{"id":124,"date":"2013-01-30T19:18:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T01:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mikemacdonald.com\/blog\/?p=124"},"modified":"2017-06-20T15:29:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T21:29:59","slug":"new-nature-photography-blog-the-heart-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/nature\/new-nature-photography-blog-the-heart-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"New Nature Photography Blog: A Celebration of Biodiversity & The Art of Nature Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The morning sun peaks above the trees to illuminate a tremendous display of foxglove beardtongue(Penstemon digitalis) in this prairie and fen habitat.
Bluff Spring Fen \/ Elgin, Illinois \/ Forest Preserve District of Cook County<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s a new day and a\u00a0new year,\u00a0and with\u00a0them\u00a0come\u00a0a fresh new resource, a nature photography blog\u00a0that speaks to\u00a0the avid photographer\u00a0and the\u00a0lover of nature. I call it:
\nThe Heart of Nature<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this blog\u00a0is to share my insights about photography and my\u00a0explorations in the wilds of Chicago. It’s a celebration of biodiversity and the art of nature photography.<\/p>\n

If you’re an\u00a0enthusiast of photography or nature, you can subscribe\u00a0to receive\u00a0notifications about new posts.\u00a0Just scroll up to\u00a0the top of the page,\u00a0type in your\u00a0email address,\u00a0and click\u00a0the “Subscribe” button.<\/p>\n

If you’re a student of mine through Creative Eye Workshops<\/a>, the information here will\u00a0supplement your learning and, maybe,\u00a0some of those concepts from class will finally click.<\/p>\n

For those who\u00a0enjoy\u00a0the outdoors\u00a0or who want to gain a fonder appreciation of nature, here you’ll find essays about\u00a0the\u00a0many wonders\u00a0found\u00a0right\u00a0in\u00a0our own backyard, in the prairies, savannas, woodlands, wetlands, and forest preserves of the immediate Chicago area.<\/p>\n

But, what will\u00a0The Heart of Nature<\/em><\/strong> be? First, I will post a photograph,\u00a0then write about it. But, what will I write? As of this moment, I foresee an extraordinary\u00a0synthesis of creative lessons, imaginative writing,\u00a0humor, even\u00a0the occasional poem.\u00a0Coming soon, you will find illuminating essays\u00a0on the\u00a0wonder of light and\u00a0the possibilities\u00a0of digital photography. You’ll\u00a0be lured into a frightening\u00a0world of\u00a0monsters and aliens, one day, and on another, bamboozled, in\u00a0a quirky essay about a\u00a0beautiful bird and pumpkin pie. But,\u00a0I will properly\u00a0inaugurate this\u00a0new\u00a0artistic vision with a\u00a0story\u00a0from last week’s frigid adventures, as I photographed a\u00a0frozen stream\u00a0and discovered\u00a0winter’s whimsy. It’s called “On the Coldest Days, Winter Plays.” I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a new day and a\u00a0new year,\u00a0and with\u00a0them\u00a0come\u00a0a fresh new resource, a nature photography blog\u00a0that speaks to\u00a0the avid photographer\u00a0and the\u00a0lover of nature. I call it: The Heart of Nature. The purpose of this blog\u00a0is to share my insights about photography … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,68,231,71,77,72,212,73,74,67,79,70,75],"tags":[34,35,228,39,54,40],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biodiversity-nature","category-chicago-nature","category-illinois-cook-county-nature","category-digital-photography-lessons-tips","category-ecological-restoration","category-film-photography-lessons","category-illinois-nature-photography","category-landscape-photography-lessons-tips","category-macro-photography-lessons-tips","category-nature","category-nature-photography-lessons","category-photography-lessons-tips","category-wildlife-photography-lessons-tips","tag-bluff-spring-fen","tag-elgin","tag-fen-photography","tag-flower-photography","tag-forest-preserve-district-of-cook-county","tag-prairie-photography"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Heart of Nature: A New Nature Blog & Nature Photography Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New! 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It all came to a head one day after I performed my one-man show about Chicago nature. Three audience members separately visited me at my book-signing table\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Nature","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/illinois-nature-photography\/chicago-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The winter sun warms the oak savanna on the kame at Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, Illinois.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Bluff-Spring-Fen-Snow_Ice-220125-0010-FS-FINAL-800px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=582%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Bluff-Spring-Fen-Snow_Ice-220125-0010-FS-FINAL-800px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=582%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Bluff-Spring-Fen-Snow_Ice-220125-0010-FS-FINAL-800px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=582%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":145,"url":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/nature\/digital-landscape-photography-and-digital-capture\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":1},"title":"Digital Landscape Photography: New Possibilities in Storytelling","author":"Mike MacDonald","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Not\u00a0until\u00a0recently, did I begin to photograph the landscape with a digital camera, leaving behind the beauty of transparency film and the process of leaning over a light table, one eye to the loupe, to immerse\u00a0myself in the colorful world\u00a0living within. During my film capture days, I developed\u00a0a sense of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Nature","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/illinois-nature-photography\/chicago-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bluff Spring Fen-120821-0010-00-HDR-FINAL by Mike MacDonald, Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/BluffSpringFen-120821-0010-00-HDR-FINAL-600px-Copyright.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/illinois-nature-photography\/it-can-take-decades\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":2},"title":"It Can Take Decades","author":"Mike MacDonald","date":"September 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The image here showcases a hanging fen and a sedge meadow, two unique wetland habitats Mike has been trying to photograph for over twenty years. The fen, fed by a gravel hill's seep, features rare plants like Ohio goldenrod and sphynx lady tresses orchid, adapted to its alkaline water conditions.","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Nature","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/illinois-nature-photography\/chicago-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"At Lake in the Hills Fen, late-summer flowers decorate the seep of one of its hanging fens.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lake-in-the-Hills-Fen-220908-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=982%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lake-in-the-Hills-Fen-220908-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=982%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lake-in-the-Hills-Fen-220908-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=982%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lake-in-the-Hills-Fen-220908-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=982%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/nature\/skunk-cabbage-facts-and-poetry\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":3},"title":"Searching for Spring (and Skunk Cabbage)","author":"Mike MacDonald","date":"March 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, March 10, 2013, spring officially began in the Chicago area. For me, the beginning of spring does not arrive in a fanfare of color. Rather, it begins subtly, when sometime in March, speckled maroon and yellow spathes\u00a0of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) quietly emerge from beneath a layer of snow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Biodiversity"","block_context":{"text":"Biodiversity","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/nature\/biodiversity-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Frazil ice formed during the frigid night on the surface of Sawmill Creek at Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in DuPage County, Illinois. \u00a92013 Mike MacDonald Photography\u2014All Rights Reserved. Please Contact Mike MacDonald for permission to use this or any image.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Ice-130122-0010-00-FINAL-600px-Copyright.jpg?fit=400%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/nature\/landscape-photography-transcendental-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":4},"title":"Transcendental Light & The Art of Landscape Photography","author":"Mike MacDonald","date":"February 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"On this typical May morning, along a bluff at Black Partridge Woods, transcendental rays of new-day light\u00a0fleck the verdant floor and streak across serpentine waves of woodland phlox, casting\u00a0the divine onto this springtime panorama. Thirty\u00a0minutes earlier, though, only flat blue\u00a0shade from the open sky illuminated the landscape. Editorially and visually,\u00a0the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Nature","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/illinois-nature-photography\/chicago-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"In the art of landscape photography, light can have a transcendental effect. Here at Black Partridge Woods, woodland phlox spread in a serpentine wave across the bluff, as streaks of morning light dramatically and ethereally transform matter. \u00a92013 Mike MacDonald Photography, Inc.\u2014ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please contact Mike MacDonald for permission to use this or any image.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Black-Partridge-Woods-0370-600px-Copyright1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1190,"url":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/photography-lessons-tips\/nature-photography-lessons\/bunnys-view-of-springtime-woodland\/","url_meta":{"origin":124,"position":5},"title":"A Bunny’s View of a Springtime Woodland","author":"Mike MacDonald","date":"November 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In the woodlands of early May, shy waxy white blossoms of mayapples hide under their umbrella-like foliage.","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago Nature","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/category\/illinois-nature-photography\/chicago-nature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"An intimate view from underneath a miniature forest of mayapples in the woodland known as Raccoon Grove Nature Preserve in Monee, Illinois.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Raccoon-Grove-240506-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Raccoon-Grove-240506-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Raccoon-Grove-240506-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Raccoon-Grove-240506-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Raccoon-Grove-240506-0010-FS-2000px-copyright-sRGB.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/1034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}