A Morning on the Refuge

I left early to be at Squaw Creek NWR at sunrise this morning. The forecast is for colder and wetter weather over the next few weeks, and I wanted to get the chance to shoot the birds before they migrated further south.

The morning stayed overcast, so the light wasn't great. Also, the geese are not roosting at the refuge. The water levels are low, with some of the marshes dry. The reports are that the geese are staying nearby as some deeper lakes.

But that didn't mean that there weren't lots of opportunities to see and photograph wildlife. There are over 100 swans on the refuge, tens, of not hundreds, of thousands of ducks, pelicans, coots and the local songbirds and deer as well. The slideshow below will show you the best images from the morning.




All images were taken with the Nikon D7000 / Nikkor 300mm f/4 / TC1.4 combination. Processing was done with PhotoMechanic / ACR / CS6 Photoshop.

Enjoy the birds !

Foggy Morning

Friday night the weather alerts were going off: "Heavy Fog Watch". Which to me meant a photo opportunity !

Saturday morning opened with some mist before dawn, and the fog grew deeper as dawn approached. I headed to a hillside meadow area that I had not visited before. The hillside faced the rising sun and I was hoping for a low lying mist filling the valley.

The fog was much more than that. At the peak it filled the valley and covered the hilltop to well above my head. It also drenched the grasses in a heavy dew.

The light changed and shifted as the morning went along. From a few peeks at color near dawn to a glow when the yellow sun started burning the fog away.

The Bond Bridge

Here in KC the state has just completed replacing the old I-29 bridge crossing the Missouri. The old bridge was a traditional suspension bridge. The new bridge is also a suspension bridge, but designed in a more modern style.

I have been scouting and test shooting angles and light around the bridge for most of the summer. Last evening I captured a couple of images that I wanted to share.

Bond Bridge - Sunset

Bond Bridge - Night

The first image is a 4s exposure taken about 25 minutes after sunset. The second is a 10s exposure taken about 20 minutes later.

Nikon D7000 & Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8. Image aperture = f/16

Storm Clouds

We are in the midst of the summer storm season.  On Sunday the day's storms generated on a line just east of Kansas City.  Here are a couple of images of the building thunderheads.

D7000, 35-70mm f2/8, polarizing filter, conversion in ACR 6

December Sunrise

This weekend was yucky, grey days that weren't great for photography. So I spent my photography time sorting and clearing old images. This one is from December 2009. An early morning sunrise on an absolutely clear morning following a snowfall. Shot near Weston Bend north of Kansas City.

For extra credit look for the strings of ducks returning from their overnight feeding. Enjoy!

Photo Adventure - Falls on White Alloe Creek

It's so easy to go to Arizona or Colorado and be inspired to take photographs. I've been searching for locations here around Kansas City that inspire and give me an opportunity to practice new skills. This week I found a place that provided the photographic challenge and met the 'inspire' factor as well.

I've been using the web to browse the state parks and conservation areas in the region. I came across one last week that the maps indicated waterfalls (even if the text didn't). Debbie and I went down there last weekend, and found these waterfalls. White Alloe Creek has been dammed to provide flood control and a water supply to one of the local towns. But the overflow from the dam's spillway cascades down the valleyside on it's way back to the bottom of the valley.

Upper Falls - White Alloe Creek

Lower Falls - White Alloe Creek

We first visited around sundown. The valley is narrow and the falls are on the western slope, so when we arrived the falls were in deep shadow. We returned Saturday at sunrise and took these photos. The depth of the valley and the height of the surrounding hills delays direct sun for about 45 minutes after the official sunrise time. We've been in a drier weather cycle, so the amount of water yesterday was about half of what was flowing when we visited a week earlier.

Shot with Nikon D90. PP in Capture NX2 and Photoshop CS4

Photo of the Week - Sandy Creek Bridge

It was a rainy morning in eastern Missouri. We are down visiting Mom S. and I got up early to get some sunrise shots and explore. Well, the rain clouds took care of the sunrise. I had found information about Sandy Creek Covered Bridge historical park. It is part of the Missouri State Parks. It is a beautiful park tucked into a valley setting.



The day was cloudy, and eastern Missouri is emerald green this year from all the spring rain. Sandy Creek isn't showing much, but the Mississippi and the Merimack are both out of their banks.