August: Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Night Sky

I went out to the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve to look for Perseid meteors. I shot 225 images in an attempt to capture those elusive little buggers but ended up catching nothing. I wanted to try to salvage something from the evening and decided to try to create a star trail image. The moon had been up for much of the evening so I had the nicely lit ground. Craig McCord had been nice enough to use his lights to throw a little illumination into the building and I got lucky with a truck coming by on the road to light up the tree on the right side. I put my meager Photoshop skills to work to combine all these images into something nice. It was the first time I had used Photoshop so extensively to blend images.

Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse with Moonlight
This image was created by blending two images (23.14.25-interior lightpainting and 23.11.23-light from passing truck). To brighten the stars I created a duplicate layer of the image and then used the move tool to nudge the new layer up by 1 pixel, then changed blending mode to lighten 100%. A mask was created to allow the original layer to come through preventing the one-pixel nudge from affecting the ground. ------------------------------------------------------------ Providing a basic education for their children was a high priority to prairie settlers. Classes began here at the Lower Fox Creek School in 1884, and continued until 1930. Land for the school had been donated by Stephen F. Jones, original owner of the nearby Spring Hill Ranch. The school's basic one-room style, constructed of the same limestone which underlies its knoll, provided a place where the basics were taught -- reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography -- the learning tools the students of this small school would use throughout their lives. From their little prairie school, local children were introduced to the world. Some of them stayed to inherit family riches, while others went off to explore the places they had only seen on school house maps. Wherever they went though, the memory of growing up in this prairie place probably went with them. As the tallgrass prairie has become an increasingly threatened landscape, the type of view that can be seen from the Lower Fox Creek School has become increasingly rare. As part of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, it will continue to be protected so that children of the future can have the opportunity to enjoy, and learn the basics of, the amazing tallgrass prairie. · Stephen Jones donated a portion of his ranch land to build the schoolhouse, while others in the area donated buildnig materials and labor. · Construction of the schoolhouse was completed in May 1882. · First classes were held in the schoolhouse in September 1884, once a teacher was hired. · Classes were held in the schoolhouse until 1930. · Class size varied from one to nineteen students from grades one through eight. · The schoolhouse reverted to ranch ownership in 1930 and was used as a ranchhand house and for hay storage. · The schoolhouse was restored by local garden clubs in 1968 and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1974.
Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse with Moonlight and Startrails
This image was created by using StarStax on 225 25s images between 21.54.12 and 23.32.11. The resulting image was blended with two images (23.14.25-interior lightpainting and 23.11.23-light from passing truck) to add additional light to the foreground subjects. Although these two images were part of the stack, StarStax seemed to minimize their effect so I forced them back in with Photoshop. ------------------------------------------------------------ Providing a basic education for their children was a high priority to prairie settlers. Classes began here at the Lower Fox Creek School in 1884, and continued until 1930. Land for the school had been donated by Stephen F. Jones, original owner of the nearby Spring Hill Ranch. The school's basic one-room style, constructed of the same limestone which underlies its knoll, provided a place where the basics were taught -- reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography -- the learning tools the students of this small school would use throughout their lives. From their little prairie school, local children were introduced to the world. Some of them stayed to inherit family riches, while others went off to explore the places they had only seen on school house maps. Wherever they went though, the memory of growing up in this prairie place probably went with them. As the tallgrass prairie has become an increasingly threatened landscape, the type of view that can be seen from the Lower Fox Creek School has become increasingly rare. As part of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, it will continue to be protected so that children of the future can have the opportunity to enjoy, and learn the basics of, the amazing tallgrass prairie. · Stephen Jones donated a portion of his ranch land to build the schoolhouse, while others in the area donated buildnig materials and labor. · Construction of the schoolhouse was completed in May 1882. · First classes were held in the schoolhouse in September 1884, once a teacher was hired. · Classes were held in the schoolhouse until 1930. · Class size varied from one to nineteen students from grades one through eight. · The schoolhouse reverted to ranch ownership in 1930 and was used as a ranchhand house and for hay storage. · The schoolhouse was restored by local garden clubs in 1968 and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1974.

August: Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse Night Sky

Map showing location of all photos on this page