I’m not big on Nature Photography, but today’s photoshoot was a little getaway of mine.  During a family party today, I grabbed my dog Luna and left for a little bit.  The sun was about to set and I really wanted to catch the perfect sky out today.  The clouds seemed like they didn’t move, and it just seemed like a great day to be walking alone with my dog.  We first drove out west through some cornfields in North Aurora.  These were neverending.  It seemed every field had a “Private Property” sign up, and I didn’t feel like getting shot by a farmer today, so I started driving up north to see if there was anything worth capturing… and there it was… The Kane County Forest Preserve.  When Luna and I first arrived, we immediately saw a what looked to be some sort of Lookout Tower.

Lookout Tower

There were no other cars in the parking lot as the park was about to close… and me, being myself, continued to venture out down this eerie path.  I walked down this path not knowing how long I would go down, but had a feeling there would be something worth seeing.

Path 1

Path 2

We walked for about a half mile through this eerie path and stumbled upon a ledge overlooking a lake.  The sun was just about to set so I tied up Luna to this post nearby.  I began snapping away for about 10 minutes when Luna began to bark.  The hairs on my neck began to stand as I remembered that there were no other cars in the parking lot.  Then out of nowhere, this woman walked up and sat down about 5-10 feet from me.  Out of everywhere else to see the sun set… she had to sit this close to me??  I thought that was really odd.  The weird part was that when she walked up, my dog went silent.  I tried making conversation with the woman; About how nice the sunset was, but she never really made eye contact with me.  She replied with short answers and seemed really out of it.  Just staring out to the sun.  It began getting really dark out, so I packed my stuff up and started walking down the path again.  As I was walking, I started thinking about my little encounter with the woman and had this uneasy feeling.  What if she were a ghost?  The hairs on my neck stood up again.  I looked back down by where she was sitting, and it was almost completely dark out… but I could still see her sitting there.  I was convinced she was a ghost.  No woman in their right mind would be sitting in a dark forest preserve staring out into the sun like that.  I hurried along and drove back to the party.

The Lake Sunset

Tonight my cousin Richard and my sister Tena drove out to Naperville for a night time stroll in the park.  It was drizzling a little bit, and we came across this statue called Veterans Valor, made by Shirley Moss.  Located on South Washington Street near Central Park, this piece honored five men who fought during World War II.  All five men fought in different campaigns throughout the war, but they all attended Naperville High School in the late 1930s.  Sculpture Shirley Moss created the piece and said she wanted to show the five men reuniting after the war.

Veterans Valor

This photograph was incredibly tough to capture.  There were three bright yellow lights behind the sculpture that I did not want in the photo, so I had to place the camera in the right position to avoid the glare, and custom the white balance to get rid of the yellowish color.  I really wanted to capture the flag in the background so that meant having to shoot from the ground (this also enabled me to block out the three yellow lights behind the sculpture).  I shot this with a 20 second shutter, but because it was raining.. you can imagine my frustration of water getting onto the lens lol.

I love grainy photos. My wife was looking all over for this kid… she was washing dishes while he was playing with his Nintendo DS on the sofa… then he went silent… and was nowhere to be found. I was downstairs processing photos… and this was where we found him.  I wonder what he was dreaming about…

Dreaming

A couple weeks ago, my dear friends Christopher and Cristina had their daughter’s Baptism out in Kenosha.  I wasn’t going to bring my SLR that day, but I’m glad I did.

Parents and Grandparents

Chris, Cristina, and their daughter Gianna

Getting Baptized

The Godparents

I had to take this photo of Grandfather Palmisano.. he's holding a purse!

To start things off, here is a collection of my old flickr photos.  Not much to say here, other than my photography style has changed since then.  Click on the images to view larger size, and go through the gallery.  Click on the below link to go to my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/telachhe