Osage City train bridge

Traveled out to Osage City, Missouri to take some photos of trains crossing the bridge over the Osage River at sunset for a Rural Missouri story on train traveling. Shot from an abandoned grain elevator about 80 feet off the ground. Then headed along the tracks to shoot the trains as they passed by at sunset. Was lucky to get a freight train and an Amtrak to come through at very nice light. Will be traveling on the trains back and forth between Kansas City and St. Louis next week. Enjoy!

Summer is upon us

Going through my archives today trying to think of covers to shoot for Rural Missouri and found this image. Taken a few summers ago in Boone County of some coneflowers in a field. Really makes me excited for summertime. As I sit in my office editing images I am getting antsy for warm weather, float trips and warm nights. Spending the evening outside though again as I head back to Osage City to shoot some photos of the Amtrak train passing over the Osage River for a spread I am working on train traveling. Check back soon!

Derecho edits

Images that didn't make it into print for my spread in May's Rural Missouri - A Changed Landscape: A year after the Derecho.

Aerial view of damage taken in February of 2010. For 45 minutes winds in excess of 90 mph pummeled the woods of Southern Missouri causing over 100,000 acres of downed timber.

Clark Hinkel runs a chainsaw on a damaged property east of Fredericktown, Missouri.

Trying to make order out of chaos.

A claw grapple on a skidder.

Logger Steve Toppins attaches logs to his skidder.

Toppins attaches a choker to help skid out logs.


Toppins mans the log skidder away from mangled tree remnants a year after the derecho.

A logging truck races by a downed tree along Highway 72 near Bunker, Missouri.

Thousands of logs sit untouched at Missouri Tie and Timber in Bunker, Missouri.

Processing logs at the sawmill.





A destroyed cabin in Reynolds County.

Spring Thunderstorms in Boone County

Spotted this barn off of Highway 124 in Boone County on the way back from a Morel mushroom/wildflower photo hunt at the Pinnacles Youth Conservation Area. A storm started rolling in to the south. While Columbia got down poured on, I had some epic clouds to work with.

Madison County Sunrise

Before heading out on the trail to Cathedral Canyon for a shoot for Rural Missouri I couldn't resist stopping and snapping some shots of this barn. I had a great warming sun coming over the hills above the St. Francis River and a perfect subject. Mornings like this one make me not miss the mountains as much. I long for the west all the time but I love Missouri way too much to leave her. Out west it is hard to not take a bad photo but here in Missouri we do not have the large, grand vistas and valleys and peaks as the Rockies, so the creative eye must work harder. I love doing this because it really works my photographic ability and allows me to slow down and look at beauty on any level. So no offense to my buddies living the mountain life, which I am jealous of, but I'll keep my Missouri for a while.

This first image is actually a composite of two images. One exposed for the sky and one for the foreground and gate. I combined the two and erased some of one layer. I could have just done this in HDR, but sometimes HDR conversion through Photoshop looks funky so I opted out. I really need to get Photomatikix Pro or something like that.


Also a thanks to everyone who follows me. The past few weeks I have seen some great support from my friends and admirers and really appreciate it. You are the real reasons I am constantly out there shooting. Nothing makes me more happy to show people beautiful scenes or an awesome place to check out.

Cheers!

Spring bloom at Missouri Botanical Garden

Before heading back to Columbia to finish May's issue of Rural Missouri I spent the morning shooting some of the tulips, daffodils, and all kinds of other flowers in bloom.

Spring Thunderstorm in Central Missouri

A fairly active thunderstorm rolled through Central Missouri but really did not produce much in the way of lightning bolts in the Columbia area. Headed out east of town on New Haven Road and Rangeline. Found this old barn. Would like to shoot there again on another evening.

Cathedral Canyon

Just west of Fredericktown, off of Highway E near the St. Francis River runs Lower Rock Creek. Most of the creek runs through private property but you can access a small area called Cathedral Canyon. What used to be an easy 1-mile hike in quickly turned into a rough bushwhacking trek through downed timber from last May's derecho that devastated a large portion of Southern Missouri (check out my article in next month's Rural Missouri Magazine!). Regardless of the down timber, the area is extremely abundant with native witch-hazel. Awesome hike and must visit for any hiker wanting to really get out and feel Missouri wildlands.