Photo of the Day......Stormy Evening Departure

A change of pace from the "ponderous" prairie drought photos.  A Dassault Falcon 2000 departing Springfield-Branson Regional Airport on the evening of July 28, 2009.  

 

Photo of the Day......Sunrise on the Western Pairies of Oklahoma

Run rise at 5:38 AM Central Daylight Time northwest of Guymon Oklahoma on July 2nd 2011.

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Photo of the Day......Abondoned Grain Elevator Boise City Oklahoma

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Photo of the Day......Big Horn Sheep Ewe with Lamb

You all may have noticed I have abandoned the "dynamic" blog format for the older "simple" format.  I hope this doesn't negatively impact your visit.  Even though the dynamic format was pleasant it required a couple extra keystrokes to leave a comment and I am very interested in any comments you may wish to leave on the site.  I also noticed that the dynamic format would not work on the iPhone.  Even though the iPhone accounts for only 5% of the visiting traffic I felt it may be locking some people out.  

I am still working on photos taken in No Mans Land out in the Oklahoma panhandle, recording the drought conditions there.  Tonight I have a related image but a bit different than the usual.  On the morning of July 2nd I spotted a herd of Big Horn ewes with lambs and yearlings climbing up the east side of Black Mesa. I was afraid that they would hurry up the mountain side if I took time to set up the tripod so I attached the 200mm lens with the 2X extender to the camera and held it against a rock to steady my hand and hoped the image stabilizer worked as advertized.  

This photo is of a ewe with suckling lamb.  I am sure she is looking back at me to be sure I behave.  Please notice the dead grass all around the ewe.  Survival is tough for them in this drought.  They survive on grasses during the summer and you can see most all the grasses surrounding them is dead.  

I know very little about the sheep of Black Mesa but I am making inquires and hope to tell you more about them as I post additional photos.

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Photo of the Day.....Prairie Road

I'm still working on photos taken in the panhandle of Oklahoma.  So I've been posting mostly small town and prairie shots lately.   Today I am posting a photo of a prairie road located in the Valle De Escondido in the Northeast corner of New Mexico just off highway 406 just south of the Carrizozo Creek. Looking at a prairie road makes me wonder where does it go and how far?

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Photo of the Day.... Grain Elevator at Dawn

A grain elevator located about a mile Northeast of Guymon, Oklahoma on a very hot shimmering summer morning July 2nd 2011.  it was the beginning of a full day of photo shooting while traveling from my overnight stop at Guymon, OK to my destination Black Mesa Ranch north of Kenton, OK.  

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Photo of the Day......Entering Medford Oklahoma

Entering Medford Oklahoma on a hot 102F/39C July 1, 2011 afternoon.  Driving southbound on US highway 81 running along the old Chisholm Cattle Drive Trail.

Wiki says Medford was founded by Hobart Johnstone Whitley a land developer and member of the board of directors of the Rock Island Railroad.  I don't know when Medford was founded but according to Wiki it would have been sometime between the years 1870 and 1890.  Mr Whitley is better known as the founder of the famous Los Angeles California housing subdivision known as Hollywood.  It is said he and his wife named the subdivision while visiting during their honeymoon. 

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Photo of the Day......Abandoned Kansas Prairie Farm

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Photo of the Day......Wind Blown Cottonwood Tree in Southwest Kansas

I must apologize for the bird identification error in the 10 Sept. 2011 posting.  The bird is a Western Meadowlark and not a Northern Flicker.  I'll check some bird resources next time.  

With that said, I am posting a photo of a wind blown Cottonwood tree in South Western Kansas on 1 July 2011.  Like so many trees on the prairie it seems you can set your direction by which way the tree branches are blown.  If the tree is leaning to your left you must be facing south.  If it leans to the right your looking north.  If the tree is leaning towards you your facing west.  If it leans away from you your looking east.  

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Photo of the Day......Northern Flicker on a fence post

Northern Flicker photo taken on the western approaches to the Bad Lands of South Dakota 

 

Photo of the Day......VFR to Clinton, AR

This is a snap shot I took back on September 11, 2009 of the sectional chart in my lap while taking "Old Blue Belly" to her new home in Clinton, AR [KCCA]  It was a day of low and slow, flying.  

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Photo of the Day......Cattle seek shelter from the blistering hea and dryness

It has been 80 years since the Great Plains drought of 1931 to 38 that resulted in the great migration.  Today this same land is experiencing a drought of equal severity. However there is no Farmstead Act and the Prairies never recovered from the the Dust Bowl SO there are far fewer people living here today.  


Cattle take shelter from the overwhelming heat and dryness under a tree stand on a long abandoned farm house near Guymon, Oklahoma.  This appears to have been the home of a very successful farmer at one time.

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Rollo's Photo World: Photo of the day......Beautiful Golden Girl

Rollo's Photo World: Photo of the day......Beautiful Golden Girl: While roaming along Lynn Creek in North Vancouver British Columbia with my grand daughter there were a group of people letting their dogs pl...

Photo of the day......Beautiful Golden Girl

While roaming along Lynn Creek in North Vancouver British Columbia with my grand daughter there were a group of people letting their dogs play in the water.  This exceptional beautiful Golden Retriever caught my eye.  

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Photo of the Day......Abandoned Farm

An abandoned farm in Baca County Colorado.

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Photo of the Day......Oklahoma Prairie Sunrise

I took this photo on the morning of July 2nd 2011 at 5:43 AM CDT.  The location is just northeast of Guymon, Oklahoma,

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Photo of the Day......Abandoned Watering Hole

Thank you to everyone who are still following this blog.  I have been away on an extended trip covering many states and Canadian Provinces.  As you can guess I have lots of photos.  Too many photos, I think, now that I am beginning to process them.  

Initially I stayed four days at the Robert's Ranch just north of Kenton Oklahoma.  This photo is an abandoned windmill powered water well located east of Boise City in the western panhandle of Oklahoma, USA.  The Cimarron Strip.  No Man's Land.  The Dust Bowl.  It has been 80 years since the great drought of 1931 to 36 that resulted in the great migration.  Today this same land is experiencing a drought of equal severity.  If you are interested in a quick summation of the situation please check out this video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCu2j-yXY0U

I have attempted to approach photographing this land in the spirit of Dorothea Lang so many photos will be black and white in recollection the the Dust Bowl days.  

 

Dear followers

A wish to apologize for a complete
Lack of posts the past six weeks. Initially I
was finishing An assignment and since July First I've
Been traveling with a comitose laptop, and
Posting via iPhone is impossible. It will be a couple more weeks

Photo of the Day..........Ozarkers, Can you tell me the name of this plant

I spotted these plants growing on the east side of the general assembly building and I have no idea what they are.  They have soft fuzzy leaves and bright yellow flowers on the top stalk.  These plants stand between four to six feet tall.  Any locals know what they are called?  They look semi-arid in origin to me.

Bonus Photo of the Day....Edit Blunder Turns Interesting

While editing a photo I messed up the healing brush settings and got an interesting result so tried some healing brush "painting" and got this.