January 2021 Photography
January 2021 is in the books, and with this new year I decided that I am going to try and commit to two photographic New Year’s resolutions. In 2020, my resolution was to make more Bible Verse versions of my photographs throughout the year, and I can proudly say I accomplished that and will continue to do that in 2021.
For this year, my resolution is to try and get out more to make photographs. COVID-19 sort of limited me in that arena last year; not that I didn’t feel safe being outside taking nature photos, but it certainly limited where I went as (for a time) a lot of hotels, public restrooms, and restaurants were shut down to a point where day trips or weekend trips were not as easy as before. Now, does that mean I plan on making new images every week? No, if that were the case, then I already failed that resolution, but I do want to commit to not getting lazy in my craft. As part of that resolution, I would like to try and do more writing about my photography as well, hence the creation of this new blog.
Now here are some of the photographic highlights of the last month!
New Website
My first project of the new year was re-designing this very website. The design hasn’t changed too much from what it used to be, but I do think it’s simpler than it was to look through the galleries. The shop is no longer available, but no one has actually bought anything through the shop anyway. If you’re actually interested in buying any of the nature prints on the site, you can always contact me to get a quote or see pricing.
Winter Hiking
When it’s winter in Michigan, you never really know when you going to have a light dusting of snow, or a full-on polar vortex. In January, the winter landscapes were a little spotty at first, but I managed to get out a couple times for the sole purpose of getting those chilly landscapes.
January 1st blessed us with a nice ice storm, so I got out the next day and hiked through one of my favorite local trails, the Upper Macatawa Natural Area. The snow cover was just perfect where the ground was covered but the wetland grasses still popped up, giving me some great orange and yellow foliage to contrast again the clear blue skies of the day. I even got my first peak of wildlife for the year as well. I spent a few hours out there that day, and actually came home very sore from trudging through the snow.
Not getting enough of winter in that first hike, I went out again the next day. Visiting another trail near my home, I did a short hike through Fairview Park. It’s a much smaller area than Macatawa, but I still came home with a few nuggets and got to play around in post-processing to create one moody scene that I really like.
It was a couple weekends before we had a decent snowfall again. After that snowy drought, I made sure to get back out there. I made an outing to Riley Trails to get some more forest-y shots, and maybe get lucky in the open field area of the trails and maybe spot some birds, but I wasn’t fortunate that day.
Birdwatching
With a very mild winter in the first half of the month the landscapes were not very inspiring to me. However, I really want to flex my photographic muscles a little more this year, so when the landscapes aren’t working with me, I can always go looking for wildlife.
The debut subject of my birdwatching this month was…drumroll please…Seagulls! I know, that doesn’t seem too exciting, but when you take some time to really get an up-close look at them and watch their behavior, they actually are fascinating and fun to watch. In the early half of the month when Lake Macatawa was just frozen enough for the scavengers to stand on, I challenged myself to get certain types of images of the seagulls, so as to avoid doing a repeat of the seagull shots I captured back in December.
I also took a stab at some rare bird watching this month as well, unfortunately, I didn’t have any luck. A family friend informed me of a snowy owl sighting nearby. I went out a couple times in January, trying different times of day and areas where I heard they were spotted, but I didn’t have any luck spotting one. Maybe I’ll get lucky in February.
I was also informed of a rare species of duck that has be spotted around Lake Allegan called a Smew, but when I checked that out, I didn’t see them either. While I was there though, I had some funs photographing the Mergansers that were on the lake, so that wasn’t a total bust, and I got to talk shop with some of the other photographers who were also looking for the Smew as well, which is usually a pleasant experience. Then throughout the rest of the month, I had some great encounters with other species as well, including more duck species, herons, and Red-Tailed Hawks. I captured even more shots this last weekend, but as if this post, I haven’t started culling and editing them yet, so those photographs will probably make an appearance in next month’s blog.
Playing with my Food
On those weekends where the snow wasn’t all that great, you can always do a little photo project in your own home. I experimented with some food photography last year, but that didn’t go beyond the one dish I made (I am by no means a cook). This year, however; I’ve been keeping it in the back of my mind that whenever my mother makes one of her recipes to take a good quality shot of her dishes. The plan is to eventually make a nice quality recipe book of her dishes with photos that can be passed down throughout the generations.
Continuing my 2020 Resolution
I’ll still be applying bible verses to some select images in my portfolio throughout the year, just because 2020 is over (Hallelujah!), doesn’t mean I should quit doing it. Here are the January images.
