Ideas for places to visit in the Midwest
The Avenger is part of the Missouri Wing of the Commemorative Air Force stationed in St. Charles County. This photograph is from their Open House held in September 2016. For free you visit the St. Charles Smartt Airport, walk around to see the planes and watch them fly. See more photos: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Events/Pumpkin-Drop/
B25 “Show Me!” at St. Charles Smartt Airport. Photo from their annual Pumpkin Drop event. Click here to see more photos from the event.
Is this B25 on a bombing run? Interestingly, the answer is yes. This is from an event in St. Charles, Missouri called a Pumpkin Drop where a target is setup and pumpkins are dropped on it all day. The plane with the closest hit, wins. Fortunately, the airport where this event is held houses a wing of the Confederate Air Force which houses this B25 and a few other vintage military aircraft.
On the day of this event you could attend for free, walk around the planes and out near the runways. It was a great opportunity for photographers! Click on this image to see it in my Smugmug account or click here to see the whole gallery: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Events/Pumpkin-Drop/. Be sure to see on a large screen and click the triangle at the top of the page to see the slideshow.
I watched these trees for about 10 days as they changed to red from the top down. This is St. Louis’ art museum in Forest Park. When the time was right, I took this photo a few minutes before sunrise as a 5 shot HDR (see my tutorial: https://greatriversimaging.com/hdr/), combined them in Photomatix and finished the photo in Lightroom. Since some of the photos are overexposed, you get a daylight look in the photo.
An early walk in St. Louis’ Forest Park can be rewarding. This is the Nathan Frank Band Stand in front of what is known as the Muny Opera, an open air theater. This is a favorite area because there is so much to see within a few hundred feet.
This photo was taken just at sunrise. This is a five shot HDR processed in Photomatix, Lightroom and Photoshop. For more information see my tutorial on HDR: https://greatriversimaging.com/hdr/
Many of the photos on this blog were created using a process called HDR, where multiple photos taken at different exposures, are combined to make one showing a wider light spectrum. Here is a link to my new free tutorial to show how this is done: https://greatriversimaging.com/hdr/
Fall is the high time for taking photos and goes by too quickly to get everything in. One trick in the Midwest is to travel to the very northern part of the country in early October and then come back to the central Midwest for another round of color. If you live in St. Louis, I suggest spending some time in Forest Park for some outstanding scenes or heading to wine country for more great photo opportunities. This photo is from a small town in Indiana called New Harmony. It is only a two hour drive from St. Louis and offers an unending list of things to photograph and do.
One of the keys to better photography is to go back multiple times. This is a scene I discovered in 2014 on my first visit to Door County, Wisconsin. This turns out to be a very popular view for photographers and artists to capture. There are always people in the area taking photos. My first visit was was on a sunny day, creating harsh shadows on the road. On this day, there was a light overcast which provided a bright day but mild shadows.
I used a telephoto lens to compress the road so the curves look closer than they really are. This is a 5 shot HDR photo used to give a natural look and better contrast. Editing in Photomatix and Lightroom gave the final version.
Fall in the North Woods is just about over. This old rail road trestle, now bike trail in North Central Wisconsin shows the changing colors on Lake Minocqua. As fall ends here these great colors will descend on the rest of our country. This is a great time for photographers, be sure to get out and enjoy the season!
On this morning, I got up a little late to capture the sunrise. However, the good news was that this was a few steps from the front door of where I was staying. The other good thing is that in late summer and early fall, the sun comes up later. For those not interested in getting up at 4:30 or 5, this is a good time of the year to get that good shot!
https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Door-County/i-6PzLf5H/A
Great Rivers Imaging 