Posts Tagged ‘wichita mountains wildlife refuge’

Snow and Ice at Osage Lake

It was the day after Christmas 2009, and two days since the biggest blizzard in over 20 years blanketed Southwest Oklahoma with amounts of snow varying from 2 to 8 inches.  Throughout the area, thin layers of snow lay alongside deep snow drifts, the results of 30-40 mph winds.  There was barely a breeze stirring today; the sky was blue and clear as far as one could see, and warmth from the sun felt so good!  The family had come to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge primarily to get out of the house but also to see the snow on the Refuge.  It was already mid-afternoon so we weren’t expecting to be the first footprints in the snow.  However, we were soon to be disappointed when we discovered that areas such as Boulder and Sunset had not even had their gates opened for access.  We may have been disappointed, but our intent to have fun was not thwarted.  Since we were in two vehicles, I led the group to the Treasure Lake – Post Oak Lake Area because I was confident we could get up the road and there were no gates to be closed, anyway.  Soon we found ourself out of the cars, enjoying the fresh air, the young bison grazing nearby on Indian Grass poking through the snow, and throwing snowballs at each other.  After a good time was had by all, and hands and feet were becoming uncomfortably cold, the family decided to drive to Mamaw’s house for a visit.  I opted to remain in the WMWR in search of interesting photo opportunities.  I was certain I could find some. Read the rest of this entry »

Iron Foot Bridge

Sunday afternoon was beautiful with temperatures into the 60s.  While Sherry, Marcy, Erin, and Mike hiked the Elk Mountain Trail up Elk Mountain located on the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Oklahoma, I stayed at the bottom searching for photographic opportunities in the Sunset Picnic Area.  The old footbridge crossing Headquarters Creek was replaced with a new recently constructed ironwork bridge.  It is being allowed to age naturally.  I think it’s a nice and thoughtful touch.  The dominating red color in the granite and soil of Southwest Oklahoma is due to the high levels of oxidized iron; this oxidized iron bridge is a perfect fit.  The image is a 4 exposure HDR image.  I used a polarizing filter on my Carl Zeis 16-80mm lens to bring out the moss growing on the bottom of the stream.

Reesie Stalks Her Prey!

Throughout most of my life I have learned and practiced my photography skills in solitude.  However, this year I decided I would join our local photography club, “Wichita Wildlight Photographic Society“.  We meet once a month and enjoy being in a room with people who are there because they have some degree of passion for photography.  It’s a real mixture of people, representative of any group of 50 people you might form from the Walmart crowd.  Anyway, back in October, about 20, or so, of us loaded onto a bus at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center for an excursion into the Special Use area.  The Special Use area is closed to the public and contains well over half of the Refuge itself.  I had never been in this section of the WMWR, so I was excited to go even though 3:00 PM is not the best light to for photographs. Read the rest of this entry »

Pac Man

Recently, I was reading “Inner Game of Outdoor Photography”, by the late Galen Rowell, and something he wrote struck a strong chord with me.  In the chapter titled, “The Art of Fixing a Shadow”, he wrote that William Henry Fox Talbot, in 1839 while introducing his invention of photography, referred to it as the “art of fixing a shadow”.  Upon reading those words, everything all my knowledge about photography suddenly melted together in harmony.  Fixing the shadows is truly the art and essence of photography.  The great landscape photographers have always been and always will be putting forth great effort to resolve the issues between light and dark, the highlights and the shadows.  Rendering highlights into a pleasing picture is not difficult, ah, but making the shadows work, that’s the art.

This is what I find fascinating and rewarding about employing high dynamic range (HDR) techniques in my photographs.  This technique is one I have only recently began exploring, but now there are so many, “Aha”, moments I have become intoxicated with the possibilities.  For years I have studied and labored on efforts to solve the issue of correctly representing what I saw in both the highlights and the shadows.  Most of these efforts met with disappointment and even the ones I considered successful failed to fully satisfy.  HDR appears to be the answer with results that bring a great deal of satisfaction and peace with my efforts.