Horse Thief Canyon

I had to get out of the office and enjoy the great weather we had last week so I headed down to Kanopolis Lake to do some hiking at the Horse Thief Canyon area. Kanopolis was the first state park created in Kansas and has 31.5 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Hiking Horse Thief Canyon and Red Rock Canyon will give you some unique Kansas landscapes to go through.

Here are a few of my pictures from this hike.

Peace.

Drive to Cottonwood Falls, part 2

In my previous post I put some photos from the drive down from Manhattan to the Chase County State Fishing Lake and back to Council Grove lake, where I got to see a really beautiful sunset. I did get to photograph some fires on my way down to Chase county, which was the purpose of my trip, but they were early in the evening, I was really hoping to catch some nighttime fires as well...and the drive from Council Grove to Manhattan did not disappoint. Here are some photos of some of the fires I found on this part of the drive into Manhattan.

If you are wondering why the prairie is burned off in the spring, read this article. The spring time burning is necessary to maintain the grasslands found in the Flint Hills...without the burning trees would eventually take over the prairie. Many people are not aware that the prairies were being burnt long before Europeans settled the Midwest... and even without human intervention the prairies often burned when ignited by lightning strikes.

If you haven't ever seen the Flint Hills being burned off in the spring, mark it down on your calendar and plan to visit...just use common sense and stay out of the ranchers way and stay safe...and enjoy the smell of the smoke, it just isn't spring without it.

Drive to Cottonwood Falls, part 2

Drive down to Cottonwood Falls

I've always wanted to drive down into the heart of the Flint Hills during the spring burning season, so early this month I decided to head down to the Chase County State Fishing Lake to photograph the waterfalls there and hopefully catch some nice fires on the way down and back. I hit the jackpot! I got to photograph some fires on the way down, the waterfalls were really pretty, I had some nice light at the state fishing lake there and I had a beautiful sunset to shoot at Council Grove Lake on my way back to Manhattan. It doesn't get much better than that for a drive through the Flint Hills....always a treat. Here a few photos from this part of my trip, I'll post the rest later. Hope you enjoy!

Spring fires along Old K-18 and K177

I have been out looking for prairie fires a couple of times lately. These pics were some I took along Old K-18 road (one of my favorite drives) and along K-177. The last one was shot across Tuttle Creek Lake. I love the smell of the fires in the spring!

Fort Larned in Infrared (IR)

When I was out in the Great Bend area last month I stopped at the Fort Larned historic site to photograph the fort in Infrared. I had intended to convert all the photos to black and white IR, but I really liked how some of the shots looked in color IR. I really liked how the blue in some of the uniforms came through in the IR. You can view the photos here.

Enjoy!

Washington County State Fishing Lake

Here are some shots taken at the Washington County State Fishing Lake in northeast Kansas (does anybody but me think the name "...County State Fishing Lake" sounds funny?). Looked like we just missed a fire, but a few spots were still smoking which made for some nice shots. The picture shown at the left is a 3 shot HDR (high dynamic range). I decided to do an HDR of this scene to be able to record both the detail in the trees and the wonderful color of the sky. The dynamic range of the scene was too great for a single shot to work (unless you used split neutral density filters). Shooting an HDR (or using filters) is often the only way you can capture the dynamic range that the human eye can see.

HDR's are not difficult to do. You need to bracket your exposures when you shoot, I normally will bracket 3-5 shots in 1 stop intervals depending on the scene. There are a number of software programs that will combine the shots into 1. I use primarily Photomatix or Enfuse directly from Lightroom. There are plenty of options out there though. You also need to watch out for movement between your shots, either you moving or your subject moving. You will get the best results using a tripod, though you can make handheld HDR shots work. Wind can really cause problems as well.

Photography For a Cause

If you are looking for some great photos and a chance to help out the Manhattan Red Cross and the Boys and Girls Club of Manhattan head over to LaBrisa Photography and check out the Photography for a Cause Galleries...all profit from any sales from these galleries will be donated by the photographer to the 2 groups mentioned above. A win-win for everyone, great photos and helping out local groups! Kudos to LaBrisa Photography for doing this!