FEATURE image: October 2024.
Saturday, November 30, 2025 is the snowiest November day in Chicago’s recorded history, National Weather Service says.
My Nature Photography: FALL II. (90 Photos).
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Category Archives: Nature
My Nature Photography: ANIMAL WORLD. (21 Photos).
FEATURE Image: July 2024. deer. St. Joseph Creek. 7.62mb 0479 (1)
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My Nature Photography: 2024 CICADAS! red-eyed insects of 17-year Brood XIII and 13-year Brood XIX emerge together from hibernation for the first time since 1803 in President Thomas Jefferson’s first term.
FEATURE Image: June 8, 2024 6.87mb 8154
Since late May 2024 Illinois has been the epicenter of an historic emergence of two broods of trillions of cicadas whose buzzing presence is expected to continue into July. The Northern Illinois Brood (Brood XIII) came out of the soil on schedule during its 17-year cycle. In 2024 there is an adjacent emergence in the central United States occuring at the same time. It is the emergence of the Great Southern Brood (Brood XIX). It is this dual emergence of the two groups of cicadas that is historic since it has not happened since Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the U.S. in 1803.
Illinois is the epicenter of 2024’s historic cicada invasion.
According to a 2024 publication by the Ohio Biological Survey of “The 2024 Emergence of Periodical Cicada Broods XIII and XIX” by renowned cicada expert Dr. Gene Kritsky, Professor Emeritus of Biology and former Dean of the School of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount St. Joseph University, the Brood XIII emergence extends from the center of the state of Illinois around Springfield and spreads as far north as southern Wisconsin. Brood XIX also extends from around Springfield, Illinois, to points south past Cairo, Illinois. “This is not just a cicada year,” Dr. Kritsky observed, “it’s an historic convergence of Broods XIII and XIX, making it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for enthusiasts and researchers alike” (See- https://www.msj.edu/news/2024/01/dr-gene-kritsky-releases-book-cicada-emergence.html – retrieved June 15, 2024). As trillions of cicadas mate and lay their eggs this year, the buzzing activity will gradually fade and 2024’s broods of adult cicadas die. Their offspring of 2024 will emerge, in the case of Brood XIII, during its next 17 year cycle in 2041.
Ghost Trees.
During May and June 2024, the 17-year Northern Illinois Brood XIII emerged in and around Chicago, across northern Illinois and in portions of northwest Indiana, southern Wisconsin and eastern Iowa.
Egg-Laying in trees
Until 2041…
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My Nature Photography: SPRING II. (59 Photos).
FEATURE Image: June 2023 85% 7.86 mb.
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My Nature Photography: SPRING I. (100 Photos).
FEATURE image: Downers Grove, Illinois. April 20, 2017 7.31 mb 99%
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My Nature Photography: WINTER. (97 Photos).
FEATURE Image: February 2018. Downers Grove, Illinois. 3.05 mb
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My Nature Photography: FALL I. (93 Photos).
FEATURE image: Downers Grove, Illinois. October 2018.
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My Nature Photography: SUMMER. (87 Photos).
FEATURE image: July 2021. Farmer’s market. Downers Grove, Illinois 7.90 mb 79%
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My Nature Photography: MAUI Hawaii, May 1988. (20 Photos).
FEATURE image: West Maui Mountains, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988. Photographs and Text ©John P. Walsh
Ka’anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Cockatoo, Hyatt Regency Maui, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Bronze Buddha, Thailand, 19th Century, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Bodhisattva,Hyatt Regency Maui, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Main Pool, Hyatt Regency Maui, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Footpath, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Free Form Pool, Hyatt Regency Maui, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Lahina Roads, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Hookipa Beach, Wind Surfing, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Kaʻahumanu Church (1876), Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
In 1832, Queen Ka’ahumanu (1768-1832), the Kuhina Nui of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and an early convert into Christianity, visited Maui. She came to the site of the then-new Ka’ahumanu Church and witnessed services being presided by the church’s founding pastor, Reverend Jonathan Smith Green (1796-1878). Upon seeing the congregation, Queen Ka’ahumanu asked the Congregationalist mission to name the permanent church structure after her. The current structure, the fourth on the site, was built in 1876. It was built to honor Queen Ka’ahumanu’s earlier request using native materials in the construction in an adaptation of the New England style of Gothic architecture brought to Hawaii. The building was by Edward Bailey with Wailuku Sugar Company. The bell and three clock faces are from American clock-maker Seth Thomas and brought over in 1884 around Cape Horn. The original congregation, under the leadership of the Rev. Green, came into being in 1832 and held their first worship meetings in a shed.
Please visit the church’s website– https://www.kaahumanuchurch.org/ -retrieved March 22, 2020.
Sugar Cane, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
West Maui Mountains, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Iao Needle, Iao Valley State Park Monument, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Self Portrait, Wailuku, Maui, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988
West Maui Mountains, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Cambodian Buddha, Maui, Hawaii, May 13, 1988.
Evening, Maui, Hawaii, May 12, 1988.
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My Nature Photography: FLOWERS & GARDENS. (97 Photos).
FEATURE image: May 2018. Orchids. All photographs and text ©John P. Walsh.
My entire life I have always enjoyed being around flowers and gardens.
I started taking photographs of them in 2012. With so many other people everywhere, I have always enjoyed visiting and walking among the beautiful fragrances of earth’s bountiful and beautiful flora. Dangling, drooping, shooting straight up, bunches, single stem, of endlessly different shapes, sizes and colors—and places and settings—flowers and gardens embody life, creativity, and beauty. One of my earliest memories of gardens was on a childhood vacation to Jefferson’s Monticello and, in that summer’s heat, being surrounded with the scent of the boxwood shrubs. All these perennials and annuals are definitely worthwhile photographic subjects. To stroll (and bend and scrunch) among nature’s orchestra of leaves, branches, and blooms and photograph them is one of life’s pleasures.
The world of flora contains some of the most distinctive creations on the planet.
Fresh blooms are engaging, shy, forthright and protective. In their season, they exist to proffer their fleeting beauty and fragrance for the spectacular end of reproducing themselves.
I have taken photographs of many other subjects but flowers I return to again and again. It’s because flowers don’t disappoint.
Grace Kelly wrote a book on flowers called My Book of Flowers. “I love walking in the woods, on the trails, along the beaches, ” she said. “I love being part of nature…” This is one of the great things about searching for and finding flora to photograph: whether in the wild, semi-wild, in a nursery, or on the front porch or in the garden, the wonder of their presence leads to an experience of nature in its most vital form.
Grace Kelly became interested in flowers and their arrangements only in the last years of her life. It had been suggested to the American princess in the late 1960’s that as part of the festivities for Monaco’s centennial she might host a flower arranging competition, which she did. Though princess Grace admitted she “was the most ignorant garden president going,” her knowledge of flowers and gardening grew and, if only because of their shared passion for these precious blooms, she met many new friends. I too have found that I have made friends from all over the world because of our mutual love for flowers and the garden. One cannot underestimate flower power!
Most of my photographs of flowers and gardens are shot in the Chicago area.
