Mike MacDonald Photography, Inc.

ChicagoNatureNOW! on TV

My FREE wildflower reporting platform, ChicagoNatureNOW!, is again being featured on reruns of WTTW's "Jay's Chicago."

The "Out In Nature" episode can be viewed here:

- Thu, Aug 15 at 1:30 PM on WTTW Prime

- Fri, Aug 16 at 12:30 AM on WTTW Prime

- More conveniently, but not as exciting as watching the broadcast, here's a link to the video:

Jay's Chicago | Out in Nature | Season 2022 | Episode 1 | WTTW Jay meets passionate nature lovers. And he makes friends with an unnervingly large insect.

MAGICAL LIGHT ISN'T JUST FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

This May scene from Illinois Beach State Park is special, home to the rare Waukegan (creeping) juniper and bear berry, among other plant species. Yet the star of the show is not any of these plants. It's our star, Earth's star. Given the inherent lack of floral color at this time of year, this scene appears quite ordinary, Then comes the sun!

There are only a few moments when sunlight and shade perfectly paint the scene, after which time shadows are overwhelmed with brightness, and the magic is gone.

To increase your appreciation of nature, don't take midday hikes when the hot glare of the sun engulfs the senses. Instead, explore the prairie in the early and late hours of the day, when the light is soft and low. Walk and wait, and suddenly it will appear, the moment when everything you find familiar is new once again, and the world is transformed into magic.

Beautiful light is not just for photographers. It's for anyone who wants to experience nature's beauty at its finest.

Thanks to Club for celebrating Indiana Dunes National Park in the current 2024 Engagement Calendar with my misty mid-May image of wild lupine.

Save the Dunes
Indiana Dunes National Park
Indiana Dunes National Park Appreciation Page
National Park Service

Tumbling maple leaves were captured by a long-fallen tree before they could reach the golden carpet at Will County's O'Hara Woods.

As always, limited edition prints are available for purchase. Please contact me for details. You can also find many prints on my website: https://www.chicagonature.com/product-category/print/nature/

O'Hara Woods Nature Preserveve
Forest Preserve District of Will County
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
Illinois Department of Natural Resources

WINTER RED

When winter wasn't living up to its promise of frozen white, I gave in and tried to photograph it, anyway.

Winter Red - The Heart of Nature™ by Mike MacDonald Though winter wasn't living up to its promise of frozen white, I gave in and photograph it, anyway. Here's what I found amidst the mist.

PHOTOGRAPHING WINTER WONDERLANDS: WHY GRAY SKIES ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND & OTHER DEEP PHOTOGRAPHIC INSIGHTS

I have good memories from a few weeks ago, when pompoms floated atop the flowering tufts of sweet Joe-Pye w**d in the open woodland at Spears Woods. And though most every inch of horizontal space was covered in snow, and everywhere I looked was a wonderland, it took me over two hours of wandering around and studying the landscape to settle on the image you see here. This isn't unusual, the magic of snow-covered landscapes are nearly impossible to convey in a two-dimensional way when the sun doesn't shine and the skies are gray.

When gazing up at the treetops with your naked eye, the dull gray sky doesn't exist, just the snowy limbs. But in a photo, the gray sky falls in the same plane as the trees. The dullness is forced upon you.

You need the directional light of the sun or, more subtly, an open sky, so that foregrounds and backgrounds don't intertwine into a confusing mess. And that's why, with this picture, it took me about six hours of tedious post processing to help that delicate foreground of snowballs to pop out against the backdrop of bright, similarly-colored lace. And still, after all that, I think the picture is just okay (compared to what I normally produce).

These types of photographic challenges are why real photographers know that using Photoshop is not "Photoshopping." Photoshop restores "the truth" and "the experience" to images, especially with landscapes where the light can vary greatly. Ansel Adams did exactly the same stuff all the time, but he did it in a darkroom, so nobody cares. But tell people that you used Photoshop, and they call you a fake. But it's actually the other way around.

A captured image (aka "SOOC" or straight out of camera) is NEVER more truthful than an image put through Photoshop. SOOC images are often flatter than reality. They lack contrast and fidelity or, what I call, "that sparkle of life" that we experience when we're there. In this case, the sad flat light accentuates the collapse of the third dimension, which is the cause of many other human perception issues that Photoshop can help rectify. But that's not all.

There's also the problem with exposure, like when the camera perfectly captures the sky but leaves the land black. In the film days, the land remained black, and that was that—a silhouette. But nowadays, with digital capture, the pictures can still be taken as a silhouette. But then you use Photoshop to open up those deep, deep shadows to reveal that luscious prairie full of flowers—flowers that you clearly see when you're there, but go dark in the image when you expose for a much brighter sky. With digital, there’s a lot of information hidden in the underexposed and overexposed areas, but you need Photoshop to reveal them.

In truth, if anyone is cheating, it's the viewer, not the camera or the photographer. The camera takes only one shot at one aperture which results in one exposure. But your pupil, your eye's aperture, is constantly changing, taking multiple exposures as you scan the scene. Your pupil goes small when you look at the bright sky and very big when you take in the flowers. Cheater! Obviously, the ability to see the kaleidoscopic prairie is the truth. Pitch blackness is simply a consequence of camera technology that cannot yet match cheating humans.

So, if you've always wondered why you're disappointed in your winter-wonderland landscape pictures photographed under overcast skies, now you know why. You don't need to join a support group or anything. You just need to cut yourself some slack. It's just very difficult to get a great shot. And that's why I usually don't bother shooting under those conditions. (I may try getting closeups, but I start losing my will to live, mostly because they also turn out flat and boring. Icicles tend to sparkle, so you may be able to make that work.) Instead, I stay disciplined and use that time to scout various locations and scenarios so that I'm ready for when the sun comes out, if the sun comes out. Hopefully, if the wind and temps are low, the fairyland may last long enough for beautiful light to bless the scene. And if it doesn't, which is most often the case, then you can better understand the true life of a landscape photographer.

I love taking on these challenges. The exploration has made me who I am.

Palos Restoration Project
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Friends of the Forest Preserves

A LONG TIME COMING

Given the tedious, time-consuming nature of my work, there are many images that I've yet to process. This one goes back nine-and-a-half years. It features the Tinker Toy flower heads of rattlesnake master at Nachusa Grasslands.

Nachusa Grasslands Nature Conservancy
Friends of Nachusa Grasslands
The Nature Conservancy in Illinois
The Nature Conservancy
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission

OUR LITTLE SECRET

For me, pure delight is the light that kisses the land at the cusp of darkness. I love its warmth against cool shadows. Its angular directionality. But most of all, I love its selectivity.

Last week at Illinois Beach Nature Preserve, the sun began to fall below a curtain of clouds, diffusing the light. In an area of dune and swale, the sun's final rays selected a sprawling quilt of Waukegan juniper, a party of little bluestem, and the bronze marcescent foliage of a black oak.

No matter the day, good light or bad, the beauty here is unsurpassed. When it comes to our local wild place, I have many loves—each with its own allure and personality. But I must confess, Illinois Beach Nature Preserve is my favorite. Please don't tell the others. Let it be our little secret.

Illinois Beach State Park
Illinois Dunesland Preservation Societyciety
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves

Go With the Blow

Well, I did my first below-zero photo shoot of the winter season on January 15. It was one below, so it qualified.

Most of the time, the wind is my nemesis. But on this bitter afternoon, instead of fighting the it, I decided to go with the blow. The trick is to slow down the shutter speed to a point where the grass tops render as discernable and sweeping at the same time. (It helps to zoom in to see the effect.) Otherwise, you just see a confusing blurry mess leaving viewers to wonder what they're looking at.

This scene of Illinois Beach State Park is interesting because it shows the Dead River flowing into Lake Michigan. This isn't a common occurrence, as its name comes from the fact that it doesn't seem to flow. But sometimes it does, breaking through the sandbar that separates it from the lake. Here, the water flows beneath a thin layer of ice and emerges around the bend.

Illinois Beach State Park
Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves

BEWARE! Yesterday at Indiana Dunes National Park, Halloween became real. I was greeted by a species that we've all assumed to be of this Earth, but I found to be alien: Sassafras, which offered its "hand" and spoke the words "Nanu nanu." A being from Mork's planet of Ork.

A NEW CHICAGO NATURE EXHIBIT BEGINS THAT CELEBRATES DUPAGE COUNTY!

Today, the first of October, is when my six-month immersive exhibit ends and a new national exhibit begins, featuring just one image. The photo is called "A Peculiar Parade" from Waterfall Glen's Sawmill Creek to celebrate the month of October and, most proudly, Chicagoland's natural landscape inside the 2023 Sierra Club Wilderness Wall Calendar.

Here's the image's caption from my book "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago":

Every October, I am drawn to the banks of Sawmill Creek for the annual celebration of golden maples. On this particular day, the stream turned to a trickle, its rocky bed transformed into the staging area for a colorful, yet peculiar, parade—one that waits for rainfall in order to proceed.

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County The Conservation Foundation Illinois Nature Preserves Commission Illinois Department of Natural Resources Discover DuPage Governor JB Pritzker Wild Ones - Greater DuPage Chapter (IL) Sustain DuPage

LAST WEEK TO SEE MY IMMERSIVE EXHIBIT!

The six-month exhibition of "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago" runs through Sunday, October 1st.

IMMERSIVE EXHIBIT - My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago - Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum thru Oct. 1 Immersive exhibition entitled "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago" by internationally published photography Mike MacDonald (https://ChicagoNature.com). NOW...

ONLY THREE WEEKS LEFT TO EXPERIENCE MY SHOW:
The immersive art exhibition of my Chicago nature photography at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, entitled "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago," runs through Sunday, August 27. The museum is open every day from 10 to 4 with free admission on Thursdays.

Check out this powerful 48-second video:

IMMERSIVE EXHIBIT - My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago Immersive exhibition entitled "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago" by internationally published photography Mike MacDonald. Learn more at (https://ChicagoNature.com/immersive-exhibits/).

IMMERSIVE EXHIBIT - My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago Immersive exhibition entitled "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago" by internationally published photography Mike MacDonald. Learn more at (https://ChicagoNature.com/immersive-exhibits/).

COME SEE MY UPLIFTING PERFORMANCE AND BOOK SIGNING ON SATURDAY, JUNE 24

In conjunction with my immersive exhibition at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, I'll be performing my inspiring show, followed by a book signing, on June 24 at 2:00 pm. The performance is entitled, "My Love Affair with Chicago Nature in Pictures, Poetry, and Prose."

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
During this intimate and loving performance, I hurl jaw-dropping images onto the big screen while reading passionate, thought-provoking passages from my book "My Journey Into The Wilds Of Chicago." Combining breathtaking images and imaginative storytelling, I lead you on a fascinating adventure into wondrous, enchanted lands located just up the road from home, work, and school. Get there early so you can also experience the immersive exhibit. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here:
https://tickets.naturemuseum.org/events/1e92b78b-9629-329a-422a-eb447e1ff4d0

ABSTRACT SCENES HAVE THEIR CHALLENGES
I'm not sure if the image here is officially an abstract because the subject matter shows clearly identifiable subjects. But it is in the sense that there many angles and intricacies that require very close attention to detail.

The image looks very simple to compose. But it was deceptive. Little adjustments had big effects that were difficult to quantify in real time. One change would trigger another change that would trigger another change, and so on. And it was nearly almost impossible to truly figure out why. So I just had to play around, moving from side to side, up and down, to virtually arrange and frame the subjects within the confines of the viewfinder.

In real life, though, the beauty is there no matter how you look at it. But photography is a completely different world, though most people have no idea. And this is the big reason photography gets little respect. Most people believe that all you have to do is aim the camera at something nice and press the shutter. And it's also why so many people wonder why their shots rarely live up to those perfect moments. It's because PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT REALITY, my friend. Remember this, "Framing the stuff is not enough." The scene as seen through the lens is a far different experience than what's seen through both eyes.

There are times when everywhere I turn my heart races, while a photograph that will faithfully convey that experience can take me years. Years! This is especially true for the horizontal and biologically oriented Chicago landscape. Getting good mountain images are easy because mountains are huge and give thw eye an solid place to land. But more importantly, mountain scenes are inherently three-dimensional and, hence, photogenic. In other words, the mountain is doing most of the work for you. Just point and shoot, and it won't be long before your loved ones will be encouraging you to open a photo gallery. But I challenge any mountain photographer to convey the magnificence of our flat prairies or our springtime woodlands carpeted by tiny flowers. They'll be humbled. And this is why I always say, "The prairie made me."

In every case, but particularly for this intricately geometric closeup, many questions must be asked while composing. What subject matter should I include or exclude? What's the best angle or rotation? Should it be horizontally or vertically oriented? It took about ten minutes to frame the "scene," but its small size made it feel like an hour. At some point during the process, it all started to feel the same, like when you stare at a word for too long and it temporarily loses its meaning. There's a word for that: semantic satiation. In photography, you might call it compositional satiation.

The problem wasn't, literally and figuratively, the central character of the prairie trillium. It was how to position the flavescent foliage of fading toothwort and the lobed leaves of wild ginger. I finally got to a point where I thought it felt right but, just in case, I pulled back a little bit to provide some breathing room which I could easily crop off later. At least that's what I thought. So when I pulled the image into Photoshop to do the cropping, it took me over an hour. That's a lot of cropping. Every time I trimmed a little off of one side, it caused a problem that would require a corresponding crop on the opposite side, which then triggered an issue that made me trim the original side, and so it went, ad infinitum. Now, I think it looks pretty good.

And after all that, it's still far easier than composing a Chicago landscape, yet far far harder than photographing a mountain.

This is a scene from May of 2022 when fragrant woodland phlox bloomed in the woodland Fermilab Natural Areas. (Enlarge the picture on a desktop for the best view.) The plants are 8 to 12 inches tall and the flowers only an inch wide. And the ultrawide lens that I used makes everything much smaller. To avoid teeny tiny flowers, push the lens close to the foreground flowers to restore their size. Here, my lens is only about 7 inches from the nearest blooms. This technique does not enlarge subjects in the distance. And wide-angle lenses make small spaces look larger and short distances appear farther. To avoid making majestic wide-trunked trees look skinny and far away, find flowers that are quite close to trees. Check out the picture and guess how far my camera is from the big tree and the fallen logs. Answer: About 10 feet. So, when shooting with a wide lens, get very close. And remember to focus at the hyperfocal distance or focus stack, like I do.

LITTLE LANDSCAPES: A SPOTLIGHT ON BIODIVERSITY
The floor of this springtime woodland is covered with an array of plant life. As the frost was fading, a shaft of sunlight shined a spotlight onto this little world of rue anemone (the largest flower), Chicago's namesake (wild leek that holds the shadow), spring beauty (the closed pink flowers), and the spotted foliage of trout lily.

LITTLE LANDSCAPES: MAYAPPLE & RUE ANEMONE
I love showing the relationships between different plants species. It's a celebrates of biodiversity, and it adds a little extra sumpin' sumpin' to the story and the photograph. You'll find this pattern in most of my grand landscape images. But most closeups that I see and shoot are of just one plant or a small portion of that plant.

Last spring, as I was wandering the woodland with a filigree of low-lying diminutive flowers and foliage, I kept noticing these cute little relationships and worlds. And I decided to figure out a way to tell their stories. Given my bent for landscapes, I was thinking that "little landscapes" sounded best, but this image here of mayapple and rue anemone is more like a portrait of two close friends.

This image of mayapple and rue anemone portrays a very sweet and whimsical find. All I had to do is take 34 focus stacked images and spend 5 hours processing it, which is why it took me a year to finally show you.

TECH TIP: One big reason to focus stack is to maintain an out-of-focus background, otherwise it's way too distracting. Think of it as portrait mode, but on a much smaller (and much more tedious) scale. Combining several images with narrow depths of field lets you build a single image with a blurry and more pleasing background.

FROM HITHER TO YON: NEW PERSONAL FOCUS STACKING RECORD
Yesterday, I came across this scene of Dutchman's britches, mayapples, and the beautiful decaying log. That gorgeous filigree of foliage demanded that I treat it as a landscape, not a macro shot of the tiny white "suspenders" that ranged from 0.4" to 3/4" across.

Nowadays, the demanding 102-megapixels of my medium-format Fujifilm GFX100S camera requires that I focus stack every composition, from 1:1 macro to wide-angle landscapes. The air must be still and every composition becomes a production, taking from three to ten hours to blend the images even when using the best software (Zyrene Stacker at http://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker).

In my nearly 30 years of photography, this image breaks my record for the most extreme focusing: 7.5 inches to infinity. Imagine the camera hanging upside-down from the tripod with tip of lens only1.5 inches from the the beautiful foliage of Dutchman's breeches. In the even light of a mostly cloudy morning, I set up the composition and hoped the wind would pause. Luckily, over an hour later, it did. And I was able to manually move through twenty-eight frames at different focus distances.

My Laowa 17mm lens has a focus ring with a very long throw and a distance scale with many increments that vary by small amounts. That makes all the difference. Here's a stunning fact. The distance scales all Fujifilm's GF lenses, which start at $2,300, don't have an accurate distance scale. Not even close. It's digitally displayed and, as one of their engineers put it, "I wouldn't land a plane by it."

So, if you're trying this kind of work, make sure you buy equipment that works for you, not against you.

Watch the CBS2-News Interview about Immersive Exhibit:
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/peggy-notebaert-nature-museum-immersive-art-exhibit/
I had a great time sharing the spotlight with Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum CEO, Erin Amico! We had a lot of fun and covered and provided viewers with a great deal of information in such a short time. Thanks to the James Liebenson and the rest of the museum marketing team. And a special shout-out to Jessica Pangrazio Gallen at the PR firm Laughlin Constable for her patience and guidance.

April 1st was opening day at my five-month art exhibition entitled "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago" at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum with projection by Visual Feeder. Hundreds of people visited and found peace as they immersed themselves in meditative music and the natural beauty of the Chicago region. Here are some pictures from the day . . .

ANNOUNCING MIKE'S ANNUAL LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS IN JULY

Click here to learn more and sign up: https://workshops.chicagonature.com/

July is when Mike MacDonald teaches his groundbreaking landscape photography system called "The Chicago Prairie Style" through workshops entitled "Light & The Landscape" (7/16) and "Art of Landscape Photography" (7/17).

Only 6 students will be accepted into each class. So, hurry!

Each session begins in the classroom and ends in the beautiful light of the prairie. On July 27, students return to the classroom with newly created landscape images, where Mike provides valuable feedback.

"At the moment sunbeams enter the scene,
they ethereally and dramatically alter all tangible elements,
recasting the land into a complex story of highlights and shadows,
with every physical subject taking a back seat
to a star that steals the show."
—from Mike’s book, "My Journey into the Wilds of Chicago"

Come partake in your passion in the company and camaraderie of other ardent photographers. And learn how to give nature a voice!

Sometimes You Just Need A Little Distance to appreciate what's right under your nose. In this case, it's the iconic, yet elusive, great blue heron.

https://www.chicagonature.com/blog/index.php/illinois-nature-photography/sometimes-you-just-need-a-little-distance-bird-photography/

Sometimes You Just Need A Little Distance - The Heart of Nature™ by Mike MacDonald The great blue heron is common to all 50 states and, hence, underappreciated. Sometimes you need some distance to f

Subscribe to my Heart of Nature photography blog (www.HeartOfNature.com) for photography information and inspiration, including an article about how I composed this image.

THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE "ORDINARY"

I am both haunted and fascinated by a phrase that's often used to praise and describe my work.

It all came to a head one day after I performed my one-man show about Chicago nature. Three audience members separately visited me at my book-signing table and said, "Your photographs bring out the extraordinary in the ordinary." They were enthusiastic and well-meaning. And I was gracious in my response, but in reality I was confused and shocked. Insulted, too—not for myself, but for the prairie and the woodlands that, to me, are immensely beautiful and full of wonderment.

How can "ordinary" be used to describe the breathtaking experience of the lush and fragrant woodland scenes of Virginia bluebells in the spring and July's kaleidoscopic heart-stopping vignettes of purple, orange, ivory, and gold?

Maybe, instead of "ordinary," people really mean "everyday." Even so, I still come to the prairie's defense when people call it "ordinary" simply because it's not the peaks of the Grand Tetons, Old Faithful erupting at sunset, or the mesmerizing midnight colors of the aurora borealis.

The answer to why my work is able to convey the extraordinary in the ordinary was hidden in plain sight. When it comes to the habitats and inhabitants of Chicago's wilderness, I'm blind to the ordinary. I only see the fascinating, the magnificent, and the beautiful. And therefore, I naturally create images that reflect what I experience and feel.

CAPTION:
On this "ordinary" January morning at Bluff Spring Fen, a blanket of cold winter white covered the preserve. As I crossed the threshold from windswept prairie to quiet savanna-on-the-kame, I was met by a hug of majestic bur oaks that gently placed me under their protection. (I nominate the word "hug" as the collective noun for a grouping of bur oaks.)