Home    Galleries    Print Sales    About the Photographer    Links    Contact Me

Lightscapes Nature Photography
Photographing the North American Landscape

Nature Photography by Kerry Leibowitz

What's New at Lightscapes Nature Photography

September 7, 2008
Article Published On-line
An article that I wrote entitled "Non-Photographers Say the Darndest Things" has been published on the Nature Photographers Online Magazine site.  You can check it out here

August 27, 2008
Summer Images Posted
Less than three months between updates--I must be doing something right.

The summer photo season is essentially over and I'm beginning to gear up for fall.  Summer shooting tends to be pretty slow for me, but autumn's another matter entirely.  I've spent the past few days working on the site--I've done some reorganizing of a couple of the galleries (they were becoming unwieldy in terms of size) and have added the fairly meager images from this summer.

It was a wet spring and first half of the summer in northern Illinois and that led to an exceptionally good summer wildflower season, the fruits of which can be seen in the "What's New Gallery."  I had the opportunity to do some shooting at the Danada Forest Preserve in DuPage County, where the prairie wildflower crop was spectacular, and in north-central Illinois at the Nature Conservancy's Nachusa Grasslands property.  I was a bit late for the best of the purple coneflowers at Nachusa, but other opportunities there beckoned.  The gallery also includes a few shots from an early summer trip to Shades State Park in east-central Indiana and from the Great Falls of the Potomac area of the C&O National Historic Park in Maryland.  The trip to Great Falls was a brief one, designed mostly for scouting, but I saw enough to whet my appetite for a future visit (hopefully) to both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac.

Exhibition Venues
September and October will be filled with exhibitions that will include my images.  

The Images of Nature Photography Exhibit and Competition at the Earth Discovery Center of Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis will be held Sept. 20-28; 9-5 except Sunday (which is 1-5).  I'll have three images hanging in this exhibit.

The Danada Nature Photo Show will be held at Danada House at the Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton, Illinois, Fri.- Sat. Oct. 10-11 from 1-4 and Sun. Oct. 12 from 1-5.  I'll have two images hanging in this show.

The University of Michigan Club of Greater Chicago's Fifth Annual Alumni Art Show will be held at the Madron Gallery (100 W. North Avenue, Third Floor, Chicago).  The show's opening reception is open to all and will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23 from 6-9 PM.  The show will also be open to the public from Oct. 20-24 during the gallery's regular daytime hours.

There are several other autumn venues that I'm considering; information regarding these exhibits will be posted here as it becomes available.

Awards
"Council Lake in Morning Mist #3" won a Merit Award at the DuPage Art League's August 2008 mixed media exhibition.  "Cataract Covered Bridge" won an Honorable Mention in the Alliance of Fine Art's mixed media "Restoration" exhibit at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, Illinois in September.

May 31, 2008
An as yet undetermined number of my images--something on the order of a dozen or more--will be hanging in the Glen Ellyn Public Library, on the second floor, in Glen Ellyn Illinois beginning June 1.  The work will remain in place throughout the month of June.  The library is located on the corner of Duane and Prospect in Glen Ellyn and is open seven days a week.  If you're in the area and you have time, stop in and take a look.

A few more minor procedural changes have been made to the site to, hopefully, aid in identification and navigation.  On a more substantive note, additional spring images from Cataract Falls Recreation Area in Indiana have been placed in the What's New Indiana Winter/Spring 2008 Gallery.  There are now enough new images from Indiana to warrant giving them their own, albeit temporary, gallery. The winter/spring 2008 Illinois images now have an exclusive home of their own:  the What's New Illinois Winter/Spring 2008 Gallery.  Both of these galleries can also be accessed from the What's New Gallery menu page.

Awards
Just catching up on a couple of award winners from the past few months.  "Lily Pads and Reflections" won a Special Merit Award at the DuPage Art League's April 2008 mixed media exhibition.  "The Road Less-Traveled" won a Merit Award in the DuPage Art League's February mixed media exhibition.

May 22, 2008
After a delay of absurd proportions, it's well past time for another update to this page.  It's only been 5 1/2 months.  Ugh.  I've done a fair amount of shooting since the start of the year and, ironically, it's photo activity that plays a role in delaying the update of a photo Web site.  Go figure.  

I did more shooting this winter than normal--probably because winter itself here in the Midwest seemed to last longer than usual.  The fruit of that shooting--all of it in Illinois and Indiana--can be seen, in part, in the "What's New" Indiana-Illinois Winter/Spring 2008 Gallery which is accessible from the main "What's New" Gallery menu page.  

In the second half of April I spent a full week in the Smokies.  It was, almost certainly, my most productive photo trip to date.  I'd been to the area once before--in the fall of 2004--as part of a photo workshop, but this time I was on my own (though I ran into some familiar faces on a number of occasions).  I created six (not a typo) new galleries, using a subject matter theme, to house the new Smokies images.  All six galleries can be accessed from the "What's New" Gallery portal and from the new Smokies Gallery menu page, along with the gallery holding all the previous Smokies material from the earlier fall shoot.  Many thanks to Danny Burk, for making some terrific location suggestions, taking the time to show me some great spots in person and leading me to the rare Painted Trillium; to Lori Kincaid for encouraging me to visit Cades Cove on this trip (something I hadn't planned to do, but luckily reconsidered on Lori's advice); to Jason Templin, who I had the great fortune to meet for the first time by pure chance at Greenbrier and whose first rate naturalist abilities helped me properly identify some flower images; and to Bernie Kasper, who I also ran into by chance at Roaring Fork and pointed me in the direction of some rich trillium stands.  Thanks to all of you for helping to make this such a fruitful trip!

I've done a bit of minor reorganizing of the site as part of this update--nothing exceptional:  a consolidating of the front page, for instance, and a few other procedural things.  Poke around a bit.  Hopefully the changes will be seamless.

There's more to catch up on--things that have taken place in the past few months that are worth a mention--but I'll have to wait on that until a future installment--one that will come much sooner than the last one.  I promise.

January 4, 2008
All three of my images have cleared the jury process and will be hanging in a photography exhibition at the Bloomingdale Park District Museum in Bloomingdale, Illinois beginning January 19.  The exhibition remains open through February 23.  I'll post additional information as it becomes available right here.

December 2, 2007
New Mexico and Midwest Fall Images Posted--At Last!
It took a lot longer than I had initially hoped--and expected, for that matter--but I finally finished processing and converting all of my New Mexico images.  I've created four new galleries containing the images, all of which can be accessed from the "What's New Gallery" page.  Additionally, images from fall day shoots in Illinois and Indiana can be accessed in separate galleries, also accessible from the "What's New Gallery" portal.  The New Mexico imagery has been divided into galleries for White Sands National Monument, the Bisti Badlands, the Santa Fe National Forest and Bandelier National Monument.  There's a lot to view; take a look and experience my take on the incredible, beautiful variety that New Mexico has to offer.

The Illinois material from this fall is mostly from Starved Rock State Park and the Morton Arboretum; the autumn Indiana images are mostly from Ft. Harrison State Park.

My apologies for the delay in getting all of these images posted.

Awards
Since I last updated this page, a couple of my images have won awards at juried shows in Illinois and Indiana.  Gold-Tinged Forest won first place in the Landscape image category at the Danada Fall Photo Contest in Wheaton, IL this October.  Roaring Fork #4 won second place in the Landscape image category at the Images of Nature photo contest at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, IN, also in October.

October 15, 2007
New Mexico
In late September my wife and I spent a bit more than a week in New Mexico.  It was my first trip to "The Land of Enchantment" and I came away very impressed and with a great number of images from White Sands National Monument, the Bisti Badlands, the Jemez National Recreation Area and Bandelier National Monument.  I've been back for a bit more than two weeks and have only managed to post-process about half of the material.  I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far and, in time, the images from this trip will begin to appear in the "What's New Gallery."  Eventually, at least one--and possibly multiple--New Mexico galleries will be created to house these images.

Another Exhibition
My submission has passed a difficult jury process and will be hanging in a mixed media exhibition and competition at the Norris Gallery in St. Charles, Illinois throughout the month of November.  The image I submitted was a black and white conversion of a shot I took while at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico in September.  The image has not yet appeared on this site, but will soon.  I'm slowly making my way through a wealth of material from New Mexico.

New Pricing
Access to some new, reliable suppliers of mats and frames has enabled me to lower the cost of matted and framed prints.  For specifics, please see the Print Sales page on this Web site.

September 13, 2007
Exhibition Venues
I have a series of exhibitions on tap over the next few months.

Beginning Wednesday, September 19, several of my images will be displayed as part of the annual juried University of Michigan Alumni Association of Greater Chicago's Art Show at the Madron Gallery at 1000 West North Avenue in Chicago (corner of North and Sheffield).  There will be a reception on the evening of the 19th between 6 and 9 PM; I'll be there.  Everyone's welcome, so if you're in the area and you have time, stop by, say hi and have a look.  The exhibit runs through Tuesday, Sept. 25; after the opening night reception, the gallery is open M-F, 9 AM to 5 PM.

I will have an image hanging at the DuPage Art League's "Paint DuPage" juried competition in October.  The league is located at 218 West Front Street in Wheaton, Illinois.  The exhibit will be viewable throughout October during the League gallery's regular hours.  E-mail me for further information.

Two of my images will be hanging in the juried Danada Nature Photo Show at Danada House, Danada Equestrian Center, Danada Forest Preserve on Naperville Road (3S501 Naperville Road) in Wheaton, IL.  The show runs from Friday, October 12 through Sunday, October 14.  Exhibition hours are 1 PM to 4 PM on Friday and Saturday and 11 AM to 5 PM on Sunday.

Three of my images will be hanging in the Images of Nature juried photo exhibition at the Earth Discovery Center at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis.  The show will be open to the public beginning Saturday, October 27 through Saturday, November 3.  Exhibition hours are Monday through Saturday 9-5 and Sundays 1-5.

I will have ten images hanging as part of an exclusive display at the La Spiaza Cafe, 114 North Main Street in Wheaton, IL beginning Saturday, Oct. 29 through the entire month of November.  The cafe is open Monday through Thursday from 7 AM to 10 PM; Friday and Saturday 7 AM to 10:30 PM; Sunday from 9 AM to 8:30 PM.  The images are viewable any time the cafe is open.

Five of my images will be hanging throughout the month of December at a venue in Glen Ellyn, IL; details to be announced.

Awards
To date, three of the four images I have entered in juried shows this year have won awards.  Woodland Spring won a Merit Award in the DuPage Art League's mixed media "Spring Into Action" exhibition in April, 2007.  A Special Merit Award was given to Prairie Purple in the League's mixed media "Hot" exhibition in August, 2007.  A Merit Award was presented to Gold-Tinged Forest in the League's juried "Color Me Gold" exhibition in September, 2007.

July 29, 2007
What's New Gallery
I've created a "What's New Gallery" for the site which, with an obviousness of almost painful proportions, will display new (at the time of posting) images.  The goal will be to update this gallery with some degree of regularity; it remains to be seen what reality produces.

In any event, the first installment of the What's New Gallery is in place.  Summer is ordinarily a relatively slow photography time for me and this year hasn't been a significant exception.  In my neck of the woods--northeast Illinois and central Indiana--landscape shooting is most interesting in the spring and fall, and I haven't left the region this summer.  However, a somewhat wetter than ordinary July has brought a somewhat better summer wildflower crop in northeast Illinois than I've seen in a few years and I've been inspired to do a bit of shooting with this subject matter.  A handful of images from these shoots are now posted in the What's New Gallery; after the next major update, they'll be moved to the Illinois Landscapes and Flora and Fauna galleries, as subject matter dictates.

Links Page Update
I've finally gotten around to adding some substance to the Links page.  Check it out.

Gallery Format Tweaked
In an effort to make the galleries a bit easier to view and navigate, some minor procedural adjustments have been made.  If I've done a good job--always a debatable point--the changes should be scarcely noticeable.

July 5, 2007
Lightscapes Photography Site Goes On-line
After many months--nay, years--of teeth gnashing and weeks of mind-numbing rote work, the Lightscapes Nature Photography Web site debuted on-line on June 30, 2007...though almost no one knew about it because I didn't give the URL out to anyone for several days as I feverishly endeavored to seek out and repair bad links.

The site is, by its very nature (oh, what a miserable pun), a perpetual work in progress.  It will be updated...well, as often as there's reason to do so and time with which to complete the task.  Check back regularly for--it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway--more substantive and interesting updates.

The entire contents of this Web site, images and text, are the copyrighted property of Kerry Leibowitz and may not be duplicated or reproduced in any form without express consent.  Image rights may be purchased; please contact me to make arrangements.  Images may not be hot linked.