Category: landscape

The Autumn Adventures of Ozark Bill Continues – Mark Twain National Forest

landscape, Ozark Grist Mills

During the first day of our short vacation this fall, Sarah and I took the winding, yet scenic Hwy 19 south.  Always a nice drive, it is particularly attractive in autumn.  About halfway through the drive the sky opened up on us, but I did use this opportunity to find a few new places and at least get them on the ol’ GPS.  This stretch of highway contains many potential destinations and we have only begun making real visits or hikes into most of these.  Later, we went back to a place I’ve had on my radar for quite some time, the “Virgin Pine Forest”.  This amounts to a strip of apparently virgin shortleaf pine, many of which are over 200 years old, on both sides of the road.  The wind was very strong here so I let the pines tell their story…

“Screaming Pines″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 27mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 2 sec

Just a short drive from the town of Steelville lies the aptly-named “Red Bluff Recreation Area”.  I have seen photographs of this place and it was as beautiful in person.  Carved over time by Huzzah Creek, these bluffs get their color from the high amounts of iron oxide in the limestone.  This spot was almost indescribable.  Incredibly peaceful and full of singing birds, the first thing I did was take off my shoes and pants and wade into the river to make this picture.  At times like these my city-slicker feet never fail to disappoint me.  Each step was painful and it was then that I realized my mitochondria training regimen was getting me nowhere.  Anyway, this place has lots that would make a return trip worth the drive, including a natural arch and the ruins of an old grist mill site.  Definitely a place on my “return to” list.

“Red Bluff – Autumn 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 28mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/5 sec

Continuing on Hwy 19, south of Winona is another of our favorite visited spots – Falling Spring.  This spot is out of the way and if the spring is flowing, will never disappoint.  My mind’s eye pictured better autumn colors than were actually found, but it is always a treat to find that vandals have not completely taken the old structure down.

“Falling Spring – Autumn 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 45mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 2.5 sec

Further west in south-central Missouri Sarah and I visited the Hodgson Water Mill located on Bryant Creek.  This picturesque mill is still in business as a museum/store.  The spring discharges from a cave just behind the building and its 24 million gallons per day powered two underwater turbines for milling operations.

“Hodgson Water Mill – Autumn 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USMEF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 24mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/6 sec

So that’s a little more from our splendid autumn Ozark trip from 2012.  I still have a few images to share and will hopefully post some in the near future.  I’m quite thankful that there are so many nicely written books available with descriptions of these locations.  I use these books quite often and one of these days I will list them in a post.

The Mark Twain National Forest contains near 1.5 million acres across the Missouri Ozarks.  Make some time to pay a visit, as it belongs to us all, except the areas that are logged… ;=)

“Mark Twain National Forest – Autumn 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 37mm, ISO 160,  f/9, 1/5 sec

Big Spring 2012 – Autumn

landscape, location spotlight, sunset/sunrise

This year Sarah and I timed our autumn trip into the Missouri Ozarks perfectly.  The autumn colors were near their peak and more spectacular than I can ever remember.  As is one of our favorite customs, we reserved one of the cabins at Big Spring State Park, located within the Ozark National Scenic Waterways.  Built in the 1930s by the CCC, rustic is the perfect description for these cabins and the nearby lodge.  We were a week or so earlier than normal this year and the cabins were a bit more full than usual, so we were not able to get a choice cabin that does not have a long flight of stairs.  Once I got all the unnecessary equipment and supplies we carry up these stairs and inside the cabin, we were ready to have some fun.

“Big Spring Cabin – October 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 50mm, ISO 160,  f/11, 0.3 sec

Located a few miles from the town of Van Buren, Big Spring is in contention for one of the largest springs on the continent, pouring an average of 286 million gallons (13 cubic meter/sec) a day into the Current River.  I have never visited the spring without being mesmerized by the beauty and sense of peace that the spring presents as it flows from the base of the limestone bluff.  Autumn and spring time are by far the best times to make a visit.  The cool blue waters that seem to come from nowhere contrast nicely with the warm autumn colors displayed by sycamores and other trees that take hold along the bluff.  The image below showcases the watercress that is found here and in most of the large springs of the Missouri Ozarks.  Although watercress is an exotic species, it is now naturalized across most of the country, and does not seem to present much of a problem with the delicate ecosystems that these springs create.

“Watercress Garden″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 23mm, ISO 160,  f/9, 1.6 sec

Placed nearby the spring is this early Ozark settlement period structure.  These maples frame it nicely.

“The Autumn Homestead″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 121mm, ISO 160,  f/11, 2.5 sec

As I have told anyone who has had the patience to listen, my idea of a perfect morning, one I could relive every day until the end of my days is getting up and hitting the trails surrounding Big Spring before sunrise.  The temperature is quite chilly, the air saturated to the point of a nice fog and I am usually greeted with the the crepuscular greeting of a Barred Owl.  Who cooks for me?  Why, Sarah will have some of the best french toast imaginable to go with my cup of french-press when I get back to the cabin sometime around mid-morning.  I better get to hiking these hills so I can burn some of those calories 😉

The morning this image was made was definitely memorable.  I actually carried my bird/wildlife lens along with my landscape gear.  Just past the confluence of the spring effluent, where those crystal-blue waters flow into the lazy Current River I eagerly watch the eastern sky.  Will this finally be the morning I see some color?  Yes indeed!  However, just after setting up the gear and getting ready to capture this scene, an Eastern Screech Owl starts vocalizing maybe 20-30 yards up the wooded slope directly behind me.  What to do!?  Go after the owl in attempts to finally get a photo of that bird or take the sure thing of a quickly changing landscape?  I decided to be satisfied with leaving the bird alone and concentrated on the sunrise while listening to one of the most beautiful songs imaginable.  There was no real fog, but what a morning!

“Current River Sunrise″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 40mm, ISO 320,  f/14, manual blend of three exposures

I also joke that I always take the same composition every time I visit the spring.  Here it is from this occasion.  I can’t help it and I won’t apologize.  I will hopefully get an original idea one of these years, but until then…

“Eternal Composition″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 24mm, ISO 100,  f/14, manual blend of two exposures

So, there is a bit of detail and a few of my favorite images from this autumn’s Big Spring visit.  It is surprising that so many people in the StL area have never even heard of Big Spring.  But I’m not complaining.  Let them take their expensive vacation to the popular destinations.  If I can have this place to myself, as I almost always do on these morning hikes, I’ll be satisfied and want for nothing.  Until the next time, I’ll be pining for my next visit home.

“Sarah & Bill – October 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 32mm, ISO 160,  f/9, 1/5 sec

Ansel Adams or Bob Ross???

abstract, landscape

Ansel Adams and some of his cohorts fought an epic battle in the first half of the 20th century against pictorialism – the manipulation of pure, sharp photographs with other artistic objectives.  Pictorialists often produced images that were deliberately lacking in sharpness, low DoF, were hand-painted or toned with various pigments, all in order to place more of an artistic interpretation to the relatively cold and literal technological tools that photography introduced.  Although most of the greats of this period, Adams and Steichen, Weston and Cunningham, began as Pictorialists, by the end of their respective careers these folks had shunned this practice and those that persisted to its employ.  The literal interpretive of negative to positive in the photographic process was considered to be the only truly valid option of the photographic artist.  Certain protocol were acceptable – using darkroom tools to manipulate emphasis in tones of the final print, for example.  But, other than focusing on composition and obtaining as much DoF and overall sharpness as possible, the photographer became shackled in the tools that were “acceptable” to being taken seriously as an artist.

This is pretty much true today.  Sure photography has been and to this day is still used in other types of art – using photos in mixed-media, pop culture works for instance.  But the modernist view of photography is still the dominant and expected form.  Any manipulation in making the exposure “in the camera” is acceptable, but other than the digital manipulation that is analogous to the darkroom of old, you are not allowed to interfere with risk of being completely shunned.  For as long as I have been involved in serious photography I have wholeheartedly agreed with this.  We have all seen the effects of plug-in filters in “Photoshop” and how tacky and cliched they become.  I have looked through images like these on Flickr and thought those thoughts exactly.  Until recently.  The latest Photoshop, “CS6” has a new and improved “oil paint” filter.  I have experimented with it a bit lately and I must say, it is growing on me.  I think it does a great job of mimicking a real oil-painting.

“St. Francis Rock Garden″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 50mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 1/4 sec

The “photographer” is given six sliders to manipulate their painting/photo: four for the “brush”: stylization, cleanliness, scale and bristle detail, and two for “lighting”: angular direction and shine.  With these sliders the artist can manipulate the “canvas” almost as much as one of those snobby old people with an easel who insist in sitting right where you’d prefer to set up your tripod.  Just kidding!  The majority of painters I’ve come across have been quite friendly and eager to talk nature with me.  My point is that you have a lot of options in how the final output can look like.

“Marble Creek Shut-Ins″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 85mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1 sec

What I feel I like best about doing this to a photograph can be observed in the two images above.  In both of these un-manipulated photos the bush was nearly too chaotic, although each had pleasing colors, shapes and form.  It made the composition messy.  Putting some brush strokes on top of this took a bite out of all that detail and presented, may I say – order? from the brush of the “composer”.

“Shortleaf Pine″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 20mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/8 sec

One of the most characteristic plants of the St. Francois Mountain region of the Missouri Ozarks, these trees are easily identified by their unique bark.  If I were patient enough to paint, I know that bark would be my favorite thing to represent in this composition.  The oil paint filter adds a bit of texture to the empty, white negative space.  I feel this images is improved by this treatment as well.

“Pair of Planes″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 116mm, ISO 160,  f/16, 6 sec

I love that this technique can be used to emphasize texture and pattern, something that could be difficult to do in a traditional modern photograph.  I can easily see an image like one of these printed on canvas.  Would you be able to tell the difference?  I’m not saying that all photos should be presented like this.  It would be easy to overdo and I can see this one becoming cliche’ like the emboss or watercolor filters that have been in PS for years.  I do think there is something interesting going on.  Painters have been using photography, to greater or lesser degree, to help their art work for decades.  In some of these cases the only difference in output is that the person lays down oils on top of projections.  Here, the computer does the same thing in a shorter time.

Transitions

landscape

“When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has, sooner or later, its peculiar autumnal tint; and if you undertake to make a complete list of the bright tints, it will be nearly as long as a catalogue of the plants in your vicinity.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October Transitions″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 105mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 2 sec

October Splendor

landscape

“How beautiful, when a whole tree is like one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf from lowest limb to topmost spire, all aglow, especially if you look toward the sun! What more remarkable object can there be in the landscape?”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October Splendor″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 21mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/4 sec

October Poetry

landscape

“When the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I love to wander and muse over them in their graves. Here are no lying nor vain epitaphs.”

-Henry David Thoreau-

“October Poetry″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 73mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/6 sec

Bell Mountain Willderness Loop Trail – Success!

Go Take A Hike, landscape

Surprisingly, I found myself in the St. Francois Mountains again yesterday.  I decided to finally attempt the full loop trail within Bell Mountain Wilderness.  I have hiked to the summit and back the same way several times over the past five years or so, a hike that is approximately ten miles.  The loop requires you go down the other side, follow and cross “Joe’s Creek” and its feeder streams along the way and then ascend Bell once again before going back down to the southern trail head.  It wound up being just short of a 13 mile trek.

“St. Francois Mountains – Late Autumn – 2012″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 127mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1/10 sec

An “Indian Summer” kind of weekend assured I was not the only one with the idea of hiking this summit.  Normally a place where you would be unlikely to see another person, I crossed paths with close to 40 hikers, most of which seemed to be carrying camping gear.  I started the the trail promptly at 8:00 when the temperature was still pleasantly in the low 50s.  Unfortunately when I arrived back at my car  around 2:00 the temp was in the mid 70s, a bit on the warm side for hiking such a challenging trail.

“The Burning Bush″
Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 26mm, ISO 160,  f/18, 0.4 sec

The images above and below this text showcase what makes this area so special – the Ozark glades.  These pinkish, lichen-covered, rhyolite/granite boulders protrude from thin soils and create igneous glades.  This specific habitat is associated with several specialized plant and animal species.  In periods of hot and dry weather these areas seem completely abandoned, but will come alive following a drenching rain.  The image posted below was subjected to a “hand-painted” treatment in computer post-processing.

“Changes″
Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 28mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 0.25 sec

The image below this text documents a perplexing problem with officially designated wilderness areas.  As the law was written, no human management of the land, of any kind, can be performed.  While this law includes items you want a “wilderness” to be protected from, building of structures, new roads, logging and grazing, etc., it also includes management for the protection of habitats.  Although glades exist primarily due to shallow soils and dry, higher elevations, periodic fires also play a key role in limiting the succession of habitat type.  Fires, both natural and anthropogenic in origin, played a key role in controlling secondary succession shrubby tree species such as sumac, sassafras, and especially the eastern cedars.  In many well-managed lands across the Ozarks, prescribed fires are doing their part to control this succession and preserve these habitats.  On wilderness areas, prescribed fires are not legal.  Modern fire-prevention in private and public lands also drastically reduces the occurrence of natural fire.  The glades on Bell Mountain and its nearby slopes are all being choked by eastern cedars.  Given enough time this potentially put many Ozark glade areas at risk as the succession continues to include various oak and hickory species.

“Bell Mountain Glade in Autumn″
Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 26mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1/8 sec

Bell Mountain is bordered by Shut-In Creek on the east, which has helped carve the distinction between Bell Mountain and nearby Lindsey Mountain.  This creek bottom is a short, but extremely sharp drop from the summit, and the creek is a perennial spring-fed water source.  Joe’s Creek borders the western side of Bell Mountain and is also partially spring-fed.  These two bodies provide many a backpacker with a source of water.  I can’t wait to try exploring this creek after a good wet period.

“Shut-In Creek Bottom″
Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM, ISO 200,  f/16, 1/4 sec

An Early Hike on the Ozark Trail – Marble Creek Section

landscape

During my fall break I finally visited Crane Lake for a hike on a beautiful autumn morning.  There was not a cloud in the sky and the colors were really popping.  The hike was just perfect and I had several interesting wildlife encounters, including watching a Bald Eagle nearby along the shore as soon as I left my car.  The primary tree in this image is the short-leaf pine, the only native pine of the Missouri Ozarks and definitely a characteristic species of the St. Francois Mountains.

“An Early Hike on the Ozark Trail″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/16, 0.6 sec

An Autumn Hike Along the St. Francis

landscape

I started my autumn vacation early on a Saturday morning with a hike along one of the prettiest of Ozark Streams, the St. Francis River.  I was joined by my new friend, Stephen, who knows these waters quite well.  While I had previously visited a couple of the destinations I’ll be describing, I had long wanted to take the hike between two of Missouri’s great shut-ins – Tiemann Shut-Ins and those located downstream a couple miles at Silver Mines Recreation Area.  Stephen and I met at the trail head at the USFS Silver Mines Rec Area, located in Madison County near the towns of Fredericktown and Arcadia.

“Store of Summer Rains″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 58mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 2.5 sec

There is a relatively easy path between these two points, but Stephen and I followed along the river, jumping from boulder to boulder for most of the stretch.  We were pleasantly surprised arriving near dawn to find a nice blanket of fog.  While fog tends to lessen contrast considerably in a photographic frame of mind, the lighting helps those wonderful fall colors pop.  In person, eyes are drawn to a bright warm maple growing between riverside rocks.  Once my camera was out, we were in danger of spending the entire day within the first quarter mile of our hike.  I do appreciate Stephen’s patience as I took the time to set up the tripod and repeatedly dove into my bag to swap lenses.

“Solid Out of Liquid″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 58mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/5 sec, Orton processing in PS CS6

The St. Francis is one of the more productive of Missouri’s Ozark streams.  While this means you won’t see the crystal clear waters of the Black, Current, or Eleven Point, the mass of life and biological diversity is more obvious.  Moving along the banks one is forced to path-find between Ozark Witch Hazel and Sandbar Willow.  Organic matter deposited on rocks makes food for algae and makes any wet surface as slippery as ice.  A hike-ending fall was a possibility in the early part of the day.  More than 50 species of fish have been documented in this river and this stretch is home for the St. Francis Crawfish, an endemic species to the St. Francois Mountains and a species of conservation concern.

“Sweet Kisses″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, ISO 400,  f/6.3, 1/25 sec

Although making Stephen a bit apprehensive, I was completely stoked that were able to cross paths with five cottonmouths, including this cute little juvenile.  This one I spotted almost on the trail as he flapped his bright-white mouth at me, mere inches from my boot.  My first thought was of a small moth or butterfly flapping its wings in alternating bright dorsal and dull ventral aspects.  Taking a second, closer glance I was able to pick out this well-camouflaged beauty.  I think Stephen will pay me well to save the story of what happened when we came upon a larger relative of this guy in the crevice of a couple of boulders.  😉

“Einstein Mine Dam On The St. Francis″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 65mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/25 sec

Here you have a view of the granite block dam built to supply power to the milling operations of the nearby Einstein Mine.  The mine did not last long and is now a nice home for bats.  Did you know that Missouri has almost continually been first in lead production of the USA for almost two centuries?  Today Missouri produces nearly 90% of the nation’s lead and 75% of its zinc as well as large amounts of iron, silver and copper.  This area is of great interest to geologists.  The rock you see in this post, primarily granites and rhyolites, are among the hardest and oldest exposed rocks on the planet.

“Endless Forms Most Beautiful And Most Wonderful″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 67mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 0.6 sec

Many thanks to Stephen for being a great guide and showing me a lot along this hike.  I definitely would not have been able to find as much on my own.  We passed Mud Creek Shut-ins and eventually found ourselves at Teimann Shut-Ins, described as the largest shut-ins in Missouri.  Located within Millstream Conservation Area, Teimann SI is truly impressive.  This spot has a great deal more potential than Johnson’s SI for photography and is on a much larger scale.  I do not know for certain, but I imagine Stephen is contemplating the diverse biological community and if these “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful” go about their existence without contemplating us.

“Wayward Rivulets In Autumn Flowing″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 40mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1 sec

It took almost the entire day to meander over the boulders to Millstream Gardens.  It was getting so late that in the end, we took the relatively straight and flat trail back to our cars, arriving just after sunset.  We topped it off with a nice meal in nearby Farmington.  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start off my autumn break.  This was just the beginning to a fun week across the Missouri Ozarks.  I look forward sharing more real soon.

The Dichotomy of Autumn

abstract, landscape

Is there more of a season with dramatic ups and downs than autumn?

Good: cooling temperatures that are often a respite to a long, torrid summer

Bad: the inevitable freezing temp, rains and gloomy weather that will show up sometime in November

Good: the astounding autumnal palette that the fortunate can find, depending on where you live

Bad: picking up those leaves and cleaning gutters after the show

Good: the backing of the clocks in losing “daylight savings”

Bad: going back to school

Good: feasts of the late summer/fall harvest season

Bad: knowing that in a month or two you’ll have better luck growing a second head than finding something worthwhile of being called a “tomato”

Good: apple season!!!!

Bad: end of the baseball season

I think I’ve made my point.  No other season is packed with so many highs and lows.  I’d be hard pressed to find many complaints about spring.  Even the most diehard winter fanatics must feel the hope and renewal that warming temperatures and fresh greens that spring in spring.  Autumn will always remain a season of two faces for me.  Now I can’t wait for the winter resident birds to show up!  Come on winter!

“Autumn’s Dichotomy″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 32mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1/6 sec