Bobs blog

Hi everybody.  I got a new bike, new to me anyway.  It is a Yamaha Tmax 500cc.  My first few days I piled up 650 miles.  I had it in Door County for four days.  I would like to share some photos.

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Sometimes who you travel with is more important than where you go or what you see.  It was a simple walk on a trail at Mauthe Lake State Park.  I have walked this 2.5 mile trail before, so has Katie.  It was Chips (the dog) first time.  Part way around the lake the trail split and the one we wanted was off limits to dogs.  Chips continued along the dog friendly trail with my wife and other daughter.  Katie and I finished the lake trail together.  We had a wonderful time, stopping to catch every butterfly, study every dragonfly and talk about the ferns and uprooted trees in the bog.  Katie has a real passion to take in every detail.

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Cray Fish Can’t Pitch!

Okay, this one’s kinda’ weird.  We were at a park celebrating the graduation of one of my wife’s coworkers.  This park has a nice boardwalk, as well as a baseball diamond and playground.  We (my family) decided to take a stroll on the boardwalk.  In order to do so we needed to cross the baseball diamond.  Right behind the pitchers mound I nearly stepped on a cray fish.  Yea, in the middle of the baseball diamond.  “What are you doing here?” I asked.  He didn’t answer.  So I picked him up and released him into the pond you can see in the background.  The ungrateful little bugger tried to pinch me too!

I guess he’s lucky I wasn’t a hungry seagull.

I had trouble deciding how to approach this post.  At first I thought about titling it “Take A Hike!”.  The idea being to encourage you to get outdoors, even for a short time, and enjoy nature.  However that angle was too limited for what I wanted to achieve.  You do need to get out to breathe the sweet summer air and convert sunshine into vitamin D.  I want to give you a reason to do so.

All around us nature is teeming with wondrous beauty.  I wish to share my observations with you.  “Take A Hike!” would have limited me to what I see while walking.  I want to include my observations whether I am walking, bicycling, scootering or riding in a car.  This series will be added to regularly throughout the summer.

Yesterday evening, while walking across the Fox Cities Trestle Trail with my daughters, my older daughter gave a little shriek and stepped sideways.  She almost stepped on a HUGE dragonfly.  (Identified as the Common Green Darner).  I have never seen any dragonfly this large.

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The next photo shows how big this bug is.  The finger is my younger daughters.  Notice the dragonfly is as big around as her finger.

Stick with me this summer and enjoy the beauty I find.  My hope is that you are inspired to get out and find your own.  When you do, share it with the world.

This post has absolutely nothing at all to do with The Talking Heads.  I couldn’t even name another one of their songs!

However, I had the opportunity to photograph a house burn in Hobart.  The client was EJ Metals.  They make pickup truck size firetrucks that use high pressure foam to suppress fires.

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That is me but I was not really in the picture.  The photo of me was done for an unrelated project for a different client, Pierce Manufacturing.  I couldn’t resist marrying the two photos together.

Ever wonder how to make a ho-hum photo of a refuse (ie: garbage) truck appear less….  um, trashy?

Here is the original photo.

The assignment was to give the truck some “love” and make it “pop”!  The first order of business was to select an appropriate background.  Bill Luebker of The Karma Group brought this project to Image Studios and he had some suggestions.  Since the original shot (before this one) was done in New York City it was decided to keep the feel urban.  I scoured our extensive library of stock photos and found a shot done by Rob Resnick of a housing development.  In the animation below you can see the steps involved to assemble and transform into the final image.

I would like to thank Bill Luebker and The Karma Group for choosing Image Studios to do the technical work on this photo and allowing me the creative freedom to make it happen.  Also, thank you to Rob for providing the background image.

Sometimes you need a day to yourself.  Whatever the reason…. to collect and organize your thoughts, to get away from your daily routine, to reset your brain.  In my case it was partly those things, but mostly it was to ride where I wanted to ride, stop when I felt like it and travel at the speeds I dictated.

My original thought was to ride to Kewaskum then head back north through the Kettle Moraine State Forrest on the scenic drive.   However, being alone, I had the luxury of changing plans on the fly.  I ended up going all the way to the northern edge of West Bend before turning north.  This allowed me to experience much more of the scenic drive.

The day began with a hearty breakfast at The Old 41 Diner, on the corner of Green Bay Road and Main Street in Neenah.  I only mention this because I recommend this diner, but be warned, show up hungry!

Going south toward Oshkosh I decided to take a side trip to Asylum Point Park.  This is not a park in the sense of playgrounds and soccer fields.  It is more of a wildlife area with lake frontage and a lighthouse.

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I continued on through Oshkosh, Fond Du Lac and Kewaskum.  Along the way I stopped to admire the landscapes.

The twists, turns and hills of the roads in this area make for a rewarding riding experience.  However, if you get off your bike occasionally and take the time to explore your surroundings you will find an even deeper connection to the land and community.  This church is no longer operational but it is on the historic register.

I find it necessary to occasionally stop to stretch and walk around for 5 minutes before continuing on.  After all, I am on a small (125cc) bike with a pretty stiff suspension.  Here is one such stop.

The landscape of this area is dotted with churches, each seeming to host its own cemetery.  I like to walk through these cemeteries and read the headstones.  Not out of morbid curiosity, but to gain a sense of the history of the region.  Many of these people were born in the 1700’s.  Others fought in the civil war, as noted by these markers.

With my brain reset and a renewed appreciation for the Kettle Moraine area I begin a fresh work week.  I fully intend to return to this area for a fall ride, taking alternate roads and passing through different communities.  Until then, enjoy the ride.

This spring my daughters made an exciting discovery.  Two baby bunnies were trapped in one of the window wells on the south side of our house.

Now, my thoughts on rabbits are that we have way too many of them.  Heck, they eat more from our garden than we do.  However, this was a chance to model compassionate behavior to my daughters.  Besides, they don’t mirror my thoughts regarding rabbits, therefore the bunnies must be rescued and relocated.

I donned my welding gloves and scooped the little puff balls up one at a time.  I then placed them in a bucket for transport during our relocation program.

Katie gingerly carried the bucket to the nature area just a short walk from our home.

The bunnies settled nicely into the bucket.  When it came time for them to be released back into the wild they needed a bit of coaxing.  Katie gently raised the bottom of the bucket until the bunnies slid out, onto the soft ground.

My girls display great compassion for all things living (except spiders, and at times, each other).  I believe using the opportunities presented to us as parents to model good behavior in front of our children is critical to their upbringing.  Too many bunnies?  Maybe.  Too many opportunities to model compassion to our children?  Not a chance!

Hi everybody, it’s been a while since my last post.  Summer is a busy time!

My family recently had a reunion (we do this annually) in Door County.  Here is a photo of the crew.

The weather cooperated this year with moderate temperatures and plenty of sunshine.  Activities inclued a lot of game playing, a lot of swimming, a lot of eating and of course, a bit of drinking.  Everybody had a great time.

On the way home I stopped at Cave Point County Park with my wife and 2 daughters.  Here are the girls showing their modeling aspirations.

Cave Point is a rugged stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline.  It would be best viewed from a kayak or canoe early in the morning.  I however was there midday with no boat so my photos are all from dry land.  I did some panos and made them into VR’s.  See them below.  Click anywhere in the photo and drag around.

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This past Sunday I decided to take the scooter (henceforth referred to as Buddy) for a ride.  I put on the protective leather jacket, leather gloves, polarized sunglasses and topped off the ensemble with my helmet.  Without a care in the world, or a destination for that matter, I gave the throttle a twist and I was off.  Buddy likes to go fast so she headed straight for highway 10/114 in the direction of High Cliff State Park.  The park is located on the northeast shore of Lake Winnebago.  The ride there was uneventful, cruising at 55 to 60mph all the way.

When I passed the park entrance it was as though somebody flipped the insect switch to on, overdrive actually.  To my dismay it was the first lake fly hatch of the year.  Crap!  I kept my mouth clamped tightly shut and my speed under 15mph.  All the specks you see in the photo above are not the result of a dirty camera, they are lake flies.  How do I explain lake flies to the uninitiated?  It is estimated the number of these bugs that hatch can number into the trillions!  There are so many of them they actually show up on Doppler radar, check it out.  They congregate in clouds by the tens of thousands and in the evening hover above anything warm.  If you look above your head you will see a column of lake flies, starting inches above your scalp and rising to about 10 feet.  When you move the column moves with you in an undulating motion, starting with the bottom and followed by the top.  The sound they make is also astonishing.  No soft hum, they are loud because there are so many of them.

Below I have included a few full size excerpts from the photo above for you to appreciate.  The photo was taken at the lime kiln ruins.  I also included a photo of the sign explaining these ruins.

After visiting the kiln I did a tour of the campgrounds and the park in general before an uneventful trip back home.

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