U.S. Flags at Sunset, Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni, Iowa
From Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
Memorial Day – Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Category Archives: General
Memorial Day, A Reflection and a Brief History
Richard Duane Klug (the name just above the rose) was born January 26, 1946. He died in Darlac Province, Vietnam, November 14, 1967 at the age of 21. He is one of over 58,000 American soldiers that died in Vietnam, and one of over 1.1 million American soldiers that have died in all American wars (almost half of them in the Civil War).
Don’t Get Ripped Off! The Spade & Co Watch is a Scam!
Update: This is a minor update of an article I wrote 4 years ago. Two things have changed since then. The BBB changed the rating for Spade and Company from “D+” down to an “F”. And there are now 151 reviews from mostly unhappy customers.
If it sounds too good to be true . . . .
Don’t get scammed by fake review articles posted online by the company that sells the lousy product. This is just the latest example of a cheaply made Chinese product touted as a high tech wonder. The watch does not work as advertised.
How To Find Wildlife, The Best Books
Wildlife Guidebooks
The first step to photographing wildlife is finding wildlife and one of the best ways to find wildlife is to look at wildlife location books. They will save you hours of frustration by sending you to the best locations to find wildlife.
Cindy Crawford by Patrick Demarchelier
Demarchelier was one of Cindy Crawford’s favorite photographers. She posted two photos they created together as a tribute to him after his passing. This is one of them.
How To Pick Your Best Photos
Contact Sheet. Catherine Ursillo by Al Gruen.
Contact Sheet by Al Gruen is an interesting and worthwhile book. It is about picking your best photos from a contact sheet. (And it also works for picking your best digital images.) In the darkroom you can lay all of your negatives from one roll of film on top of a sheet of photographic paper. You expose the paper and develop it and you have miniature photos of all your negatives on one piece of paper. It is called a contact sheet. An example is the image above. You can look at the little photos with a photographer’s loupe (a kind of magnifying glass) and pick your best images to make enlargements.
Photos: Living Art Studios Dance Recital
Dance Recital, Living Art Studios
At 7:00 pm Saturday evening, April 4, the parking lot was already filling up with cars for the 7:30 pm dance recital. People were arriving early to get a good seat.
Pelicans at 318 Yards
Pelicans on Lake LaShane this morning. April 9, 2026.
Last night I was photographing these pelicans under cloudy skies. The images just didn’t “pop”. This morning I had a 30 minute window with sunlight on the pelicans before the clouds again moved in. This is the full uncropped image, resized for the web.
California Golden Poppies
California Golden Poppies
California is famous for California Golden Poppies in the spring. I was at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge when I photographed these poppies on April 1, 2017. This particular wildlife refuge is a favorite of mine and I try to spend some time there any time I am in the Bay Area.
Texas Bluebonnets
Bluebonnets and Paintbrush, Texas.
One of the best places to photograph wildflowers in late March and early April is central Texas and the Texas Hill country. It was March 31, 2001 when I photographed these wildflowers in central Texas. Driving along I-35 there were vast expanses of wildflowers as far as the eye could see.
Favorite Photos – 2025
Click to see a larger version.
“Why don’t you post your favorite photos at the end of the year?” Good question. A lot of photographers do that. I have not been one of them, at least until today. This morning I decided to pick my favorite photos for 2025 and post them. The individual photos are below.
iPhone vs 400mm Lens
iPhone photo
I took a photo from the same location with my iPhone and a 400mm lens on my Canon 7D2 DSLR. This is the iPhone photo above.
Graceland University Winter Concert – February 19, 2026
Graceland University Concert Choir. February 19, 2026. Click the image to see a larger version.
“Pure Imagination”. That was the name for Graceland’s February 19, 2026 performance. The evening featured an eclectic choice of musical selections from G. F. Handel to contemporary composers. The Concert Choir opened the performance, followed by Graceland’s Harmonium, and the Graceland Jazz Ensemble. Addison Cole and Luke Clark were featured vocal soloists. Instrumental soloists were Brayden Ingram (guitar), Miles Winship (trumpet), and Jamin Wilson (alto sax). A select group of singers joined the Jazz Ensemble for the final number, S’posin’.
President George Washington
This is the famous “Lansdowne portrait” of President Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Stuart painted 3 famous portraits of Washington (and Stuart followed up by painting many copies of the originals due to lots of requests). The Lansdowne portrait is named for the Marquise of Lansdowne, former British Prime Minister and recipient of this painting.
RGB vs Luminance Histograms – How To Use Them
RGB Histogram (upper right) and Luminance Histogram (lower right).
If your camera offers both RGB and luminance histograms, choose RGB. An RGB histogram is one of your most valuable exposure tools. A luminance histogram can lead to bad exposures and poor colors.
Your Camera Loves “Middle Gray” – And Why That is Important
Sarah, Professional Fitness Trainer
Your camera is in love with middle gray. The quicker you learn how to deal with this infatuation, the better your photos will look, including all of your color photos.
How To Series: Snowy Owl Photography
Snowy Owl looking for prey.
If there are cold enough temperatures and plenty of snow cover on the ground, the northern United States has a winter invasion of Snowy Owls. These are magnificent creatures and well worth your photographic time and attention. This series is filled with tips on how to find and photograph snowy owls.
Links to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Classic Speeches at YouTube
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The video quality of some of these links is iffy.
I Have a Dream – short version with still photos
I have a Dream – short version with video
MARTIN LUTHER KING – “I have a dream” – the powerful closing words
Martin Luther King Jr.
Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was a Baptist minister and a prominent civil rights advocate. King was the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize when it awarded to him in 1964. He was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
One of his most famous speeches was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial August 28, 1963. Often referred to as the “I have a dream” speech, it is one of the most significant and powerful speeches of the 20th century. A portion of the speech follows. Links to the full speech and an audio file are at the end of this post.
Metering People in the Snow
Kristina in the Snow
The white snow in a winter scene can and often does fool a camera meter into underexposing a portrait, so here are the steps to take to get the right exposure. I throw in a few portrait suggestions too.
Metering Daytime Winter Scenes
Mount Hunter from a Bush Plane. Denali National Park. Alaska.
Metering for scenes with a lot of snow can be tricky since the bright snow fools the camera meter. I see a lot of winter photos with gray snow, which means the camera meter did exactly what it was designed to do. The solution is quite simple provided you know what to do.
How To Series: Winter Photography
Last Light on El Capitan, Yosemite National Park
In addition to all of the usual photographic challenges, winter provides some extra complications, especially in terms of metering. So I began this series of articles on winter photography. Check out the links below. The articles will help you meet the unique challenges of winter photography. So get out there, have fun, and create some great winter images!
Happy New Year!
First Trip to Yosemite
Sunset Light on El Capitan
We spent most of the Christmas holiday in the Bay Area visiting family. When we left the Bay Area the morning of December 30, 1990, we decided to make a side trip to Yosemite before making the long drive home.
Merry Christmas!
Have a joyous holiday season!
Silent Night!
Silent Night, Moraine Park, Colorado
Snow glistens in the last light of dusk.
Distant clouds glow with the fading light from the sun, long since set.
Lamoni Schools Winter Band Concert
Lamoni Schools Jazz Band. December 11, 2025.
Under the direction of Mackenzie Stotts, the Lamoni bands put on a fun and varied winter band concert with a mix of traditional music and holiday favorites. Lamoni has four bands that played in this order: the High School Jazz Band, the 5th and 6th grade band, the 7th grade band, and the 8th – 12th grade band. Each of the bands played several numbers with classics like “Winter Wonderland”, TV special music, like “You’re A Mean One Mister Grinch”, and music from “The Polar Express”. A delightful surprise was “Carol of the Boombuckets” featuring boombuckets and boomwhackers. Boomwhackers look like swimming pool noodles, but they are made of plastic and cut to length to make different pitches as you swing them to hit the floor. It was a happy evening for the big and appreciative crowd at the Shaw Auditorium.
A brief artist’s statement.
I created this for an art exhibit and posted it today as a result of a special request.
Should You Buy “Gray Market” Photo Equipment?
What is “gray market” photo equipment and how does it differ from “U.S. Warranty” equipment? Gray market equipment (also called “parallel import”) is imported into the U.S. but bypasses the official U.S. distributor. Gray market equipment costs less, sometimes a lot less.
Photographers and Artists Do “Freedom From Want”
Norman Rockwell’s classic painting “Freedom from Want” was created in 1943 and was part of his Four Freedoms series. It was inspired by FDR’s annual address to Congress, January 6, 1941. That address became known as the Four Freedom’s Speech.