Flint Hills, KS - Fires, Families, and Photographic Fun

Last weekend, I had my second exciting photo-trip with my photo-buddy, Mandy.  We are as different as two people can be.  She a perfectionist who will not give up until she has success and I am a idea-maker who gives up the minute it is too hard to follow my vision (but not to worry, I'll have a new idea and all the enthusiasm that comes with it in no time at all!).  She has the audacity to blow up my pictures 300x and sweetly let me know she's seen the poor editing I've done, and I tell her of the crazy marketing stunts I pull that she never imagined attempting.  I have daughters giving me grandchildren and she has 2 puppies that she treats as children.   I won't go into the border problems of her house being in Missouri and mine in Kansas. And there is that little thing that doesn't seem to matter much... of having an age difference of more than 10 years.

Mandy's never been west of Topeka, so she believed all those Missourians that say Kansas is flat.  Ever since she's told me her dream of visiting Ireland, I've wanted to take her to the Flint Hills.  It was her birthday week, so I cleared my schedule and made it happen.

As we headed west on I-70 on Friday evening, a hazy fog was drifting across the road.  "They must be burning the grass in the area", I said casually.  "That'll ruin our view from the overlook near Manhattan."  She was surprised it was smoke since in looked so much like fog.  Sure enough, the gorgeous sunset was dimmed.

As night descended, we headed south to Council Grove.  Suddenly, she squeals.  There on both sides of the road, the land is on fire.  In normal company, we would keep on the road and drive through to our destination.  But I was with my courageous photo-buddy Mandy.  We parked the car off the road, retrieved our cameras and started shooting.  After a time, we stopped and showed each other our pictures.  Again, we were challenged to try new perspectives and ways of seeing what was before us.  More shots and we were finally done; smelly, thirsty and satisfied in our craft.

My mom and dad live in an elementary school in Wilsey where they run Wilsey Bible School.  As we snuggled down in their guest room, the tornado sirens sounded.  The Flint Hills were being pounded with hail the size of golf balls.  City people like me, worry about the damage to our cars and whether the insurance company will give us a new roof.  But for the Flint Hill ranchers, they worry about their cattle that will be calving during the storm without shelter.  They watch the creeks fill and pray for their roads to hold tight to the land as flood waters creep ever closer to their homes.

The next day we drove these roads in my dad's big, thunderous truck.  With those mammoth tires, we were invincible.  We paused and photographed Santa Fe Trail ruins and cattle nuzzling the spring prairie grass.

The ranchers were still shaking off the visions of the storm in the morning light while we city folks excitedly looked for art in light and shadow.  They spoke of the raining stones of ice pounding their work into the mud as we chased the barn cats through daffodils.

I don't know what they thought of us, but we saw these ranchers as strong, courageous, and timeless.  The land is in them just as they are in it.

The next day we rose early and headed across the Flint Hills from Council Grove to Strong City, Cottonwood Falls, and Emporia.  Other than the wagon trains, I don't think any vehicle has ever moved so slowly.  We saw so much that we wanted and needed to capture in our cameras.

How many ways can you photograph a single tree?  I can tell you that the wonder of discovering new ways of seeing through a lens are never-ending.  There is that branch that circles another branch and when you step a bit this way, the morning sun peak through just so.  So you focus on the branches and let the sun be a scatter of rays or do you focus on the sun and let the branches be in shadowed relief against the light?  Get way down on the ground (even laying on your back) and shoot up, then turn around and get as high as you can and shoot the twisted roots crawling through the dandelions.  What about that abandoned farmhouse on that hill in the distance?  Shoot the tree in focus with the house blurry in the background.  Then shoot through the branches to the house and make it in focus, while the branches are a blurry frame around your image. 

After Emporia, schedules were calling.  We made it back home just in time for a quick hug as a good-bye and the shared contentedness of knowing that we were closer friends because of these little black boxes of metal and glass than anyone could ever understand.  Thirty minutes after she left, I missed her on the seat next to me.  Only she would chuckle at my comment about the Trail Days Cafe door slamming a once-and-for-all goodbye.  Oh, yes, I did write that! 

We will have to wait for real life to get out of the way for our next adventure in July.  Mandy, now it's your turn to take me places I've never been and give me new memories that will last for a lifetime.  Happy birthday to you my friend!