highlighted white bands, being pulled over the rocks by the force of the water. Still, while the air temperatures were still frigid, the warmth of the sun began the thawing of the snows giving way to the crystal-clear waters in the streams. Spring was not far away.