A Concise Message Has Been Sent Entitled--Concise--Today--2014-06-02:

A concise message has been sent out at ...

http://www.voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com

entitled 'Concise--Today--2014-06-02:

Thank You

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Markel Peters
http://www.voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com

http://www.voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com

http://www.better-boys-of-america.blogspot.com

A Concise Message Has Been Sent Out Entitled--Concise--2014-02-19--The Impala and the Ravine:

A concise message has been sent out at ...

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entitled 'Concise--2014-02-19--The Impala and the Ravine:'

Thank You

**********

Markel Peters
http://www.voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com
http://www.voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com

HERE -- 07-01-2013:

Greetings again gentle readers. Put down your firearms long enough to look at some pictures of what we are fighting for.

These photographs are from the counties of Humboldt, Hancock, Wright, Cerro Gordo, Worth, Mitchell, Floyd, Butler, Hardin and Franklin -- in the Real Iowa. The rivers involved are the Iowa and the Boone. I took these shots on three different days, with the intention of combining them into a view of what you would see if you drove around these counties during one day.

This is just a small accounting if what there is to see here, of course. This has worked out better than I expected. The weather here in the Real Iowa changes quite often; going from one coloration to the next quite often in one day; so, the only way to get a constant color palette here is if the skies are totally clear of clouds for a day, which does not happen that often. Hence, this worked out well -- because it shows you the changes that can happen in this land's appearance during a single day.

This collection starts at early morning and ends at late night, in my own backward.

I have enhanced all of these photos except for two. I left two alone, to show you how green and blue this land really is. By 'enhanced' I mean that I sharpen them, level them, and adjust them so that they look as my eyes saw these scenes, which the camera does not always render accurately.


I use a high contrast and high definition monitor to work on these photographs. That means, I do not punch up the contrast on these pictures much because I am already looking at a high contrast monitor. If these pictures seem in need of some contrast to you, punch up the contrast control of your monitor or laptop. Every computer has a video control panel as part of its software. Probably ATI or Nvidia or Intel etc. At those control panels you can adjust color intensity, brightness, contrast, and gamma. Try it. Adjust your controls until these picture look like you are really there. Bear in mind however, that since the clouds and atmosphere do change a lot here, the pictures themselves change. So adjust your controls for a happy medium.

This land is what is called the 'Boonies', to city prisoners. The Boone river is actually a part of this, but that is irrelevant. This is the real place, the real land, that the city drones call the 'Boonies'; and millions of them would kill to live out here. Sort of makes you wonder why they talk it down, when they would kill each other to be out here.

The photographs that were taken in the late afternoons and evenings next to rivers and canals, show a plenitude of birds. The birds nest below the concrete bridges. It makes a very nice shelter for them, and since there is always a body of water involved there are always a lot of insects close by. Some of these pictures show the birds feeding in the evenings. They fly in swarms over the rivers and canals, catching insects for dinner. If they did not, this world would be in a hurt.

There is one sequence of eight shots at the Iowa river. I put all of them into this collection, to show you how many different ways a river in the Midwest can look over a period of just ten minutes.


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Please remember that you can see the larger versions of these pictures by left clicking on them. When they pop up in another window, right click on them and then choose 'view image'.

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This is a very important time of the year for this countryside. This is when the cattle and horses have their babies. There is a added freshness to 'springtime' here.

As I indicated, the idea of this collection is to show the land itself. What is here, where it is here, how it is here. Over every hill there is another scene in this land, so do not expect to be seeing more than a small sampling of what there is to photograph here.

Do not be surprised. I am not waving at you. There is a Raccoon behind the camera.

Incidentally, this is the end of the 'Trucker's Scruff' look which I created. It works very well in a trucking environment, and out here it is very convenient, but I am tired of it. Also, I am so used to it that I always dress this way, even around town -- which is not fair to my People. So, I have decided on a change of clothing.

All of these pictures need to be seen in their bigger versions to be appreciated.
 

This picture, and the next, I did not adjust for color, brightness, or contrast. This is really how colorful it is here.

I included eight photos from a bridge over the Iowa river. I am trying to show how the lighting can change in just a short amount of time.
 

 I included five shots of a swarm of birds, to try to show how many there are; but they move so fast and in such numbers that it is not possible. They also have a habit of swarming on different sides of a river, left or right, and then bunching together and diving under the bridge to get to the other side of the road. Then, they swarm again on the left or the right. And then, back under the bridge to get to the other side of the road again.

  

 

 The bridge. This one can carry 40 tons of weight, or it would be marked as having a lesser capacity. There are hundreds of these bridges in the Real Iowa, as there is a large network of rivers here. Iowa is situated in the middle of a rain belt, so the rain creates rivers. The rivers change the landscape, so it is not as flat out here as it looks like from satellite photos.

One of many 'island' towns. The idea is to live inside a large grouping of trees -- called 'islands'. It sounds simple, and it is. And, it works. Inside an 'island' of trees, the weather is far more endurable. Just ten feet outside the 'island', you are completely exposed to the elements.

A different bridge.
 

I call this picture -- "Pterodactyl Sunset' -- for obvious reasons.
 

Looking away from the Sunset.
 

With this picture, and the next two, I edited them for art rather than accuracy. However, in these cases art is not far from reality.

There are many small towns in the Real Iowa, that do not even have stores; this is one of them. They almost always have grain elevators however, that being their principle reason for coming into existence in the first place.
 

Eagle Grove at night.
 

Yes, my back yard. This was taken late at night using a step ladder for a tripod.

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Markel Peters
http://www.voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com