© Brad Mangas
One of the areas in the flint hills I visit regularly leads me down a road that goes by this old stone church. I have drove down and looked at it up close hoping for some photo opportunities. It has been vacant for many years and much of it is in need of repair. Like many of the old limestone houses and barns in this part of the county and particularly this area of Kansas the stone work is magnificent. The abundant supply of limestone provided a great building material throughout the early 1900’s and is still used today and is as beautiful today as it was years ago. I haven’t taken any photos up close but from a distance this church is a classic building to view.
Last weekend while out driving in the rain I was on a road that is somewhat new to me that I just started exploring earlier this spring. It heads west of this church and runs up and through some wonderful flint hill vistas. Like I do many times after driving west (away from the church) I turned around and came back the same road heading east back towards the church. I really like looking at scenes from different directions and the view one gets heading one direction can be quite different when you look at them from the opposite direction. So was the case here. I popped up over a hill and there was the church nestled in the trees with it’s steeple standing tall. Still raining, I didn’t get out and setup my dslr but like always my trusty Nikon p80 point and shoot was right by my side. This compact camera has an 18x optical zoom which came in handy for this shot. This is from a distance of at least a half mile so I used most of that zoom to compose this shot.
I really like the looks of this and look forward to this fall and earlier next spring in hopes of capturing foliage color from this view point. Just because a person has visited and area a few times in no way means you have seen all there is to see. One of the pleasures I always get from photography is revisiting familiar grounds and finding something new every time.
