4/1/23

 In my area of Kansas, with the coming of Spring comes Spring burns.  Ranchers and others burn off the prairie grasses to make the new grass emerge more quickly and to also keep unwanted things like Cedar trees from taking over.  I have always wanted to get some photos of this at night.  It is done at night a lot because the winds have a tendency to die down then and it is easier to control.  I finally had a chance this past Tuesday and this is one of the photos I was able to get.  You can see that it looks as if it is a ring of sorts.  They set back fires to keep it under control and they kind of meet together.  I took this image with my Pixel phone and it actually turned out better than my DSLR.  The Night Sight feature on a Pixel makes for some really nice photos in the dark I think.

10/12/19

Autumn is arriving quickly.  When I was out on Konza Prairie a week ago, there were still a few flowers blooming but the hills were mostly dominated by the tall grasses which this type of prairie is known for.  It is lovely to look at in contrast to the blue sky.  This is a 2 shot panoramic image shot along the Nature Trail.  It really needs to be viewed large by clicking on it.

7/27/19

Today's image is from a different time for us when we were getting rain and it was even a bit too much rain.  Everything was lush and green.  Now we have not gotten any rain for weeks and it is all drying up and turning brown.  This is from a beautiful evening out on Konza Prairie on the last day of May.  The sky had a smokey haze to it due to some Canadian wild fires at the time.

7/9/19

I took this image out on Konza Prairie.  I love this tree, it has character to me and I like how it sits alone on the prairie.  There is a Western Meadowlark perched in it that I was able to get a couple of closer images of that you can see if you really look.

6/15/19

Today's image goes back to Konza Prairie and is of the beautiful sunset we had at the end of the Wildflower Walk on June 2.  The clouds over the Flint Hills of the Tallgrass Prairie caught the colors well and made for quite the lovely sky and a great end to the walk.

6/13/19

My image today is of my favorite grass.  I don't know many grasses but have learned to ID some of them by being out at Konza Prairie.  I love this one because of the way the sun highlights it's blooms in the evening.  It is called June Grass and is well named because it blooms in June.  😉

6/10/19

A little over a week ago, on Friday evening I was out at Konza Prairie for the annual Wildflower Walk refresher.  I was able to capture an image of a cooperative Dickcissel, named for their call, that I was pretty happy with.  The only thing that would have made it a bit better would be if it had been calling at the time.

6/8/19

This was last Sunday evening out on Konza prairie.  It was a lovey evening for a walk and the clouds made for an interesting sky over the tallgrass prairie.

8/1/18

This is an image I took this past June on an evening walk out at Konza Prairie.  I liked the light rays in this one and the clouds.

6/8/18

In the summer I get off on Fridays a bit early due to working longer days during the week so posting a bit earlier than usual.  While I was out on Konza Prairie last Friday for the Wildflower Walk refresher I saw one of my favorite grasses just beginning to bloom.  I love how it captures the early evening light.  This is June Grass photographed on June 1. 

4/14/18

So it's wintery out today, looks like snow coming.  Sigh  I am dreaming of summer and warm temps and flowers.  This is an older image that I took out on Konza Prairie one June during the Wildflower Walk that is held every year in the beginning of the month.  The Butterfly Milkweed was blooming nicely at this time.  It will be interesting to see how the wildflowers do this year with the lack of moisture.  We have only had about an inch of rain since last October.  This is a shot panoramic image.

6/10/17

Well, the heat and no rain seemed to have arrived as we are heading up into the 90s for several days.  I took this image a week ago Friday on a beautiful evening out on Konza Prairie.  It's a 2 shot panorama looking east in the setting sun.  People think Kansas is flat but my area is not, it is the Flint Hills due to all the Flint rock found in these hills.  It's a beautiful sight to see all the green open space of the Tall Grass Prairie out at Konza.  The trails in the image were created by the Bison who, unlike cattle, generally walk in a single file line.  Unfortunately they were not visible on this evening, they were most likely down in the valleys. 

5/1/17

Happy May Day!  We still had some rain this morning but hopefully a break for a bit now.  My image today is of a beautiful place in my part of Kansas.  This is Butterfly Hill out on the Konza Prairie when the Butterfly Milkweed was about in full bloom.  It's so lovely to see the oranges and reds everywhere on the hill.  Konza Prairie's Annual Wildflower Walk takes place this year on June 4 and it's a great opportunity to see sights like this and areas you don't normally get to visit.

11/22/16

A bit of rain overnight.  Haven't had any in a while.  Windy out today though so it will all dry up.  Glad it's not snow.  :-)  My image today is of a tree I have photographed out on Konza Prairie a few times.  It sits in an area of the prairie by itself and, to me, has great character.  I decided to shoot it from a bit different angle because from the other point of view I have to deal with power lines.  This is coming from the north up the path towards Butterfly Hill.

11/19/16

So this past week, everyone was talking about the "Supermoon".  To us normal people you can't really tell any difference.  It was only about 15% larger appearing.  If you saw images where it looked really big they were because they were faked, like mine today.  I tried to make mine more realistic and like a scene I had actually seen 2 days before but missed getting a shot of because I was not prepared, I am a bad photographer in that way.  I shot the photos used in this image on the same day.  The moon I shot as it was setting in the morning and then the prairie is a 3 image panorama shot in the late afternoon.  I love the light at this time of day on the prairie grass as it makes the color so vivid.  The moon is a bit larger presented here than it actually was as well.  :-)  Best viewed large, of course, by clicking on it.