Kansas 2013

[Roanoker]

We are starting a new trip. Well, it is "older" than the last one. I took a few pictures during that three-day trip, and it is time to show them.

The first place we visited was the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. It’s a great place to see wildflowers, although we’ll see a few other
things first. Like the sign at the entrance.


And the logo up close.


Isn’t this a beautiful tree?


Well, maybe a few flowers.


Smile for the camera!


This place is kind of an outdoor museum.


I wonder who gets to travel on this bus.


Nice barn door.


We get to go inside!


It must be more fun to look outside.


You can find all kinds of things in an old barn.


Almost graphic.

[Roanoker]

The official greeter is trying to decide if he should get up.


Well, okay. Meow. (Translation: Welcome to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.)


Entry fee is a good scratch.


You may proceed. I'll take a nap now (in this fairy-tale background).


Somebody really wanted to get wagons up to that door.


My son is taking a picture of something with his iPhone.


It may have been this. (I took this one.)


A fellow visitor.


My son needs to get his picture.


Old schoolhouse. (I felt compelled to clone out three quite ugly, orange, safety cones.)


Gazebo? I don't really know what this is.


Surprisingly, the nearby house was decorated. You know how I like to experiment. In this case, I used a 4:3 chunk of the wallpaper just
above the chest at the left to serve as the background for a new picture. Then I grabbed the frame above the bed, flipped it sideways,
and used Transform tools to coax it more into a rectangle. I selected the picture within the frame and deleted it. Then I added a new layer
under the frame and pasted a reduced version of the original picture, scooting it down a bit. As per usual, I added a shadow just under
the frame, to the right and bottom. (I should probably have tried to sharpen the frame.)

[Roanoker]

We’re still going through the house at Tallgrass Prairie. And we’re still in the bedroom.


Narrow staircase.


I guess they didn’t have wash ’n wear materials.


All cellars are scary. Kind of claustrophobic.


Why is there a tunnel in this house?


The living room is nicer.


Bay window.


This is another one of those portrait-oriented images where I pasted an enlarged piece of it on the right side. Hey, I don’t get paid for
this.


I rotated this image (a bit too much), applied two filters to a solid background, and reduced the opacity.


Here is the house on the outside. It was built in 1881.


Here is a straight-on front view. (I suppose “duh” is in order.)


This flower was so pretty, but it was a bit blurry. I sharpened it a little, and then decided to give up and just apply an artsy filter, and
levels. So now it is a fake flower.

[Roanoker]

We have begun our trek on the prairie path. I like grass, so I’m in the right place.


Struggling to survive.


Filter applied for artistic effect.


It’s just there.


I guess we’re still in the back yard.


This is where we want to grow!


Hard to believe, but I spent a long time on this one, cutting away pieces of the top image to allow larger strands of grass to show through.


I used Photoshop’s levels to highlight and enhance the colors in this one.


You can see the prairie through the trees.


Where is the path taking us?


Yeah, I really like the tree, grass, prairie thing.


I used the levels again to heighten colors. The purple stems contrast nicely with the orange berries.

[Roanoker]

We are walking through fields of flowers. First up are daisies. It was like a sea full of them.


Vying for space.


Where did he come from?


Just one.


Turned a portrait into a landscape.


Some of the asters (which I love) were more in focus than others, and a nubby filter makes it all better.


No need to filter these!


This is just the right portion of the original image, as the left side included closer, out-of-focus blooms.


The prairie goes on forever.


A blue something-or-other.


Almost like punctuation.


Who's on first?

[FangKC]

Why is there a tunnel in this house?

It may be overcompensation for fear of tornadoes.

[StL_Dan]

Awesome pix, Roanoker! Thanks for sharing.

[Roanoker]

Thank you, Dan. I appreciate your kind comment.

Still walking through the fields at Tallgrass Prairie.


Like melting, purple ice cream cones.


This is a portion of an image, feathered and plopped on top of a larger portion of itself. I love asters, by the way.


This is one, portrait-oriented image. I will spare you the how it was done.


Thank goodness, the picture itself did all the framing. I just cropped off the sides.


The daisies liked to reach out to us as we followed the path.


Not just daisies.


Caught my son taking a close-up of a flower with his iPhone. I believe those black, rectangular things are explanatory signs.


Did your grade school look like this?


This is a small part of the original image.


This is another picture that is a smaller part of the original. It almost seems like jewelry at the top.


I could swear this thing was looking at me. Kind of scary. It has eyeballs!

[Roanoker]

If you squint, you can see my son in the distance, coaxing a flower into iPhone-camera range.


Fellow tourist.


Whatever.


My eyes must be going bad. These appear to be in 3D.


These look like a bride’s bouquet.


I didn’t want to lose any of this portrait-oriented original, so I stuck an enlarged portion of the picture on the right, and cut around the
petals of one flower so it could flop over onto a smaller version of itself.


A seeming gateway to the prairie fields.


It’s like a stalk with many, little flowers.


I think I’ll be a fuzzy flower.


What a bizarre tree/plant.


Not really pretty. Just different.


Nice variety.

[Roanoker]

Continuing from last time...


Martian helmets, or possibly what bike riders wear these days.


Sometimes it is hard to tell where the primary image ends and the background begins, isn't it?


Anybody need an old-fashioned shave? Here are the brushes!


Reaching for the sky.


Gee, we'd sure like to go with the wind, but we're stuck here in the ground.


Purple flowers doing their thing, whatever it is.


This little guy would not cooperate with me. He must be an upper-class snob, as he is wearing a fur coat.


From a distance, these look like black dots on the terrain.


...as you can see here.


Thistles can be pretty.


I had to make sure I didn't obliterate the little building.

[Roanoker]

I like the twisty vines as much as the little flowers.


Competing for attention.


Some experiments don't turn out as well as others. I do like the gold stalk, though.


My son, doing his iPhone camera thing. Notice the building on the horizon.


That little house thing reminds me of "Where's Waldo?"


Beauty can be tiny.


Interesting berries. Nice colors.


Whatever.


More berries. But different.


How convenient to find a bridge to cross a creek.


The portrait-oriented image is in the middle, on top of an enlarged portion of itself.


I found these nice flowers on the other side of the bridge.

[Roanoker]

These are the last pictures for this day, 9/12/13. Lots of nice flowers.


For some reason, these little flowers were very difficult to photograph. And they were difficult to reach, as they were next to a creek, down a bank.


Like punctuation marks.


Notice the tiny bug on this tiny flower. Like crepe paper.


Another little beauty.


This was a portrait-oriented picture. I cropped off the bottom, leaving the more useful top.


Asters are always nice.


Bold statement.


Many flower branches like this would stretch out over the path as if trying to stop us.


The original subject of this photo was a bunch of daisies, but I liked the grass so much, I let it be the star.


A glimpse of our path.


I snapped this picture as we left the Tallgrass Prairie. End of a nice day.