January 27 - Busiek State Forest

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!

October 21 - Busiek State Forest

As part of a "Day of Nature Photography" hosted by Art Daniels at the Nature Center, I traveled to Busiek today to take a few pictures. While the conditions weren't great, there were some nice macro opportunities, and the foliage was just fantastic in places.

The sky was cloudy when we arrived, but the sun poked through for a brief moment and lit this hill with just a little bit of light.


Berries from a Wahoo tree.


One of the numerous and really tiny mites in the area - I think it's a Red Velvet Mite. They're about the size of a grain of rice.


And a little more foliage from Springfield Lake on the way back home.

June 25 - Busiek State Forest

I needed a hike today, so I headed out to Busiek to walk a short loop. There's a nice size hill in the bottom corner of this natural area (I had to huff and puff a bit to get up it today), and I found this cone flower going down the other side.



I've also been working up a few more pictures from my recent trip to Mesa Verda and Canyonlands. This is Cliff Palace from the opposite side of the canyon.


And this is Mesa Arch.

May 9 - Busiek State Forest

I dropped by Busiek State Forest for a short hike and a few photos. With water finally in the creeks around here, I just had to stand in the middle of one for a while and soak it in (actually, I had waders, but it was still fun). There were a few flowers out, but they looked kind of waterlogged.

April 1 - Busiek State Forest

I went out twice today to take pictures. The first trip was to Mt. Vernon Prairie (unsurprisingly, just North of Mt. Vernon), but didn't find the circumstances very conducive to wildflower photography - just not enough flowers. So, after several hours, I gave up and headed home.

The next stop, later in the afternoon, was to Busiek S.F. It had just rained, so everything was slightly damp (delightfully so).

The dark skys were moving out of the area when I arrived, but there was just enough clouds left aroound to make this sycamore pretty interesting.


It wasn't a very long before I started seeing wildflowers in abundance! Some of my all-time favorites were there including this Purple Trillium.


These next two are of an unknown (to me, anyway - I've tried to ID it from my reference material, but have had no luck so far), but ir ended up being very attractive.




And then there's the gaggle of Dutchmen's Britches. I don't think I've ever seen quite so many flowers bunched together! One of my favorites!

September 10 - Busiek State Forest

Marty from the camera club joined me for a short hike in Busiek State Forest this morning. Busiek isn't a location with a lot of places to view a sunrise, so we just hiked around (just about 5 miles) in search of things to photograph. It was nice to have Marty along, especially since he helped me find my glasses after I lost them in a field of tall grass - thanks Marty!

Horse Nettle. This small flower blooms from May to October, and is very common at ground level.


Gaura (also known as "butterfly flower"). This is a plant that I've been seeing recently and have been meaning to get a picture of it. Its flowers turn pink as they get older.

August 27 - Busiek State Forest

It's still pretty warm and humid around here, and after last week I decided to take it easy and settled for a short hike in Busiek State Forest. (I also had commitments later in the day and didn't want to end up exhausted!) At least there has been some rain as of late, and for the first time in weeks there was actual mud on the trail - a nice change, for once. The woods were full of beauty, today, and this was a great way to start the morning.

I thought these Maple leaves were kind of interesting, and the colors were very saturated since everything was slightly wet. This picture is composed from three vertical images that I stitched together once I returned home. Each image was taken with a special perspective control lens that lets you change the angle of the focal plane. In this image the focal plane falls across the top of the leaves from front to back.


Day Flower - These are quickly becoming one of my favorite flowers.


My camera is probably reflected somewhere inside this droplet, but I've not been able to find it.

July 27 - Rose Gentian in Busiek State Forest

Last Wednesday, the weather cooled off a bit and I rushed out to Busiek as quick as I could after work for a short hike.

I've been wanting to photograph a rose gentian for a while and finally got my chance during the hike. I didn't notice at the time that 4 anthers were missing from the top flower. Oh well, these flowers are pretty small, and it was an easy oversight.