A picture of my dog Worf. He's looking really old.

Trying something a little different with the sun streaks in the water and my shadow.

I just happened to take this picture the other day as I was sitting outside enjoying the warm weather. Though it doesn't have any spectacular landscape or single interesting subject, I absolutely loved this picture. Something about the contrast between the deep green grass and buds forming on some of the trees and the old dead grass from last year and the still winter-like bare trees still waiting to begin spring. Whatever it is, a very appealing picture for me.

Flowers growing in the rock path that leads to my backyard.

Apple blossoms, too bad the bugs and deer will eat all the apples.

More springtime scenes from around my house.

Another spring picture, this time capturing some of the new growth on one of the trees.

I've decided I need to stop being lazy and start shooting in RAW format. This one of the first set of pictures I've taken in RAW. I really like the results, but must admit I don't know if it looks any different than it would have if I shot with JPEG, but it definately gave me greater flexibility in how I could alter the picture.

I was just walking along a trail to our pond the other day and happened to glance over and see this snake curled up in the tree. I believe it's a black rat snake.

My attempt at capturing a rainy day.

Spring is here.

Another picture of the fire.

Burning the dikes around our ponds at work to keep the vegetation in check.

I finally was able to get a shot that I've been wanting to get for a long time, the Chicago skyline at night. I found a good spot, but it was cold and windy. It didn't quite turn out how I wanted, but a good first try. I'll try again when it's warmer and I can comfortably mess around with the settings.

Had to include an action shot as well.

Not a lot to photograph lately. But I did try to get some pictures at the Illinois State University vs Drake game.

One more picture of frozen Forbes Lake.

Some tracks across the frozen lake.

A little cold to dock the boat.

Looking down the shoreline of the frozen lake.

Drifting snow.

The stream by my house during the recent cold weather.

A cool rock outcropping.

My daughter the budding photographer

Classic church over the water picture, in this case the water is the Delaware River.

Another cool picture of the Delaware River. I took this picture from a bridge my daughter and I used to walk over to New Jersey (believe it or not, it was one of the highlights of her trip).

I was finally in a place with some flowing water. One of the many streams trickling into the Delaware River.

The moon rising over some of the mountains overlooking the Delaware River.

Finally something other than Illinois scenery. This is (I think) Paradise Creek in Pennsylvania.

Some frost on my car.

A picture of the snow as seen from my backyard.

A leaf stuck in ice. I thought it was cool that the ice over the leaf retained the leaf's shape.

A snow covered road leading off into the distance.

First snowfall of the year.

It's been a while, but I was busy at work. However, in the mean time, I have started a photo challenge with my oldest daughter. Each week we are picking a subject to take pictures of and some of those will be showing up here. You can also check out her new photoblog under "Genial Photo" link provided on the side. This past weeks subject was weather. I wanted to take a picture of wind and this is what I came up with.

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I had to take this picture at several different angles to get what I wanted, that being a picture showing both the underside and topside of the fungus as well as having some decent lighting.

I have been trying to upload this picture for 4 days with no luck, stupid crappy internet. Anyway, this is a wider view of several of the trees in this area with the disease.

This is from one of a group of trees that appear to be infected with some kind of disease/parasite. They all have giant knots like this one, but close up, it makes for a cool picture.

A different perspective on a fallen tree trunk with some deep grooves in the bark.

This picture was taken along a stream that runs near our house. Cyprus trees grow all along this stretch of the bank, and their roots form these nob-like structures.

I went in the woods behind our house today to find some things to photograph. I found a couple of cool things, though nothing spectacular. This was an old rotted out tree trunk.

Not a whole lot to photograph around here lately. This one didn't turn out exactly like I'd like it, but I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities over the course of the winter.

This is my last picture of the fall foliage from 2009. I definitely had a lot of fun this year and got a bunch of good pictures. Can't wait till next year.

Some brightly colored trees on the shoreline of Forbes Lake.

This a more close-up picture of the little stream in an earlier picture.

More color from the forest near our house.

A shot from inside the forest in the middle of it's fall color change.

This is my last picture of the Pine Hills area. It was definitely a interesting place and unusual for Illinois.

This is another picture along the Skillet Fork River near our house.

I thought this picture had some cool reflections in it. The stream is Skillet Fork and runs near our house.