Welcome to the Dance

Behind the Camera

 Last March, I had the opportunity to visit Kearney, Nebraska. This wasn’t my first time in Kearney, but this trip was for a different purpose. Nearly forty years ago, I traveled to Kearney, as well as the neighboring towns of Grand Island and North Platte. Then I was still on active duty and the Army was looking for property to build Army Reserve facilities there. That was a much younger me.

Now, I was in Kearney to see one of nature’s great wonders – the Great Migration of Sandhill Cranes. Every year, nearly one million cranes leave their winter homes in southern Texas and Mexico. They fly two to five hundred miles a day toward their cooler summer nesting in Alaska, Canada, and some even go to Siberia. They have flown the same route for centuries.

In March, Sandhill Cranes stop along the Platte River in Nebraska. There they rest and eat to prepare for the remainder of their journey. The experts at the Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center in Wood River, Nebraska, told us that the cranes would add twenty percent to their body weight during their layover. The Crane Trust folks were wonderful, and I took advantage of an early visit to their observation blinds along the river. It was awesome!

As the sun rose over the river, thousands of cranes stirred from their night’s sleep. They began taking to the sky in groups of tens and hundreds. I was able to take some spectacular photos and video of these beautiful birds in flight.

After a couple of hours in the blinds, the morning sun fully lit up the sky and the last of the roosting birds flew out to nearby corn fields for a hearty breakfast. I also left and drove to some of the surrounding farms to get a different glimpse of these birds.

Our Crane Trust guide told us about a courting ritual of the Sandhill Cranes. It’s a dance between prospective pairs of cranes. Crane, like geese and eagles, mate for life. So, there they spend time getting to know one another. It seems that the male crane tries to show off to the females by jumping into the air. They will jump higher and higher to impress the object of their affection. If the female approves of the male’s efforts, she will spread her wings and bow, as if to say, “That’s nice, but you can do better.” The male will then continue to jump, and the female bows in approval.

I saw this dancing when the birds were in the river, but the couple in this photograph were the stars of the dance contest. While all the other birds were busy eating their fill, these two were dancing to their hearts content. It was beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. So, I call this photograph, “Welcome to the Dance.”

Geek Speak

While this appears to be a simple composition, it was challenging to take a sharp photo. Using my Sony a6700 camera and Sony 200-600mm lens. The birds were in this corn field. Using the full focal length of 600mm, I zoomed in on this pair of cranes. The shutter speed was 1/640 seconds. I’ve learned when I hand hold a zoom lens, I must compensate for my hands shaking by setting my shutter to about 1/100 second for every 100mm of zoom. Using a tripod allows me to slow the speed much more.

I wanted a good depth of field to keep everything a clear as possible, so my aperture was set to f/9. The early morning light required my ISO to be 320. I often use auto-ISO when photographing wildlife. My camera can make that adjustment much faster than me. So, using manual mode for shutter speed and aperture, I can freeze the motions and create the depth of field as broad or narrow as I wish for the composition.

That sounds fairly simple, so what was so challenging? Trying to get the proper focus was problematic. My camera has awesome autofocus with AI supported eye detect for whatever subject I am photographing. However, I usually use the zone focus setting on my camera’s sensor. So, my camera kept focusing on the ground, the corn, the other birds, and missing the subjects that I was trying to capture. So, I changed my focus setting to spot focus. That gave me a small box in the center of my view finder. Setting the subject of my interest in that box and my autofocus on bird detection, the focus snapped immediately onto the eye of the bird in my view finder. With the aperture at f/9, both birds were in focus and I could take this sharp image. Another lesson learned as I continue to be schooled by the beauties of nature.

This photo is available for purchase from the store page of this website. Check it out with many other wildlife and nature photographs. Also, be sure to check out the full video on this adventure and subscribe to my YouTube channel. It’s free, and it allows me to share more exciting adventures. Here’s a link - https://youtu.be/cIMBU2heMAs?si=aJ0in6KnGPWB6JUo

Happy 249th Birthday, America!

Taken at Elk City Kansas, 2025

Behind the Camera

On July 4, 2025 we celebrated America’s 249th birthday! Well, technically 249 years of the United States’ independence. I never want to arrogantly diminish the heritage of my Canadian or Mexican friends. Their histories are filled with heroic figures (and scoundrels), just like the United States. Still, we celebrate our birth as a republic and the monumental place that we have on the world’s stage. Not without challenges, not always pretty, but the world would certainly be poorer without us.

I look back on my family with a fulness of spirit, and a head held slightly higher as I think of my ancestors. My grandfather served as a Soldier in the trenches of World War I. Called the “Great War” and the “War to end all Wars.” Of all people, my family knows that no war is great, and if that global conflict was fought to end all wars, well…it was an unfortunate failure. It only begat more war.

My father endured the Great Depression and joined the United States Navy during the Second World War. He was severely injured in the South Pacific as he served on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Dad never talked about combat. Like so from of that “Greatest Generation” he only told the funny stories. In fact, I never knew he had been injured until I looked up his records in the National Archives. Among the many things that Dad passed on to his sons (I am the youngest of six boys, and no sisters), his work ethic is what may be the easiest to observe. However, he was also meek, generous, and loved America. We all do too.

My older brothers reflect Dad’s commitment to serve others. The three eldest all served in Southeast Asia. Another conflict so very far away. Each tasting a different branch of the military; Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps, respectively. Another brother joined the Air Force, and the fifth brother followed a higher calling of service and entered the ministry.

I was uncertain of where I would serve. Initially, enlisting in the Air Force. I had the opportunity to switch to the Army, attend Officer Candidate School, and serve the remainder of my career as an Army Officer. I was fortunate to serve with the most amazing and talented people I have ever known.

From a poor high school student to serving as a senior officer in the Pentagon, I was very blessed. No other nation offers such an opportunity. I credit the first sergeant who saw something that I failed to see in myself. He kicked me in the rear (literally) and sent me to various educational courses. He challenged me to give my all at these programs. What I learned about myself is that I loved to learn. I still do.

Perhaps studying photography after completing two other careers is the result of my Dad’s insatiable curiosity and first sergeant’s tenacity for me to do better. Whatever it is, I owe a debt to those who invested in my life. I owe a debt to a Nation that gave me a chance to break out of my limits and strive for more.

This is an amazing Nation. Not perfect, but better than any other place I have ever been. God bless America!

Geek Speak

I took this photo at the Independence Day celebration in Elk City, Kansas. Elk City has a population of less than 250 (that’s right, 250 people), but they put on a fireworks display unequaled in the area.

This photo was taken with a Sony a6700 camera and Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2 lens. The bright lights from the fireworks could blow out the image if normal night settings were used. So, I set the shutter speed to 1/100 and the aperture to f/9. Yep, those are typically daytime landscape setting. The ISO was set at 3200 and the White Balance was at 3800 Kelvin. Those are my go-to night settings. (TIP: All these settings are what I use for nighttime lightning photographs. However, I use a timelapse for lightning because it is so unpredictable).

I would love to hear how you take photos of fireworks, lightning, or other high contrast images.

The John Dickenson Barn

The Story Behind the Camera

During the early 1850’s, America was drawing battle lines within itself. Civil unrest swelled toward civil war. New land was opening in Kansas territory. John and Lavina Dickenson moved from Lee County, Virginia to this place near Robinson in east Kansas. Land was being offered for a dollar an acre and each family was allowed a thousand acres of land, most of which was covered in prairie grass.

The Dickenson family traveled into Kansas by oxen and wagon. They built a sod house across from this old stone barn. They taught school in the winter at a prairie school to pay for the land. John and his older sons decided to plant wheat and oats. They would need a place to store the grain and hay for the cattle. They built a stone barn.

The father and sons hauled river rock by wagon from near Atchinson. They put the rock together with mortar. The walls are two-feet thick, and the wood beams came for the limited nearby timber. Trees were hand hewed and put together with wooden pegs. The lower level was used for horses and mules. The second level was for grain and hay, and the third level was for corn that would be used as seed for the next year. Ventilation openings were used in the bins where the grain was stored.

John and Lavina lived here for the rest of their lives. They were buried in the Robinson Cemetery. The farm was passed down to their descendants until 1979. The barn still stands as a monument of the work of John Dickenson and his sons. Construction began in 1852 and was completed in 1861, the year of Kansas’ statehood.

Since 1979, the Tietjens’ family has owned the farm. They restored this barn to honor its history. In 1981, a new roof replaced the damage from a tornado in late 1980. Today, this beautiful historic barn attracts the interest of photographers, artists, travelers, and lovers of the history of frontier life on the Plains.

Geek Speak

This proved to be a challenging photograph. Clear weather had been forecasted. However, smoke from Canadian wildfires filled the upper atmosphere. Stars were barely visible through the haze in the sky. Still, I drove 4 hours to the site of this old barn.

Preparing for a single exposure, I setup the tripod along the northwest corner of the property. The tripod legs were spread out to create a near flat, but stable platform. This permitted a high angle composition to capture as much sky as possible.

With a Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2 prime lens mounted to my Sony a6700 camera, the settings included a 15 second shutter speed, aperture f/5.6, and ISO 800. The increased shutter speed was to permit as much light to come through the smoky sky as possible. The long shutter speed risked stars to be distorted by the earth’s rotation. However, I decided to take that risk. I had to tighten the aperture and decrease the ISO to prevent the highlights from blowing out the image.

With these camera settings, I took several photos from the same camera position. This allowed me to “light paint” the barn from each side. It also took advantage of the ever-changing atmospheric smoke to attempt to get the best exposure of the stars. In the end, I was satisfied with the results. Like many other places, I hope to return to the Dickenson Barn on a clear night and get more photos of this historic icon of Kansas agriculture.

Historic Oak Grove Schoolhouse

Historic Oak Grove Schoolhouse

The story behind the camera.

In 1877, the Oak Grove School was built from native sandstone, quarried a short distance from the school site. This one-room schoolhouse serve as a school, a church, and as a local community gathering place for the residents of rural Lincoln Township up until the early 1960’s when school unification closed nearly all one-room schools across Kansas and most of the United States.

The Osage Trail was a series of trails across this territory where the Osage Indian Tribe lived, hunted, and honored their ancestors. The main trail passed directly in front of the Oak Grove School, intersecting the Continental Trail about one-half mile south of here. Settlers, like the Laura Ingalls family, followed this route, past Ladore (north of Parsons), the infamous Bender’s Inn, Independence, KS, and many other historic landmarks along their journeys. Those who settled here in the early 1800’s, lived in peace among the Osage people, who trusted and respected Jesuit Priests at Osage Mission (St. Paul, KS), enough to have their children educated by the Jesuits.

With support from the Pruitt family, community organizations, and a growing number of area residents, Oak Grove School has been faithfully restored to reflect nearly 150 years of rich local history. Future plans include a pavilion situated to the south of the school which will feature modern restrooms and the original school bell. Due to structural concerns, the bell housing was removed many years ago.

This information was reprinted from the brochure available at the Oak Grove School.  

Geek Speak

This was one of the most challenging photos of this year’s collection. There was a bright moon competing with the Milky Way and nearly washing out the starry sky. A street light on the west side of the property also made it hard to capture a good image of the scene. Area alarms sounded as I tried to get near the schoolhouse to lightpaint the area. Still, I managed to take this photograph. Let me tell you how I did it.

I sat my camera on a tripod along the gravel road along the northside of the building. I used mmy Sony a6700 camera and Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2 lens. The lens was fitted with an artificial light filter.  I sat the camera shutter speed at 8 seconds, an aperture of f/2.2, white balance set at 3800 kelvin, and ISO at 3200, I took a panorama of two images wide and two images tall.

Night Has Come

Behind the Camera

I want you to see this beautiful church in the far northwestern corner of Kansas. Stevens Chapel is in Rawlins County, and it is maintained by the Rawlins County Historical Society. The church was built with limestone quarried in the local area.

This is the perfect place to highlight faith’s influence as settlers made their homes across the plains and prairies of America’s Midwest. Stevens Chapel tells an amazing story of a rural church built in the poverty of the 1890s whose members made and sold cane sorghum syrup to raise money for building materials, and of the men who cut and laid the large stone blocks to build the church during hard economic times when crops were failing. Preserving Stevens Chapel honors these early settlers and teach current and future generations about the hard work and courage it took to settle and live in Northwest Kansas in the late 1800s. 

The broad plains and clear skies of western Kansas are perfect for landscape and night scape photographs. I am so grateful to the folks at the Rawlins County Museum who permitted me to stay through this cold night and attempt to capture a glimpse of the beauty of the starry skies that displayed Kansas’ motto “Ad Astera per Aspera.” Loosely translated to say, “To the Stars through Difficulty!”

My biggest challenge of this night was how to compose the photograph in a way as to capture its story in a single image. I didn’t think this it was possible, so I didn’t take one photo, but a series of photos that were stitched together to create the scene that I call, “Night Has Come.”

Ben King released a spiritual hymn in 1961 titled “Lord, Stand By Me.” More than 400 versions of the song have been recorded. The opening verse includes these words –

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No, I won't be afraid
Oh, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.

Looking at the Milky Way’s galactic core, with its bright colored cosmic gases, I was struck with my own small size and frailty in comparison with the billions of stars of our universal home. The clouds eventually gave way to the brilliant heavens.

Geek Speak

I wrote earlier that the image in my mind was not possible in a single shot. The photograph highlighted this week is a composition of fifteen photographs! The forefront displaying Stevens Chapel, includes four photographs stitched together. Several different lighting techniques were used. I placed small lights in the windows on the backside of the chapel. Those lights illuminated the interior and gave the illusion that the lights were on for worship. I then painted with my headlamp across the front of the building and the grass.

My camera settings for each of these shots included a 10-second shutter speed and an aperture of f/8 to capture a sharpness of the entire depth of field. The lighting allowed me to lower the ISO to 800 for a cleaner image. I used manual focus on the chapel wall.

With the foreground completed, I raised the camera lens toward the stars. With my camera refocused onto the stars, I changed settings to an 8-second shutter speed (to keep the stars pinpoint sharp). Opening the aperture to f/1.2 on my Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2 PRO lens, I was able to capture a lot of light from the stars. Still, the ISO was raised to 3200 to maximize the sensor’s ability to collect as much light information as possible.

With those camera settings, I took a layer series of five photographs. Finally, I raised the camera, overlapping the stars by one third in the screen and took a layer series of six photos. In all, I had three layers from the ground to the sky made up of fifteen photographs.

The entire shoot took  1-½ hours to complete. I was cold, but exhilarated by the beautiful scene. After getting into the studio, I spent another four hours on the computer to grade each photograph and then stitch everything into a single panoramic image. When it was all completed, “Night Has Come” was born.

You can purchase a copy from my on-line prints store on this website (www.wanderingmonkhikes.com/store).

A Little House on the Prairie

Hey y’all, Dan here! Thanks for joining me for another blog post. I want to share the story behind this week’s photograph and tell you how I took this shot.

The Story Behind the Camera.

I feel blessed to live in southeast Kansas. This is home to many good people; small towns folks, country folks, people who work with their hands, and farmers. I am comfortable here, having been raised in the country myself. I admire these people, many are descendants of the pioneering settlers that came west in the nineteenth century, or north in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

There are stories and legends about this land and the generations past who carved out their lives in it. Some are romantic tales of Osage princesses who fell in love with a neighboring warrior. Stories reminiscent to Romeo and Juliet. Other stories are dark and disturbing like the Bender family who ran a roadside an inn along the Osage Mission Trail. They used their business as a front to murder and rob unsuspecting travelers. There were stories of family who settled on these plains and built a “Little House on the Prairie.”

 Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s homestead is only a few miles from my own home. Many of her books told of her young life here. The television show with Michael Landon made her writings even more popular to future generations.

If you travel near Independence, Kansas, you should visit the museum that sits on the Ingalls’ homestead. There is a replica cabin of their home, a one-room schoolhouse, and old post office, and a beautiful farmhouse converted into the museum store. The people here are friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful to visitors.

I stopped to as if I could return at 2am on a clear night and take photographs of the Milky Way stretching across the southern sky. It was one of the most amazing opportunities.

Geek Speak

This was a challenging photograph. The greatest challenge was how to compose the shot an tell a story of travel across these plains. There are many subjects that make an interesting foreground. However, trees are tall and block a clear view of the south sky. I settled on this old wagon that sits pointing southward, as if it’s recalling where it had come from. Perhaps it is looking forward to where it wants to go.

The folks at the museum put the bows on the wagon for me. This gave the subject more character and interest. The wood looks aged and weathered from the winters and summers on the prairie. The wheels also appear worn, but eager to continue to explore what is to be discovered over the horizon.

The sky is divided by a low line of clouds reflecting light in the far distance and the stars above the clouds that surround and accent the Milky Way. It’s a beautiful image. I used my Sony a6700 camera and Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2 lens. The 27mm lens helped to compress and make the sky appear closer to the wagon. I used manual focus to focus separately on the wagon and the stars.

This is comprised of two photographs from the same place on my tripod. The first image focused on the wagon. I set the camera shutter speed to 15 seconds, aperture to f/8, and the ISO to 800. This gave me the exposure I wanted to light paint the wagon and grass in the foreground. The aperture offered a depth of field to keep everything sharp and in focus. I was able to lower the ISO because I used my headlamp to illuminate the wagon and grass during the long shutter speed. I wasn’t worried about the star trails in this image.

After taking the foreground picture, I focused my camera on the brightest star in the sky. Camera settings were adjusted to 8 seconds for the shutter speed, f/1.8 aperture, and ISO 3200. This larger aperture and ISO allowed me to capture the galactic core of the Milky Way.

Merging these two images gave me this photograph of the scene. I hope you enjoy it. I call this “A Little House on the Prairie.” You can purchase a copy from my on-line prints store on this website (www.wanderingmonkhikes.com/store).

School’s Out!

Hi y’all, Dan here! Thanks for joining me. If you watch my YouTube videos, this is my usual greeting. As I begin this blog journey, it just seems like the right way to start.

Each blog will center around a photograph. (After all, this is a photography website.)

I began nature and wildlife photography a few years back as a way of slowing down to enjoy the beauties of creation. So, I will share nature or wildlife photographs taken from one of my adventures. I hope you enjoy the picture, but I really want to encourage you to go outside and look around at nature. It’s amazing!

I plan to do a couple of things with these blogs.

First, I will be sharing the story behind the picture. Second, I want to provide the technical side of the photograph for other photographers. I get loads of questions for both the story, as well as my camera settings. This way, I can answer both. If you aren’t interested in both sections of the blog, simply focus on your area of interest and skip the rest.

I try to capture a larger story in my photographs. Something more than just a snapshot. Something that places the subject in its world, and tells what it may be doing there. Some subjects are wildlife; birds, fish, or animals. Both large and small. Some subjects are the landscape itself; trees, plants, mountains, and prairies. Some include buildings; schools, churches, or homes. Other photos are night skies; stars, moon, or other celestial sites. My very favorites are photographs that combine all the above.

The Story of the Image

One of my favorite images is this one with the Milky Way coming over the top of an old schoolhouse. Looking at the photo, I can almost hear the children of early settlers playing on the school grounds, or reciting the pledge of allegiance before beginning their studies of the day, or slamming their books closed as they prepare to rush home. Also, I look at the stars and realize these are the same stars that the children saw when they were chasing fireflies at night and looked heavenward as they prayed before going to sleep.

Yes, these photos are much more than just pictures. They capture stories and open room for the imagination to explore. This photograph was taken at the beginning of Milky Way season in 2025. The Milky Way is visible in the northern hemisphere from March until late October. After that, it rises above the horizon after sunrise. Through fall and winter, we don’t see the beautiful galactic core until early spring when the orbit of our little celestial home shifts to let us look at the great neighborhood of our galaxy.

To see the vibrant gaseous colors of the Milky Way, I have to travel to dark sky areas. I’ve seen the dark skies over Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. However, I am truly blessed to live in southeastern Kansas. It’s a short drive to escape the light polluted areas and see the night sky like I remember witnessing as a young boy in the sticks of Alabama.

This subject of the photograph in this post is the Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse near Strong City, Kansas. The limestone school was built in 1882 and served area students, children of settlers in the local Flint Hills area, until 1930.

If you zoom in on the windows of the school, you may see the picture of George Washington hanging inside the classroom. School’s Out! photograph offers a sense of place in its story. I hope you agree.

This National Historic Landmark is truly an iconic site of life on the prairie. You can visit the school which sits in the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve managed by the great men and women of the National Parks Service.

Geek Speak

I took this photo around 1am in May. It was an exceptionally clear sky. It seems we have had a stormy spring, with few clear, starry nights. I’m really not complaining. This is Kansas and we will pray for rain in August. So, I appreciate all we can get now. It does make nights like the one in this photo especially fun.

I am always learning in photography. That is one of my favorite parts of this craft. Each genre of photography requires different skills and considerations. Night photography is particularly challenging to me. I think it requires a foreground to offer a sense of place, as well as the stars to give room for the imagination. Sharp clear foregrounds and sharp clear skies require very different camera settings. It’s not easy.

I tried a couple of special tricks for this image. For the schoolhouse, I place small lights on the outside of the back windows to illuminate inside the room. I wanted to make the school come alive, as if the children were inside making the sounds of learning and laughter. I also used a technique called “light painting” on the outside of the building to have the schoolhouse stand out from the rest of the picture.

To light paint the subject, I set my camera to a high numbered aperture (like f/8) to get a greater depth of field and keep more of the details in sharp focus. I also decrease the ISO to 800 to reduce the noise of the image. Then I set the shutter speed to 10 or 15 seconds. My go-to white balance setting for night photography is 3800K. That offers the cooler tone that I personally like for night shots. I set the focus to manual and then focus the camera on the building itself.

In this photograph, I took two shots of the foreground. In one, I set a 10 second timer for my shutter release. I pressed the shutter button, quickly walked to the left edge of the frame and lit the schoolhouse and grass by waving my headlamp on its lowest setter to “painting” the area. I took a second shot by doing the same thing, but quickly walking to the right edge of the frame and painting from that direction. Never paint the image from directly behind the camera. I always try to cross light the subject this way. I then merge the two images in post-editing software like Photo Shop (I use Affinity Photo).

Next, I turn may attention to the sky. Night scape photography is very camera specific. I use a Sony a6700 camera. My favorite lens is a Viltrox 27mm, f/1.2. You will need to play with your gear for what works best. For taking star photography with my kit, I set my shutter speed to 8 seconds. Any faster and I lose detail of the sky, any slower and the image captures star trails (stars look like little streaks because of the earth’s rotation). With the aperture at f/2.5, I then manually focus on a bright star by adjusting the focus ring until the star looks like a little point of light rather than a blurry blob. My ISO is set to 3200, but I may increase it to 6400 if I don’t like the look of the test image. Again, white balance is 3800 kelvin for a cooler sky look.

This photograph is actually a panorama made with two images wide, and two images tall. I stitched them together in Affinity Photo (you may prefer Photo Shop). That’s it.

This is one of my favorite Milky Way photographs that I’ve taken. I hope you enjoy it.

If you would like a copy of this, or any of my select photographs, you can visit the store page of this website (www.wanderingmonkhikes.com/store) and order the size and paper that you desire. These orders are completed by and shipped from White Wall Labs, a premium photo printing company. White Wall has been voted eight times by TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) as the world’s best photo lab. They use excellent quality paper (I offer a matte, glossy, and crystal pearl paper for all of my photographs). Their customer service is superior too. If you have and damage to your order, they will replace it hassle free. Select the size and paper of you choice, prices vary according to size. Add it to your cart and checkout from their secure site. Thank you for supporting my work and enabling me to share more images.

Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay on the path! God bless you.

Dan “Wandering Monk”