A Winter’s Touch of Color in the St. Francois Mountains

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“Harbinger of spring” is a common name given given to a spring ephemeral wildflower, which among other places throughout the Eastern United States, can be found in bloom as early as February in our Ozark woodlands and forests.  Ozark witch hazel, pictured below, is a species of shrub found in the St. Francois Mountains that begins to bloom in early January.  These images were taken on January 7th at Lower Rock Creek Wilderness in Madison County, MO.  These plants are incredible and I seek out their blooms every year during their January though April flowering period.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 320,  f/14, 1/40 sec

These blooms can last in the middle of the harshest winter for up to six weeks under temperatures as low as 0 deg F.  When temperatures get much below freezing the long petals will curl up and then uncurl during sunny warm weather.  When warm these blooms emit a very pleasant, vanilla-like scent.  I spent a good amount of time yesterday napping in the sun on a rhyolite shelf of Lower Rock Creek listening to the rushing water and having the scent of these fresh blooms waft by me with a gentle cool breeze.

Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 160,  f/9, 1/10 sec

These plants are also noteworthy for the variability in color of their flowers.  I’ve found plants side by side that held flowers completely of red, oranges and reds, or like the plant below, nothing but yellow.  Typically the sepals of these plants will be a lovely burnt, orange/red and the strap-like petals will be lighter shades of orange and yellow.  It has been suggested by some that these colors may change over the course of the individual flower’s life, over the course of a season, or even over the course of the plant’s life.  I do not know the answer to this.  As you can see below, these yellow flowers are fresh, crisp and new.

Every year I wonder about the specific pollinator(s) that service this species.  I’ve read that it may be early emerging species of bees or flies.  I saw a few insects and other arthropods moving about around the water, but never witnessed a visit to the flowers while I was shooting them yesterday.  Flies can be very ephemeral and advantageous about when they will emerge over the course of a season.  It would not surprise me that flies fill this role, at least until March or April when more insects are up and about looking for their duty.

My visit to this special place exemplifies that to study biology-to study nature is to study exceptions.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard a “rule” or “absolute” by expert or professional in the realm of biology that turned out to be truly universal.  If there is a niche to be filled or an opportunity to thrive, natural selection will see to it, as long as it makes sense for the time and place.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 400,  f/14, 1/20 sec

Limitless Composition

landscape

I’ve been paying a lot more attention to Elephant Rocks State Park lately.  I am seeing there is a never ending supply of potential terrific photographic compositions (not that the one below is one of these).  Add all the potential compositions with all the variables that light can bring to this place and throw in the different seasons and potentials for weather and you wind up with a place I should be visiting at least once a week!  I need to find out how to make this happen.  😉

This image was obviously taken with a wide focal length and is a composite of a couple different exposures so that I could keep some detail in this amazing autumn sky.  Some oak leaves contribute with lichen and the natural texture of the rocks for some foreground interest, and a dark lead-in line is present created by what I believe is a path water has drained off this shelf for who knows how many years?

While visiting one of my favorite places in the St. Francois Mountains, Lower Rock Creek Wilderness, I met a father and son visiting the Ozarks for the first time from Wisconsin.  I was able to give them suggestions for other places to see during their short visit, Elephant Rocks being one of them.  Needless to say they thought this location was fascinating and them, I and many others finished the day by watching a spectacular sunset amongst the boulders.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens @ 11mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1/15 sec

Winter’s Bone

landscape, sunset/sunrise

I found this spot on a recent scouting trip in Warren County over the holiday break.  When I was driving on the higher main roads the outside thermometer on my all-wheel drive all the time Subaru Forester read 33 degrees.  When I reached this spot down near the bottom of the holler, it read 16 F.  This was probably the coldest weather I experienced in this so-called winter we are having.  I saw the frost-touched post, barbed-wire and vegetation with the forested hill and the sun rising beyond that and of course I had an opportunity to try my new graduated ND filters.  If you’ve ever tried to do intricate photography or any other kind of work in such temperatures then you know how challenging this can be.  Overall, this trip yielded some interesting images even though I discovered my main sought after location looks to be surrounded by private property and I did not press my luck in getting there.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/10 sec

“The sky lay dark and low so a hawk circling overhead floated in and out of clouds.  The wind heaved and knocked the hood from her head.  That hawk was riding the heaving wind looking to kill something, rip it bloody, chew the tasty parts, let the bones drop”

-Daniel Woodrell

“Winter’s Bone”

Stone Mill Spring

landscape

Making more of a scouting and hiking trip across the northern Ozarks I visited Stone Mill Spring inside Fort Leonard Wood in Pulaski County this week.  This spring feeds into the Big Piney River and like many Ozark springs comes out of the base of a steep rock wall.  On this visit the wind and currents from the spring were moving fallen oak leaves across the surface of the pool.  I took advantage of this by setting the camera with a long shutter speed to bring some sense of movement to the image.  I believe this spot may be worth a spring time visit in the future.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/14, 13 sec

Location Spotlight: Piney Creek Ravine Nature Preserve – Part One

landscape, location spotlight

In the north-western region of the Shawnee National Forest of Illinois lies one of my latest finds.  Located south-east of Chester, Illinois (birthplace of Popeye the Sailor) Piney Creek Nature Preserve will undoubtedly provide plenty of opportunities for me to spend my time during any season of the year.  This place is special due to the geological and biological wonders it hides amidst the seemingly endless seas of corn and soybeans that pack every flat place Illinois has to offer.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens @ 18mm, ISO 160,  f/14, 1.6 sec

Unlike the tall bluffs and hills of the Shawnee region further to the south, this spot was subjected to recent glacial activity and the ravine was partly created by glacial melt-waters eating away at the sandstone – the primary rock of Southern Illinois.  The vegetation found here is more similar to that seen in the Missouri Ozarks to the West than that of the Shawnee region to the South-east.  This is one of only a few places in Illinois the short-leaf pine can be found naturally.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 32mm, ISO 320,  f/20, 1.3 sec

I have not yet been here during the growing season but it looks and sounds to be a very high-quality natural site.  I’m sure this will be a place for finding spring time ephemerals as well as summer wildflowers; however, the geology is the star of this attraction.  I’ve hiked this ~two-mile trail twice and I’m not even close to understanding the path of the streams and the contours of the canyon walls, or how many waterfalls can be found here.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 100,  f/11, 1/4 sec

The hike is wonderful, although caution must be taken.  Hiking up and down the and along the rim of the canyon provides amazing views of this natural amphitheater in winter.  Going bushwhacking to obtain better viewpoints of the geological, biological and archeological (petroglyphs and pictographs from 500-1550 Common Era are located at this preserve) subjects can be risky.  Similar to the nearby “Little Grand Canyon” there are plenty of ways to get yourself seriously injured or killed in this ravine.  Boots equipped with extra traction devices (i.e. crampons) are recommended for hiking in sub-freezing temperatures and felt-bottomed footwear is definitely useful when walking over the biology-covered slick rocks of the stream floor.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 6 sec

I was fortunate to be able to visit this spot about a week or two later.  This second visit was after a period of rain for about 24 hours followed by a brief-lasting snow.  The extra water and the freshly fallen snow (I arrived just when the snow stopped) made this place look entirely new and different.

Piney Creek Ravine is relatively close (1.5 hour drive) and I definitely look forward to many more trips here and to the other beautiful locations that the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois has to offer.

I just hope nobody figures out how to grow corn in a ravine like this.  😉

A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

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Okay, I think I’ve settled on a title for this blog. Silphium are one of my favorite groups of plants native to the prairies of the United States and I pulled this phrase from my favorite book, “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold. If any of you are wondering, that book contains a lot of the message I will be trying to bring forward in this blog.

P.S. Check this out: http://www.gatewaygalleryonline.com/matchickggo.html

It seems the moniker “Ozark Light” is pretty popular with nature photographers of the region. I’ve gone to see Greg’s photos at this gallery in the past and I’d highly recommend his work.

Ozark Dynamism

"monochrome", landscape

Elephant Rocks is one of my favorite locations in the Missouri Ozarks to visit and make photographs.  I don’t think it’s a big surprise that this would be true for many nature lovers/photographers.  I love the fact that one can make good photographs here any season of the year and almost any time of day.  If you face the right direction you can find good light on a good composition on almost every visit, not just in the narrow window of the “golden hour”.  However, if you can get there with perfect light and an interesting sky the outcome can be better than good.  My favorite time to visit is early in the day.  This is not only for the better light, but for the fact that I have had the place entirely to myself for a couple or more hours on several occasions.

I was fortunate to find an interesting sky on this visit.  I found that converting this one to B&W really played the dynamic sky against the interesting texture of the boulders below.  Inscribed on one of the rocks you can see the name of one of the many quarry workers who harvested the granite species of rocks from the surrounding area.

Technical details: Canon EOS 50D camera, EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens @ 10mm, ISO 100,  f/16, 1/15 sec

Caterpillar Graveyard

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On my way to an unexplored nature preserve (fodder for a future post) in the northern foothills of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois I drove past a graveyard on Illinois Rt 3.  The golden hour light and the frost that was covering everything made me turn around and stop to take a few images.  This looked to be private property and I did not want to overstay my lack of welcome so I shot a few pics hand-held and got out of there quickly.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 320,  f/11, 1/160 sec

The place was much larger than these images make it to look.  I think there was potential for some great images if I wasn’t scared of being fed to pigs 😉

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 320,  f/14, 1/30 sec

Why couldn’t they give cars a similar paint job?  These things never seem to rust.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 200,  f/11, 1/40 sec

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 250,  f/9, 1/40 sec

Finding A Sunset

landscape, sunset/sunrise

Columbia Bottom Conservation area, where this image was taken, and Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary across the river are famous for the birds and other wildlife they support.  I have enjoyed birding these places, located at the confluence of North America’s two greatest rivers- the Missouri and the Mississippi, for more than five years now.  But, there is another reason I love being able to visit these locations.  These are two of the closest places near St. Louis to see open skies, open skies without hills, trees, building or too many power lines and utility poles.  I love shooting sunsets here because of the amount of sky that can be captured.  True, I did not cover much sky in this image.  This was due to the limited clouds in tonight’s sky.  If there were more clouds throughout the sky I would have loved to have let the sky cover two thirds or more of the frame.

 

It always saddens me when I’m driving to or from work and see one of the many spectacular sunsets or sunrises from the car and know I can’t be out in nature trying to experience that moment and capture it in a lasting image.

 

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens @ 16mm, ISO 100,  f/16, manual-HDR (7-images)