Autumn in Galena, Illinois - Jack Carlson Photography

Entrance to 1826 Dowling House & Museum.

I was in Galena last year at this time. My experience was enjoyable enough to prompt a return to this home of 9 Civil War generals and President U.S. Grant. Now a busy tourist town some 3 hours from Chicago in northwest Illinois, I decided to capture a few images there before heading across the mighty Mississippi River to Dubuque, Iowa. The run-up to the holidays finds Galena in full decoration so get there as soon as time permits.

The captions sum up the trip. Click on image to enlarge it.

Galena: Home of the 18th President of the U.S.

Autumn leaves partially cover park named for 18th President of the U.S.

Welcome Center and Grant Museum.

1857 Train Station now used by Galena Chamber of Commerce

Autumn color surrounds old cabin in woods.

View towards Illinois from Dubuque, IA

18mm, f8 @ 1/30, no filter

18mm, f8 @ 1/80 with 3-stop ND Grad

I received a 3-stop, soft-edge ND grad filter from the Camera Clubhouse cats. They decided to purchase from Breakthrough Photography since I mentioned that one of my students brought Breakthrough Filters to a recent class and, on inspection, the filters seemed to be very well made. An ND Grad filter starts dark and fades to clear so the placement of the dark portion is determined by both the bright part of the scene and the photographer. This filter made quite a difference in holding down the sun in the upper part of the image. Check out the “no-filter” image and ND Grad image. The difference will amaze you. Please note: I have no affiliation with Breakthrough Photography and chose them only based on student referral.

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