I was driving in the Jeep, and saw this terrific storm cloud building behind me. This cloud almost had a mushroom cloud look to it. With the Hipstamatic treatment, this image has an old “test blast” feel to it.

After the snow Friday, we were left with a fleeting winter wonderland this morning. At sunrise, I took my Canon 7D and MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens out into the snow to see what I could see.

The gentle constructs of the snow and ice were still just clinging to our forsythia bush, and really attracted my attention. Along the top edge of the thin branches were really cool little ice constructs that were beginning to fall off due to the slight wind and the sun’s peeking from behind the clouds. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time before this ice was gone, so I shot a series of shots — handheld! — with this mammoth lens on the front of the camera.

I was having to capture this at f/8 for to widen the insanely tight depth of field on this lens. Unfortunately, that also meant really long shutter speeds, which didn’t work well when magnified like this in a light breeze, so that meant cranking the 7D up to ISO 800, which gave me a handhold-able speed of 1/320th. Still, I had to put the camera in high speed continuous shooting mode to “spray and pray” for a shot where my wobbling, the wind’s blowing and the lens’ depth of field all came together at the right time. I suppose I could’ve put the camera on a tripod, and used something to clamp the branch in place, but where’s the fun in that?

In the digital darkroom, I brought the image into Photoshop CS4E, reducing noise with Nik Dfine, adding a couple of control points with Nik Viveza, and finishing it off with the Glamour Glow filter from Nik Color Efex Pro. I’m really growing to like that soft filter look in some of my nature images, and it really seemed to work for this one.

This morning, I awoke to the remnants of the very small snowfall we had late in the week. My favorite glass table on the deck had ice atop it, which prompted me to pull out my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 lens. The more I shoot with this lens, the more I love it… kinda. I mean, it is definitely a lens that takes a lot of practice to use well.

The biggest challenge I’m having with it is in getting the focal plane broad enough by ensuring that what I’m photographic is parallel to the film plane. Any slight angle yoinks the focal plane down to nothing. I’ve got some ideas about how to fix that… stay tuned!

This weekend, we’ve had great weather — 75° in early November. I’ll take that! With the great weather, Becky decided we all needed to get out and enjoy the surprisingly mild weather. She was right.

With the doors off the Jeep, and the roof down, we all piled into the Jeep and started driving. We took a quick spin through Route 66 State Park, visiting the museum and letting Sio learn about Times Beach from the museum caretaker and Becky. We learned that the bridge connecting the park to the museum is about to be torn down, rather than be repaired. That’s a shame really. It’d be a great path across the river to link cyclists and pedestrians to the gift shop on the other side. Without the bridge, the two halves of the park will be completely separated, with only two separate exits from the interstate connecting them. Bummer.

One we were through with Route 66, we drove to Lone Elk State Park. We’ve had great luck there in the past seeing both elk and bison. This was the first time we’d been to the park so late in the day — about two hours before sunset. As it ends up, we had terrific views of the bison munching away, and elk both lounging and wandering around.

When I bought the Jeep last year, I wanted to be able to have nature really close to me by being able to take the doors and roof off. Today was the first time I’d really gotten that chance… and it was glorious. I felt like I was walking right alongside the elk and bison — they were so close you could touch them, and so near you could smell them. It was such a great experience, and I believe I’ll try to hit up the park late in the day again.

Of course, once the warm weather wears off in a few days, I imagine the behavior of the critters may be different. But that’s fine — I can run without the doors or roof down to at least 40°!

Almost anyone will tell you that I like weather. I pay attention to the weather like no one I know. I’ve always done that, but I have an even heightened interest in it since I bought my Jeep last year. I like knowing when I can take the doors off, when I can take the windows out, and when I can keep the roof down. Today, the doors were off, and the windows were out. No biggie, I thought. After all, knowing about the weather is something I kinda pride myself of, which is what makes today so weird.

I had to go to SoCo this morning, and didn’t really pay any attention to the weather. We had gray skies, and nothing threatening, so I didn’t even give the skies a second thought. While in SoCo, I started hearing thunder. Again, I didn’t think much about it. I’ve driven my Jeep in the rain without the doors on in the rain, and never really thought too much of it. However, today, about ten miles from home, I encountered a moonsoon with rain blowing all the way across the interior of the Jeep. To say the least, I was totally soaked.

Becky (who wasn’t with me) and I started doing some damage control, drying the carpet (drenched), drying the seats (wet) and trying to figure out how to dry the thing out. We learned new things about the Jeep today — how to remove the rear carpet, and where the drain plugs are. And man, did the drain plugs need to be removed. Small rivers drained out of the bottom of the floorboard, and the removed carpet drained and drained.

Like Beck said, if you’re smiling when you’re driving, it was worth it. And I smiled. I smiled while I couldn’t see through my glasses and the windshield at the height of the storm front. I smiled when I aimed for the puddles on the road. And I smiled while we dissected the Jeep to help get the water out of it. I even smiled when I set up the fans in the garage to help dry the seats.

I’d still put a wet day in my Jeep up against a dry day in just about any other vehicle!

Obviously the internal heat generated by my iPhone increases the temperature by a skosh, as it only indicated flat zero!

Supposedly this is the coldest air mass to hit The Lou in almost ten years… And tomorrow, it’ll be even colder. Stay tuned for the fun!

This morning, we awoke to a bit of a winter wonderland. Overnight, there’d been a quiet snow, only about an inch, but it sat so pretty on the surfaces of everything. With that view, I thought I needed to get out and shoot, so we headed south to Lone Elk SP.

However, the further south we got, the more the snow disappeared. What we didn’t know was that we were on the southern edge of the snow, which meant Lone Elk didn’t get much more than a dusting. That was disappointing.

The bison were out though, which made up for it. We came across about a dozen head just inside their area of the park, slowly grazing in the snowy grass. That’s when I was pounded over the head — I definitely need to get some work with dark objects against bright backgrounds, as those shots seem to reek pretty badly for me. (See the photos below.)

Ideally, one of Moose’s expeditions into the snows of Yellowstone or Yosemite would be the best place to learn these tricks — the best of all environments, no rushing to beat the melt of the snow, and folks around me that can help me learn this kind of shooting. In The Lou, it’s a real crap shoot about when a snow might come, and frequently, I’ve gotta work around work, or rush to beat the melt. A little focus could do this kid some good!

Overnight, what was left of Hurricane Ike stomped through the midwest, hitting The Lou around 3am this morning. By the time the rain and winds were gone nine hours later, we’d had almost six inches of rain, and a bunch of limbs downed in the yard. Nothing serious at the Deauxmayne, but once again, the city came under the focus of the national media due to flooding. If you looked at the video of folks being rescued in boats from their homes, you would’ve though you were looking at something from Texas rather than Missouri. There are still folks without power — we were down for 2.5 hours — but nonetheless, things are getting back to normal.

Like most of the country, we’ve seen gas prices spike up this week. As Ike bore down on Texas, local crystal ball readers were predicting gas in $4.50 range out of this. Mom tells me that the prognosticators are reading prices above $5 in their tea leaves. With promises of ready supply, there’s been no rationing like Mom has reported in Chattanooga. However, I did see something I haven’t seen in a lot of years…. a gas station with no gas available. In fact, there were almost a score of stations reported without gas this morning. I’m betting that’ll be more widespread before the next week or so is done, and I’m not gonna be surprised to see gas climb well above $4.

Call me a pessimist.

However, the silver lining is that the weather has changed, feeling more like fall than summer, with the promise of a couple of rain free days, which means the doors come off, and the roof is dropped.

I can’t wait.

Snow? On Easter? Yup.

This morning, we awoke to about an inch of snow on the colder surfaces — enough for me to make snowballs to lob at Becky and Sio. Quite a surprise. And it’s snowed and melted about four times today. Really weird day, and likely our last snow for the year, although I’m sure we could have more, it’s just not likely.

Easter was nice, spent with my family, and that’s just the way I’d like it. The snow’s just a bonus.

Earlier in the week, we got over 10″ of rain across two days. The farther south you looked, the more rain had fallen by the time it was done, with places reporting well over a foot of rain. Unbelievable. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen rain like that.

Given where the rain had fallen, the impact to the rivers south of St. Louis was major and significant. Whole towns were underwater, with crests only being seen this weekend. After seeing so much of this, I decided to take the family out on a little safe sightseeing, and understand what was going on around us.

There were two areas I knew would be pretty safe, and reasonably easy to get to. One was just over the ridge from us, near Eureka High School, and the other was the major intersection of I-44 and Highway 141. Both were major roads, and should give us a good view of what the Meramec River was doing.

We started over the ridge on Old State Road. The radio (and the flashing signs) were indicating Highway 109 was closed at Old State, and only halfway down the hill, we were stopped by a police officer. As it ends up, he was directing traffic around an SUV that had run off the road into a tree. We breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that we hadn’t yet been stopped by the water, and continued over the hill towards Glencoe. When we came off the hill, and onto the flat at Glencoe, we came face-to-face with the Meramec, and realized just how bad things were.

Eureka High School’s ball fields were completely underwater. In fact, they were so underwater that folks were kayaking on the flooded fields. The Eureka police made that a short-lived event, calling the kayakers over, and having some words with them. There was quite a crowd parking on the side of Highway 109, shooting photos, and all talking in amazement at the level of the water. We stayed and shot for a while, and decided to head to Fenton, where I-44 and Highway 141 meet, and to see first hand the incredible depth of water covering Highway 141. We got in the truck, marvelling at the water lapping at the edge of Highway 109, and headed south to I-44 at Eureka.

We drove east on I-44, again seeing the water close to the road, and decided to pull off at the Route 66 State Park site. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us onto the bridge, which is where the best view of the water was. However, they did allow us access to the decking off the welcome center, and from there, we could see the Meramec flowing swiftly, beating up everything in its path. That was pretty doggone impressive. The crest had already hit there, and the water was now a foot below that crest… I’m not sure we would’ve noticed the difference.

From the park, we headed east again on I-44, knowing that we’d need to figure out some way to come up Highway 141 from the south. We passed the intersection, and hit the next exit (Bowles), and circled around to Highway 141, coming at the flooded intersection from the south. Two things struck me as we pulled off the road. One was the sheer volume of water. The other was the circus that was taking place there.

There were hundreds of people, and more than a handful of news crews, all there to cover the flood from what was probably the most photogenic spot around. I’d already seen this intersection on the NBC’s Nightly News, and could tell from the crowds that everyone had decided this was the place to come. And frankly, it was a pretty well-behaved crowd, and despite the throng, and the IQ lowering effect that usually has, I didn’t see anyone trying anything stupid. The police were good natured about it, and were letting folks gather and watch, taping and photographing this incredible muscle flexing of nature. It was truly amazing.

While we were there, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter flew over us, presumably just looking around, just in case. That’s definitely an unusual sight in Fenton!

It was a fun tour, a thing of sheer amazement, and left us with a sense of thankfulness that we weren’t party to any of its destructive force.