De Immigrant on Mississippi Road Trip 2013 - Day 2 - June 12 - Stop #1 - Indiana, Illinois, Iowa (Indiana Dunes)

Back on the road, day two was to take us from Indiana, through Illinois, and half way across Iowa. Stop #1 was in Fulton, IL, where they've recently built a fully functional Dutch style windmill - De Immigrant. All parts were brought in from Holland and then assembled by Dutch craftsmen.

It's not always in operation but does come on regularly to make several types of flour that you can buy in their wind mill museum across the street. When we visited, a group had just left and we got a private tour of the mill. The gentleman clearly loved the history behind this and other wind mills as well as talking about it as he went into details about the construction and also its operation and answered all of our questions, no matter how silly.

The mill sits on top of a flood control dike on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. Being elevated plus its own 100-foot height makes it a rather tall structure for the area. However, it was not visible fro distance during our approach.

De Immigrant on Mississippi

There are other attractions in Fulton, especially their Heritage Canyon was recommended to us. However, we had to balance attractions with time on the road and were also getting hungry and ready for lunch. As such, we sounded for retreat.

Before we did though, we drove a little further along the river. There were some beautiful houses there overlooking the river. One had this wonderful view of trees right in the river in their back yard. I am really not sure if that was normal or if the river had an elevated water level flooding a part of their yard but either way, it looked otherworldly.

Trees in Mississippi

And that was it for Fulton. We crossed the bridge over Mississippi finding ourselves in Clinton, Iowa. There, a nice diner and some sandwiches took care of our growling stomachs and we were ready to continue to the second stop of the day.

Enjoy your summer vacation, wherever your plans take you!

Equipment used:

• Nikon D600
• Nikon 24-85mm Nikkor Lens
• Promaster 72mm Circular Polarizing Filter
• Think Tank Speed Demon Waist Pack,  Petzl Zipka Plus 2 Headlamp (always in the bag just in case), SanDisk Extreme 32GB SD Cards
• Nikon Capture NX2

Using my links to buy your equipment keeps me going and costs you nothing. You can also use the Amazon search box in bottom left for anything not mentioned here. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!

It's that time of the year, go pick your blueberries! We've been going to Awald Farms in North Collins for years and they're still great. Pick your own, or if you don't feel like it, grab a pre-picked basket. I can report that picking is good, you won't do much walking  and I've filled a six pound bucket in about 45 minutes today.

Wash them, dry them, freeze them and you'll have summer in your freezer till next year!

Bowl of Blueberries

Enjoy summer!

Erie Basin Marina at Daybreak Panorama I really enjoyed my morning in the Erie Basin Marina back in January when I photographed the above panorama. The sunrise light was beautiful and the whole scene on the water was so peaceful. The off season is apparent in the photo though since there are no boats on the water.

Buffalo City Hall from the Marina Then I also had this summer day photo with he masts as the signature of summer and the City Hall and Pasquale Condos across the water. However, the water was not as prominent in this one.

I wanted to to see if I could mash the photos into something new. I wanted the water to be more prominent and also see if I could get a reflection of the downtown skyline. And I wanted the boats as in the panorama above to give the photo the lively summer look. And finally, I wanted to add a warm sunset light to this collection.

I arrived about an hour before sunset. I knew that at a later time, the boats fall into a deeper shadow than I wanted for this photo. The skyline was already bathed in the warm glow of the low sun, and the docked boats still had enough light on them too.

While there were quite a few people in the Marina, I was surprised how quiet this particular spot was. A few people walked by and two boats left for a sunset ride but that was it, very peaceful and quiet otherwise. I wanted to try to get that feeling into my photo. With the tripod set up and my composition locked in, I took a few test shots to confirm exposure and focus and the look and feel of the photo and added my 6-stop neutral density filter to slow the shutter down, hoping to smooth out the choppy water and get a better reflection. Here is what I got:

City Hall Reflection in the Marina at Sunset

Buffalo City Hall reflected in Erie Basin Marina at sunset

Have fun making your visions happen!

Equipment used:

• Nikon D600
• Nikon 24-85mm Nikkor Lens
• Manfrotto tripod (055MF3) and head (496RC2)
• B+W 77mm 6-stop neutral density (64x) filter, 72 to 77 mm step up ring
• Exposure delay mode of 2 seconds, no remote release
• Think Tank Speed Demon Waist Pack, Petzl Zipka Plus 2 Headlamp (always in the bag just in case), SanDisk Extreme 32GB SD Cards
• Nikon Capture NX2

Using my links to buy your equipment keeps me going and costs you nothing. You can also use the Amazon search box in bottom left for anything not mentioned here. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!