I am not the world’s greatest photographer. I do, however, take a shit-ton of pictures, have a good camera, and actively try to figure out how to get better at taking them.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned about pictures shot on a good camera in RAW format is that you can do a lot with them after image has been taken. Some information embedded in the image file can be exaggerated and saturated so as to present an intensity perhaps not present in the moment of the image. Or maybe just see the intensity that you weren’t able to.

It was about 4:10 PM on an unseasonably warm early January afternoon. I noticed that the sunset was pretty cool, and realized that it would be good to get my 12-year old son off of the Internet and out for a walk, so we booked it out to Lincoln Marsh. By the time we hiked out to the spot, the sun was lower than I wanted it to be (damned nature!), but I kept shooting. Here’s how they turned out, with the glories of post-processing:

Reds are easy:

You can feel the ooze with so many muted winter mushroom blacks and browns and greys:

The mild winter means green still lives amid brown fallen leaves:

You can see what I mean on the sun setting so soon:

Here’s where fidelity comes into play. The landscape seems washed out without any enhancement, January-style:

Sometimes I just give up and put on a sepia filter:

Or go pure black + white:

This vista is probably the most faithful take on the view we shared:

But the next shot can be made unnecessarily foreboding:

Or deeply blue with near-trickery of saturation:

Moon on late-afternoon blue sky is true:

And by now pink comes into play:

By firing the flash on reeds I can make it scary up front and bucolic in the back:

I can get down low to show the fact of darkness nestled near the ground, with light that will soon be a memory up top:

Tightening on dead reeds and cooling off the colors reminds us it is winter:

Those of us who live in climates with four seasons often revel in the bright ones. The gorgeous push of Spring, when crocuses beat their way out of hard ground. The lush colors of mid-summer. The auburn-crimson nature of Fall.

I love these high notes, as my Flickr will attest, but I also love to snap pics of the fallow in-betweens.

And I love Thanksgiving because it’s the ultimate of the in-betweens. It’s neither the bombastic mid-summer fireworks nor the emotional festival of lights. It’s a holiday of reflection and gratitude, of preparation and review.

That’s why I was really happy to spend some time at Lincoln Marsh in Wheaton, IL the other day. Here’s my report.

First off, this was the first time I’d seen the completed work on the Manchester/ Wesley bridge project that resulted in a completely reconfigured approach over the tracks:

and a new pedestrian bridge to Lincoln Marsh from downtown Wheaton.

Really well done.

I like to snap infrastructure info plates like this:

Taking a look at these numbers, we can see that Sec. 97-00084-00-BR relates to a State of Illinois Department of Transportation contract for $416,250. The money was kept in-state (even in-county), with Dunnet Bay Construction of Glendale Heights. And this one:

The bridge itself was made by ConTech Solutions in Minnesota. Everything’s a solution these days. No one makes products anymore.

All of this flows nicely into the existing pedestrian bridge over the tracks.

Infrastructure has a certain beauty and rhythm.

The Marsh itself has had some improvements lately. Here’s a new overlook:

With some great marsh-like detailing in the woodwork:

Anyway, back to the mid-Autumn midpoints. I love this pre-freeze state of decay:

Some sort of berries are nearly done for now:

The closing-up process quickens:

Purples can still surprise you:

Orderly yellows and browns dominate what was once green and lush:

Odd prickles take over:

And bare trees gather in thin conspiracy, steeling for what’s to come.