Ideas for places to visit in the Midwest
https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Missouri-Botanical-Garden/i-wKGJpWB/A
Happy Spring! While our local botanical garden is closed (but pictured here), I am seeing people out walking and enjoying the outdoors. In our area the cherry blossoms and magnolias are all open. In my neighborhood the streets are lined with flowing trees luring people out into the fresh air.
One of the best places to observe spectacular sunrises is at the White House Retreat in South St. Louis County. This is on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River valley and early morning risers are rarely disappointed.
The word “reflections” in the heading of this photo is not of the photography sense such as reflections in the water. This is a retreat house where you spend two to three days in silent reflection. The White House Retreat in South St. Louis County is a spectacular place perched on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. You spend time listening to lectures, reading and walking the scenic grounds.
A scenic view in St. Charles County, Missouri. This little shelter over looks what is known as Chesterfield Valley in St. Louis County. The view is spectacular and can be seen in a few previous posts.
A lone woman with her trusty hound hiking through the woods. Actually she is part of the Gumbo Flats Gold Cup event where hounds show off their tracking skills. Today there are “12 couples” (24 Bassets) in field including Missouri’s Three Creek Basset Pack and Okaw Valley Foot Bassets from Ohio. Awards are given to individual hounds. The event is held annually at Strathalbyn Farms Club overlooking the Missouri River in St. Charles County.
I am working on my skills as a portrait photographer so I combined my interests: landscape photography and Basset Hounds and got this. Dixie is standing on an Adirondack Chair in an area overlooking Chesterfield Valley in St. Louis County. Dixie hates cameras and will not look at me.
This was taken with a Nikon D7100 with:
| Lens | AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED |
|---|---|
| Focal Length | 48.0 mm (72.0 mm in 35mm) |
| Aperture | f/5.6 |
| Exposure Time | 0.005s (1/200) |
| ISO | 250 |
Two ladies showing off their Basset Hounds at a rural dog show in Weldon Spring, Missouri. The Bassets here will also show off their tracking skills in a competition pitting the Three Creek Bassets pack against the Okaw Valley pack, taking their handlers through creek beds, under barbwire fencing and up steep hills. It will be a long day.
Opened in 1874, Eads Bridge was the first bridge erected across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive; Eads Bridge is the oldest bridge on the river.
Also, the Eads Bridge is no longer a primary thoroughfare in the metropolitan area. Another is the Martin Luther King Bridge that runs parallel the the Eads and is now closed for repairs. Taking advantage of the closure a group of us walked onto the bridge and headed over to the Illinois side. From there we captured the sunset on our beautiful city.
This is a three shot HDR photo with these settings: 18mm, f9, ISO 250. It is three photos with two stops between image.
St. Louis’ Gateway Arch makes a great subject for photography with endless possibilities. This photo was taken from a viewing platform in East St. Louis, Illinois. The platform gives various heights for a good angle. However, there are power lines and other structures in the way so it is not possible to get a “clean” photo of the St. Louis skyline. This is a three shot HDR photo edited in Lightroom, Aurora HDR and Photoshop. Photoshop was used to remove the obstructions but I did not spend the time to do a clean edit and you can see some lines in the sky. These should be able to be cleaned up.
This is a “go back” place. That is, going back to a favorite location usually give you the opportunity improve your version of the scene.
Yesterday I posted a photo of Fred, a Basset Hound I helped rescue last summer. Here is his sister Ethel. The two were found with no collars, tags or other form of id. While they were in my care they were nameless. They are a bonded pair and stuck to each other like glue so Guardian Angel Basset Rescue, the group that found them their permanent home, named them Fred and Ethel. They are now living in a rural area west of Chicago.
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