Photos by Tim Buchanan

A new blog

2010-12-03T07:50:00.001-06:00

Please see my new blog for new posts! http://timbuchananphotography.com/wordpress/

See me on Facebook

2009-07-03T15:48:00.002-05:00

I haven't been posting many images here for the last few months. Mainly because I've been starting to send posts to Facebook. It's much more interactive and dynamic. If you're interested, look me up. My username is "buchanantim".

May 9 - Woods Prairie

2009-05-09T13:17:00.003-05:00

There were some great flowers out in the prairie today. This prairie contains some of the few remaining acres of land in Missouri that has never been touched by a plow.

April 25 - Nathaniel Green/Close Memorial Park

2009-04-26T02:05:00.003-05:00

On a field trip with the camera club today. I arrived pretty early (but not early enough) so I could see the sun rise - this is how it appeared when I arrived. The sky was kind of hazy and the sun was just visible through the humid horizon.

I was interrupted while taking this picture by a couple of people trying to figure out what I found so interesting. Yes, I take pictures of grass. No, I don't know what kind it is - it's just pretty.

After joining the rest of the club in the demonstration garden, we took a few more pictures. A very breezy morning, and it was a challenge to get these tulips to stand still.

April 19 - Valley Watermill

2009-04-19T23:09:00.001-05:00

After the rain today was a perfect time for me to go take a few pictures. These are from the new Valley Watermill park just north of town. I haven't been there since it has been parkified - very nicely done! I rode by this every day on the bus in High School and needless to say, nothing around that area is the same -new bridges, roads, dams, trails - everything is new.

April 1 - Rocky Mountain National Park

2009-04-01T13:58:00.002-05:00

No, I didn't make a quick trip to RMNP to take a picture - this is from a previous trip. I've worked on this image off and on for quite a while but finally got a B&W version that I'm happy with.

March 21 - Pond

2009-03-21T16:01:00.002-05:00

The pond by the Burrell Behavioral Health Center is always a great place to photograph. Especially when it's rainy and starting to get a little green. You do have to watch where you walk, though.

March 20 - Downtown Springfield

2009-03-20T16:50:00.003-05:00

I spent yesterday evening in downtown Springfield photographing around the square with a few folks from the camera club. There are so many things to play around with down there, it's always fun.

I don't know why, but I was fascinated by the debris pile in front of the Heers building.

March 15 - St. Louis, Part III

2009-03-18T22:50:00.003-05:00

This is the last post from the St. Louis trip.

Actually, the first picture is a sunrise from Lake Lou Yaeger in Litchfield, IL. The tiny specks in the sky are birds - there were a lot of them flying around the lake.

And the rest are from the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

March 15 - St. Louis, Part II

2009-03-16T21:25:00.005-05:00

Here are a few more pictures from the St. Louis trip. Most are from the Chain of Rocks Bridge, but there are a few more Arch pictures at the bottom.

March 15 - St. Louis

2009-03-15T23:42:00.003-05:00

Here are the first of several posts about St. Louis. We spent the weekend there, partially with the camera club, and partially by ourselves. We had a great time and even got a few interesting pictures. On both of these, I played around with overexposure.

The first one is from the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

And here's a view of the arch you don't see very often.

February 16 - Southeast Missouri, Part 3

2009-02-19T09:49:00.001-06:00

OK - just a few more pics from the trip. The first one is from the school at Alley Mill. Taken way after the sun had gone down.

...and a broader view of Falling Spring Mill

February 16 - Southeast Missouri, Part 2

2009-02-17T16:34:00.004-06:00

On Monday, we went to a place I'd never even heard of before - "Falling Spring Mill". It turned out to be a pretty interesting place - I will go back!

February 15 - Southeast Missouri

2009-02-16T20:20:00.002-06:00

Several members of the camera club went on a really nice field trip this weekend. The weather ws great, and it was nice to get away for a while.

Rocky Falls

Klepzig Mill

Alley Mill

February 13 - Art Walk

2009-02-07T01:15:00.004-06:00

We went to first Friday the art walk in Springfield tonight - went to quite a few galleries and had a good time. I brought my camera along just in case I found something interesting.

The first is from a tire center west of the square - I have a few pictures of this well-worn business.

This is our dance instructor (on the right) in the studio of Randy Bacon.

January 28 - Snow

2009-01-28T22:06:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since we've had snow - real snow. Not the sleet or frozen rain we've been getting (well, it started out as that). So I got out late last night and took a few pictures lit by the city lights of Nixa

January 18 - Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

2009-01-18T23:38:00.003-06:00

It was supposed to be mostly cloudy today (which is better for some kinds of photography), but by 2:30 in the afternoon there weren't many clouds in the sky. It did get better towards the end of the day.

The porch of the Ray House.

One of the stones of the chimney of the Ray House.

Cornfield and tree.

January 7 - Springfield

2009-01-08T02:05:00.004-06:00

I have a new camera and had to test it. I'm still light on lenses. These images were taken with the Canon EF 100-400mm and the TS-E 45mm lenses.

December 20 - Wilson's Creek Luminary Drive

2008-12-21T12:36:00.005-06:00

It was cold and windy, but having missed prior events, I was determined to make it to this one. It was a lot of fun, though frustrating at times to photograph.

December 14 - Jefferson Avenue Footbridge

2008-12-14T23:38:00.003-06:00

The weather started to get pretty bitter by the time this field trip was over, but here are a few pictures from the footbridge.

November 22 - Hawksbill Crag

2008-11-23T11:28:00.004-06:00

Actually, this is the ridge opposite Hawksbill Crag - the light was just too harsh to get the crag. But the light fell nicely down the hillside lighting just the tops of the trees.

November 17 - Sunset outside of Nixa

2008-11-17T23:53:00.004-06:00

There was a fantastic sunset tonight! After missing a few during the last week or so, I had a chance to redeem myself tonight. I wish I had time to get somewhere with a reflection, but the silhouettes will have to do.

November 2 - Downtown Field Trip

2008-11-02T20:23:00.005-06:00

A few camera club folks got together for a short but fun field trip. The light was really nice as dusk started to fall.

November 2 - Images of Fall

2008-11-02T13:19:00.002-06:00

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything here. The last two months have been very hectic - getting married will do that to you! But I'm starting to feel like taking pictures again, so here are a few taken in our back yard.

September 24 - Moonflower

2008-09-25T06:35:00.002-05:00

Here's a moonflower from our deck at sunset. These are large, but delicate flowers that bloom very late in the day.

September 18 - Additional Trip Pictures

2008-09-18T14:54:00.001-05:00

Rather than string out the trip pictures over a number of days, I decided to put them into a Picasa album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/trbpicasa/2008PhotoTrip

September 7 - Mesa Verde National Park

2008-09-16T15:37:00.002-05:00

Later in the day, we made it to Mesa Verde National Park for the last light in the day before returning to our hotel in Cortez.

September 7 - Bandelier National Monument

2008-09-16T15:32:00.002-05:00

Here are a few more images of ladders from Bandelier. Not authentic hardware, but still interesting in at least a graphic sense.

September 7 - Bandelier National Monument

2008-09-14T19:21:00.006-05:00

I've just returned from a trip with the camera club that visited Bandelier National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park, and Monument Valley.

I took about 2500 pictures and it will take a while to dig through and process them. For now, here's a few

August 16 - Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

2008-08-16T13:56:00.004-05:00

Today the camera club made a very early drop by the battlefield. It was foggy, and I ended up soaked from walking through tall grass, but it was a lot of fun.

August 1 - Ash Grove Revisited

2008-08-01T06:42:00.002-05:00

Not another trip, but rather an additional image from the trip back at the end of June. I've been trying out some new software (Lightroom 2.0, which I used to process this image) - and I'm finding it quite a lot of fun.

July 22 - Parrot on the square

2008-07-23T04:36:00.005-05:00

The camera club organized a field trip tonight and the star attraction was a parrot!

I couldn't leave the square without taking a picture of the fountain.

July 1 - Ash Grove

2008-07-01T10:14:00.005-05:00

The camera club went to Ash Grove last night for a quick field trip. I've driven through Ash Grove several times, but never thought of it as a very photogenic town. But there are always interesting things around if you look closely enough. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

These first few are just details of various buildings made much more interesting in the setting sun.

Playing around, "misusing" my tilt-shift lens.

At a small lake just west of town.

The always interesting passion flower.

June 22 - Storm Cloud

2008-06-23T01:43:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of storm clouds rolling through lately, but one of them rolled around on top of us for a while as the sun was setting.

Here's a picture of the cloud - the top is lit by the sunset, and the bottom is swirling around in a menacing way.

Here's a video of the cloud rolling in.

May 20 - James River Bridge

2008-05-20T20:12:00.004-05:00

Just one more from Springfield Lake camera club trip - this is the bridge over the James River right before it turns into Springfied Lake.

May 19 - Springfield Lake

2008-05-19T23:25:00.002-05:00

The weekly camera club field trip went to Springfield Lake tonight. While not flagrantly beautiful, there are a few things here and there that can be gleaned.

May 14 - Backyard Flowers

2008-05-14T20:52:00.002-05:00

From the back yard before it starts raining!

An Iris (warning: this may not look so great on some monitors).

And a blackberry blossom.

May 5 - Ritter Springs Park

2008-05-05T23:09:00.001-05:00

The camera club visited Ritter Springs Park tonight. It was a nice evening to walk around, and not a hint of a breeze was stirring.

May 3 - Woods Prairie

2008-05-03T19:18:00.003-05:00

The camera club took a trip this morning to photograph wild flowers. The prairie was windy and cold, but I managed to get a few images I liked.

Wood Betony

Wild Strawberry

May 1 - New Orleans

2008-05-03T18:54:00.004-05:00

On our last day in New Orleans, I got up and photographed the sunrise at the river. It wasn't a sunrise that filled the sky, but beauty was held in small details.

A cannon in jackson square.

And a final shot of the staircase at our hotel, the Soniat House (maybe the best way to stay in New Orleans!).

April 30 - New Orleans

2008-05-03T15:43:00.003-05:00

Today, we slept in a little too long to catch morning light (shuttered rooms stay dark a long time), but it's never too late for Beignets! Having never had one before, I was really happy with the result - lightly crispy outside, but there's a nice weight to the interior.

Here's a cat basking in late afternoon sun.

It is surely the residents of the French Quarter that makes it interesting and not us picture-taking tourists.

During evening light, the colors become muted, and shadows bring out some nice detail.

April 29 - New Orleans

2008-05-03T14:49:00.003-05:00

After leaving the Natchez Trace, we dropped down to New Orleans for a few days. Walking around that evening provided a few interesting buildings to photograph.

This was an interesting house, but I had a hard time photographing it. As soon as I brought my camera to my eye a cab pulled up and parked directly between me and the building. It took about 5 minutes before the cab moved on, and by that time another photographer took up a post right in my composition, oblivious to the world. Eventually she did move on and I took a picture without impediment, but it looked empty.

A small light across the street from our hotel.

Looking down at the street from the deck above our room.

And this is the stairway to the third floor of the Soniat House.

April 28 - Mount Locust Inn

2008-05-02T23:10:00.003-05:00

On the southern end of the Natchez Trace is Mount Locust Inn, a stop for travelers starting their journey back up the river. While the furniture in the house is not originally from the Mount Locust Inn, it is authentic to the period.

April 28 - Natchez Trace

2008-05-02T10:29:00.004-05:00

The Natchez Trace is a remnant of a very old road extending from Tennessee to the Mississippi River at Natchez, MS. We drove about half of it during the week. These pictures are from the Ross Barnett Reservoir, and the Cypress Swamp.

April 21 - Close Memorial Park

2008-04-21T23:02:00.002-05:00

The camera club visited Close Memorial Park this evening. It was pretty windy, but every once in a while it died down enough to take a picture or two. The Redbud trees were in full bloom (in fact, they're on their way out), so I devoted most of my time towards these beautiful trees.

April 8 - Downtown Springfield

2008-04-08T23:05:00.004-05:00

Another weekly camera club field trip tonight. No models, but we did find some buildings that haven't improved with age unless you're a photographer.

April 1 - Jerrica

2008-04-08T22:45:00.004-05:00

It's rare for me to take let alone post portraits, but I had an opportunity last week to take a few pictures of Jerrica for her senior year pictures during a camera club field trip. She had five cameras pointed at her for several hours and did great.

March 31 - Grape Hyacinth

2008-03-31T20:21:00.004-05:00

After a day of rain, the sun provided some interesting light through the clouds.

March 25 - Founders Park

2008-03-29T17:24:00.004-05:00

I'd never visited Founders Park before this - other times I'd been by it was closed off. So I gladly took the opportunity to take a few pictures. Kind of abstract, but if you want to see what the whole thing looks like, you'll have to visit!

March 23 - Abigail Brown

2008-03-29T17:22:00.002-05:00

Here are a few pictures of my niece, Abigail.

March 16 - Flying Pan

2008-03-29T16:01:00.004-05:00

This is a little post-dated, but I was working on a project for the camera club. I was lucky to get a photo of this rarely observed behavior of iron skillets in the wild.

March 14 - Tangled Branches and Fellows Lake

2008-03-15T08:28:00.003-05:00

A tangle of branches caught my attention the other day - they seemed strikingly impenetrable and foreboding.

Then it was on to Fellows Lake for the second time in three days for what turned out to be a contrast in colors. It was getting pretty late, and well past sunset and at that time of night, the sky was blue.

On the southern horizon, however, I noticed an orange glow which I assume was the lights of Springfield reflecting on the clouds in some odd way.

March 11 - Clay Pots and Fellows Lake

2008-03-13T11:53:00.002-05:00

The winter was hard on the clay pots on our back deck - maybe it's time to get some new ones.

I also had a few minutes last night to take a few pictures of Fellows Lake right at sunset.

February 24 - Bridge at Beaver Arkansas

2008-02-26T01:55:00.003-06:00

We spent the weekend in Eureka Springs. Though it was cloudy and kind of drab the entire time we were there, we did get out on Saturday and take a few pictures. Here are a few pictures of a bridge over Table Rock Lake at the small town of Beaver.

February 11 - Ice on James River

2008-02-11T20:41:00.000-06:00

An ice storm that made its way through our area today left branches and trees laden with nearly an inch of ice. It's pretty as long as your power is on, and then it's not so pretty. So far, it's pretty!

It was sprinkling while I took these shots, so I didn't have a lot of time to shoot.

Mary has the only bit of color in an otherwise drab environment.

February 2 - Downtown Architecture

2008-02-02T22:10:00.000-06:00

The camera club made a trek downtown early this morning for a few architectural pictures. It was kind of chilly at first, but we warmed up by the end of the morning. I had a lot of fun. The locations of these photographs would be familiar to most local residents, but I found it more interesting poking around behind the buildings.

January 31 - Snow!

2008-01-31T21:19:00.001-06:00

It snowed today! It started out slow, but continued to grow. This picture is the result of a long exposure taken well after dark (I had to use the porch light to focus). The camera was confused by the near darkness and set a very warm white balance. I could have corrected it, but I kind of like the warm feel, even though it's a very cold looking scene.

January 19 - Bonus Cat

2008-01-20T15:34:00.000-06:00

We have somehow adopted a bonus outdoor cat named Starbuck (after a character in the new Battlestar Galactica series). Despite the fact that there is a 15 foot drop just beyond the rail, she sits here often. I think her expression is "Why haven't you fed me yet?"

January 7 - James River Bridge

2008-01-07T18:40:00.001-06:00

It's been really warm lately - windy and sunny and not very winterly at all. But some clouds starting forming today (which turned into tornado warnings) that I wanted to get out and photograph. Unfortunately my choices were limited and I ended up at this bridge over the James River not too far from my house.

January 6 - Fishing Cone

2008-01-06T02:52:00.000-06:00

This is another image from last fall's trip to the West Thumb area of Yellowstone. There are so many fantastic things to photograph in Yellowstone, it's hard sometimes to know where to start, and there's no way to do it all. I just wish I lived closer to this place.

December 24 - Gillespie Lake

2007-12-27T01:34:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-12-21T15:41:00.000-06:00

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

2007-12-09T01:19:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-29T19:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-11-24T20:00:00.001-06:00

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

2007-11-06T17:27:00.001-06:00

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

2007-10-29T21:18:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-24T20:13:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-06T12:12:00.000-05:00

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.

Rocky Mountain National Park

2007-09-27T00:22:00.001-05:00

As the last evening and morning of our trip, we made a really quick trip through Rocky Mountain National Park. Several of us went to the top of the world (so to speak) to photograph the sunset, while several stayed in the valley to photograph elk. I hope they got some good pictures, because I really enjoyed the sunset!

In the morning, we visited Sprague Lake for the sunrise. Elk wandered through this scene not too long after I took the picture, disrupting the smooth reflections.

Yellowstone National Park

2007-09-27T00:19:00.001-05:00

Yellowstone was really fantastic. Because our lodging was so far away, we couldn't really get into the park before the sunrise, but we did three sunsets there and had unique photographs each evening.

On our first trip, we drove by Lewis Falls - there was a quick little trail that takes you to this viewpoint, which is much better than from the road.

Across the river from the Grand Prismatic Spring, there's this interesting bit of runoff that goes into the river. The sun was peeking through the clouds when I took this picture.

On to West Thumb Geyser Basin - there are a lot of little pools here. Fantastic place to walk around.

On a different day, we visited Old Faithful a second time (much more interesting than the first).

After the sun went behind the hills at Gibbon Falls, there were a lot of nice details to see.

The following two photographs are from the Firehole River Drive.

Firehole Falls

On our last evening in Yellowstone, we went down Firehole Lake Drive just to see what was out there. When we saw the Great Fountain Geyser, we knew we had a place to shoot sunset. There were a handful of photographers there when we returned later in the evening (turns out we weren't the only ones to think of this). We got a little bit of light, and then the geyser erupted (we still have spots on our car!).

Grand Teton National Park

2007-09-27T00:16:00.000-05:00

On our trip, we stayed at Togwotee Mountain Lodge and on the nearby Togwotee pass, there's a nice little lake called Wind River Lake. It was a nice lake to walk around and photograph.

Though we intermingled drives to the Tetons with drives to Yellowstone, our first destination was the Tetons. When you're in front of these fantastic mountains, it's hard to imagine photographing anything else. Here are two views from the famous Oxbow Bend, and the third is a famous barn with a very cloudy backdrop - I'll try to post another version of this when you can see the mountains behind. All three of these images incorporate multiple photographs - blended seamlessly together in Photoshop.

And this is a quiet little scene from Two Oceans Lake - there was a lot to explore on this little lake and I was glad we made the trip to see it. A moose wondered into the parking lot as we were leaving along with a local guy with a very long lens (600mm) trying to find the bear he had glimpsed. We didn't find the bear, but it was fun to talk to a true animal photographer.

September 16 - Grand Teton National Park

2007-09-25T05:58:00.000-05:00

The camera club has just returned from a trip to the Tetons, Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Park. The days were long, but went by very quickly - and there was a lot of driving! Anyway, over the next few days/weeks, I'll be adding pictures from the trip that I think turned out OK.

Here's one from Jackson Lake near the Coulter Bay boat dock . Half of the group decided to eat, but the rest of us were transfixed by the moon descending over the horizon. This is from a 13 minute exposure and my last of the evening - I wish I could have made a multi-hour exposure here, but we just didn't have the time.

September 5 - Rocky Mountain National Park Revisited

2007-09-05T00:05:00.000-05:00

I decided to revisit some of my older images from RMNP and found this one that had potential. I often reprocess images after newer technology comes out. The capabilities of the current generation of software is far beyond what was available when I took this picture last year. And perhaps my skills have improved as well (at least I hope they have!).

August 26 - Buffalo River at Steele Creek

2007-08-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

It was an early start today, and I arrived at Steele Creek with plenty of time to take some pictures. The fog isn't that unusual, and was still foggy when I left. Dryness has contributed to the shallow river, but so too have the millions of plants that drink deeply from its banks.

August 11 - Murphy's Water Garden

2007-08-11T19:56:00.000-05:00

We had a field trip today with the camera club to a nearby (fortunately for me) retail water garden in Clever, MO. Even though it was a warm day with an early start quite a few people attended. I love these flowers - the gentle play of light and color and cycles of life. The first of these images is a lotus and the rest are water lilies. Many thanks to the owners who let us tramp all around their ponds!

July 28 - Wilson's Creek Battlefield

2007-07-28T18:07:00.000-05:00

The camera club made a very early trip to Wilson's Creek Battlefield to gather a few pictures for an upcoming project. I was surprised to see such a good turnout for a 5:15 meeting time! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

I'd been wanting to photograph this corn field for quite a while, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to get a good image. I think there might have been better ones out there this morning, but these will have to do.

The sun cooperated twice this morning - the first time (pre-dawn), the sun gave the sky a light magenta hue. Later on, a fiery orange graced the sky. Same cornfield, just further north.

This is the same location, but I kept on shooting further up into the sky. So far, in fact that I ran into the other horizon.

A final canon shot, and it was time for breakfast!

July 15 - Downtown Springfield

2007-07-16T00:29:00.001-05:00

The camera club had a quick field trip downtown tonight. It started in the late evening and went until we were rained out. At first glance, you might not think that there would be that many photographic opportunities, but it's limited only by your imagination!

July 8 - Wilson's Creek Battlefield

2007-07-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

A few folks from the camera club dropped by Wilson's Creek National Battlefield for a little scouting prior to a project we're working on. It was a muggy evening full of sweat and ticks. But here are a few pictures I took at a small cabin on Wire Road, and then at the Ray House.

Click here for a picasa web version of this post.

Chicago!

2007-07-03T13:45:00.001-05:00

I've spent the last few days in Chicago taking in the sights. I confess that for the most part I was attracted to flashy attractions like Cloud Gate and views from the city. Some day I hope to return and capture a bit more diversity.

Day 1

Cloud Gate Closeup

Holy Name Cathedral

View of the city from the John Hancock Center

Lake Michigan

Day 2
During the evening we took a sunset cruise on one of the Wendella tour boats. Fortunately, there was some nice light in the sky, and some nice boats in the water.

Rigger Ship and Light House

Chicago Skyline

Day 3

Part of a fountain at the Art Institute

Cloud Gate closeup

Cloud Gate

City sky in Cloud Gate

Crown Fountain at Millenium Park

Click here for a Picasa Web version of this post!

June 21 - Backyard Flowers

2007-06-22T00:29:00.001-05:00

When the light begins to fade and the wind, gusty through the day, starts to falter, photographers venture tentatively into the field with gleeful anticipation of the magic that awaits. In my case, I got no further than my back porch, where a succulent and a California Poppy caught my attention.

May 27 - Gateway Arch

2007-05-29T21:57:00.000-05:00

I was in St. Louis on Memorial Day and of course had to take a few pictures of the arch. It was a cloudy night and even started to rain before we were through, but it was fun to see a view of the arch that I don't usually see.

This first image is with a very wide lens on the East side of the arch - the lens is wide enough that it distorts the arch from its familiar shape.

The next view is a 60 second exposure from the inner point of the South leg looking up. It's kind of an odd view, but I enjoy finding new ways to look at familiar things.

May 19 - Woods Prairie

2007-05-19T13:45:00.000-05:00

A group of folks from the camera club met at Woods Prairie this morning (before dawn for some of us) and took a few pictures of the flowers blooming. The morning dew left my feet completely soaked in no time - even with my good hiking boots (maybe I need a new pair). Oh well, what's a few wet feet in pursuit of a nice picture!

Indian Paintbrush

Shooting Star

????

Indian Paintbrush

May 15 - Around the House

2007-05-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

It was an interesting day for photography. Not too long after the sun came up, we spotted this Luna Moth out on our light post. I wish it could have chosen a more attractive landing spot. Unfortunately, when we tried to move it to a better location it flew away. Oh well - hope it comes back!

Hummingbirds (and birds in general) are very difficult to photograph. I caught this one peeking around the corner of a Blue Salvia on our back deck.

And finally, through the rain, I found this Indigo Bunting in an Oak tree.

May 12 - Hercules Glades Wilderness Area

2007-05-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

For the second time in as many weeks, I ended up in Hercules Glades Wilderness Area. This time, however, I was with several members from the Southwest Missouri Camera Club. We had a great time wandering up Long Creek, taking pictures along the way. With the amount of water we've had around our house recently I was surprised to find that the falls were dry. Oh well, some other time. Even though it wasn't a great day for photography, it was still great to be out in the woods again. I did take another picture of a columbine (this is the last one, I swear!).

May 11 - Yellow Cone Flowers

2007-05-12T17:04:00.000-05:00

After an impressive late afternoon downpour, I couldn't help but go out and photograph a few cone flowers we have on our deck. In fact, I didn't entirely wait for the rain to stop before I was out there - umbrella attached to tripod - peering into the viewfinder. If you look on the lower left of this flower, you can see a raindrop caught by the camera as it was in the process of dropping to the ground.

May 6 - Hercules Glades Wilderness Area

2007-05-06T19:32:00.000-05:00

I dropped by Long Creek this morning to see if any columbines were blooming and was relieved to see that they were plentiful. It was a warm and humid morning. Warm enough to make you wish for that one thing which would make photographing these challenging flowers impossible - a nice breeze.

April 27 to 29 - CSNP Gathering

2007-04-30T19:39:00.000-05:00

I spent this last weekend with a group of dedicated amateur photographers from the Central States Nature Photographers forum. This is a great bunch of photographers, and I enjoyed my time shooting with them very much.

We met down at the upper end of Boxley Valley in Arkansas at a small cabin we rented. I arrived right as the sun started going down so those of us that were there ran out and shot the few clouds that were on the horizon. These pictures represent just a very small portion of the sky - most of which was featureless.

Boen Gulf
On Saturday morning, we hiked in to Boen Gulf and visited Magnolia Falls - I shot several views of this falls, but liked the one with the trees in front. The other shot is from farther down the creek. It was a nice hike, but the hills grew quite large on the way out!

Broadwater Hollow
On Saturday evening (after waiting through a cloudless day), we headed over to Broadwater Hollow for a few shots of the waterfalls and even saw a few columbines.

Smith Creek Scenic Area
This newly opened natural area has some very nice geological features and we were there on Sunday morning before it was fully light. The mix of house-sized boulders, moss and flowing water was just fantastic.

April 22 - Carolina Wren

2007-04-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

For the past few weeks, we've been engrossed with a family of Carolina Wrens. I've always liked these birds with their delicate shades of brown and rust, and I was very happy when we found one of them building a nest in a flower pot right by our window! We had a front row seat for a thrilling spectacle.

In early April, we spotted five tiny off-white eggs in the nest of twigs and grass. There they stayed through some very cold nights, finally to emerge about two weeks ago. Here's a picture of one of the parents (I can't distinguish between the male and female) feeding them bugs and spiders. One morsel at a time, they kept the hungry mouths fed.

On the day that the chicks fledged, one of the parents would take a bit of food in its beak (pictured) and push it into the mouth of a waiting chick, but then pull it back out again! It did this repeatedly - enticing, I suppose, the youngsters to leave the nest and get some food on their own.

One at a time, they emerged from the nest...

And faced a brave new world.

March 24 - Elephant Rocks

2007-04-05T11:14:00.001-05:00

I though I'd go ahead and post a few images I took from Elephant Rocks on our recent field trip. Though there is nearly an infinite number of compositions to be made here, I've always found it challenging. The photos I like best on this day were the ones that limited themselves to a a very small portion of the park.

Here's one with a lot of color...

And here's one with none...

March 24 - Missouri Mines State Historic Site

2007-03-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

This last Saturday was spent on a long field trip with the camera club. We left Springfield at 7:00 a.m. and by the time we returned at midnight, we had visited Elephant Rocks State Park, Hughes Mountain Natural Area, and the Missouri Mines State Historic Site. It was a long day!

Though Elephant Rocks and Hughes Mountain were fun, I can't say I got the best out of them photographically speaking. But I think I made up for it with the abandoned mine buildings. The odd mix of age and angles were really interesting.

March 20 - Additional Hughes Mountain Photos

2007-03-20T01:25:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a few more pictures from Hughes Mountain that I thought I should post. The first picture is a combination of three different pictures (click on the image to make it a little bigger).

I still remember how cold it was up there - Brrrrr...

There is a surprising amount of color even in this bleak landscape.

March 3 - Lunar Eclipse

2007-03-04T10:49:00.000-06:00

I drove all over trying to find a nice place to view the moon rise and never did really find the ideal spot. We ended up NW of Springfield on a quiet farm road high on a ridge which gave us an unrestricted view of the horizon. The moon first revealed itself in a very small sliver (most of it was eclipsed at that point) which slowly grew larger as it moved up into the sky.

Here is a closeup of the moon (or at least as close as I can get to it) as the Earth's shadow has mostly moved across it.

The sunset behind me was more interesting from a photographic point of view and I spent quite a bit of time with my back to the moon. The next two images show some of that scene.

February 24 - Around Springfield

2007-02-24T19:31:00.000-06:00

It was windy and rainy today, which as you might guess is not so good for photography. But even knowing the conditions, I wanted to get out and around for a little while. Fortunately, the rain let up here and there and let me take a few pictures.

The first stop was the Commercial Street Footbridge. I've returned to this spot numerous times and am always pleased with the results. It's a nice spot where you can see a large area of sky, and the structure of the bridge is always interesting and inviting.

Next, I drove up to Fellows Lake - just north of Springfield. Fellows Lake has always been difficult for me because they do not allow access to the lake before or after dark. But with nice clouds it doesn't matter too much. In this first image I kept getting rain on my lens and would have to stop and clean it off between shots.

This is from the east end of the lake as the clouds started to break up.

Before I left, I took some pictures looking east after the sun started peaking through. Just as I began snapping away a woman and her dog walked through my frame. The dog is the blurry spot above my shadow on the left hand side and the woman is in yellow in the upper left. I thought it was kind of interesting.

February 17 - Hughes Mountain Natural Area

2007-02-18T22:41:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday, I drove out to Hughes Mountain NA, which is South East of Potosi, MO. For over a year I've been meaning to get out to this place but haven't had the chance. The weather was howling at me by the time I got to the top - blowing snow and freezing temperatures. It worked out pretty well for photography, though, and that was why I was there.

February 03 - Snow Birds

2007-02-03T11:10:00.000-06:00

I greatly admire people who can do great bird photography. Bird photographers (and animal photographers in general) usually have some very specialized equipment (read really big glass). It's one thing to take a picture of a bird - it's quite another to get the bird razor sharp (i.e., in focus and no motion blur). To get a well composed image on top of that makes it all the more difficult.

Here are three birds I captured out on my back deck during the snow of the last few days. It took 300 pictures to get these three so in terms of batting averages, I'm at about 10!

Junco

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Cardinal

January 31 - More Ice Pictures

2007-01-31T18:24:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more pictures I developed from the recent ice storm.

This picture is kind of interesting. Notice how the icicle forms a "hook". Initially, the icicle was vertical and gradually curved as the branch got lower. Eventually the weight became too great and the branch broke, which is why the majority of the icicle is horizontal. Only a little more ice formed right at the tip. We saw a lot of hook-shaped icicles during this storm.

An ice-covered cedar tree framed by ice-covered branches.

And a little bit of barbed wire covered in ice.

January 27 - Busiek State Forest

2007-01-27T11:10:00.000-06:00

I made two trips to Busiek State Forest this morning - once when it was still too dark to see and another when it had grown lighter.

Ice is always fascinating to me, especially at a small scale. I enjoy the textures and the promise of green in this first picture even in what othwerwise would have been a dismal Ozarks day.

This second picture is abstract ice structure that is just starting to melt. These pictures represent only a small portion of Busiek State Forest - each convers an area about the size of a dime!