The Last Game...

...of the Season.

For reasons beyond my control, I wasn't able to attend as many games I had in the past, but the last game was a good one.  The boys played hard and they had all greatly improved over the short month and a half season.  Way to go North Fondy!

View more photos on the 2010 North Fondy Baseball page

A Fixer Upper...

...with a Waterfront View.

Playing around with the Lomo script in Gimp. The Lomo is a primitive plastic camera that takes photos that are 'artistic' if anything.  Lomo and other plastic cameras (Holga's for example) have a fringe but large following.  Large enough for their to be a plug-ins and scripts for Photoshop and GImp just to replicate their unique image qualities.

Here is my Faux-Lomo for your viewing 

A summer's day...

...through the view finder.

Olympus E-510, Zukio 70-300mm

Special thanks to Oceant for the texture layer.

You looking...

...at me?

Yes.  Yes I was.

Just a prairie dog at the NEW Zoo just north of Green Bay WI.

Extra ! Extra!..

...Read all about it.

Starting August 2nd, the La Merge Gift Shop located on the first floor of the Mercy Medical Center in Clinton, Iowa will have for your review a series of C.J.Ross Photography greeting cards.  The greeting cards are printed on 100lb card stock with each card featuring a full color C.J.Ross Photography original image. 

Be the first to say you helped start my career, stop in, buy a few, then tell your friends...


(The above post was written with full tongue in cheek..except for the part about the actual cards, you will be able to buy them at the gift shop starting August 2nd.  Fingers crossed that they will actually sell)

Dragonflies...

...yep Dragonflies.


Took a walk around the Ben Martinsen Wildlife Area outside of Folletts, Iowa.  The marshy backwaters of the Wapsipinicon River are home to various 'critters' like birds, frogs, deer and dragonflies.  A few were gracious enough to pose for their portraits.  Hope you like them.



View the top photo larger HERE

"De Immigrant"...

...is a Dutch Beltmolen-type windmill.  The windmill was erected in 2000 in Fulton, IL to celebrate the Dutch heritage of this small town on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River.  Fully operational, the built in the Netherlands and assembled in Illinois by Dutch Millwrights "De Immigrant", offers buckwheat, rye and corn flours ground on its basalt millstones.

Reflections on times..

...gone by. 

I've been looking back a lot lately, reminiscing of days and photos gone by.  Seems like I've been doing that more and more recently.  And while it would be nice to be able to revise the past, until we build a time machine, the past will have to stay the past.  But we can go back and redo images, to give them a fresh life, a new beginning.  This is yet another lucky image who has been given a second chance.

This photo was taken at the Wisconsin Street Rod Show and Corn Roast held in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin back in 2008 and it had been stuck in the archives on my hard drive just waiting for it's chance.  Well today is it's day.  It didn't need much, I cropped it square (I'm into square crops lately) and gave it a hint of sharpening thanks to the High Pass filter and Overlay mode.  I hope you like it.

A Castle...

...in corn country.

When you think of Iowa, you may think of corn, hogs and soybeans.  But castles?

The Stone Lookout Tower located in Eagle Point Park, Clinton Iowa was built in 1937 as part of  a $3,000,000 beautification project.  Designed and built by WPA (Works Progress Administration) the observation tower climbs 50 feet into the air and provides a panoramic view of the Mississippi River valley north of Lock and Dam 13.

Click to view full size.

Here is the same photo but with a different cropping, not sure which I prefer LINK

You can not go forward...

...when you're looking in the rear view mirror.

After writing today's earlier post I challenged myself to just "Go take a photo".  Neither the content nor the quality mattered (obviously), but rather it was the act of taking the photo that was the whole point of the exercise.

I had a few hours of daylight left in the day so off I went.  To simplify things I allowed myself  the use of only one lens, an old manual focus Rikenon 50mm f2 that I adapted to my E-510 with a Fotodiox adapter, and the single goal of getting at least one photo to share.

So today is a new start, a start at putting my recent unmotivated past in my rear view mirror and moving forward.

Until next time...


(Olympus E-510, Rikenon 50mm f2 @ f5.6)

What we've got here is...

...a failure to communicate.

It's been just over two weeks since I posted anything other than a few softball photos, and I have no real excuses why not.  Have I been busy?  For the most part, sort of.  But have I even picked up my camera lately?  Nope, not at all.  I'll be the first to admit that I've been lacking motivation, lacking inspiration and just "lacking" in general.  Sometimes life just gets in the way I guess, and hobbies and other pursuits fall to the wayside.

But no more excuses.. I am no longer going to just sit around and do nothing.  I am going to breathe some life into this little blog before I lose the 3 or 4 visitors that I have received.  I am going to set goals and deadlines, not to give myself pressure, but rather to force myself to stop thinking about doing something and Just Do It instead.

I have some project ideas that I've been kicking around and the time to start producing on those ideas has come.

So wish me luck and check back soon.