For the past few months I've been suffering from the hunger pains of needing to grow and expand my photography. That's been causing me to do some deep soul searching, trying to get in touch with my "Inner Photographer" who's trying to get out.

One of the good things of this hunger is that I'm finding and identifying what it is I want to do and, most importantly, what I don't want to do photographically. The times I try something different, explore a new style or type of photography and it falls flat emotionally and photographically, it means I have listened to my inner creative soul. I have listened to the gentle voice of God directing me away from concepts and I'm just not into. So, I know what I don't want to do. This past week I watched a very famous commercial photographer's video taped during a shoot with a musician. I never heard of the musician before, but the images that came from that studio session made tears well-up in my eyes. The images were gripping, emotional and exactly the type of pictures I want to make.

I continue to thumb through the pages of "The Farmer In All Of Us, An American Portrait" coffee table book at least a few times a week. It's a book based photographs commissioned for the Ram Trucks Super Bowl XLVII commercial. The 2-minute TV spot that stopped everyone in their tracks to hear the words of the late Paul Harvey's classic "So God Made A Farmer" and the photography of 10 top shooters. When I study these photos of ranchers and farmers contained in those pages my spirit soars. The images are gripping, emotional and exactly the type of pictures I want to make.

I'm starting to feel a new drive in my soul that I can't say I've felt before, or at least in a long time. It's a direction I want to go... no, make that, must ...go towards.

Over my 53 years of holding a camera (allowing for about 6 years of my life when my parents didn't let me at their Kodak Pony II 35mm film camera) has been a long-term growth to get to the place I am today. I've had hundreds and hundreds of pictures published during my newspaper photographer days, and Lord knows how many times my right index finger depressed a shutter button to capture. How many of those images, that after the film was souped, never saw the light of day outside of a quick viewing with the 3x loupe at the light table.

In the past, I wanted to be just like my photography heroes. I wished my photos would look as cool, have as much drama and emotion and be tack-sharp to boot like theirs. And I guess, to an extent, I still want to be like the photo big guns. With age comes wisdom? Maybe. With age comes more of an urgency to get my act together and start making some powerful pictures.

I just read another photographer's blog which said, in a nutshell. "Your photos are going to look the same today as they did when you were snapping pictures in high school if you don't put "YOU" in your images." And he's right. How can a photographer have his own style and connect to the art he is making if it's not truly his art? If I'm always trying to make my pictures look like somebody else, they're not my pictures, they are a crappy copy of the famous photographer's work.

I am feeling confident in where I must go with my photography. All the photographic images I have bubbling around in my creative mind need to come out and be birthed. I've wondered why and how a California born and raised guy like me ended up in a small farming community in southern Minnesota. And the move here happened smack-dab in the middle of, but not because of, my "mid-life crisis." I think I now know why. I need to be here and bring to life this vision I have for capturing the people and land of this Midwest region. The farmers, ranchers, truckers, welders, mechanics, laborers, common man. The dirt under the fingernail, sweat ring around the seed company ball cap kind of American worker in this place he and she calls home.

I've set the wheels in motion to get these pictures to show my vision of this place. I will be doing a lot of self- assignment work during 2015. I feel good about this knowing that as I develop a body of work, more work (i.e. - paying gigs) will come about. One of my current photographer heroes, a highly regarded and highly paid shooter, does about 50 self-assignments per year on top of his extremely busy paying photo job schedule.

One of my dreams now turned into a self-assignment is to document as many of the rural, prairie churches as I can. I'd like to do a book with the all the photos I make at the end of the project. I made the first step toward that goal this past weekend. As always, the first frames were crap and I was very frustrated, but by later in the day, I pushed past that negative mental roadblocks, uncooperative clouds and haze and made a few good pictures. More are to come. I have a couple other long-term projects that I am trying to jump start as well at the same time. More to come on these projects as the pictures get made!

A Photo A Day? Not As Easy AS It Seems.

It's been an interesting and busy couple of weeks.

I did a self-pledge to take an image everyday for a year..."JKP 2015 Project 365." I quickly found out that getting the camera out and creating an image everyday is a bit harder than I first thought. My photography work tends to be in large spurts. A photo job here, self assignment work there, an event happens and I get several good images from it. Then the “off” days I'm at this computer editing pictures or typing away writing. Some days the light outside is really really nice and pictures come easy. Other days it's cold, windy, dull and dark gray and my motivation to pull out the camera is easy to push aside. Still, I feel guilty on those days that I'm not depressing the shutter button to zap pixels from thin air. I feel the need to download something off my camera to show I at least did something that day.

Back in the days of film cameras, a roll of film could sit dark and comfy in the camera for days, weeks, even years. Processing could get very expensive, so picture taking was reserved for “special occasions.” It was always exciting to get the sealed yellow package of developed pictures from the drugstore photo counter or Fotomat drive-thru kiosk, and just as disappointed when the film didn't “turn out” and the pictures were bad.

Working as a full-time photojournalist during those film days, film didn't sit very long in the camera. It wasn't unusual to run through 4, 6, 12 rolls of film during a full day of assignments. I'd take the exposed rolls of 35mm film into the darkroom and lock the door behind me so an accidental opening would not leak light in and ruin the light sensitive emulsion. I'd carefully wind the film onto metal reels, making sure the film didn't slip off one of the spirals that kept the film apart and allowed the chemicals to flow through and develop the images. Not a good day when film stuck together and those precious images were lost.

I don't want to make the idea of shooting an image a day to become a dreaded chore, but I don't want to just stick the camera out the door, fire off a few frames and call it good. For me, the Project 365 is more about thinking pictures as much as it is actually taking pictures. I visualize images in my head before I ever pull the viewfinder to my eye and punch the shutter. I map-out, if you will how I'll approach a photo. What's the lighting setup – natural or speedlights? What's the background? What mood am I trying to achieve with the picture? What story do I want the image to tell?

Who do I want to photograph next? You? Sure. You! And why not! Do you or someone you know do those gritty, dirty jobs? I'm talking blue collar, wrenches and busted knuckle kind of work??? Please let me know. I'd love to come out to your (their) workplace and make some awesome photos! Drop me an email at jeepinjoseph@hotmail.com.

My self assignment list contains ideas for photographs like a rural animal vet working on location so I can get images to submit for a national farm magazine; A railroad crew that works switching grain cars for a CHS bean plant in Mankato for a national train publication; An agricultural implement equipment mechanic working on a huge combine, steam fitters in hard hats making repairs at an ethanol plant, A local family that makes boutique soaps from the milk products they get from their flock of goats.

This past couple weeks I've gone inside a muffler shop and done multi-speedlight studio lighting portraits. I've been outside in the dark gray wind and cold lakeside with a single softboxed speedlight to experiment with white balance shifting and gelled light source to get a colorful dynamic portrait image. I've gone into my basement model railroad world to photograph a project for a magazine article. 

I sent an image off to my lab for a client's ordered 16x24 enlargement. I just wondered around the building of my “day job” on breaks looking for a nice scenic or winter shot.In-between times, I've been watching videos from my pro photo icons to glean bits of technical and creative motivation to help me be a better photographer.

Did I pick-up my camera everyday and have a photo to show for it? No. Did I have days where I did a lot of pictures and had many good images to show for it? Yes.

Joseph Kreiss Photography is back!!!
www.josephkreissphotography.com

Starting 2015 with something to keep a camera to my eye -- JKP Project 365/2015!
What is a JKP Project 365/2015? 

For me, it’s the simple act of taking a picture every day for a year. The idea isn't new or something I've come up with... The concept behind starting a Project 365 is to make photography an every day event, with hopes of improving the art.  It also has the added benefit of forcing a photographer to slow down and take a different look at the world around them.

It's not like I don't have enough going on in my life to keep me busy...I have almost too much. And. although I likely snap some kind of image with my camera everyday, this project hopes to keep me honest, pushing me to make a new image everyday and keeping that thought at the forefront of my mind. Rather than leaving the camera in my bag, or worse - at home, it goes around my neck and heads out the door with me, everyday, to capture a slice of that day however that ends up coming together. Back in my newspaper photojournalism days , I wouldn't go into a restaurant, or to the men's room without my camera. I kinda got away from that over the years not working for a daily paper. But, it's something I really want to get back in the habit of doing again.

For me, I'm hoping that this JKP Project 365/2015 will develop into a book ...maybe a 'Year In The Life Of Martin County', or something similar. A record of people, scenes, weather, events, and day-to-day life in South Central Minnesota. That, I'm looking forward to.

I will post the images daily on my Facebook page and do a weekly image wrap-up on my photo blog.

Gone To Film, Be Right Back

Maybe I should say "Film at 11."
How many of this "younger generation" have no idea what that saying means? Probably lots. Back in the day, TV stations shot 16mm film for all their news and sports coverage, and the breaking news footage could be brought back to the studio and processed, "on deadline," hopefully finished just in time to play during the 11 p.m. newscast.
Ahhh, the glory days of film photography! Those were the days. Though I never worked for a TV news outfit, I did my share of film photojournalism over the years in the 1970's and '80's, rushing back to the newspaper office, hell-bent to get those precious rolls of 36 exposure Tri-X into the "Soup," quick washed and slapped into the enlarger "wet" to get a print off to the news desk and the back shop for half-toning in time to make deadline before the paper went to "bed" and hit the presses for the morning edition. Come to think of it, no wonder I have gray hair today! But talk about an adrenalin rush!
(Above Image - Yashica Electra 35 Rangefinder)
Nowadays with digital cameras, laptops with wireless image sending capabilities, the days of beating a deadline have sure changed. Those minutes waiting as the film was being processed, wondering if my pictures turned out, if the exposures were correct - then pulling the full, uncut length of developed film to ones eye with the loupe pushed into the eye socket to see if "the shot" is sharp...those days have certainly slipped away. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE my digital cameras. (Above Image - Yashica Electra 35 Rangefinder)
That's why the lure of film, for those of us that "grew-up" with film photography, is becoming so strong again. I'm not the only one who has experienced this yearning. From reading on-line photography site discussions, blogs and forums, many of us shooters, young and old alike, are making a pilgrimage back to film. And, with a large shoebox filled with rolls of black and white and color film sitting in a drawer, the call for me was too loud to ignore.
I recently purchased a used 35mm rangefinder camera off eBay to help me "get back to my roots" with photography. Not that I got rid of all my film cameras, mind you. I still have my old trusty Nikon F, Nikon N90s, an underwater Nikon and a vintage twins-lens (two and a quarter) reflex that shoots 120 film in the camera vault. It was the thought of a rangefinder camera around my neck doing "street photography" that made me want to get back to basics and "channel" one of the great masters of photojournalism like Cappa and Eisenstaedt!
I placed a roll of 24 exposure Fujifilm in the "new" old camera, wound it into the take-up spool and closed the back, watching the rewind knob rotate with each advance of the shutter. Without really knowing if the camera was "operational" I shot a mish-mash of images, trying to recall how to "read" the light and set the aperture ring to get a "ballpark" exposure on the emulsion. The biggest surprise came when I took the film in for processing at the local drugstore One-Hour photo lab. "Just do a process only" so I can check the negs and see if the camera's working and if there are any light leaks from the 40+ year-old camera I asked.
"We don't do any orders without prints," was the response! What? Why back in the day I could walk into any lab and say "process only, don't cut" and get the roll souped and negs hanging on the rack waiting for my inspection without question from the lab techs. I guess those days are a thing of the past...like my camera that shoots film. The minimum the drug store mini-lab would do is process the roll and burn a CD and index print...for $9! "Well, alright...I guess," I mumbled to the lady behind the counter who obviously was not even born yet when the camera I used to make the images on that roll was in its glory days!
She didn't know about checking the negs for light leaks or proper exposures to see if the film was even worth transferring to digital CD. And this was with a common roll of C-41 process color neg film. My worries now are in finding a lab that would even know what a roll of Plus-X is, let alone be able to process it without shipping it off to some back alley photo lab in the Bronx then maybe two weeks from now getting it back!
I guess my next purchases will be a set of metal reels, a couple tanks and some D-76, stop bath, fixer and photo-flow so I can develop my own film! Lord...does anyone still stock that stuff???? Needless to say, I did get images, my exposures were good, there were a few minor light leaks on the film that will be fixed with the replacement of the disintegrated light blocking foam around the camera's film door...so life is good and what it comes down to is this. I actually shot a roll of film!!!! How cool is that!

"Family Photographer"

Being the photographer in the family, I get the call to provide photos of everything from a quick snapshot of the backyard vegetable garden to environmental portraits for an up-coming newspaper story. Such was the case last week for my wife Kim, who will soon have her "Local Girl Comes Back Home Story" published in a special newspaper section of the local paper. They wanted photos of her at work at the local radio station.

I feel honored to have been able to be the photographer to make some images of her, rather than the paper's shooter. I knew my efforts would result in more comfortable, natural poses for Kim. I know it can be hard to look "relaxed" in front of a total stranger with a camera blasting away. Plus she had post shoot editing privileges, which further put her at ease. Off to the radio station we went.

So, I set up a two-light rig, with the main shooting through an umbrella and the second light kicking in some fill and hair highlights with a blue filter over the flash head.

The top image is her favorite and then my favorite shot below for fun which is also her personality on air!

Golden Days of Radio

Splitting my professional work these days between photography and broadcasting (with a few hours doing seasonal restaurant cooking) gives me plenty of variety in my week. To combine two of those occupations is fun, too. That's what I have started to do with a new photo project. At the radio stations where I work, the station owner's family, over the years, has assembled quite a collection of vintage radios and broadcasting equipment. I thought I would begin to document these pieces of radio history a little at a time. I wanted my images of the antique radios, etc. to have the look of still being in someones home, since back in the day, the radio was the source of family information and entertainment. I wanted to also show off the warmth and craftsmanship of the wooden radios. I used a single SB flash with a snoot to highlight the radios as if late afternoon or early morning sun was filtering through the windows of the home onto the sets. I did not use any colored gels on the flash. The color that shows is from the wonderfully rich hues of the wooden sets.

Most of the radios at the station are displayed on shelves in the conference room and I didn't want to move them without permission. I have more to do and have a few more lighting ideas up my sleeve for this self-assignment. I think, so far, the results are working well and if you listen carefully, you might be able to hear one of those classic old-time radio shows crackling through the speakers!

On Location "Kick of Light"

I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot some portraits this past week...a High School Senior session and a corporate session for our local Mayo Health Systems medical center. The hospital job kinda surprised me, since I had just sent off an introduction e-mail and link to my website when I got a call to shoot some portraits for a Hosptial Foundation publication.

To be honest these two sessions were the first time in a while that I hauled lighting gear, stands and the like out on location.

But compared to images I might have brought back several years, ('Available light is KING' kind of thinking) these new images have a lot more interest and quality of light to them. As I continue to work in and outdoors with my strobes, I hope to begin developing a "Style" to my images. Back in my newspaper photog days, I always felt that my work was different from other shooters, since I loved bringing back the "in-your-face" action and emotion photos.

It has become very clear to me that with the addition of a 'kick of light' my images are maturing, so to speak and I can begin to tell a story with the light, or just add that little "something" that makes the photo a touch better.

My newest "best friend" is the recently purchased Manfretto "Justin Super Clamp" for my Speedlights. I used the clamp on the hosptial shoot to put a second light into the mix without having to drag out another light stand.

One Man Band

Unless a photographer has a house full of staff, relatives, kids or significant other's running around the photo studio, ( or in my case the garage and basement) one has to be resourseful to find suitable "models" to set-in while the photographer tries out some new lighting techniques, practices lighting set-ups or other creative trail-and-error experiments.

For "One Man Band" gunners lke me, I am normally the only person hangin' around during the day when I have time set aside for practice and experimentation. So, thanks to the tripod and a "just long enough" shutter release cable, I end up being the subject for my set-ups. I't not that I want to have a huge portfolio of self portraits, it's just that our dog Gracie's a little bit tired of having the flash popped in her face all the time. I'm a ways away from being a small flash wizard like "Mr. Strobist" David Hobby - http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ or Joe McNally - www.joemcnally.com/blog. My setups and exposures make me feel more confident so when I have an actual client in front of my lens, I will "appear" to know just what the heck I'm doing!

So to get ready for this weekend's senior portrait session and some future work with our local medical center, I've been playing around. Here's a "practice shot" using up to two Nikon SB Speedlights and various light modifiers. I'm just starting to put some effort into developing a "style" for my images. I know my way of "seeing" and my "street shooter" approach to photojournalism is totally different than any of the other photographers in the area. So, I'm counting on that, with a little help from my Speedlights, to set me apart for the pack.

Springtime Awakening!

Well Hello....is there anybody out there?

Springtime has begun and it's time to get serious about shooting again and posting to my photo blog. I've been dusting off the camera gear and working on tuning-up my multi-flash location lighting chops. It was another long and snowy winter in this corner of the Midwest and now at the last few days of March 2011, the snow is nearly gone from our yard and around town. The glimer of hope of green grass and blooming flowers helps make everyone's mood a bit lighter and happier, including yours truly! My wife and I have been in the Midwest now a full year. And we are now talking of establishing roots in her old hometown.

With that said, I have a renewed energy to develop new freelance photography relationships with agricultural, farming and regional publications. I've also begun a plan to establish a photography foothold into the community I live, offering my work for senior/athlete portraits, sports action and events. I already have one senior photo session on the books. I have a few personal photo projects on the list as well to keep the picture taking pulse pumping...that and a fresh pot of coffee!

One of the Springtime events farmers can count-on in the low lying river valley areas of the Midwest is flooding. In the local county, there a number of corn fields that are submerged with runoff from melting snow. But the up-side is very few farmers in this area have to use field irrigation during the growing season.

Flooded Corn Fields, west of Fairmont, MN.

www.josephkreissphotography.zoomshare.com

Fall's Arrival

Today I realized (again) that great photography has very little to do with camera 'skills' and everything to do with "seeing."

While headed out the back door of our old garage, my eye caught our lawn rake, sitting handle down in the garden tool caddy. Maybe it was this morning's filtered light, but I had been walking past the tool and leaf for days and never 'saw' this photo until this morning. The fallen leaf had been impaled on the tines of the rake, set back in it's place after use raking up fallen apples in the front yard.

I ran and grabbed the camera, made a quick few exposures in the available light and here is the result. Except for a slight adjustment in contrast and sharpening in Photoshop, this is the image that was "found" this morning.

Five-Minute Self Portrait Photo Project

I wanted to get a few portraits of myself for my Classic Rock radio station Facebook pages and wanted something a little more ‘edgy’ and hard to fit the rock format. One morning the light coming from the east was very nice. So I grabbed the camera with the 18mm wide-angle lens and fired up a cigar. I knew with the wide angle and depth of field I would be pretty close with focus and getting myself in the frame. So I positioned myself in the east-facing doorway of our old garage and started shooting. I hand-held the camera at arm’s length, shooting a few frames with the motor drive then “chipping” to see what I was getting.

I wanted to prove you can get great self-portraits doing the old “hold the camera at arms-length and fire away” method that so many of us do to get ourselves in the picture at the Grand Canyon, at the concert, or with friends at the party. I used a little fill flash from the built-in strobe, dialed down to –2 on most of the images to kick the available light just a touch.

I have adolescent memories of a San Francisco Bay Area TV show host back in the late 60’s early 70’s named Bob Wilkerson. He hosted at late night weekend TV show called ‘Creature Feature’…introducing all the really bad ‘B movie’ horror and cheesy sci-fi flicks from the 1950’s. He sat in a big easy chair puffing away on his stogie! I wanted to get a similar feel to my photo of mystery and macabre with the slow shutter speed blur of the smoke that I had seen done so well by a famous photojournalist years back.

I’m not promoting smoking for all you ‘kids’ out there… It becomes a prop with the shade and my hat to add that element of hip mystery to the image. In post-production, I added some more contrast and edge to the images to get a look that is currently very popular with photographers, advertising and magazine covers.

Well I “survived” my first 'Midwest tornado fest.' The severe weather this past Thursday afternoon/evening brought more than 40 tornados to the state of Minnesota and more to the south in Iowa. Two of the Minnesota twisters were deadly. We were lucky in Fairmont to escape any touchdowns or damaging weather. It was a stressful day watching the TV and listing to the radio reports of what was going on all around us, wondering if we would hear the tornado sirens next.

But as is the case, first destruction, then beauty. At dusk, the massive storm front moved northeast, the sky displayed such almost surreal looking clouds. They are 'Aftermath Clouds' or as a weather professional friend said, they are “Mammatus” clouds and they usually show as a particularly potent thunderstorm moves out of an area. Indeed true.

Contrasts

I’ve mentioned before how impressed I am with the mammoth grain structures that tower above the midwestern landscape. Driving around Des Moines, Iowa recently looking for interesting “stuff” to photograph, I found this silo facility along the mostly unused Norfolk and Southern rail yard. I love to show contrasts in my images and this one has several. I love the “large and small” aspect of the modest brick building along the railroad tracks contrasted with the massive silos in back. I also like the white washed paint of the small structure in contrast with the weathered concrete elevator silos. The other interesting element that I really didn’t notice until doing a post-shooting edit is the left window on the brick building has a very bright, yellow shade behid the glass contrasted to the plain, dark window on the right. The small building itself would have made a fun picture, but placing it in contrast with the huge silos adds some punch.

Fitting Gesture

Country singer Billy Currington had a recent hit song that talks about honoring a departed one with a six-pack of beer. The song’s called “God is Great, Beer Is Good and People Are Crazy.” I found a little bit of that going on over the Memorial Day weekend at a local cemetery outside Northrop, MN. Don’t know the story, but it’s likely an old Army buddy stopped by to pay tribute to a long lost friend with a can of Hamm’s beer on the gravestone and some red, white and blue flowers. Actually quite touching. Thanks to all who have given all for our country!

The Joy of Spring

Ahhh youth! If only we adults could still experience the joy of letting go and being a kid once-in-a-while. A good run on cool, green spring grass (yes, even with the Dandelions weeds) as we head as fast as our little legs will take us to the playground equipment is something "adults" don't do very often, if at all any more.

A close college friend of my wife and his two boys stopped by Fairmont for a quick visit today while on business. So it was to the Channel Inn for fried food and burger lunch on the shores of Hall Lake and then across the street to the park, since the adults took WAY too long to finish eating and talking and the boys needed to burn off some energy for the ride home to The Cities.

The point is, deep down inside, we all want to be like kids. But the parent inside us says: "Stop fidgeting, sit nice and don't even think about going out to play." But some of us, like me, need to allow ourselves "to go play" more often. We would enjoy our lives a lot better.

Locomotive Study

One of amazing thing about trains is their massive size. Even a "small" industrial switch engine is big, compared to, say, the average Honda.This old 44-tonner locomotive is sitting on a disconnected spur track in Blue Earth, MN. I like the graphic design of the working parts.

Corn is poppin up in rows in fields around Southern Minnesota. The little guys are about an inch tall. Worries are an overnight cold snap (A 'freeze warning' issued by the National Weather Service) could damage the tender young plants. I love the way the late afternoon sun highlights the tiny corn plants. The rows remind me of the Napa Valley wine country with the row upon row of grape vines beginning to bud. These pictures taken in Martin County Saturday (05-08-10) off Lair Road in Fairmont not far from my house.

'Homemade' Tractor Switch Engine

I love railroads and the Midwest has a great percentage of active rail lines running through it, from major heavy rail traffic routes to the rural branchlines on light rails and well-worn ties. In Fairmont (Mn.) there is an old rail spur that still serves as a grain transload facility near downtown.

Randy Kabe owns Southern Minnesota

Seed Cleaning Service and currently transfers corn and other grain from truck-to-railcar. The small operation is based at a vintage grain and coal elevator in Fairmont, Minnesota. Randy says his company currently receives anywhere from three to 10 empty covered hopper cars per month from the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad’s (off the IC&E’s Jackson Subdivision that operates through Fairmont along with the Union Pacific’s Fairmont Subdivision which crosses the IC&E line in town). Randy says he uses a modified secondhand agricultural tractor to move the cars setout by IC&E crews on a long siding beside his elevator.

He explained his coupler-equipped tractor switcher is a real “homemade,” low-budget piece of equipment that he “dreamt up” to get the job done more safely than the dangerous logging chain method he tried at first.

He bought the used White Farm Boss 4-150 equipped with a Cat 3208 engine and first extended the axles so the huge tires would straddle the railroad track. He then found an old John Deere cultivator at auction and used only the steel beam and 3-point hitch for attaching the coupler, which he got from the railroad. The custom homemade couple setup is adjustable and slides back and forth making it easier to mate with the couplers of the covered hoppers. “Works like a charm,” he said.

How many cars is the Farm Boss able to handle? Randy said, depending on the condition of the ground along each side of the light rail spur, the tractor can move six or seven empty hoppers at a time and can safely pull two fully loaded railcars, though he has moved more. The Farm Boss has even pulled railcars through foot-deep snow during the winter.

Spring: New Life

Spring in the Midwest for me means all the 'white' of snow that was piled up in front of our house and all around the town this past winter is now replaced by "green." New life is all around. Without turning on a sprinkler (like when living in Colorado and California) the grass is a bright, rich green. Trees are beginning to leaf and we have discovered a patch of dirt is now quickly turning into a miniature fern grotto.











Again, I waited until the lighting was "right" to make the images. The setting sun popped out from behind some rain clouds just long enough to bring brightness to the plants and leaves.



All these were shot with a Nikon 300mm on my D200 within a 3 minute time span.

Photography Website

Please check out my website for more examples of my photography work.
www.josephkreissphotography.zoomshare.com