Late Night Moon

Recently, I was outside for a late night smoke when I happened to glance up and notice the moon along with the halo that surrounded it. It was after 3AM and debated on whether or not I wanted to bother with getting my camera out, or just go to bed. That debate lasted a whole 20 seconds. With my camera in place on the tripod, I took several pictures at different exposures.

I've taken pictures of only the moon in the past, so decided to use a couple of tree's to be in the foreground with the moon in the background.

Yes, the following two pictures were taken after 3AM with very little light. The wide shot (top picture) was taken with an exposure of 60 seconds while the bottom shot was taken with an exposure of 45 seconds. On all of these I had the ISO set to 100.

Veteran's Memorial: Part 2

I've been to the Veteran's Memorial numerous times, but this was the first since getting the new Canon T4i. I went out there tonight and spent about 30 minutes playing with the different settings. I am quite pleased with the performance of the Canon T4i. Here are some pictures I took at the Veteran's Memorial tonight.

Astrophotography: Part 2

With clear skies and not being too cold, decided to take my camera out and get a few shots of the night sky tonight. I took several shots, but these two were really the only ones I liked.

Trip to Wakita, OK

Wakita, Oklahoma is a  small town that sits along the Kansas/Oklahoma border in north central Oklahoma with a population of about 344 people. The town was put on the map when in 1996 the movie Twister hit theaters.

In the movie, Wakita was the town where Aunt Meg lived and was later destroyed by an F4 tornado. Several scenes in the movie were shot in and around Wakita, most notable was when the town was hit by the tornado and Aunt Meg had to be rescued from her house. To film the shots in Wakita, the production crew were given permission to demolish several buildings in the town to use as debris.

In 2003, on a day I found myself sitting at home being bored, I grabbed my camera and decided to drive to Wakita to check out the Twister Museum and the town itself. After a couple of hours of driving, I made my way into Wakita where I was greeted by their Welcome sign, which isn't the sign you see in the movie.

The town was  pretty much what I had expected, a small and quite town with very few businesses. Most of the businesses that did exist were closed, and very little traffic on the main street.

 And there it was, the Twister Museum. 

The museum has quite a bit of items that were either used in the movie, or was part of the production. One of the items that was donated to them was one of the Dorothy's that was used in the movie.

They were also given one of the sensors that sat inside of Dorothy.

Some other pictures taken at the Twister Museum.

After about an hour of looking around, I decided to go to the location where Aunt Meg's house stood and was used for the movie. The house is gone after it was demolished for the movie, but a part of the house remains on the property marking the location of where the movie was filmed.

At the corner of the property is a plague which reads "Twister movie filmed June 1995 on Elm Street. Location of Aunt Meg's on the west side."

My time in Wakita was coming to an end, I got to talk to a few people hearing their stories about when Twister was filmed there and got to see some cool things. But, before I left there was one more picture to take; the water tower which can be seen in the movie.

As much as I enjoyed the experience and getting to visit Wakita, I was ready for home and it was time to make that long drive.

From Kansas to South Dakota

In 2004 I went on vacation to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore as well as many other attractions along the way. The drive there and back was long, but was worth it getting to see a lot of places that I've never seen before, especially driving through the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. While up there, I spent two nights in Deadwood, SD which was a really cool place to visit. For reasons unknown, which I now regret, I didn't take a single picture while in Deadwood.

I hope to someday make it backup to that area and spend more time exploring and taking pictures, and hope to visit Deadwood again. If you ever get the chance to go up that way, do it. You will get to experience a lot of the natural beauty that is unique to that part of the country.

I ended up taking a ton of pictures during my trip, I went through and picked out just some of the highlights of the trip. Enjoy!

The Rolling Hills of Nebraska is quite amazing to see and be surrounded by. The following pictures were taken up in the NW part of the state and had such an amazing view, it was the perfect spot for setting up a tent and camping, which unfortunately I did not do.

After a long drive, I arrived at Mt. Rushmore. The sheer size of this monument is just spectacular, looking at it in pictures or on TV just can't show how big it is until you're standing beneath it looking up at it.

Not too far from Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial which is also worth checking out if you're up that way. Crazy Horse Memorial mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. Work on this Memorial began in the 1940's and, at least as of 2004, it still was a work in progress.

On the way back I stopped to visit an old "cowtown" where all the buildings had been relocated and setup to look like an old wild west town, the buildings were also in their original 1800's condition. I can't recall if this was in South Dakota, or if this was in Iowa because I think it was pretty close to the border if I remember right. Either way, if you find out where it's located and you have a chance to visit it, I would recommend it.

Miner's Memorial

The Miner's Memorial in Pittsburg was built in honor of the work and lives of the coal miners that worked in the coal mines in the Pittsburg area. One of the features of the Memorial is a large, life-size bronze statue of a coal miner. The lights in the area at night allows for good lightning conditions to get unique shots, definitely a place that is worth checking out.

A Day at Elk Falls

While Elk Falls, KS is off the beaten path and isn't exactly your typical tourist attraction, it does offer a lot of natural beauty. For a long time I've wanted to make the drive there knowing it offered a lot of beauty to photograph, and two years ago I made that drive and spent the day there enjoying the outdoors. From the Elk Falls Waterfall, the 1800's bridge to the old structures in Elk Falls, there is definitely a lot of good photo ops.

If you live within reason of Southeast Kansas and find yourself bored one day, make the drive to Elk Falls and enjoy the natural beauty. Take a camera, because there is a lot of great pictures to be taken there.