Roaring River
For as long as I can remember I’ve had fond memories of Roaring River. My parents took us there regularly, either for the afternoon or for a weekend of camping. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but something about this state park always makes me feel good and relaxed…it’s just a nice place. This past weekend we took the girls for a fun afternoon with their cousins.
We walked up to the big spring and admired the large trout and cold clear water.
It’s unknown how deep the spring is. Divers have explored back as far as 200-300 feet I believe but never any further. I love the clear blue water!
The girls taking a shoulder ride!
We decided to try and do a trail… everyone had a great time!
Eily-Beth went for her first swing ride! As you can see, she loved it!
Photo of the Week #7: Snow
This has been a very warm winter, a nice contrast from this time last year, but we have managed to get a wee bit of snow. When I came home for lunch we went outside and played a bit and I managed to take a few photos. Last year when it snowed it was roughly 30 degrees colder, and the snow was 3 feet deep, so Emma wasn’t enjoying it. However this year she found it to be quite a good time!
Photo of the Week #6: Old Stone Wall
I’ve been busy and sick and we’ve had bad weather so it’s not surprising I’ve missed a week! Nevertheless here is a photo I took of an old deteriorating stone wall the other day while out and about with Emma.
I decided to take her to the waterfall along Spring River at Kellogg Lake park in Carthage. I drive past it all the time but have never stopped to investigate. Turns out it’s a kind of a neat area! This, as with many other things in Carthage is a reminder of how things used to be done. It’s pretty rare to see a wall such as this made of rectangular cut stones. These days at best you may see retaining wall blocks, but most commonplace is just a poured slab of concrete.
Not one of those “wow” photos, but I still think it’s interesting.
Photo of the Week #4: Barn at Sunset
Here is the first, though probably not the last photo I’ll post of my barn. This, as many of my photos are the result of having my camera with me at just the right time, rather than picking a subject and waiting for the perfect scene to occur.
I added a gradient neutral density effect in Lightroom because I still have yet to but an actual ND grad filter.
24mm, ISO 500, 1/40sec @ f/5.6
Photo of the Week #3 – Firery Sunrise
This week I had a nice problem to deal with – choosing between several photos to post of my photo of the week. The other morning I managed to shoot 3 completely different, but interesting photos and had a hard time selecting which one I liked the best. I ended up with this one because I like the vibrant color and the subtle tree branches that almost get lost in the bright sunrise through the fog. The first couple shots I took more to the right of the sun, but in this shot I actually included the sun in the frame, which I like.
Although the photo strikes me as fairly warm, it was a quite chilly morning.
105mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/250sec @ f/10
Emma’s First Bears Game
Tuesday night was a much anticipated night, for me at least. I took Emma to her first bears game. I think she mainly went because I promised to buy her some mint ice cream, but nevertheless it was fun to see her dressed in her bear-wear (even though I forgot to put mine on amidst the excitement).
Emma got to see the bears defeat the Salukis of Southern Illinois and from pretty good seats I might add! We met up with my friends Bridget and Andy, who are also loyal bears fans.
Photo of the Week #2: Eily’s Reflection
Well it’s only the second week of this project and I’ve already broken my self imposed rule of posted primarily artsy or nature photos rather than cute photos of my kids as the photo of the week. 
But I found this shot both cute and interesting and it’s my project so I can post whatever I feel like.
The reason I find this interesting is because in Eily’s eye you can see the reflection of my silhouette taking her photo and the flash illuminating the doors and part of the ceiling. For some reason I’ve always found it interesting to look at the reflections in people’s eyes or sunglasses to see the subject’s perspective at the time the photo was taken.
Aside from that it’s just a cute photo…
Photo of the Week #1: Hayes Spring
This year I am going to attempt to take and post a ‘photo of the week’. Considering there are many weeks I don’t have tons of time, they may not all be great or even good, but it should be a fun project nonetheless! Feel free to critique my selections!
To get things started I’ll post this shot I took a couple days ago while taking Eily on her first hike. We went with Grant and Gavin on a short afternoon stroll at Hayes Spring Conservation Area. You may recall, this is the same place I took Emma a couple months ago back in the fall. It was certainly more scenic in fall, but it was also nice even on this mild winter afternoon.
On this outing I was playing around with a 28mm prime lens Grant let me borrow. Here are the settings for the image:
28mm, 1/60 sec @ f/11, ISO 250
Sepia effect in Lightroom
The Winter Landscape
Winter in Missouri can be a pretty drab time considering most of the undeveloped landscape in the state is either farmland or deciduous forest. Even in spite of that I find the bleak winter landscape enjoyable. I like the change from the almost baroque greenery of the spring and summer months to the more muted browns, greys and yellows. One exception to the rule is waterways, or at least the one near my house. In the cold of winter, the water typically becomes clearer and more blue.
The winter landscape can be messy, especially in forested areas hit hard by the ice storms of recent years, but it can also be more interesting with the foliage no longer hiding the contents of the forest from view.
Probably the most annoying thing about winter is scraping frost off my windshield in the morning. I absolutely hate that!
Flash Photography
My camera does not have a built in flash and I’ve never been a fan of flash photography so I didn’t buy one to go with the camera. Also, since cinematography (my degree) deals only with constant source lighting, I am relatively uneducated about exposing when a flash, or multiple flashes are involved.
I recently borrowed a friend’s flash just to play around with it and I’ve been really enjoying it. I don’t like the flat in your face flash snapshot look, so I usually point the flash at the ceiling or a wall, which usually gives me nice, or at least interesting results. If I ever decide to buy a flash, I’ll probably also buy or make some diffusion to go along with it. I’ve already envisioned a device that would bounce a little bit of the flash straight at the subject while letting most of the flash hit the ceiling or walls for indirect light.
Here is an shot where I was playing around with the flash. It’s mainly just an excuse to show off my cute baby girl.
Settings:
1/100sec @ f/1.4, 35mm, ISO 100.