Palmer Creek Shadow Lines

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Flint Hills, Kansas

If you want to really treat yourself to something special, hire a pilot to take you out in a small plane about an hour before sunset or at sunrise and fly over the Flint Hills at about 1000 to 1500 feet above the ground. The low angle of the sun creates long shadows, profoundly illustrating the rolling terrain. This is how & when this picture was taken. When you are on the ground driving through this region, you see the hills around you, but you have no idea of the “hill after hill after hill” nature of the landscape.

It's not hard to imagine this area once being the floor of a large, shallow ocean that has since been elegantly & smoothly carved by the archaically patient & persistent action of water. These forces are evident from this vantage point, and the light at this time of day gives a colorful, poetic feel to this rural landscape.