Saturday, February 6, 2010
Bartlett Arboretum - Autumn into Winter
Click to view images of the arboretum
A visual oasis in the heart of Kansas farm country, the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine was established in 1910, fell into disorder over the decades, and is now undergoing restoration under the stewardship of Robin Macy.
Robin, a former and founding member of the Dixie Chicks, a high school mathematics teacher, and a champion of trees, is spending much of her time restoring the arboretum as a visually stunning educational resource for Kansas.
The arboretum restoration project can accept tax-exempt donations and is always interested in volunteers who like to garden. The web address is http://www.bartlettarboretum.com.
Bartlett Aboretum images obtained mostly during recent Autumn and Winter outings are posted on my web site. My site is not affiliated with the arboretum, but I strongly believe in the value of the project.
The image at the top of this post is a large maple tree growing at the Bartlett Arboretum.
Labels: Bartlett Arboretum trees Kansas Belle Plaine
Monday, January 18, 2010
Kansas Country
Click to visit Kansas Countryside gallery
I grew up in California, so photographically speaking Kansas has been something of a challenge for me... at least until recent years.
With more rain and milder summer and autumn weather, the Kansas I have lived in for more than two decades is changing. Brown fields under piercing-clear blue summer skies have been replaced with green fields filled with wild flowers that bloom well into September.
Photographically, this means richly clouded blue skies over lush, green, meadows liberally sprinkled with wild yellow sunflowers, other daisies, and other wild flowers.
If this weather change persists, then Kansas' new policy of less frequent and more conservative mowing along country roads should combine to make Kansas country a destination for photographers interested in scenic landscape and wild flowers.
And of course, this landscape is populated with an abundance of livestock which are also featured in many of these images.
Kansas country images obtained mostly during the last two autumns in south central Kansas are posted on my Kansas Countryside Gallery. Some of these will be on display at the Up Front Gallery, 412 East Douglas (near the northeast corner of Douglas and Topeka), for the January 2010 Final Friday crawl in Wichita. 316 262 2435.
The image at the top of this post is an unpainted barn near Augusta, Kansas.
Labels: barns, countryside, Kansas, livestock, pasture, sunflowers, wildflowers
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Flowers unpainted
Click to view Black and White Flower gallery
While in college I read Ansel Adams' photography books and spent hours in bathrooms with tape around the doors to hide from light while I developed film and printed images. After I found steady work and could afford a real darkroom, time was too short to spend processing film and printing pictures. In fact, time was often too short to take pictures at all.
Decades later Canon, among others, makes cameras that produce images comparable to film, Epson manufactures desktop printers that use the same inks and paper as larger commercial units, and software such as Lightroom and Photoshop have replaced the darkroom for all but the most conservative photographic purists.
These technical advances along with the inevitability of retirement, led my return to photography where I marveled at the beauty of color images, first of flowers then of animals and scenic landscapes that I had neither the equipment nor skill to create when I first began making prints.
Nevertheless, I remain intrigued with the monochromatic shapes, textures, and patterns that characterize black and white photography and have posted a gallery of floral images in black and white rather than in color.
The image at the top of this post is, to my belief, that of a Star of Bethlehem, but I remain open to correction from any botanical-minded individual who has a different opinion.
Labels: Bethlehem Flower, black and white, flowers, photography
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