PrairieDust visual journal

photographer Dave Leiker

First Taste of Winter

First Taste of Winter

No putting it off any longer, the first surge of snow and ice moved over the area yesterday. It’s melting off quickly, though, leaving it just cold, wet, and gray today. Camera: Leica D-Lux4

Greenwood County #2

Greenwood County #2

This is a photo from late October. Really, it’s a crop from a widescale-format view of the hills. I was driving down a dirt road when I saw the light on the distant trees. There was a deep ditch to cross, then it required leaning over a barbed wire fence enough…

Emanuel Jackson

Emanuel Jackson

Bushong, Kansas – We met a most likeable man on the streets of Bushong today. Emanuel Jackson stopped his pickup truck to chat with us. Fellow photographer, Tom Parker, and I were photographing the small town. When I asked about the flags mounted in the truck Emanuel…

Behind the Wheel

Behind the Wheel

February morning, my car won’t start today Yeah, I turned the key at 8:03 And the battery passed away Inside a’ my automobile I’m drivin’ my automobile Wanna my automobile Wanna drive it all around this world – John Prine

Woodcarver

Woodcarver

Also available: the woodcarver slideshow . I spent some time watching and photographing wood carver Millard Harrell as he worked, and put the best of the photos together in the wooden-block-to-finished-sculpture slideshow .

Greenwood County

Greenwood County

Autumn settles on the Flint Hills – Dotted with oil pumps and tanks, this is about a dozen miles east of Cassoday, Kansas. What may be the few remaining traces of the Teterville oil community are found close by, on one of the highest hills in the area. Most Internet…

Massasauga

Massasauga

This massasauga rattlesnake was minding his own business along a country road west of Hamilton, Kansas. I wish I’d annoyed him enough to get him into a coiled, read-to-strike position, but he was just warming up on a long overdue sunny day. I sure wouldn’t…

Lyon County Showdown

Lyon County Showdown

Emporia, Kansas – Here some calf roping action in the mud during the Kansas High School Rodeo Association events today.