Best of Kansas

Photography in Kansas has always been for me problematical. Perhaps it was a childhood during which I crossed the Atlantic twice via ocean liner plus living on one of the Great Lakes that imbued a love for large bodies of water. Maybe it was my later youth living in Colorado and Montana while hiking, backpacking, skiing, and mountaineering that fostered a love for craggy high places. It is probably a combination of the two that leaves the plains lacking in my imagination. It’s not that there is a lack of beauty or a dearth of photogenic subjects; it’s just a matter of what is here failing to markedly inspire me. Nonetheless, I do go out with camera in hand and find scenes and light worthy of my time. Here are some of my favorite Kansas-themed images. Despite my seeming lack of enthusiasm, some of my best work has been done here.

The night sky fascinates me with its sense of vastness and timelessness. This is the arch at Monument Rocks in western Kansas. Gove County, Kansas, July 2011

Except during inclement weather, a nightly spectacle at the Keeper of the Plains is the lighting of firepots surrounding the base of the sculpture.

At some points along the Arkansas River flowing through downtown Wichita. Here, I’ve heightened the effect with a four-shot multiple exposure, the lens zoomed out a bit between each exposure. February, 2010

Sunflowers beneath a clear blue sky, photographed west of Newton in 2010

At some points along the Arkansas River flowing through downtown Wichita. Here, I’ve heightened the effect with a four-shot multiple exposure, the lens zoomed out a bit between each exposure. February, 2010

Chisholm Creek Park is close to my residence in Wichita, thus a frequent subjet for my work.

Exposing for the brilliance of the evening sky in the Flint Hills underexposes the foreground to black, yielding a bi-tonal abstract scene.

The wind farm at Beaumont is here juxtaposed against a brilliant sky shortly after sunset.

Castle Rocks, southwest of WaKeeney, is a chalk outcropping punctuating the prairie. Due to wind and water erosion, the relatively soft chalk is constantly changing.

The myriad shapes at Castle Rocks yield some interesting compositions.

The last rim of the sun sets brilliantly over the Flint Hills.

The Lower Fox Creek School opened its doors in September 1884 and saw its last students in 1930. The land and the school are now part of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, the flowers are sticky asters, a member of the sunflower family. October, 2012

The Wichita skyline reflected in the Arkansas River flowing at flood stage.

Crepuscular rays light the sky in the Flint Hills southwest of Pratt, Kansas.

As the sun rises over Chase County Fishing Lake a Great Blue Heron makes its way across the water.

Morning mist hangs over the banks of the Chase County Fishing Lake near Cottonwood Falls.

At the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers in Wichita the focal point is Black Bear Bosin’s iconic sculpture, “Keeper Of The Plains”.

Evening skies and a low sun penetrating my scene from below the cloud cover dramatically illuminates and colors these storm clouds and the wheat fields east of Wichita.

The night sky fascinates me with its sense of vastness and timelessness. This is the arch at Monument Rocks in western Kansas. Gove County, Kansas, July 2011

Except during inclement weather, a nightly spectacle at the Keeper of the Plains is the lighting of firepots surrounding the base of the sculpture.

At some points along the Arkansas River flowing through downtown Wichita. Here, I’ve heightened the effect with a four-shot multiple exposure, the lens zoomed out a bit between each exposure. February, 2010

Sunflowers beneath a clear blue sky, photographed west of Newton in 2010

At some points along the Arkansas River flowing through downtown Wichita. Here, I’ve heightened the effect with a four-shot multiple exposure, the lens zoomed out a bit between each exposure. February, 2010

Chisholm Creek Park is close to my residence in Wichita, thus a frequent subjet for my work.

Exposing for the brilliance of the evening sky in the Flint Hills underexposes the foreground to black, yielding a bi-tonal abstract scene.

The wind farm at Beaumont is here juxtaposed against a brilliant sky shortly after sunset.

Castle Rocks, southwest of WaKeeney, is a chalk outcropping punctuating the prairie. Due to wind and water erosion, the relatively soft chalk is constantly changing.

The myriad shapes at Castle Rocks yield some interesting compositions.

The last rim of the sun sets brilliantly over the Flint Hills.

The Lower Fox Creek School opened its doors in September 1884 and saw its last students in 1930. The land and the school are now part of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, the flowers are sticky asters, a member of the sunflower family. October, 2012

The Wichita skyline reflected in the Arkansas River flowing at flood stage.

Crepuscular rays light the sky in the Flint Hills southwest of Pratt, Kansas.

As the sun rises over Chase County Fishing Lake a Great Blue Heron makes its way across the water.

Morning mist hangs over the banks of the Chase County Fishing Lake near Cottonwood Falls.

At the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers in Wichita the focal point is Black Bear Bosin’s iconic sculpture, “Keeper Of The Plains”.

Evening skies and a low sun penetrating my scene from below the cloud cover dramatically illuminates and colors these storm clouds and the wheat fields east of Wichita.

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