Tag: landscape

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.

Ancient Seas, Megagrazers and Naked Apes

landscape, sunset/sunrise

The story this landscape could tell.  The limestone, cherts and flints found in these hills were laid down by shallow seas which covered much of North America during the Permian Period.  Winds and waters then sculpted this landscape. The Flint Hills were not much affected by glacial activity.  Easy to erode shales and limestone were the primary building block of the shallow soils now found on these hills, while limestone and flint now remain.  Much of this soil washed down the hills and collected in lower areas like in the Kansas River valley seen here below.  The first grazers to feast on the prairie grasses and forbs of these hills were the Mastodon and Mammoth, followed later by the bison.  Crops like maize and squash were first grown in this river valley by the Kansa Indians and now this fertile land is used to grow modern mono-cultures.  This was my first visit to Konza, and I’m not sure why the tall grass of the tall-grass prairie was not very present in the spots that I found myself.  This could be because of the drought, it could be because of livestock grazing system, or maybe I was in areas dominated by the “short-grass” species, found more typically in the western plains.

“Dawn on the Kansas River Valley″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 33mm, ISO 160,  f/16, manual blend of two exposures

Touched by the Sun

landscape

These glade coneflowers, Echinacea simulata, were found in peak bloom during a May hike at Valley View Glades Natural Area.  Pollen color separates this species from the near identical and more widespread pale coneflower, E. pallida, but some differences in growth habit can be seen as well.  Some species of Echinacea are considered threatened or endangered and loss of habitat and the removal of these plants by non-licensed hunters for the pharmaceutical trade are the primary threats.  There can often be found signs of plant harvesting and rock turning (looking for reptiles and arachnids for the pet trade) at this location and nearby Victoria Glad N.A.  It’s a pity that more cannot be done to protect these ever-shrinking habitats.

“Touched by the Sun″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens @ 19mm, ISO 400,  f/18, 1/13 sec

Flint Hills of Kansas: The Konza Prairie

landscape, sunset/sunrise

Last weekend Sarah and I took a trip west and found our way to the Little Apple – Manhattan, Kansas.  Destination: The Konza Prairie of the Flint Hills, some of the only existing virgin tall-grass prairie left on earth.   Less than 1% of the estimated 250 million acres of this ecosystem remain intact today, most of it lost to the plow before the year 1900.  In this pano it is somewhat obvious why this area escaped agro-man.  The fertile soils of the Flint Hills are shallow and contain a matrix of limestone and flint gravel.  Homesteaders learned quickly that their sod-busting efforts were best spent elsewhere.  In the valley you can see some gallery forest, supported by an early branch of King’s Creek, a tributary that feeds the Kansas River.  Click on this image to view it full-size in Flickr.  Starting my six mile hike about an hour before sunrise, this series was shot just as the first light of dawn was striking the hills.

“Flint Hills of Kansas″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF50mm f/2.5 compact macro lens, ISO 160,  f/14, 1/13 sec, 13 images stitched

Location Spotlight: Devil’s Icebox Cave

landscape, location spotlight

Located within Rockbridge State Park, just south of Columbia in Boone County, Missouri lies the Devil’s Icebox.  This name generally refers to a collapsed section, or sinkhole of this cave system.  One of the largest caves in Missouri, there is an estimated seven miles of caverns, tunnels and sinkhole surface connections.  The geologic features found here were carved of the same Burlington limestone that formed The Pinnacles found a few miles to the north.  This is also one of the most biologically active and diverse cavern systems in Missouri, being home to two endangered species of bat and a very cool species of pink planaria (flat worm) that is found nowhere else on the planet!  I’ve only had the pleasure of two brief visits to this location, but when water levels are low, like we have now, the underground streams and pools drop and allow for relatively easy access to exploring the caves.  Apparently a good sized section is considered easy to explore and a couple of good headlamps are all that is required.  A summertime visit is the perfect time of year to find out first hand why this place got its name.  The temperature seemed to drop about 40 degrees F during our visit this past weekend.  I can’t wait to get back here and explore some more!

“Devil’s Icebox″
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 28mm, ISO 400,  f/11, manual blend of two exposures

Ostwald-Liesegang Supersaturation-Nucleation-Depletion Cycle

landscape

Ha!  You thought I was going deep into some high-level physics, right?  This long title is the fancy term for a precipitation process that is the current best hypothesis for the why these structures pictured below form in sedimentary rock.  Known as Liesegang rings, these are composed of precipitating iron oxide embedded in sandstone.  This image was taken at Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee region of south-eastern Illinois, a wonderful place for finding Liesegang rings, but I have also found them on the western side of the state on the sandstone bluffs carved by the Mississippi River.  It’s hard to believe that in this day and age science does not have a firm answer as to why a phenomenon like this occurs.  Do a quick web search and you can find and read multiple hypothesis suggested by chemists over the past century.  This phenomenon has chaos written all over it as there is still no model that can predict every nuance and anomaly despite the work of computer scientists and physicists.  Maybe the answer is not random patterns due to the unpredictable chaos of the natural world.  Maybe there is a hand in this design.  Can you find the depiction of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio?  😉

“Liesegang Rings″
Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 22mm, ISO 160,  f/8, 0.3 sec

What Would YOU Call a 680 Ton Rock?

landscape

Meet Dumbo, probably the largest of the free standing boulders to be found at Elephant Rocks.  I’ve shared images of this beast before.  You can see more photographs of Dumbo and it’s granite pachyderm brethren on my Elephant Rocks State Park Set on Flickr.  I’ve recently started really trying to take my post-processing to the next level.  I have come to believe that I can control what happens to the exposure inside the magic light-capture box almost as well as I could possibly want. I’m not saying I know every trick in the book, but I do not feel that I am missing too much.  Post-processing on the ol’ computer (equivalent of working on prints in the wet dark room of yesterday), I realize I can use some improvements and practice.  So, recently I adopted some new software and set out to better improve my workflow and learn some new tricks on the other side of the negative.  I am NOT saying I want to become a Photoshop/graphic artist, but just desire to be able to control aspects of the file that will allow me to create a final image that best represents my concept of the scene when I hit the shutter release.

What am I getting at and just what does it have to do with this image?  One of the possible adjustments that can be found in the latest versions of Adobe software products is the ability to correct for geometric lens distortion.  This is a very cool correction device that allows issues of wide angle (barrel) and telephoto (pin cushion) distortions, usually seen in at least some respect in any zoom lens, to be easily corrected for in the computer.  Depending on the subject, barrel distortion can be particularly troublesome.  In this photo of Dumbo, I proudly went to ACR’s lens correction tab and hit the go button and looked at the results of the default setting.  All of a sudden the cool, slightly exaggerated perspective of Dumbo was gone.  The image became pretty boring, to be honest.  This was a good lessen for me for a couple of reasons.  First, just as nature photographers might use changes in color-cast, manipulations of tonal range, or cropping unwanted portions of an image, we can also use (or remove) perspective changes from lens distortions to make our desired image.  Second, any of these lens corrections made (vignetting, chromatic aberration, and especially geometric distortion) can and will cause degradation to the quality of the final image.  We must carefully decide what corrections are necessary and use the sliders to make the minimum needed adjustments.  Do not blindly accept the defaults given by the software.  I have not been able to find much to read on this specific topic and I am still learning as I get more practice.

“Dumbo”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 17mm, ISO 160,  f/13, 1/30 sec

The Fabulous Water Mills of Jim Lalumondiere

landscape, Ozark Grist Mills

Several weeks back Sarah and I jumped in the N.E.V. and decided to go put a few more Missouri Ozark water mills on our list.  Armed with a copy George Suggs’ “Water Mills of the Missouri Ozarks”, we decided to go after a few that were closer to home.  The first on the list for the day was the Byrnesville Mill.  After doing some location scouting on Google and Google Maps, I decided to just tell the GPS to take us to the town of Byrnesville, then I would go from there.  Of all the cool things, the GPS led us directly to the mill!  If only all my destinations were this easy.  We pulled into a large drive and I realized quickly we were on private property, with cool farm, pioneer and ruin type structures all around us.  Looking around I see a white-haired gentlemen coming out of one of the buildings.  We strike up a conversation and I let him know what we are looking for.  He goes on to tell us some fascinating stories about the buildings and particularly the Byrnesville Mill.

“Byrnesville Mill, June 2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 35mm, ISO 100,  f/14, 1/13 sec

Jim had bought this mill in 1976 and converted it into a home where he raised a family.  I couldn’t think of a better place to grow up!  This was one of a dozen or more mills along a rather short stretch of the Big River.  Elaborate dams, like the one pictured above, and other containment structures were built with most of these mills in order to efficiently harness the water’s power.  The Big River is a remarkable waterway for Smallmouth Bass fishing and apparently it doesn’t get much better than right outside Jim’s back door.  Talk about envy!  Jim was most gracious and let us walk about the property, including his own personal bridge that the railways used to cross the Big River.  The image below shows some of the fascinating objects one can find by exploring the property.

“Mill & Stone Ruins”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 47mm, ISO 100,  f/13, 0.8 sec

Further conversation with Jim led to the discovery that he also owned the nearby Cedar Hill Mill, which we had planned on visiting as well.  Jim had purchased this mill in 1982 with plans on using it to generate and sell electricity.  This plan did not work out and he has been doing a pretty good job of maintaining it since.  They are currently brainstorming ways that the structure could be used for business.

“Cedar Hill Mill, IR, June-2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 82mm, ISO 640,  f/10, 120 sec

I told Jim about the boom in micro/craft beers and brewery/restaurant style establishments in St. Louis during the past several years.  This building is four stories with part of a river running through it.  Would this not be the perfect place for a little micro brewery and pub!?!?

“Cedar Hill Mill Workings I”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 23mm, ISO 400,  f/10, Photomatix-HDR blend of 8-images

Seriously, just relocate the several thousand mud-daubers and the swallows, but leave everything else as is.  I’ll even name the first brew: Cedar Hill Mill IPA.  Easy.

It is interesting to read and hear about the changes that went through the life cycle of these water mills as diesel and electricity became much more efficient sources of power.  This mill, built in 1876, was first built to mill grain for human consumption.  Jim told me it was also used to mill grain for the pet-food trade and the energy captured was also utilized in the production of ice.

“Cedar Hill Mill Workings II”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF17-40mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 21mm, ISO 320,  f/8, Photomatix-HDR blend of 7-images

“Cedar Hill Mill & Big River Dam, IR, June-2012”
Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 32mm, ISO 640,  f/10, 90 sec

The majority of the water mill structures along this popular stretch of the Big River have fallen to time and ages.  Likewise many of the dams have been breached as can be seen in the above picture.  This was a popular spot on this Sunday afternoon as dozens of people swarm to this spot to swim and fish.  Just as Jim allowed us access inside his mill to take photos, it comes as no surprise he allows his neighbors to use the dam and the river along his property.  With the magic of long-exposure photography, you can see no signs of the several people who were moving along the dam when this image was taken.

Even though Sarah and I could not find a great place for a meal (always a goal of mine during travels) during this trip, meeting Jim and taking some images I’m somewhat happy with was a great way to spend the day.  I can’t wait to visit Jim again, give him a print or two as thanks for allowing us to explore his properties and hopefully make some more memories.