Lake Michigan

Since there are only a few minutes left in the month of July I thought I would post some very summery images from a day spent on the shore of Lake Michigan.  The last image is an example of the flooding that hit this area last week.  A calm stream had turned into a raging river.

Corn and Soybeans

I just returned from a four day road trip through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.  I was taking photographs for an agricultural marketing firm.  I would go into details about why I just didn't photograph farms closer to home, but it has to do with specific crops, weeds, and top-secret stuff like that. 

If nothing else happened this week at least I learned a thousand new things about soybeans.  Go ahead, ask me anything.

While one of the farmers was being interviewed I saw the beautiful shapes of this crop sprayer arm against the sky.  It was a very hot week, but the blue skies looked great with the green of the fields.

My traveling companion Stacy works for the client for this project.  She learned that I simply HAVE to stop on the road when I see an image like this one before me.

Unfortunately, as each day passed Stacy slowly grew sicker and sicker.  On the last day, as we stood in yet another field of soybeans with the sun beating down on our heads, Stacy's empty stomach and woozy head decided that they were both done for the day.  She got pretty close to passing out. After sitting down in the beans for a bit, and getting some trail mix in her belly, she rested in the shade of an apple tree and took it easy.  

This photograph of a farmer is one of the last ones I took before we headed to the Des Moines airport to finally fly home.  Overall, it was a great trip.  We had XM satellite radio in the car, and I enjoyed digging up all the obscure music.  We found a couple of antique stores (I bought an old camera), stopped at a winery in southern Illinois (Stacy bought some wine), and we had some good food.  I have two more trips before the end of the month.  I'm sure I'll post more soon!

Naperville Ribfest Wrapup

I've had a busy week, so it's taken me some time to post more Ribfest photos. 

The weather was a bit warm, with only one quick rain storm right before the fireworks.  I photographed Sister Hazel, Tonic, Foghat, Giving Tree, and number of other bands.  The one I was most surprised with was Chicago band 7th Heaven-

The music was tight, and they had a fun, party atmosphere going on.  It was good ol fashioned Rock n Roll that makes the girls go crazy.  I'm going to have to look for them again when they play around town. 

LeAnn Rimes had a pretty good following there.  She was nice enough backstage.  And her music sounded fine (again, I'm not a country music fan). 

Time to gear up for the next big festival in Naperville- The Last Fling.  Only two months to go!  :)

Sammy Hagar & Julianne Hough at Ribfest

What an absolutely beautiful day for a festival.  The temperature was perfect and the rain is staying away.  And on a personal note I have to say that this is one of the most well orchestrated events as far as things go for me and my camera.  Ray Kinney and Don Emery are organizing the backstage stuff, and they are doing a great job.  All the photographers I run into have been agreeing with me that it is a noticeable improvement over years past.  Perhaps they should give classes.

This is a local high school student singing the National Anthem.  It must be overwhelming to sing in front of that many people, but she did a great job.

 Sammy Hagar got the crowd going.  I didn't realize how rabid and devoted his following is.  I ran into people that had come from all over the US to see him. 

Now, I don't know a stinkin' thing about country music.  And I know even less about Dancing With The Stars.  So I'm sure that's why I've never heard of Julianne Hough.  While my friend Patrick has declared her to be one of the most beautiful women he's ever seen, I was more impressed how she had a magical costume change every time I looked away.  It was one of those mysterious things that women can do that we guys will never be able to figure out.