I've always enjoyed capturing pictures of staircases and corridors. I've noticed that my portfolio of ceilings is growing at a very strong pace!

Basilica of St. JosaphatBasilica of St. Josaphat at 2333 S 6th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 16, 2017 Stained glass domeStained glass dome (designed by Pennsylvania native Alfred Godwin) in the Supreme Court Chamber in the Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on July 5, 2013. This photograph consists of five exposures blended together using HDR Efex Pro2 software to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. James R. Thompson CenterInterior of the James R. Thompson Center, or State of Illinois Center, at 100 W Randolph Street in Chicago, Illinois on December 18, 2013. This photograph consists of five exposures blended together to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. Alliolani Hale domeInner dome from the rotunda of the Aliiolani Hale at 447 S King Street in Honolulu, Hawaii on January 20, 2017. This building houses the Hawaii State Supreme Court. It is the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. To view more of my favorite pictures of ceilings, please click here.

Aligning ceiling pictures is very challenging. In order to see through the viewfinder, I'm usually laying on the floor and trying to slide underneath the camera (which is positioned on a tripod very low to the floor). It can take a while to line everything up--and in the meantime I often end up with a sore neck!

The good news is that my new Nikon D850 now makes this process easier. The D850 has a tilting LCD screen on the back of the camera.

Now, I am able to sit to the side of the camera and align the photo using the tilted screen.

I plan to continue looking up during my photography sessions.

During my road trip to Newfoundland, I planned two photo shoots for birds...the northern gannets of Cape St Mary's and the puffins of Elliston. I didn't have much luck with the gannets due to thick fog over my three day stay near the Cape. And for the majority of my stay, it looked like the puffins were going to be a no go as well.

Just a little background on Elliston...a colony of puffins nests on the rock just off the coast. There's a short trail (about 1/3 of a mile) from the road to the edge of the cliff. From there, you can see the puffin nesting site. It's relatively close, but too far in my opinion to capture quality images of these rather small birds. They stand at just 8 inches tall.

Here's an iPhone photo of the area:

The hope is that a puffin (or several) will fly over to our side of the water. Between us and the nesting rock is a steep drop...and yes, people have died here.

So, I arrived one morning to photograph the puffins. I had visions of puffins everywhere...and all on my side of the water. But, after a couple of hours of waiting, there wasn't any indication that the puffins would land near me...or I should say, us. I gathered that part of the problem was that there were 30 or more people standing near me and that the crowd might be keeping the puffins away.

I returned the next morning at 5:45 AM...and was pleased that I was the only person there. But, by 9:30 AM the crowds were building and the light was getting very harsh...and not a single puffin made a move to my side of the water!

That night, I decided to go back for a third try. I arrived at 5:00 PM and found about 12 people there...no puffins. By 6:30 PM or so, everyone left except for one man. He was visiting from Switzerland...and was just finishing up some landscape photographs. I told him that people told me that on occasion puffins would fly over to our side...so he waited with me. We waited for about an hour when he told me that he reluctantly would have to leave because he was freezing...and that his jacket was back at his campsite about a mile away. I told him he could use my jacket...and he was very appreciative.

About 30 minutes later a single puffin fluttered over to our side and landed briefly on a rock. I captured a quick shot with my 300 2.8 VR...and it flew off. I was so happy to get a shot! He looked at the image and joked about how jealous he was that I got that shot...and that he only had a wide angle lens with him. So, I removed the 300 2.8 from my Nikon D850 and handed it to him. I told him he could use it for the rest of the shoot as it worked perfectly with his Niion D4. I then attached the 500 f4 to my camera--which was sitting in my bag. Yes, I carried a lot of weight!

A few minutes later, another puffin landed. Then another...and finally more than a dozen. We had a great time capturing portraits of these birds. At one point, he mentioned that he should have brought a teleconverter with him...so I reached into my bag and handed him a 1.4x teleconverter. He couldn't believe his good fortune...a jacket, a 300 2.8 VR and a TC...all saved his photo shoot! And, it was an amazing photo shoot for both of us.

Here are some of my images. To view more, CLICK HERE.

Atlantic puffinFull body portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinCloseup portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinAtlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) spreading its wings in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Atlantic puffinAtlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018

Nearly every time I return from a trip, I'm asked about which lenses I used to capture the images. At the end of a trip, I like to look at the distribution of shots by lens. Here's how it looked for my most recent "Newfoundland Road Trip '18":

I used just one camera for the entire trip--the Nikon D850. More than 80% of my photographs were captured with one of Nikon's "Holy Trinity" of lenses--the 14-24, 24-70 and 70-200.

An advantage of driving is that it is easier to bring long lenses along. Although the 300mm and 500mm accounted for just 13% of my photographs overall, they represent some of my favorites from the trip. The same goes for the Sigma fisheye pictures. Here are a few from the longer lenses:

Atlantic puffinFull body portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018 Colorful houses of St. John'sColorful houses of St. John's from Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 25, 2018 Atlantic puffinCloseup portrait of an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) in Elliston, Newfoundland and Labrador on July 28, 2018

During my trip to Iceland, I visited the Reykjavik Cathedral. As with many of my photographs inside places of worship, I timed my visit to coincide with a service.

There are a few advantages to visiting a church during a mass:

• I'm assured that the doors will be open.
• The interior will be properly lit.
• There will be someone there to talk with about getting permission to photograph the interior.

As a result, I've sat through hundreds of services (especially Catholic masses) over the past few years. I have now photographed more than 200 places of worship!

My experience at the Reykjavik Cathedral was unique in that the entire service was conducted in Icelandic. Unfortunately, I didn't understand a word throughout the entire mass. Once the service ended, I met with the pastor and asked if I could capture some photographs of the interior of the church. As with everyone I met in Iceland, he quickly transitioned to speaking perfect English. My request was granted.

The Reykavik Cathedral is a historic site that is located right next to Iceland's Parliament building. The pastor pointed out that his Lutheran church is the one that is called a cathedral...while the far larger Lutheran church (Hallgrimskirkja) is not designated as such. When I explained that I've photographed more than 200 places of worship, he said that he's certain that I've never visited a smaller cathedral.

Following is one of the pictures that I captured after the Icelandic service:

Reykjavik CathedralReykjavik (Domkirkjan) Cathedral in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 18, 2018

During my trip to Iceland, I participated in a photo tour led by Tony Prower. The tour was a five day trip along the southern coast of Iceland.

I arrived in Iceland a few days before the tour to explore Reykjavik. This ended up being a good plan as I had some of the best light of the entire trip during my first two days in Reykjavik. While in Reykjavik, I enjoyed walking the streets of the city and logged more than 40 miles of walking over a three day period. One of my favorite locations is the Harpa Concert Hall.

I visited the Harpa Concert Hall early one morning and captured photographs of the interior. It was nice having the place practically to myself. And, I never once had any issues using a tripod during my time in Iceland. I moved some chairs and tables from the open floor to clean up the frame before shooting this scene:

Here are some of the interior photographs:

Harpa Concert HallHarpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

Harpa Concert HallHarpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

Harpa Concert HallHarpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

And the abstracts:

Harpa Concert HallAbstract of the exterior of the Harpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

Harpa Concert HallAbstract of the exterior of the Harpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

And the exterior:

Harpa Concert HallHarpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018 Harpa Concert HallHarpa Concert Hall at Austurbakki 2, 101 in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

A view of the Old Harbor from the Harpa:

Harbor viewOld Harbor view through Harpa Concert Hall windows in Reykjavik, Iceland on February 17, 2018

I also returned one night to see the show "Icelandic Sagas Greatest Hits".

I'm pleased to welcome the 250,000th visitor to my website! My website reached this milestone this morning.

This is a count of independent visitors. When a visitor returns to view the site, it does not add to the count.

According to Google Analytics, visitors come from all over the world--and represent 157 countries and all 7 continents (including Antarctica)!

In the past few years, the website consistently attracts about 3,000 new visitors each month.

Thanks to all who come to this site to view my pictures. I hope you enjoy viewing the world through my lens.

This morning, my "Sun Voyager" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This photograph was captured in February during my trip to Iceland. I posted a blog entry about this photo shoot last month.

This is the fourth photograph from my Iceland trip to win a "Photo of the Day".

This marks the 53rd time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". A photographer is limited to one winning entry per month, so this series of winning images stretches back more than four years. Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

Sun Voyager sculptureImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for August 24, 2018

Third Place Winner of month of August, 2018

I coach the 11U Orland Park Warriors travel baseball team. I've been coaching this team for three seasons now. Two of the players are twins.

One is named Mohamed and the other is Ali. Or, when the two names are put together it's Muhammad Ali!

It took more than two seasons for me to be able to tell the twins apart. Even now, I fail to properly identify one of the twins 25% of the time--and I have a 50% chance of being right if I just guess!

A couple of weeks ago, I captured pictures of the players on my team. After taking pictures of the individual players, I captured some images of the twins together:

Elagha twinsAli (left) and Mo (right) Elagha of the 11U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on June 20, 2018 Elagha twinsAli (left) and Mo (right) Elagha of the 11U Orland Park Warriors baseball team in Orland Park, Illinois on June 20, 2018 Muhammad Ali.