Grand Opera House

The Place We Call Home

“Proud”

Posted on Aug. 30, 2023 by Grace Olson

Miranda Phillips and her daughter were at Appleton’s Touch a Truck event in Pierce Park when she captured this image she calls “Proud.” “My daughter is four and we often talk about what she wants to be when she grows up,” Phillips says. “She has often questioned why there aren’t more female officers in the READ MORE

“Sun-illuminated Coneflowers”

Posted on Jul. 31, 2023 by Grace Olson

Joe Lukasik was doing yardwork in his backyard in Neenah when he had to grab his camera. “I noticed the sun illuminating the center of my Coneflowers as the petals around them were turning brown,” he says. “I grabbed my Canon camera to try to capture that last flickering hint of summer beauty as the READ MORE

“Winnebago Light Show”

Posted on May. 31, 2023 by Grace Olson

Leo Einer had just gotten done with work at 4:30 a.m. when he noticed a storm moving over Oshkosh. “I set my camera to manual, 8 seconds… (it was) captured at a boat landing just south of the yacht club.”

“Chaotic Orderliness?”

Posted on May. 1, 2023 by Grace Olson

Catherine McKenzie was struck by “the colors and the order and the chaos of the display” at yarn store Casting On in downtown Appleton. 
“Orderly chaos? Chaotic orderliness? Either way, it’s something I’m drawn to, like a cottage garden or a farmers market,” she says. “Appleton is our adopted hometown and I enjoy taking photos READ MORE

“Curious Kit”

Steven Robbins set a goal of capturing a photo of a fox after hearing about two young kits in the area. He set out for Heckrodt Wetland Reserve in Menasha and got exactly what he was aiming for. “I was lucky enough to see this one pop out of its den just long enough to READ MORE

“Shenanigans”

Posted on Mar. 1, 2023 by Grace Olson

Ryan Lanning was moonlighting as one of the New Dublin Leprechauns when he chose to capture this moment in 2021. “It was a staged shot of a Leprechaun sitting on the top of the city limits sign (he eventually fell off) trying to catch a hammer thrown by another Leprechaun for a live television shot,” READ MORE

“On Frozen Pond”

After a socially distanced celebration with her sister during the first Christmas of the pandemic, Lori Gelbke used one of her new gifts, a camera, during a visit to Neenah and Lake Winnebago. “When I got there, I discovered people taking walks and some young men finishing a game of hockey,” she says. “I took READ MORE

“Final Rays of the Day”

Jim Ruzicka was driving back home to Neenah after an afternoon looking for owls and other wildlife to photograph when, all of a sudden, a normal sunset turned into a spectacular light show. “As the clouds split the rays into individual light beams crossing the sky, I pulled over to capture the moment,” he says. READ MORE

“Sunset at High Cliff”

Due to the pandemic, Catherine McKenzie says she and her husband explored many parks and natural areas around the Fox Cities, even in the dead of winter, just to get out of the house. On February 12, 2021, “we went to look at the ice roads on Lake Winnebago and decided to visit High Cliff READ MORE

“Berry Bandits”

Heather Landers often drives around her hometown of Kaukauna looking for birds, owls and wildlife with the goal of catching them in action. So much so that she recalls a funny incident while capturing these “berry bandit” cedar waxwings in a residential area. “I was sitting in my car (when) an elderly woman drove by READ MORE