Starved Rock State Park is in Utica, Illinois. The park is about 2 hours away from Chicago.
My favorite times to visit, in order, are Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Summer is too crowded and the waterfall flows are typically minimum.
This image is not from this year so I cannot say for sure what it might look like right now. The water flows this year have been excellent but the alternating hot and cold spells might not be sufficient to build a great frozen waterfall.
I was fortunate to have this woman and her two dogs show up when I was there. I asked to stand still and she did. I like the pink booties on one of her dogs.
Starved Rock State Park is in Utica, Illinois. The park is about 2 hours away from Chicago.
My favorite times to visit, in order, are Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Summer is too crowded and the waterfall flows are typically minimum.
This image is not from this year so I cannot say for sure what it might look like right now. The water flows this year have been excellent but the alternating hot and cold spells might not be sufficient to build a great frozen waterfall.
The classic 1993 film “Groundhog Day” allegedly filmed in Punxsutawney and Gobbler’s Knob Pennsylvania was in reality mostly filmed 575 miles away, in Woodstock, Illinois.
The feature image is of the Woodstock Opera House that appears in many scenes.
The town square is nice and there are a lot of good restaurants.
Each year, on February 2, Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, a long-time resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, comes out of his home in Gobbler’s Knob (about 2 miles east of town) to predict the weather for the rest of winter. In front of all the townfolks and thousands of his followers from all over the world, Phil looks for his shadow. If he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, spring will be coming early this year.
It has tilt/shift capability that I primarily use in shift mode. If you are familiar with the unsightly effect of pointing up at trees or buildings, you can correct that distortion by shifting the lens up rather than pointing the camera up.
Tips
This Opera House image requires patience and lots of it. I camped out for hours in one spot, shooing away any cars that tried to park in front of the building. Everyone cooperated. Most cooperated happily, one reluctantly. The cars to the right were there all day. Had they been parked in front of the building, the image would have bee ruined.
I took this shot mid-week. Forget about having a clear view on Friday or Saturday, or for that matter almost anytime you are not shooing cars away.
A sunny day works well but you need to know how to bring out shadow details.
In Autumn, this scene is mostly backlit but right at sunset expect extreme sidelight. There were some high thin clouds that helped even out the light.
Here are some images of the courthouse as seen from the town square.
