One Picture

Even though I recorded a number of images since yesterday’s flowers, one picture in particular resonated with me. This simple photo of a false sunflower composed from the backside captured my mood - peaceful and ready to consider the day complete.

Until I shoot something I like better, this picture is now the image on my screens. We will see how long it stands the test of time.

A Display Worthy of A Visit

Near the Red Entrance to Linden Place/Eichhorn House at Bartels Lutheran Retirement Community is a flower garden maintained by resident volunteers. Today my brother and I checked out the blooms for the first time and were…

Purple Flowers Making White Flowers - It Gets Really Deep

In our prairie I have found one white purple coneflower and several white purple prairie clovers. Seeing what I considered pigment anomalies, I did a little research. If what I found was….

Turtle Talk (and more)

This morning a question I have had before came to me again. How do turtles communicate, as in when multiples gather to sun in the same spot? As I was photographing the painted turtle completely out of the water I noticed the head of a second turtle. I watched as the upper turtle looked…

In the Rain

Feeding in the rain/drizzle of this afternoon was this whitetail deer (doe). I cannot imagine what the biting bugs must…

Purple Cows

I recently learned of the “Purple Cow” concept - about how successful endeavors stand out from the ordinary. I thought of that as I looked at my images from my very early morning prairie walk. Rather than shooting ordinary compositions, I attempted to feature views of common plants in an uncommon way. I think my efforts worked - at least on some plants.

Complex Beauty/Simple Beauty

During my early morning prairie walk I found common milkweed blossoms with dew. As I was photographing the blossoms, a lone…

Pre-loaded Mental Health Therapy

For some folks, like me, outdoor activities are mental health therapy. Seldom do I miss my nature time each day. Sometimes my therapy ends the day or like today, my therapy was very early.

I am thankful for what time I had outside this morning. From late morning on the day was emotionally challenging beyond….

Catching Up With Random Pics

Every now and then I fall behind when it comes to posting pictures. Maybe my recent posts have had a theme, or possibly there were just too many images for one day. Regardless, today I am playing catch-up with a few images.

Switching Gears

Far and away most of my photography is nature-based - either wildlife or natural scenes. However, there are times when I shoot pics and videos of other themes. Last night my wife and I returned from the Bike Fest (Red Bull) in Bentonville, Arkansas where I photographed bike races and stunts. This morning things slowed down a bit when I enjoyed the 2026 Eastern Iowa Tractorcade.

More than 350 farm tractors were gathered at the Bremer County Fairgrounds where drivers than toured Northeast Iowa. The long line of tractors of various brands was quite impressive (unless you happened to be in the impacted traffic zone). The drivers were friendly and polite. From what I observed, this was a very pleasant event.

From what I observed, Waverly and the Bremer County Fairgrounds worked well to host this event.

I put together a video along with still images recorded. View the video at this link:

Eastern Iowa Tractorcade at the Bremer County Fairgrounds.

From Stingray Bicycles to This!

We spent the past few days in the Bentonville, Arkansas area watching the activities at Bike Fest. From competitors of all ages we saw wins, losses, crashes….

A First For My Swan Photos

Of all of my swan photos, this was the first time I captured a spinning swan head with water flying off the feathers while the body was sharp. This was a benefit of….

First Light

Prairies are an interesting habitat. Each day presents a different scene as some colors fade as others appear. As this morning’s rising sun slowly climbed over the horizon I wandered our pollinator habitat (our prairie) to enjoy the many colorful blossoms.

After our prairie burn this spring I was not sure what to expect. Would grasses dominate? Might wildflowers be plentiful? Maybe I would have weeds? Time has shown we have a mix of flowers and grasses. Yes, there are some weeds (thistles), but we are getting them under control.

Following is a sampling of blossoms from this morning’s prairie wandering.

Fish and Damselflies

Knowing more people are likely to be interested in fish pictures than damselflies, I am beginning today’s post with a couple pics of today’s angling efforts. This fish are….

The Things I Saw Today

Another day has come and again I was blessed with interesting wildlife observations.

As I was performing largemouth bass size assessments a…

Word For The Day: Oviposition

Since my last post I spent time watching damselflies go through the “oviposition” process. During oviposition, female damselflies are depositing eggs on submerged aquatic material or in other suitable areas.

In today’s photos, the male remained attached to the female as she deposited eggs. He sticks around to protect her from other male damselflies. It is quite an interesting process.

While I was out I did see other interesting things featured here.

If You Cannot Find Real, Go For Fake

Yesterday my angling prowess was exceptional, today… not so much. I tossed plenty of offerings to the bass world with each being declined except for….

Proving I Can

More often than not I get skunked when I go fishing. This morning though, I was catching bass on at least one of every five casts. To preserve this fishery each fish was released to swim away.

While I went home empty handed, I thoroughly enjoyed my time tossing lures.

A Little is a Lot

After nearly 24-hours at the great healing spot to the north, I spent time sneaking along the edge of a small pond in the rain. Easy photography subjects included a….

Resist the Temptation to Count

I’ve suggested many times that people do not follow me when I am traveling down the road. I never know what I might see and when I do notice something interesting, I am likely to stop - like this morning.

Ahead of me on the road was…..