This is my favorite photograph. My wife and I were on a float trip down the Snake River and our guide pointed up to a bluff and said it was where photographer Ansel Adams had made a famous picture of the Grand Tetons. The next evening we left our hotel to drive to that spot. During our drive I could see the clouds building in a dramatic way with occasional rays of light steaming out of the sky. When we reached the overlook I set my camera up on a tripod and waited about 20 minutes for the right moment to capture the sun and clouds. The view you see here lasted only a few seconds. It is a good example of being at the right place at the right time.

In June of 1998 I visited the Grand Teton National Park. I had great expectations of coming back with some nice photographs. However, the weather was very uncooperative and it rained nearly the entire week I was there. On one of the last mornings of my trip, I decided to get up before sunrise hoping to get a nice picture of Mount Moran reflected in the Oxbow Bend segment of the Snake River. Some holes in the clouds let the morning sun in for a few minutes. It was long enough to make a few exposures with my camera before the sky became completely overcast again.

I was shocked one May morning to wake up to snow. Winter was supposed to be long gone. The crab apple trees were already blooming and the tulips were up. I had to see how the flowers were coping with this late spring storm, so I packed up my camera and went to Whitnall Park where I made the picture you see here of flowers pushing back the unexpected snow.

The Cathedral at Holy Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin is an impressive site. I especially enjoy the view of the Church on early summer mornings. It was on such a day that I made this composition. While driving down a back road I found where a farmer had harvested some hay. The scene before me was too vast for a good composition but by using a zoom lens I was able to balance the Church with the harvest in a manner pleasing to the eye.

One of my favorite spots to visit in Door County is Cana Island. You can walk to the island via a gravel causeway. Be prepared for wet feet when visiting, since portions of the causeway are often covered with water from Lake Michigan. To make this picture I lifted my camera a few hundred feet into the sky using a large kite. A small video camera transmitted the aerial view back to a pocket television I carried. When the composition looked good, I used a radio trigger to fire the shutter.

Winthrop Harbor is a great place to visit during the summer. A few times each year I go there to take aerial photos of the harbor from my kite. By lifting my camera a few hundred feet into the sky, I can record a perspective much different than what is seen from ground level. This picture was made on a July evening about an hour before sunset.

How do you get a sharp picture of a tiny creature like a hummingbird? Their tiny wings beat at a rate of 53 times per second with a wing tip velocity of 26 feet per second. This requires an exposure time of 1/8,000 of a second or less to get blur free pictures. To make this image I positioned an infrared beam by the feeder so that when the hummingbird flew through the beam the camera would automatically fire and take the picture. A short duration strobe light was used to freeze the motion of the wings. Three separate exposures were combined to create the photograph you see here.

On April 19, 1996 a major storm passed through Lake County, Illinois. The hail, high winds, and lighting were impressive. Many homes in Antioch including ours, were significantly damaged. The storm passed quickly and knocked out the electricity in our subdivision. As the storm clouds passed to the east, I set my camera up and made two thirty second time exposures in the darkness.

Since my high school days, I have wanted to get a nice close up of a Killdeer at it's nest, without disturbing the birds. About two years ago I found a Killdeer nest in a vacant lot next door to our home. I set up my camera on a tripod with a telephoto lens about 15 feet away from the nest. I went back into my house and watched the nest with binoculars. I used a special radio trigger to fire the camera remotely from inside the house. It was a win/win scenario. The birds ignored the camera and I was able to get my photograph

Leaving the comfort of my warm bed about an hour before sunrise, I decided to explore a rocky shore of Lake Superior. The autumn air was cold, but I thought the morning light offered some exciting possibilities for pictures. After spending some time photographing the sunrise and a large stand of birch trees, I came upon some secluded pools of shimmering water where the gold of the morning sun mixed with the rich blues of the shaded shoreline.