Washington County State Fishing Lake

Here are some shots taken at the Washington County State Fishing Lake in northeast Kansas (does anybody but me think the name "...County State Fishing Lake" sounds funny?). Looked like we just missed a fire, but a few spots were still smoking which made for some nice shots. The picture shown at the left is a 3 shot HDR (high dynamic range). I decided to do an HDR of this scene to be able to record both the detail in the trees and the wonderful color of the sky. The dynamic range of the scene was too great for a single shot to work (unless you used split neutral density filters). Shooting an HDR (or using filters) is often the only way you can capture the dynamic range that the human eye can see.

HDR's are not difficult to do. You need to bracket your exposures when you shoot, I normally will bracket 3-5 shots in 1 stop intervals depending on the scene. There are a number of software programs that will combine the shots into 1. I use primarily Photomatix or Enfuse directly from Lightroom. There are plenty of options out there though. You also need to watch out for movement between your shots, either you moving or your subject moving. You will get the best results using a tripod, though you can make handheld HDR shots work. Wind can really cause problems as well.

Sunflowers, sunflowers, and more sunflowers

I really wanted to get out and photograph some sunflower fields this summer and thanks to KonzaDocent and this photo on flickr, I headed over to Washington County, KS. Wow! My Dad and I found 2 huge, beautiful fields of commercial sunflowers. We also lucked into a beautiful full moon rising over the fields. It was a great evening to be out.

Some of my photos from this evening can be viewed here.

Enjoy!

Washington County Wheat fields

I was recently up in Washington County shooting some wheat fields before they were harvested. Some of the photos from the trip can be found here.

In the last photo of this group you note that the sky is pastel colored. This is the "belt of Venus", which is a pinkish glow in the sky near sunset or sunrise.

Enjoy!

Washington County Wheat Fields

It seems like every summer I plan to photograph some wheat fields (I am in Kansas after all!) and always manage to find the fields I want to photograph have already been harvested. This year I did manage to get some photos of some wheat fields during a recent trip to Washington County, Kansas with my Dad. At the end of the evening we found a pasture with an amazing display of wildflowers and then were treated to a beautiful view of the sunset with a windmill in the foreground to photograph. You can view the shots from this trip here.