I LOVE this picture. This is a Hawaiian Monk seal. They are very rare, and come up on the island of Kauai to rest after they have their meals. It is so wonderful to have someone take the time to appreciate such a beautiful creature.

Very interesting pictures. I like the color on the snow below each tree. How was this done? Long exposure or upping the saturation in post-processing? Or perhaps another method.

The trees are coated with ice which preceded the snow and it was foggy. The halos would be a bad advertisement for blue fog lamps. The exposure was 40 seconds which is no problem at 3am in Iowa even when you're standing in the middle of the street.

Another great lightning capture. Amazing and beautiful.

Thanks, lightning facinates me with it's unpredictable allure.

I agree, it totally facinates me too. I have not been lucky enough to capture it. Do you think it is possible with a point and shoot?

You need to be able to have shutter speed loger than 1 second, a tripod/sandbag, and most importantly, a safe place to shoot from (preferably a dry spot)- parking ramps are a good place to start. If you animate a radar site you can predict direction (sort of)but other than that it's like catching lightning in a bottle...
be prepared to take 1 or 2 hundred pictures in order to get a keeper. Even if the lighting is miles away, don't stand on a hill top holding an umbrella (sorry, had to say it)

What an amazing time it must have been to successfully capture this shot.

That is one amazing looking sun. Well captured.

I've been looking over all of the photos on your page. Every one is a winner. The colors are so vibrant. Simply great.

Great shot with this DOF, very nice !

Nice seen, nice done, John !

Wow. Awesome shot.

this is amazing

Beautiful. The little light on the left side could have been cropped out, but otherwise, it's just beautiful.

Do you know the species of this hawk. I've never seen on this yellow, or is this color corrected in post. Looks like a red-tail, but the color get me thinking...?

The yellow color is due to the sunset. I think we found him on his perch and he allowed me to circle him for 10 minutes and stayed there after I got back in the car and left. Red tails are common in Iowa.

I love the Golden hue of the sunset. The face is crisp and clear.