Natural Falls State Park Hike

Call me crazy but when the opportunity to go hiking (even in 100 degree heat) presents itself I'm going to take it! It was definitely hot but luckily there was a lot of shade and plenty of places to just sit and enjoy nature for as long as you wanted.

Natural Falls State Park, located near Colcord, OK, was the destination for Saturday's hike. It was a great hike in my home state!

The main attraction of the park is the77' waterfall. I'm guessing there's more of a "fall" in the spring but it was still pretty nice!

Loved all the possible angles to capture the waterfall!

Even saw a few fish!

The park is also (sorta) famous for being one of the locations shot in the movie "Where the Red Fern Grows" from 1974. 

Beautiful butterfly! 

Through the looking "rock".

More climbing!! Thanks for the stairs though :)

 Pretty view of the lake...or creek...or pond...not sure what it really was!

Nice little rock "bridge" across the stream. 

Most of the trails were pretty tame... 

But occasionally we ended up off the beaten path, kind of like the path less traveled.  Eventually we found our way back though and it was a great day of hiking!

Even found some pretty flowers along the way. 

Tulsa Color Run 2012

I had read lots about the Color Run (thank you Google) and thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I mean, I like running and I like color so heck yeah, count me in! I convinced some of the girls from my zumba class to join me for the "happiest 5K on the planet" and the rest is history! It was a great and colorful day and I'm looking forward to the next one!! 

There were over 10,000 people waiting patiently to start the run...and it was about 90 already! 

Half of the team...looking oh, so clean before the start! 

...And after, team Color Me Zumba sporting as much color as we could! 

Getting ready for the "color explosion"... (everyone throws their color up in the air, sharing the love with thousands of new friends!)

Looking pretty cool so far! 

Loving the bystander who walked through my shot!  

 

Pretty!

Yep, pretty!  

...still going 

....and going! It was a fantastic, color-filled day!!

If you love to run (or maybe just walk) and love color this is definitely an event worth checking out!!

Summer Moon Shots

It's the first day of summer! I thought I'd celebrate by practicing my moon shots...

The Falls at Joplin, MO

I always love an opportunity to photograph water of any kind but especially waterfalls! And the Falls is practically in my backyard too!

 Finally starting to get the hang of blurring the water! Would have liked to have more color in the pic though.

 Got to practice some full sun shooting today. 

Lots of flowing water here ! 

 Interesting cascading waterfall...

Cool tree on the creek bank 

Practicing my water blurring techniques. 

 I'm told this is part of an old mill that was once located on the creek. I liked the spiral staircase.

Really love the various waterfalls! 

Another shot of the creeks bank. The colors seemed really soothing. 

June 365+1 "With Wings"

I think it's kind of funny I chose bugs as my models for "With Wings". They were good sports about posing though so it all worked out! 

Dragonfly hanging out and enjoying the beautiful day!  

I'm not sure what this was but I really liked the colors! 

June 365+1 "Dusk" (part 2)

So, I couldn't resist another attempt at dusk when I saw the sky this evening! 

Loved the colors! 

Different viewpoint...slightly different colors. 

Loved the color variation!

 Night sky framed by the trees. 

Really loved the glimpse of dusk through the trees.