December 24 - Gillespie Lake

We traveled to Illinois for Christmas eve and had a chance to do some photography early Monday morning. This is from a small lake in central Illinois before sunrise. Yes, that's ice on the water - it was kind of chilly!



Our original purpose was to shoot pictures of the full moon, but we never found a great position from which to achieve that goal. This was the best I could do before my camera ran out of battery life (turns out it was a problem in the connectors in the battery grip and not the battery at all).

December 21 - Happy Holidays!

This is a live Christmas tree we bought last year - it kind of looks neat with lights on a foggy night!

December 8 - Cave Mountain, Lost Valley

I dropped by the opening of Tim Ernst's Cloudland Gallery this afternoon. The gallery was great, as were the prints it contained. No surprise there!

It was foggy all the way from Nixa, to Cloudland and on the way back, I just had to take a few pictures. The first two are fog pictures on Cave Mountain Road, and the rest are from Lost Valley. If you've never been to Lost Valley, you should definitely go. The hike is only a mile or so and the scenery is fantastic.





This picture contains 8 shots stitched together.


This one contains 3 stitched images.


And this one contains two.

November 29 - Additional James River Pictures

I've worked on a few more images from last weekend's trip to a farm in the James River valley just south of Nixa.

Last Saturday was a nice, quiet, still morning and about half of an inch of snow was covering the ground (I was wearing shorts, of course). Though black and white images are easily my favorite medium, it's just hard to portray some scenes without color. This was one such scene where the sky started to glow pink in the sky. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was really special - it kind of makes you feel connected to the sky somehow.



And here's a picture of one of the dogs that travelled with us.

November 24 - James River

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's been a while since I've had a chance to do any photography. But today, I finally got out and visited a friend who owns a farm on the James River, just south of Nixa. It was a great place to photograph, and even though this outing had been scheduled for a few days, the snow that greeted us this morning certainly added to the experience.










November 6 - Philadelphia

Over the weekend, we went to Philadelphia to see a friend's wedding. While the weekend was pretty busy, there were a few hours on Sunday to get out and take a few pictures. All were taken within a block or two from City Hall.

Pigeons are everywhere - including small ledges on the sides of buildings.




Under the tower of City Hall, there were a few surprises.


A lost sole...




Unnamed couple in Reading Terminal Market

October 29 - Richland Creek Wilderness Area

Over the weekend, I joined several people from CSNP and spent two nights in the Richland Creek Wilderness area in Arkansas. Even though it is a fairly remote location, the campground was fairly full by Saturday afternoon. I think everyone had a good time, and I hope they captured some of the beauty this place has to offer.













October 24 - More Missouri Mines

By request, here are a few more pictures from the Missouri Mines State Historical Site. I really enjoyed visiting this place, and hope I can do so again someday. If you follow this link, you'll get all the mine pictures together!







October 20 - Early Fall Color

The camera club had a field trip today that took us to locations around around Waynesville and St. James to look for some early fall color. While the sky was cloudless, we had a good time and there was some color after all. The first three pictures are from an area North of St. Roberts where Hwy Y crosses the Gasconade River. The rest are from Maramec Springs Park.

Fog was rising from the river when we arrived - it was kind of cool, and perhaps even a bit frosty.


The seed of a milkweed.


On a long exposure, bubbles floating on the river make streaks across the image. And yes, posting this one upside down makes it look a little odd.


Pine forest in Maramec Springs.


I had to be pretty creative with my tripod to get this shot!






I was happy to see cypress trees scattered throughout the park.

October 7 - Jack-O'-Lantern Mushrooms

I've heard quite a few people talking about these bright orange mushrooms lately, and was thrilled to find some popping up not too far from my driveway. I believe they're called Jack-O'-Lantern Mushrooms and they're quite interesting.

October 6 - Additional Trip Pictures

I've worked through a few more of my 3200+ images that I took on the camera club trip. I don't expect that I'll find many more that I really like. If I get 1 out of 100 images that I like, I think I've done pretty good (it sure is a good thing I'm shooting digital!)

During our first evening in Grand Teton National Park, we ended up at Jackson lake to see a sunset. There wasn't much of one, but I did like this mountain silhouette.


This is from Wind River Lake near our lodge. These alpine meadows in this area are just incredible. Peaceful near dusk, and vividly colored when lit by the sun.


One of the mountains visible from Signal Mountain. It had been cloudy that day, and I really liked the half-hidden mountain peak.


A panographic image (more than one image stitched together in this case) of Two Oceans Lake.


Great Fountain Geyser was just a special place when we were there. This is a 20 second exposure from when it was nearly dark.


From Rocky Mountain National Park. There wasn't much color in the sky that night, but with a longer lens you could frame the vibrant bits.


And after the sun was long gone, there were still some very interesting clouds. This is another long exposure when it was nearly dark.


The next morning at Sprague Lake, there were some great reflections in the water. In this case, the reflections were of golden aspens on the mountains.


And a little rock with the same reflections.