Photos of the Day

It is now officially fall and the weather appears to be changing to more fall like conditions this weekend. This is a great time to start planning for where you want to go to photograph and capture the fall colors. Where I live in the central part of Illinois across the river from St. Louis MO. may not be considered the best place in the country to photograph beautiful fall landscapes, but there are some amazingly beautiful scenes to be captured. I just have to work a little harder to find and capture those scenes.

Sugar Creek Bridge located near Glenarm IL.

The Sugar Creek Bridge is located in Southern Sangamon County IL. just south of Springfield near the small town of Glenarm. This is one of the only covered bridges left in Illinois and is on the National Historic Register. This is about an hour north of where I live and I have photographed this bridge in all the seasons.

Administration Bldg. Pere Marquette State Park

This log building is the administration building located at the entrance to Pere Marquette State Park located just north of Grafton, Illinois. Located on the bluffs overlooking the Illinois River, This beautiful park is a great place to capture the colors of fall. To get to this park from my house you drive Route 100 along the Mississippi River. This route is designated as one of top 100 most scenic drives in the country. It is a great drive, but in the fall it is stunning.

The biggest problem for me is not having enough time to get out and photograph all this scenery. As the days get shorter I am usually confined to weekends to get out, and there is always other things to do. Also the weather in the mid-west can affect the colors and duration of the season. Many times fall is short and drab due to unfavorable weather. The beautiful scenery is there for me, I just have to get out there and work harder to capture it.

Photos of the Day

I was excited to get an email yesterday from the Nature Conservancy advising me I had recevied an honorable  mention award for the photograph below that I had submitted for their 2009 Photo Contest.The photos was taken in June 2009 while I was visiting Teton National Park in Wyoming. I was trying to be creative with this landscape shot. These clumps of yellow wild flowers were blooming in the sage brush range land that fronts the Teton Mountains. Laying on my stomach and using my elbows to steady this I got as close as I could to create the dramatic effect of the flowers dominating the foreground. Shot with a Canon 50D, a 17-40mm f4 L lens at 29mm. Settings were f22, 1/90 sec. ISO 400. Well I didn't win any prizes, but I can at least brag about it, right? There were over 22,000 submissions for this years contest from all over the world. Here is the link to The Nature Conservancy's page with all the winning photos.

http://support.nature.org/site/PageServer?pagename=bestnature2009_ph6&autologin=true

Another one of my favorite landscape photos was taken on that road trip this past June. The photo below was taken in Cody, Wyoming. There is an attraction in Cody called Old Trail Town. It is a collection of 26 buildings that were built between 1879 - 1901. The buildings have been brought to this site from various locations out west. Some of them would be pretty well known to anyone familiar with history. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's "Hole in the Wall Gang" cabin is located in Old Trail Town now. As I wandered around trying to create something creative, storm clouds were begining to form quickly and the light was starting to go. I found this old wagon and piles of wheels out behind the main row of buildings. I did have my tripod for this shot and I got low to the ground and as close as I could to create this composition. With the tripod I was able to go to ISO 100. Canon 50D, 17-40mm, at 19mm. Shot at f16 and 1/20 second.  This ended up being my best photo from Old Trail Town. Here is their site.  http://www.imt.net/~stan/trltown.html

Doing landscape photography in the area I live is more challenging, but there is plenty of scenery to shoot. It may not be majestic mountain ranges or dramatic vistas, but it has a beauty all it's own. You just have to be there for the good light and create the best composition possible.  This shot was taken at Pere Marquette State Park that is north of Grafton, Illinois, along the Illinois River. This is the office for the park rangers and it sits just inside the main entrance. Now the problem here was the harsh mid-day light. There were actually dozens of visitors taking photos of the building and walking all over the place. I noticed the reflection in the water and got down low to get as much of it as possible. This was shot using Canon's 10-22mm super wide angle lens. Shot at 10mm, f16, 1/45 second, ISO 200. I shot this hand held so it is not as sharp as I would like, but still happy with the results for a spur of the moment photograph. The Great River Road along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is one of the most highly rated scenic drives in the country. Here is a link.

http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/PARKS/R4/PEREMARQ.HTM