by Nick Wallander
For this week of the challenge we were tasked with telling a story about your hometown. I almost drove back to the town I grew up in called Valders, Wisconsin. Instead, I decided to find something inherent to my new hometown, Green Bay. What is my new hometown known for? Word titles! That’s why it is Titletown USA!
Now I really liked this one:
But this one is my submission because it is unique, beautiful, and to the point:
I’ve been trying very hard to actually get out and shoot some photos during the golden hour. A couple of weekends ago, I did just that by visiting Voyageur Park in De Pere an hour or so before sunset. Voyageur Park has many opportunities for great photography. There’s a river. There’s running trails. Oh and there’s a cool bridge too. There are also docks to fish off of and a real cool observation area where you can watch the locks, dam, and pelicans. You just need to go there to check it out.
With that said, here’s the photo I settled on for this challenge. It has leading lines that take you right to a beautiful sunset. Check it out and let me know what you think.
I posted this with my goal of completing the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Challenge. If you go back through other posts, you’ll see my prior selections.
I’m super behind on this 2019 photo challenge. I recently bought a new Canon 6D Mark II, so I am hoping to play catchup. I’ll get caught up eventually. We will continue with week 7 (which should have been February).
The theme was “Love Story”. It could mean many different things. It could have been very easy to go about and get this shot. Then again, when one’s personal life makes you question the concept of love altogether, it becomes a bit more difficult. I’m not saying that love is an empty sham, but I might be leaning that way.
Cynicism aside, here’s the shot I settled on. I took at at the De Pere lock riverwalk thingy. It’s more or less a pier that has a shit ton of locks on it representing love. This is a tradition that people do all over the world. It’s a matter os symbolism. They often write their names on it. Note how there’s a real big one rusting away. Yeah, that’s symbolism for you!
The next pics should related to leading lines. Let’s hope I get there…
If you are curious as to where I am getting these, check out the 2019 Dogwood Photography Challenge.
We are plugging along to week 5. This week’s challenge, as part of the Dogwood 52, was to get a shot that you didn’t do any photoshop to other than standard exposure adjustments. This week’s subject was not my faithful buddy, Houdini. It was actually my other puppy buddy, Asher. He spent a day with me last month and I got some good shots of him specifically for this challenge. So, here are a couple of those:
Those are all cute. They are all serviceable. I particularly do like the one with his little bugger of a snout in focus. They all display his personality. However, I liked one a bit better. Not because these aren’t great. I liked my selection better because it was more in focus and the natural light show’s Ash Monster’s redish fur a bit better. Here it is, my week 6 submission.
Yesterday I took a little road trip to Door County in hopes of finding some inspiration for Week 4 in the photography challenge I am taking part in. This week’s challenge involves the combination of a landscape and symmetry. Alas, I did not find exactly that, but I did find some inspiration.
There are a lot of things to do in Door County, WI. There’s plenty of food to track down and plenty of parks to visit. There are several county parks and state parks within the county because the land basically begs to be appreciated in such a way. If you’ve never been to Door County, let me describe it to you physically. There’s everything from sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, wetlands, coniferous forests, lakes, and all kinds of coastline. In other words, there’s a lot going on there. That’s a result of the work done by the glaciers more than 10,000 years ago. It’s unique and I love it for that.
One of my favorite spots to visit is Cave Point County Park which is located in the east side of the Door Peninsula, 25 minutes outside of Sturgeon Bay. The park itself is located within a state park called Whitefish Dunes State Park (I told you there were a ton of parks). The park is open year round and is home to one of the rocky shores lined with cliffs and one titular coastal cave.
The cave in question is quite the site, any time of the year. The cave causes quite the violent splashes because of physics or something. I can’t properly describe it other than it seems like the waves crash a lot harder and louder near the cave. The whole shore in the park is hit by the waves of Lake Michigan all winter long. When we have a real cold spell, like the polar vortex, it causes some real cool things with ice. I probably shouldn’t talk about it so much as show you…
First, here’s a look along the shore of the park. You can definitely see what I was talking about. All that splashed water makes for a beautiful scene that even Mr. Freeze would be envious of.
It’s all on there real thick, too. The ice extends onto the ground several feet inland as well. I had to be quite careful as I am terrified of water and the shore here is three notches more terrifying with the waves and extreme cold.
The trees near the shore become beautiful hosts for icicles. I saw the ice on trees right on the shore to all the way back 15-20 feet. I’d imagine the high winds during the vortex caused the icy art on the trees farther inland.
With all the ice and the sun shining bright, I had to try to shoot something that showcased both. So, here’s one attempt at that:
I also liked that one in black and white:
Here’s one with a little more reference to where this was in relation to the water:
And here’s what happens when you play with the white balance in post production:
And here’s one more that I took at the shore in Bailey’s Harbor (20 min north of Cave Point). I like it for the pattern and repetition.
Thanks for humoring me and looking at these. Let me know what you think. My camera is an old one now and it still does a decent job if I know what I am doing.
This weekend, I took a little trip to Forest County, Wisconsin. We stayed at a beautiful little cabin at the Camp 20 Cabins property. It’s a wonderful place to stay and I’d suggest it to anyone looking for a quiet getaway. I snapped dozens of photos and thought I’d share a few with you.
Here are some shots of stunning Lake Lucerne in Crandon, WI. The sun was starting to set and it was flat-out beautiful.
Oh and we saw the most American thing ever…. a bald eagle!
