The story behind my Kansas! Magazine 2018 Calender December cover photo.
It was January 15th, 2017 and my now wife and I was driving back from seeing family in Kansas City. Making the trip often to Kansas City we always see the sign that says, “Marais des Cygnes Massacre site” right off of the highway, so we took the exit and headed out to the site.
Down the gravel road, we go and we don’t know what to expect as we have never looked it up on google or seen any photos of the site. The road splits fields of dirt, nothing to see for most of the drive, until…
Until, I spot the majestic American Bald Eagle, sitting in the middle of a field. I didn’t have any of my big lenses on me so I missed that opportunity to shoot a bald eagle staring straight at me. Since the shot is pointless, I jump back in the car and keep on down the road.
We take our last turn into the entrance and that is where the shot is taken. I see the ice-covered trees and I am in awe! Everything is covered in ICE, tunneling this road into the site. I knew I had to take the photo, the reason being every time I drive around on the backroads, I am always looking for roads that are covered by trees and when we came across this one, with the ice it grabbed me.
I now look back and wish I would have done a few things differently. One would be, adding a subject to the scene, something with a pop of color in the middle of the road. The second thing is my composition and I think I would like it better if I went lower to the road with my camera. Third, I think if I went with like f/10 instead of f/5, just so more would be in sharp focus.
Until next time
Stay, ON THE SHUTTER
Settings: 70mm f/5 1/250 iso800 Gear: Nikon d3s w/ Nikon 70-200 f2.8 Adjustments made to Contrast and highlights in Adobe Lightroom
Derek Livingston Media 