Bill Koechling
@billkoechling
full-time photographer for 50+ years, listening to your stories... “The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.” –Robert Doisneau
Usually the sun would be blinding this time of evening. Sunset through black-eyed Susans through a filter of wildfire smoke © 2026 William Koechling
Purple Daylilies in wildfire-diffused light © 2026 William Koechling
Hey fellow Chicago-area friends. Can we hold our collective breaths for a couple of days?
My son & his family are at our cabin in the Upper Peninsula right now. They text us that it's really awful! Today it's blown into the Chicago area where it's really pretty bad. (Not my photo)
There's a significantly different look to the setting sun when there are wildfires even hundreds of miles away. This one was from June of 2023.
From Chicago to Portland, Maine were getting ready for apocalypsescape views again. This one from 2020 near Chicago.
"The Constitution supposes, what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature." - James Madison
Happy 4th (on the 6th) Brooklyn - Williamsburg Store Window © 2014 William Koechling
"If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds." –Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. © 2012 William Koechling
As we were walking through our local park this evening I was reminded of the paintings of John Constable while we were looking at the sky. Then it reminded me of my good friend, E. John Walford's book on Constable.
I got one to see how loud the cicadas were in our back yard in 2024. Thought the picture shows quite a high reading, a day or two later it was at 102 dB.
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning Born of the one light, Eden saw play Praise with elation, praise every morning God's recreation of the new day from "Morning Has Broken" by Eleanor Farjeon photo © 2025 William Koechling
Every morning the world is created. –from Morning Poem by Mary Oliver Morning Glories © 2024 William Koechling
Horse in a Field Wassenaar, The Netherlands © 1973 William Koechling
A worker puts the final touches on the rigging of the mainmast boom on the John. F. Leavitt in Thomaston, Maine. Unfortunately the schooner sank in a storm on its maiden voyage. There was a whole story here and some day I'll tell it. © 1979 William Koechling
After yesterday's Obama Presidential Center ceremony/party Chicago's shoulders never looked bigger. © 2017 William Koechling
Don't forget to look up occasionally. The sky is an ever-changing canvas that offers more than we can usually appreciate. Often subtle but many times dramatic, our sky is there to enjoy. You can't look at the same sky twice. © 2026 William Koechling