Ideas for places to visit in the Midwest
A quiet morning on Lake Michigan. This bay is shallow so there is limited boat traffic and sitting on the dock watching the sunrise is a must for this area. Also this is a bay which keeps the waves down. This is a three shot HDR photo taken on a tripod. See my HDR tutorial for more information: https://greatriversimaging.com/hdr/
One of my favorite places to visit is the Northwoods of Wisconsin. This is an area in northern Wisconsin containing thousands of lakes surrounded by forests. This setting coupled with extended sunrises, sunsets and calls of the Loons makes this an ideal place to getaway and relax.
Here is a dock on Fishtrap Lake new Boulder Junction. To see my complete set of Northwoods photos see: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Northwoods/. Be sure to click the little triangle at the top right of the page to start the slide show.
Scenic Pontiac, Illinois promotes it past association with the old Route 66. This town has a number of annual events and museums commemorating its past glory days. Also, they have these wonderful nostalgic scenes painted on walls around town.
These are iPhone 6s photos processed in Snapseed.
How do you get interesting photos of places that are hard to get into? My suggestion is get involved with groups that have regular photowalks. Check their schedules for events that would be of interest to you. Groups that have photowalks are camera clubs, private instructors and camera stores.
For this and a few other photos on this page, I attended a photowalk with Creve Coeur Camera. They have a very full schedule of classes and photowalks around the St. Louis area. Here we went to Creve Coeur Airport where the owners of these planes brought them out of their hangers so our group could photograph the planes on the ground and in the air. You could not get this type of access on your own.
See all of the photos from the photowalk: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Events/Air-Shows/Creve-Coeur-Airport-Photoshoot/
This dual cockpit Waco biplane has controls in both seats. A recent visit to Creve Coeur Airport in St. Louis, Missouri allowed a few of us to photograph several planes, watch them fly and explore the cockpits.
I had a chance to visit Creve Coeur Airport in St. Louis. This special airport is home for small private planes, biplanes and experimental planes. On this visit, a few of the well maintained biplanes were brought out for us to photograph. This is a Waco UMF-5 built in the 30’s.
Here is one more photo of the Arch and the St. Louis skyline showing a spectacular view towards Clayton and St. Louis County.
As we head into Fall, a good way to enjoy the nice weather and take in the scenery is to visit a local winery near you. Many of these places are set on high hills or bluffs which provide spectacular views. This photo was taken for from one of Chaumette Winery’s Chalets overlooking farms surrounding Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
With Fall just around the corner now is the time to start thinking about heading out to a local winery or an interesting B&B out in the country. This is a photo of the “Chalets” at Chaumette Vineyards and Winery near scenic St. Genevieve, Missouri. Chaumette has it all: winery, restaurant and their beautiful Chalets.
This area actually sits high in the rolling hills in the area. The views are spectacular. My wife ad I spent the night in one of the Chalets and I ventured out early one morning to capture the sunrise.
The St. Louis skyline makes a great photograph with the Arch, the buildings and the river. This is a photo I took recently from a heliocopter photography trip. This was the low pass. After this photo was taken we turned around for another pass at a higher alititude.
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