Martin Pinnau Photography

04/01/2026

On April 1, 2024, construction started on rebuilding the intersection of Illinois Route 31 and US Route 20 in Elgin. The bridge, also known as the Sgt Marcos Leonardo Gudino Memorial Bridge, dated back to 1959. The $19 million project widened the bridge and access ramps, as well as added modernized traffic signals. The lanes opened a while ago, but the landscaping and final touches are scheduled to be completed by this summer. Visit the comment section to see how the intersection looked as construction started.

03/30/2026

A $21 million expansion of the Elgin Sports Complex is nearly complete. The project broke ground during October 2024. Three synthetic turf fields with lighting were added. A new entrance road and bike trail will connect the complex with Illinois Route 31. Parking lots, a playground, a concession stand, stormwater detention, and a maintenance building were also constructed.

03/08/2026

I recently made a follow-up visit to the site of Legacy Middle School in Elgin, Illinois. There has been quite a bit of progress over the past 7 months.

01/18/2023

I did a test of my SD cards to find out which are the fastest and if they live up to their advertised speeds.

https://mpinnauphoto.wordpress.com/2023/01/17/sd-card-speed-test/

11/17/2022

Photos by me! This was my second season photographing meets at the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course. This weekend's NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship was the biggest event held at the course thus far.

04/05/2022

Check out this model of the Canon EOS R6 and Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L that were made for me by The Wooden Model Design. They captured even the tiniest details and the model feels just like the real thing when I hold it in my hands.

01/25/2022

Bald eagles can be seen right now along areas of the Fox River that aren't frozen, such as near dams. On this particular visit, I saw two adults and at least one juvenile. Decades of environmental protections helped make this sighting possible.

11/26/2021

The featured bird at my Thanksgiving (we ate ham). This immature Cooper's hawk visited my yard.

I picked up some Topaz Labs products during their Black Friday sale and put them to use. The photos of the front of the hawk were shot through a double-paned window, so I used Topaz Sharpen to fix the blurriness. The photo of the back of the hawk was shot outside, but low light resulted in a slow shutter speed and high ISO, so I had to sharpen the image and use Topaz DeNoise. It was my first time using these products and they improved what would've been blurry noisy photos.

10/04/2021

I've been photographing meets at the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course for the Chicago Area Track & Field Organizing Committee. Here is an article about the course, including photos from the first meet.

All Photos By Martin Pinnau   As they say, slow and steady wins the race, and the recent opening of Kane County’s newest cross country course, which will attract the nation’s finest collegiate…

07/18/2021

This is a dogbane beetle. It eats...dogbane leaves. Lots of interesting stuff here. Dogbane is poisonous to humans and animals, and causes cardiac arrest if consumed. The beetles’ amino acid sequence allows them to consume the leaves. Dogbane beetles can actually compartmentalize the toxins into glands. When threatened, the beetles can secrete these toxins for defense.

The sap of dogbane is sticky like latex and hardens, posing a defense for the plant in addition to its toxicity. Any insect that eats it will have a sticky mouth to deal with. So how do dogbane beetles deal with this? By doing what you see here, dragging their mouthparts across the leaf to get rid of the sticky sap.