imagery and adventure
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the monthly meeting of the Ozark Highlands Trail Association in Fayetteville, Arkansas to share a presentation/slide show about our 2012 Mount Everest Base Camp trek. I really enjoyed getting to do the talk and the OHTA was kind enough to give me an honorary membership patch, OHTA Nalgene bottle, and a copy of the brand new OHT map, which will come in handy on my thru-hike of the trail beginning fall of 2015.
I recently had the opportunity to shoot scenic photos to be used for the artwork in the renovated Sequoyah State Lodge near Wagoner, Oklahoma. Earlier this week, I got to see the “new” lodge and the photos on display. What a thrill to see my work on display there! 
A couple of recently edited shots taken in 2013 on our trip to Arizona.
The pond at Buffalo Dream Ranch, home of good friends Chris and Claire Johnson. Taken on a sunny winter day and enhanced with Photomatix.
See my two articles in the January/February 2015 issue of Oklahoma Today — The Vanguard and Sing Us Home.
http://www.oklahomatoday.com/oklahomatoday/MAGAZINE/Current_Issue/index.html
I learned a couple of days ago that this image has been selected for exhibition and entry into the 2015 PhotoSpiva Competition at the Spiva Center for the Arts. From a field of 809 images by 153 photographers, only 85 were selected. I will be shipping this image to the museum for exhibition beginning Friday, March 6, and judging with awards presentation on Friday, March 13. 
Seems my most consistent theme lately is trees and fog — came across this one from last winter and converted to black and white.
I enjoy driving down from our hilltop into the river bottom and seeing fog. This morning, there was frost as well. I took this shot with my iPhone5 on NW 72nd between Tecumseh and Franklin Roads in Norman.
Last week we visited one of the bluff shelters along the White River excavated in the 1920s by archaeologist Mark Harrington. From this work, Harrington concluded that there had been a distinct native American culture he called the Ozark Bluff Dwellers. While that notion is no longer considered valid — these were Caddoan people using the bluffs but they interacted with the larger Caddoan society — it still makes an interesting story. The bluff shelters Harrington visited are difficult to find — some may be inundated by Beaver Lake — but we can access this one through a friend’s lake property.
Hiked into Devil’s Eyebrow Natural Area near Gateway, Arkansas last week, and captured this shot on Indian Creek.
susan dragoo