The last good beach day of the year.

A melancholy shot of my niece Kelly and her horse, Dailey, walking along the shore of Lake Michigan.

Rosy Maple Moth

As the title suggests, this is a rosy maple moth.  They are quite common here, and very pretty.  You wouldn't think that something this brightly colored would be known for its camouflage, but it is.  This type of moth loves to congregate in certain maple trees whose seed pods (those "helicopter" seeds which spiral down as a wing-like blade) carry the exact same rose and yellow coloring when they emerge.  If you look at this moth you can see that it is the exact size and shape of one of those maple seed pods, and in a tree covered with hundreds of thousands of them you can imagine how hard it would be to spot this thing.

9-11-12

Taken this morning, at the Fire Department in Sparta, MI.  Still pretty moving, even eleven years on.  To everyone who has my back, even though I may not think about it a whole lot, thank you.

A Difficult Assignment

In early January my friend Mike found out he had cancer of the esophagus.  When he told me, he asked if I was interested in doing a photo documentary of his experience.  I agreed, and took shots of him almost every week until he died, on August 15th.  This shot is part of that series.

Yes, another bird.

I have always liked birds, even as a kid.  They are so very unlike other animals in the way they think, and so varied in appearance.  This is a common yellowthroat fledgling, just out of his nest. 

One from the archives

Because it is so hot outside here currently, I am posting a previously unseen shot of a snow leopard getting a drink on what for her must have been an incredibly hot day (it was 80F that day).  She must have wanted that drink very badly, because she knew I was there the whole time and came down anyway.  She never took her eyes off me, and as soon as she was finished she made two 15-foot leaps straight up the rocks and vanished.

Grosbeak

A nice portrait of a rose-breasted grosbeak.  This is a juvenile male.