Hey folks!

Welcome to my Flickr site!

I hope you enjoy your visit. Comments (including constructive criticism) are always appreciated:

I am keeping a collection of several thousand artistic / stock photographs (organized by themes) here.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY IMAGE THAT YOU SEE HERE IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.

Please send me a Flickr mail if you're interested.

Since Flickr seems to be full of rules these days, let me outline a few of my own:

1) If you want to use one of my photos for a blog, website, publication etc. please ASK: If I discover anyone is using my images without permission I WILL TAKE LEGAL ACTION!

2) Please don't be insulted if I don't add you as a contact or join the group you've invited me to. I try to keep my contact and group lists short (and limited to friends and subject areas that correspond to my photographic interests). I do this so that I have time to leave MEANINGFUL comments on people's work. If you'd really like to be one of my contacts please send me an e-mail, and comment on my work. I do occasionally add folks who are willing to exchange ideas.

3) I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but I'm just not interested in commenting out of obligation. Hence, I simply ignore group rules that state "you must comment on 3 photos, fave 2, invite 1 etc." I comment on things when I have something worthwhile to say. If you're a group Admin and you find this attitude unacceptable, feel free to ban me, no hard feelings.

OK ... enough negatives. If you're interested, here's some personal info. Otherwise, let's get back to what brought us here ... AWESOME PHOTOGRAPHY!

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I work as a Professor of Criminal Justice at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Grand Rapids, MI. I enjoy teaching classes about criminology, juvenile delinquency, public policy and research methods. My faculty web profile can be found here:

www.gvsu.edu/cj/christopher-kierkus-133.htm

I'm originally from Canada, and did my first 3 stints of schooling in the Windsor, Ontario area (St. Paul's Elementary School in LaSalle, Holy Names High School in South Windsor and the University of Windsor for my BA in Criminology).

After that, I moved to London, Ontario (where I did an MA in Sociology at Western) and then to Albany, NY where I did a second MA and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice. I've also worked as a statistician for a research group affiliated with a "Big 3" Auto Maker and have taught classes at the Universities in Windsor and Albany, NY.

My photographic interests are focused on nature scenes, landscapes, birds and other wild animals, but I also dabble in other stuff (abstract, architectural, historic, macro etc.). I think I'm best at capturing vivid, colorful scenes (sunsets, fall color, flowers, colorful birds etc.). I generally don't do portraiture and other "people photos" ... but I do appreciate folks who specialize in them

I enjoy traveling to and photographing lighthouses ... there's something about the solitude, history, and water front locations that make them very special. I run a lighthouse group here on Flickr, which you can access here:

www.flickr.com/groups/perfectlight/

I also specialize in capturing the unique natural beauty of the State of Michigan. I'm proud to say that one of my images won the "Pure Michigan" seasonal photo contest!

Most of the recent shots in my photostream were taken with a Sony 7R III DSLR (matched with either a Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 IS, a 50mm f/1.4, a 105mm f/2.8 Sigma Macro or a 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 OS "Bigma II" telephoto lens - all with the help of a Sigma MC-11 adapter).

I frequently use circular polarizers in my work, but tend to shoot without a tripod (except for long exposures). I very rarely use flash, but do have a Neewer TTL speed light and a Gary Fong "lightsphere" in my kit. I also own a pair of Kenko Pro 300 teleconverters (a 1.4x and a 2.0x) that I use to create ultra telephoto images by adding them to the "Bigma".

I also own a Sony NEX 5T mirrorless DSLR along with the 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS, and the 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS lenses (for when the "big" kit is just too bulky to carry). Lastly, believe it or not, lately I find myself taking more and more pictures with my cell phone (a Samsung S22 Ultra): it amazes me how far this technology has advanced in recent years!

I've also been doing aerial photography for several years: I currently fly a DJI Phantom 4 Professional quadcopter ("Storm") and a bright red DJI Spark "mini" quad ("Rudolph").

In the past I flew a DJI Phantom 2 with a Zenmuse H3 3D gimbal, and a GoPro Hero 3+ "Black Edition" camera, a Phantom 3 Professional quadcopter, and a custom built Tarot 680 frame hexacopter with the Sony NEX 5T mirrorless DSLR (all of these rigs are now retired).

Some of my earlier shots were taken with a Canon Powershot A40 (2 megapixel point and shoot - bought in 2002), a Panasonic Lumix FZ-10 (4 megapixel "ultra" zoom (12x) point and shoot - bought in 2004), an Olympus E510 (10 megapixel 4/3" system DSLR - purchased in 2006), a Nikon S51 (8 megapixel point and shoot - bought in 2007), a Canon 7D (18 megapixel APS-c DSLR - acquired in 2009), a Canon 5D3 (22 megapixel full frame DSLR - acquired in 2013), or a Samsung Note 9 cell phone camera (12 megapixel - 2019 vintage).

As you can see, brand loyalty means bupkas to me! ;-)

Besides photography, I also enjoy hiking in the great outdoors, traveling (especially to historic locations), target shooting, road tripping in my convertible, lifting weights, reading historic or "techno thriller" novels and collecting antiques.

I am married, and my wife (Marie) and I have two dogs, a terrier / dachshund mix named Milli, and a long-haired dachshund named Lilly ... they (along with the "late great" Sandy: another dachshund / terrier) are our only "kids".