HISTORY IMAGINED

Missouri River between Nebraska and South Dakota

It’s hard to believe that when someone travels across the fields, grasslands, and prairie here in the Midwest that there was only one valuable photo opportunity during the whole week. Sometimes things just don’t line up the way we photographers like…

Coming from Nebraska I crossed the Missouri River into South Dakota yesterday afternoon. Well, I guess it was photographers ”luck”, with not a single cloud in the sky (sigh!!!).

While standing there I imagined the time before the mass slaughtering of bison during the 1870s, long before this modern bridge was built, and bison crossed the shallow river at this place. Maybe the people that owned the land, the Native Americans who depended on hunting bison and lived along the Missouri River, may have enjoyed the same view from this hill above the river banks. Who knows?

Another historical moment happened already in late summer of 1804, when the famous Lewis and Clarke Expedition came up the river by boats during their journey to the Pacific Northwest. Their over 8000-mile expedition trip for the US government took two years, four month and ten days. When this expedition moved upstream, most of the difficulties were still laying ahead of them.

THE ARCHWAY

The Archway, I-80, Kearney, Nebraska

On Memorial Day we returned from a wonderful trip through several parts in Germany. I like to say thank you again to family and friends for hospitality and for helping in many ways to make this journey as fantastic as it was.

Live doesn’t stand still and so I left for a business trip just a day later. This time in the other direction, out west again to Nebraska and tomorrow to South Dakota. My hotel today isn’t far away from the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument (also known as The Archway or Kearney Archway), a bridge structure that spans across Interstate I-80 in Kearney, Nebraska. It houses a historical experience that tells the story of Nebraska and the Platte River Valley in the development of America. We drove under it several times while heading east or west during vacation trips in the past but have never stopped there.

Unfortunately the museum was already closed this evening but nice light from the west and puffy clouds can’t be ignored by the photographer and the wide angle Nikkor 16-35, f/4 was used for a few clicks.

The Archway is actually not such a peaceful place as it looks in this image. A steady stream of heavy trucks and many cars in both directions make it actually a noisy place and it was not so easy to get a shot without a big vehicle in the frame.

COLORFUL COTTONWOODS

Cottonwoods at Lake Mc Conaughy, Nebraska

Traveling in autumn includes always the search for fall colors. I didn’t expect too much down in the desert areas we were heading to, but the cotton woods we saw during the trip surprised us several times. Most of them don’t become this pretty here in eastern Iowa. I waited until the wind slowed down during sunset at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska for a brief moment to capture the colors and shapes of the cottonwoods along the original lake shore.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,   @70 mm, 1/400 s, f/8, ISO400

FASCINATING WINTER WORLD

Hi friends, I’m back from the moon! (just kidding…). The photo was made today during a flight from Denver to Chicago. Business required my presence in Colorado this week and the only camera that was in the pocket was my iPhone. I don’t know the exact location of this shot, it was somewhere between eastern Colorado and western Nebraska. It was fascinating how every little creek and water vein was filled with snow or ice, while other parts of the fields below showed the blank soil. Back home here in the Little Maquoketa Valley in eastern Iowa the reality was more disenchanting. We don’t have any snow on the ground, very unusual for this time of the year, but the weather forecast says this may change during the next few days…