You Need To Change Your Feed - we have moved

Our new blog site is at blog.johngirtphotography.com, or you can use the shorter URL blog.jandmg.com.


You will find a complete set of all previous blogs there. If you wish to change your curent feed, the replacement link will be blog.jandmg.com/wp-rss.php, blog.jandmg.com/wp-rss2.php, or blog.jandmg.com/wp-atom.php depending on your reader.


Hope to see you all there.


BTW Peculiar is a small town south of Kansas City just off US Highway 71. Apparently it was so-named by a Washington bureaucrat when the Postmaster of the yet un-named settlement reported that 'nothing peculiar happens here.'

Prairie Wildflowers, June 10, 2011

Four years ago I sowed a sunny, clay bank on my property at Kingsville, Missouri with a seed mixture of native Prairie wildflowers and Prairie grasses. This year, I took these photos of the result to demonstrate the exuberance of tall grass prairie in late spring and early summer. 

View more photos of Prairie wildflowers taken at Kingsville this time of year at www.imagesmidwest.com

Exhibit, Unitarian Gallery, Kansas City June 5 to July 1, 2011

This image attracted most comments yesterday at the opening of my exhibition of photographs at the Unitarian Gallery, 4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri. I took the shot as the only way of eliminating cars from any street shot in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The small town has a wonderful and contiguous collection of homes from Tudor Times, but the residents as well as visitors clutter the place with their cars and spoil the atmosphere.


To make the shot more interesting, I applied what is called a bleach bypass to desaturate the colors.


All the photos that I show at the exhibit can be viewed on my website using this link, from where you can visit any of the other albums that I have posted on my web sites.

Broadway Bridge Album

 After finishing my last blog on a photo of the Broadway Bridge crossing the Missouri River in Kansas City, I realised that I had taken some other shots in the same vicinity back in March 2010. After working on some of these shots, I have put together a new album on Images of the MidWest of photos of the Bridge and the area it straddles. 

You can go directly to this album by clicking on this Blog's title.

Fog and Kansas City's Broadway Bridge

The morning of February 16, 2011 was very foggy - it cleared in Kansas City around midday, but before then I had toured the Downtown looking for photographic opportunities. The fog  turned a photo of a fairly 'basic' but functional bridge across the Missouri River into something more memorable. 


You will be able to view a larger version of this photo by clicking here and selecting image 6.

The original shot shown on the left shows the power of photo cropping to give the illusion of the photographer standing in a completely different location. I think that converting the image to black and white was another improvement.

I also took this shot. I waited in vain for a train to come, but the shape of the tree and its location is interesting.


You will also be able to view a larger version of this photo by going to the same album that contains the photo of the Bridge and selecting image 12.

Missouri Photo Trip 4 - from Kansas City to Lexington

You can run this trip in either direction and begin on either bank. I am starting from the outskirts of Kansas City and running east along the north bank, and after crossing the river at Lexington returning westwards. You need to follow the locations on a map as all sites are off major roads. Facilities are available long the south bank, and, of course, in Kansas City and the town of Lexington.

Missouri City, a small village with an imposing name, has an interesting main street with this remnant of a hotel.

On the south road back to the main highway from Missouri City, a small road leads to an old cemetery with some magnificent trees. This shot and all the later ones in this blog was shot on January 2, 2009 so that the trees lack leaves. This gave me the opportunity to work the shot over in Adobe Photoshop, eliminating the color and reserving the black and white to make this dramatic, if a trifle erie picture. A little sepia toning also helped. This shot is posted on my web site in the Rural Scenes Album - use this link

There is not a lot of photographic interest further along this bank of the Missouri but after crossing to Lexington and taking the road closest to the river back on the other side there is an interesting mixture of villages with 'Franco-Anglo- Bellum' names - Wellington, Napoleon, Waterloo. The next shot was taken on the eastern edge of Napoleon. The last time that I checked, the implements were still there, but you may have difficulty in finding them as the shot distorts their real size. 

This shot is posted in my Missouri River Album on my web site - use this link. Again I have 'improved' the shot by converting to black and white with a sepia tone and, in this case, a vignette to make it appear much older than it really is.

 

There are many places along the road where you can approach the railway tracks on foot and get close to the relatively frequent coal trains as they thunder by. It is fascinating to watch the rails bend under the weight of each car.

There are many opportunities to view the river and to photograph interesting trees. The one below was taken as the sun was going down in Sibley, just outside Fort Osage, a reconstructed 18th. century fort that you can visit.

By the way, Lexington is worth a blog to itself. It has fine, old residences, a civil war battlefield, a county court with a civil war cannon ball still lodged in its facade, etc. May be next summer.

Tractor Shot

It's funny, you would think that photo trips in January in Missouri would be a bust, but I do find success. This blog, and the next one that I should complete this weekend, show some examples of shots that benefit from the low light with pronounced red tones that the sun casts this time of year, and the bareness of a dried up landscape with no leaves on most trees and shrubs.

There is not much to say about this shot. It was taken on the edge of Chilhowee, Missouri on January 6, 2011 at 3:12 PM with my Nikon D300 using my Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 using 1/400 sec at f/5.6 with ISO set at 200. It also works well when the image is toned and posterized. The shot below uses a red tone but it works in any number of colors.

If you would like a copy of the shot use this link to order from my web site. The complete set of images from the original shot of the tractor can be seen at my new site www.imagesmidwest.com

December 27, 2010

 We awoke this morning to an outside temperature of 17 degrees fahrenheit (-8 celcius), a slight mist, little or no wind, and ice crystals over everything outside.

I took these wonderful shots before the sun came out ....

and the crystals melted away.

Merry Christmas and All the Best for 2011

The photo was taken last February on State Highway 150 east of its junction with Highway 7 in Johnson County, Missouri, USA. It looks quite different now and not very photogenic as most of the trees have gone.


Looking for a last minute Christmas card to send quickly? You could use send a no cost e-card of this photo from my web site - clicking here will get you directly to the correct album. I have not included my name on the photo’s greeting. Once you have loaded the photo you can create an e-card by clicking on the fifth icon from the left on the grey bar.

Once again enjoy your Christmas, I will be in touch soon.

John

Missouri Photo Trip 3 - South Bank of Missouri River from I70 South to Jefferson City

September 18, 2010 - trip length from I70 at Boonville approximately 3.5 hours. Note the first and the last two shots were taken earlier this summer.

In contrast to Trip 1 along the other bank of the Missouri, this one has many 'historic' features. The area has not experienced the 'suburban invasion' of Columbia, and its hills have kept large corporate farms away, except in the flood plain of the Missouri. There are many old homes, this one is outside Prairie Home on Highway 87 near its junction with highway 179 - the house can be found in this album on my web site.

Like the other bank, access to the Missouri is quite restricted. The next shot was taken at Lupus -  this is the link to the album on the River where it is stored.

Lupus has less than 50 occupants. It has a few interesting homes mainly because, like homes in the Florida Keys, the ground floors contain little or no rooms, and some houses are literally on stilts - presumably because the area flooded frequently (perhaps it still does). Go to this link for more information about Lupus.

The charm of the trip is not determined by the River but by the lush vegetation, and the many ruined and old homes and barns that present many opportunities for interesting photos. Some follow - all are found in this album.

If you leave the paved highways you will find yourself almost enveloped in places by trees - almost like country lanes in England but without the congestion!

On your trip you may find interesting relics like these cars on Range Road near Lupus - now stored in my Automobilia Album.

And the usual inhabitants, like this Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly (minus one tail) - now in my Birds, Butterflies and Other Insects Album -although people on a fine Saturday morning were few and far between.

You will find the usual closed but picturesque stores in Wooldridge and Lupus, the main but small settlements on this stretch of the River. I will publish a separate blog on Wooldridge as it contains an interesting remant of an unidentified building. Suffice here to mention this shot taken just outside of Wooldridge in the River Bottom. As in all the River's flood plain, agriculture dominates. The only extensive exceptions to this rule are the Kansas City area, and where the State has established conservation areas for enhancing waterfowl migration. This shot is part of my Missouri River album .

After Lupus you can drive to Jamestown passing a pretty chapel at Mt. Zion on the way - the photo is now part of my Churches Album. You may have better luck in Jamestown, on two occasions the interesting-looking antique stores there were closed, and I drove on to Marion.






Marion has a nice view of the Missouri from its Landing - now part of my Missouri River Album.

After Marion, you can continue to drive on Highway 179 to the State Capital, Jefferson City, in time for a late lunch as there is a very limited range of active services since leaving the I70 corridoor.

This photo is of the Capitol Building is found in my rural Scenes, Kansas and Missouri Album, as I could not find anywhere else to place it. The album also contains a couple of photos that I took in Wooldridge.

I would rate this trip as 3 out of 5 stars, as the landscape is quite lush and charming off the main roads. I would give it a similar rating for photographic opportunities as you can be sure to bring home a few pictures that you will be proud of from the trip. Combining it with a visit to Jefferson City could raise the score for you.

Missouri Photo Trip 2 - The Missouri River in downtown Kansas City

What is wrong with this image?

It is 11:16 AM on Sunday, August 22, 2010, the weather is great, but where are the people? The few that I met on the path along the bank of the Missouri River in downtown Kansas City appeared to come from the warehouse condos in the area. 

The next photo, taken 180 degrees from the first, explains part of the problem. The area is dominated by rail lines, railway companies are 'king.' The same enterprises that could turn the area into an exciting place to visit. Even on a Sunday trains are frequent, but nothing about where they are coming or going, what they are carrying, and few spots to view them safely up close. 

Some efforts are being made to open up the area - see the next photo. This underpass is around the Lift Bridge shown above - made by engineers to be as 'safe as houses.' Try it at 90 or 95 degrees without sunglasses - it's like a tanning bed.

Or how about the fishing facilities? The River is deep and fast moving, the engineering solution appears to be to cut people's access to it, but they do not succeed - the now limited access is itself a hazard.

Concrete and stones do not by themselves make for a nice environment. Let's get some people focussed reconstruction going. More information, dynamic if possible, about what is going on and what went on in the past, exercise equipment, a fishing pier, better areas to view the trains, pedestrian walkways across the bridges, organized parking, and a bus route or two. There is no place to get even a drink - there will be a need to subsidize and otherwise nurture any commercial activities until the place gets going. I did see one 'Johnny on the Spot!'


Bridging the Missouri River was the challenge and Kansas City grew because it provided it. The River, the Kansas River that joins it here, the bridges, and the location in the middle of the United States are the reasons the railways focus here, and Kansas City is what it is today. 


Why are there no museum facilities down here building on this? Why are the railway companies so silent? The City Market is close by. Are its merchants encouraged to extend their commercial interests down to the river bank? What about art and craft fairs, or the involvement of the nearby artist community? Why not create a Center with the involvement of all the organizations that I have mentioned and more? If one is in the planning stages why not broadcast it in the area? It would be something to be proud of.


To my mind the area ranks two out of five stars for the first, non-photographic visit, but nothing for return visits until it is improved. As for photographic opportunities, it does rank higher, say three or four stars out of five as the area offers some opportunities for interesting photos, particularly when the visit is extended into the The Bottoms, the original industrial/commercial heart of the city nearby. Visit my web site to see what I mean.