In 2024, I concentrated on skyscapes; sunsets, storms, and other interesting sky and light conditions. Many of these photos were shot in photogenic locations I’ve discovered over a decade of wandering. These spots are now old faithfuls; places where nothing will obscure the sky and that will offer interesting foregrounds for my skyscapes. I like to use water in the foreground to get dramatic reflections. I returned to these places many times over 2024.
This is a spot I know I can count on when the light and sky are promising. The Three Lakes are on St. Croix County Road E in northwest Wisconsin.
A panorama with a few clouds, a tree in silhouette, and flocks of birds headed for where they will spend the night. I had to scramble to find a good tree. This one is on East Refuge Road in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area in northwest Wisconsin. The flocks are tiny and hard to see, but they are there.
This stretch of Stolte Road runs on a causeway through a marsh that extends for miles east and west of the road. Stolte Road runs through the FIsh Lake State Wildlife Area; a good place from which to shoot sunsets and storms.
These autumn leaves were on a branch sticking out from a maple at the edge of a large marsh through which runs Phantom Lake Trail in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area.
Another shot from Stolte Road; a spot from which I’ve captured many excellent images.
A turkey vulture soaring over Maiden Rock Bluff alongside Lake Pepin, a wide spot in the Mississippi River
I was hiking on the Nelson Farm Trail in Willow River State Park, Wisconsin. I was carrying my camera with a telephoto lens and chanced upon this red squirrel. The squirrels were hard at work on this autumn day building up their winter larders. I shot a red squirrel and a chipmunk. I saw many gray squirrels, both gray and black, but none were willing to pose for my camera.
Everything I wrote above about the red squirrel pertains to this image. The chipmunk was more concerned with personal grooming than with me.
Encountered on a walk around Lake McKusick in Stillwater, Minnesota. Luckily I had my camera with a telephoto lens.
This is one of those photos that are part good planning and part luck. The planning was being on Burnett County Road O at sunset when I knew there was a good chance for a showy sunset. The luck was having the swans glide into the camera frame.
I took this from another dependable spot for shooting sunsets, off Burnett County Road O in the southwest corner of the Fish Lake State Wildlife Area. At 8:00 PM in the end of August.
Storm clouds peeking up from the western horizon near North Refuge Road in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area in northwest Wisconsin.
A flight of sandhill cranes heading for the pond where they will spend the night
Old trucks and an old, snaggy tree on a small farm near Siren in northwest Wisconsin
I see bobolinks in one spot only; a stretch of a few hundred yards along the Main Dike Road in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area.
A sandhill crane among wildflowers in a meadow in Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area
Gulls like to hang out on this jetty on the south shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin.
On a small pond on Highway 70 west of Siren, Wisconsin.
This was an afternoon of scattered thunderstorms. I encountered this storm while driving on Bass Lake Road in Burnett County.
Driving home at 7:00 PM. These conditions—a sunlit foreground against a dark background—were short-lived. A few minutes later, the sunlight was snuffed out by clouds.