Diana Linsley, a seasoned photographer with a flair for capturing the essence of Missouri's natural beauty, joins us in a delightful chat about her latest collaboration with Don Corrigan titled Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri. Diana shares how her passion for photography blossomed during her childhood on a strawberry farm. From her early days of snapping photos with a Kodak Instamatic to her current practice with a Canon R5, she navigates through the evolution of photography, both technically and artistically.

We shift towards the importance of storytelling in photography. Diana artfully discusses how capturing a moment goes beyond just the click of a shutter; it’s about conveying emotions and narratives through visuals. With anecdotes about her experiences at various stunning locations, such as the Loess Bluffs during the migratory season for snow geese, she explains how the right lighting and timing can elevate a photograph from mundane to magical. You are treated to a peek behind the curtain of professional photography, complete with tips on how to see the world through a lens and the sometimes-serendipitous nature of finding the perfect shot.

Our conversation humorously highlights Diana’s experiences researching and photographing lesser-known spots in Missouri, such as the quaint Castor River Shut-Ins. The episode wraps up with details on where to find Diana's book and upcoming book signings, hoping we leave you inspired to explore the natural wonders of Missouri! It’s a delightful blend of education, laughter, and photographic inspiration that’s sure to resonate with nature lovers and aspiring photographers alike!

[00:00] Storytelling Through Photos

[00:41] Host Intros and Trivia

[01:43] Thought to Ponder on Seeing

[02:59] Meet Diana Linsley

[03:27] Strawberry Farm Roots

[04:46] Falling for Photography

[06:32] Missouri Wonders Book

[07:07] Hidden Gems and Research

[08:14] Shooting the Whole State

[09:02] Collaboration and Favorites

[10:37] Book Signings Schedule (see below)

[12:08] Who the Book Serves

[13:17] Missouri Landscapes and Caves

[15:51] Emotion and Light

[17:39] Digital Gear and Ethics

[19:59] Finding Shots in the Field

[21:24] Tripods and Photo Volume

[22:25] Phones Versus Pro Cameras

[23:48] Break And Sponsor Spots

[26:13] Favorite Missouri Wildlife

[29:29] Hidden Public Lands

[30:28] St Louis Area Nature

[31:38] Route 66 And Times Beach

[33:09] Photography Career Advice

[36:32] Print Versus Screen Viewing

[37:26] Book Tips And Signings

[41:25] Closing Trivia And Signoff

Takeaways:

• Storytelling is key in photography; it's all about conveying feelings through images, folks!
• Diana Linsley emphasizes how capturing the right light can transform a photograph into something magical.
• The scenic wonders of Missouri are not just beautiful; they tell a story that connects us to nature.
• Exploring lesser-known areas in Missouri can reveal hidden gems perfect for hiking and photography.

Book Signings

• July 10-Dutzow Winery: 7-8:30 pm
• August 18-Powder Valley: Register at the MO Dept of Conservation
• September 12-Cooper's Landing Riverside Resort in Columbia, MO: 9am-4pm
• September 13-Cooper's Landing Riverside Resort in Columbia, MO: 10am-3pm

• Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri
• Linsley PhotoStL
• Facebook - Diana Linsley
• Instagram - Diana Linsley
• LinkedIn - Diana Linsley
• Pinterest - Diana Linsley

This is Season 9! For more episodes, go to stlintune.com

#missouriparks #scenicwonderofmissouri #missourinature #naturephotography #photographingnature #hikinginmissouri

How do you use storytelling skills to communicate feelings and convey a message in photographs? We're going to find out today on St. Louis in Tune. Welcome to St. Louis in tune and.

Thank you for joining us for fresh.

Perspectives on issues and events with experts,.

Community leaders and and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world.

I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston.

Howdy.

Behind door number one, Minnie Pearl. Oh, that's right.

She won. That's right.

What's the price tag?

What does the cost on the price tag?

99 Cents.

I thought it was $1.99. You could be right, though.

Not a good trivia question.

That is a good one.

Yeah.

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Yeah, goggles. Yeah, yeah. That would be from the old Pawn Stars.

A lot of people probably don't. Who are you talking about? Yeah, Minnie who?

And what was Minnie Pearl's real name?

Oh, another one.

You know this off the top.

I do not.

Okay, okay. Yeah. You don't think that. You don't think that was her real name?

Major diamond was her husband.

Is Arnold Stricker your real name?

It is my real name.

Oh, good. Now we know how to find you.

There you go. Okay, folks, we're glad that you joined us today.

Even though you might not know what.

Minnie Pearl's real name is, we want to thank our sponsor, Better8 Mortgage, for their support of the show. You can listen to previous [email protected] where you can follow us and leave a review. Also, we've got a thought to ponder today.

This is a great one because a lot of people. I remember cameras were big.

Kodak was this grand company in Rochester, New York, had three thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of square feet in Rochester. And now there's very little footage of a building in Rochester of Kodak, because they thought film was the way to stay in business.

We're always going to do film. And they didn't graduate into the digital realm. But this particular quote is about a camera.

The camera, an instrument that teaches people.

How to see without a camera.

Ah, interesting.

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. And that's by photographer Dorothea Lange.

Good deal.

And if you don't know about her, folks, you should goggle her because she has done some unbelievable kinds of shots about the.

During the WPA time.

And that scene that you see, I think she did the scene that you see about the Dust bowl in Oklahoma and the guys walking. Didn't she do that one?

She might have, yeah. Yeah. She did a very famous one of a woman sitting with her two children.

Yes. On the porch.

On the porch, yes. Yeah. She's one of my favorite photographers.

And that's the voice of Diana Lindsley, author and photographer. And she's been a professional photographer for more than 40 years. She's exhibited her nature photography at galleries throughout Missouri.

She served as the photographer for the Webster Kirkwood Times, South County Times, and West End Word for several decades and has won numerous awards from the the Missouri Press association for her work in photojournalism. Welcome to St. Louis. In tune.

Thank you. Glad to be here.

I have. My first question is, what was it like growing up on a strawberry farm in southern Illinois?

I love strawberries, first of all.

Well, I no longer love strawberries.

I've had enough of them.

I've had enough of them. Yes.

It's a seedy profession.

Wow. I used to grow up when I was a kid out back.

Oh, yeah. I spent a lot of time in strawberry fields as a child.

Her fingers are still.

Yeah. A little pink. Okay. Sorry.

No, it was a hobby farm near Basalto, Illinois. I grew up. My dad had the farm and he produced strawberries, which funded our vacations every year.

Okay.

I've been in 50 states. A lot of that because of my dad putting us in the back of the Ford Galaxy station wagon and driving throughout all of the US Was that.

The back seat where it faced backwards?

Yeah. My brother and I used to fight over that all the time.

You remember those?

I do.

Those were fun.

Wood side on. It did have the wood.

No, it was not.

It wasn't a woody.

The wood. It was not a woody.

Okay.

And for those of you who don't understand that, you know, Google a woody station wagon where the back seat actually looked to the back of the vehicle.

See where you've been.

Where you've been. That was. That was fun.

It was fun. It was weird, but fun.

Yeah.

Where did you get your love for photography?

Was it part of it? Was that just the scenery of driving through throughout the country and seeing all the different types of terrain that are in the U.S. it's amazing.

And so I've. That started my love for nurture, nature and photography.

So did you have a Kodak Instamatic or something or.

Yes.

Or Polaroid?

A Brownie? Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. No longer have that, unfortunately.

I had an Instamatic 100. That's what I started.

Yeah.

He had Actually put the.

The cartridge film.

No, it was a flash bulb. Oh, yeah, it was the cartridge film. But you had to actually put the. It was before the flash cube.

I remember that.

I think that one after. Sorry, you just take these.

Exit rifts.

Memory lane.

There we go. I know it.

What do you remember?

Okay, I've taken these photographs, but when did it really become this.

Part of who you were?

I think it was always a part of who I am. But basically in college, a roommate or a friend's roommate was taking a photo course and he showed me some of his photographs.

And I had not seen fine arts photography so much. And that really lit a fuse for me. It started my passion for photography.

So you went. Did you do black and white color?

Yes, Black and white. My own dark room.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay. I was going to ask that next question. Yeah, your own dark room. Yeah, mine was under the basement stairs.

You had a dark room?

Had a dark room in high school.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

You kind of get these little bugs and you go for them.

I like black and white. Kind of leaves a little bit to the imagination.

Yes.

Is that right?

Makes you think a little bit more.

It does, it does.

It's more expressive in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

Now this is. We're talking about this book. It's called Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri, folks, and it's by Don Corrigan and Diana Linsley.

Don Corrigan used to be the editor and owner of the Webster Kirkwood Times. And Diana was so gracious to come in, and her photographs just throughout this book are just unbelievable. There's a lot of things in here.

And this is about Missouri I never knew about.

Me too.

And so which ones didn't you know? I should maybe should say which ones did you know and which ones didn't you know?

I've been to a lot of those over the past probably ten years or so. I started doing more hiking and discovered a lot of these areas. But there were some I was not aware of at all until we did some research.

We looked at websites. We looked at the state park websites, the Department of Conservation, and just came up with a list of places that looked interesting.

And the ones that I was not aware of was it's called Sand Prairie. It's in southeast Missouri. It is a mini sand dune.

Really?

Yeah. It's not very big, but it's very interesting terrain. And then also a place called All Red Lake is a cypress swamp down.

In southeast Missouri, too.

It's south central. It's right by the Arkansas border.

Really?

Very close to it. And apparently much of southern Missouri looked like that at one time, but it was drained and to use for agriculture areas.

So there's only a few spots left that still have the nature of what it was.

So did you visit every single one of these to take photographs?

Yes, I did.

Wow.

How long did that take?

It took about a year, I was going to say. Yeah, it took about a year. Now, I wasn't out there every day. I organized it so. So that once a month I would take a trip and find different areas.

Now, some of these are fairly close, so that wasn't difficult. A lot of those I did in the winter because they were close by.

But then the others, I divided the state up and just went to one little quadrant here and found these areas.

Did you go out every week? Is that.

No, about once a month I would take a week.

Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense because some of the photographs are when the trees are budding. They've got the blooms on them.

It's four season. Yes, indeed. Yeah. Yeah.

So Don and you said, okay, these are the ones we want to do? Or did you say, don, I really like the pictures of these? Or as my research here. And he's. No, I really like these. How did you decide?

Oh, we had some discussions. Indeed.

She's being nice.

Knock down, drag out discussions.

And did you win some of them? Okay. And he won some of them.

Yes.

Okay. Give and take.

Compromised.

Give and take.

And we got to the very end and realized we were one short.

Really?

Yeah. But luckily, because I had been to a lot of areas in Missouri, I did have kind of some in the can, so to speak, we could pull out.

Did he write most of this script or.

He wrote all of that. He was the writer.

Okay, so here's one. I'm looking at this, folks. Hughes Mountain now, where Devil's honeycomb abides. And I know in like the St. Francis Mountains.

Is this down in St. Francis County?

Yes, I believe that is. It's not. It's in near Potosi.

Okay, that makes sense.

And that's one of my favorite spots. And I had been to that one two or three times prior to this. But we both agreed that needed to be in the book.

Yeah, I. I know on some of these. This is not a criticism, this is for the second edition. That sometimes there are kind of directions in here. I'd love to see a map.

We do, actually. We do have produced a map. And when we sell the books at book signings, we would provide a map for people.

There you go, folks.

There you go.

And since she brought the book signings up, I want to let you know that they're doing some book signings July 3rd in Washington, Missouri, or if you're from South City, Washington. And then there's some book signings in September 12th and 13th in Columbia, Missouri, at Cooper's Landing Riverside Resort.

And I'm sure there's probably more.

Yes, I can add a couple to that.

Please do.

On July 10, we will be at Blumenhof Winery, which is in Duskau, or Dusko, if you're from that area. And I think we're there from 7 to 8:30. And then we will be.

This hasn't really been announced yet, but we will be at the Missouri Nature and Environmental photographers meeting on August 18th at Powder Valley. They have a monthly meeting and we will be presenting there that you do. We need to register for that through the Department of Conservation.

So if you go to the Powder Valley and Google their upcoming events, if it's not on there yet, it will be soon.

Okay, so we've got July 3rd, Washington, July 10th at Duxau Winery, August 18th at Powder Valley, September 12th and the 13th at Cooper's Landing in Columbia.

Correct.

Wow. Getting out there, getting around. You get around, don't you?

We're trying. Yes.

Yeah.

So who's the book for?

I'm sure if people are hikers, they would love this book.

Yes.

Because they always want to do a different trail or a different route sometime. So tell us who you guys had in mind for this book when you.

Started, it was for a lot of, like you said, hikers. It's for people who want to get off the beaten path.

People who have gone to Branson and done Silver Dollar City or whatever are now wanting to get more out into natural areas. Hikers, a lot of these are not really strenuous hikes. So families are quite.

It's quite possible for families to go on these people who just love nature. A lot of my photographer friends are very excited because this gives them new locations to go.

Oh, cool.

And even some painters and people who. Other types of artists who want some inspiration or want to do paint, what they call plein air paintings, they would find, especially the mills.

There's a few of the mills in there.

The mills are gorgeous.

Yes, they are. And there's many more mills than what we've included.

But yes, you've divided the book up. I should say you and Don have divided the book up into various areas.

And folks, these areas are bluffs and vistas, lakes and wetlands, nature centers show.

Caves, grottoes, springs, special places, rivers and.

Streams, rocky shut ins trails and waterfalls. I was surprised at all of the springs.

Oh, there's so many.

I've heard of a couple of these, but some of these other ones I was like, where did that come from? Yeah, that's crazy. And I think everybody knows Johnson shut ins and they know the elephant rocks and those are in here.

But there's more down in that particular area.

Yeah, there's a lot in there.

And the caves. I think Missouri should have been. Actually been the cave state rather than the show me state.

I think it is the cave state. Actually. The caves we have are the well known ones. There are many more caves in Missouri. We just didn't. We weren't able to get to everything.

So yeah, book two, maybe. I don't know.

When you put this together, did he give you a. I'm looking at the Shaw Nature Reserve right now. Did he have. Okay, this is kind of what I'm going to write about. And then you went out and took.

A picture pretty much.

Or did you have pictures of places that you knew you guys were going to write have in the book and you had some pictures and he goes, oh, I need to write about this.

Yeah. It was both.

Okay.

Yeah. It was give and take.

It was collaboration.

Okay.

Yeah.

I think Missouri is one of the unique states. I could be wrong, but there's so many different things going on with our land here.

There is. It's amazing.

It seems more plentiful with interesting and fascinating places to go than other states.

That I've been to in some states for sure. Yeah. But it is. The terrain changes so much from the north to the Ozark area. So. Yes.

Yeah. I think that's a big. There is a big change to the Ozark foothills to the flat part. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really. It's an amazing state, I think.

Yeah. Because if you go way up northwest or northeast, the terrain is completely different.

It is. And even the Boot Hill is very flat. And then you start going west and you run into the foothills of the Ozarks pretty quickly. It's amazing.

That surprised me as I was doing this because I had not been in the Boot Hill all that much and it surprised me quite a lot as I traveled west.

You'll see cotton farms down there.

Yes. And rice fields. Yes.

It's unbelievable.

Close to Arkansas. A lot of the rice from the river. Yeah.

So I mentioned at the front end using storytelling to communicate feelings and convey a message. How do you do that? Through photography.

It is a feeling. A lot of times it has to do with the lighting, the time of day. There's photos of Trail of Tears, which I was lucky to get there. It's a somber sight.

And when I got there around sunrise, there was a beam of light coming down through the clouds. So it fit the mood perfectly. And sometimes you just get lucky.

Yeah.

That's a question I have always had for photographers. Because you see these.

If Mark and I go to take a photograph and then you see a professional who, as a photojournalist who does this for a living, it's like, what am I missing? Is it a different. What you're seeing is different or you're looking beyond or whatever. What's the difference there?

I think it's a different way of seeing. Yeah. And you can be trained to some extent. You can be trained with composition and the mood.

Like I said, you can watch for better light, but it just takes a sense within you, I think, to do it really well.

And Ansel Adams, correct me if I'm wrong, he did a lot of that in the darkroom. He did different chemicals to get the photographs that he had.

Yeah. And different filters on them.

Even though he had wonderful kind of shots.

You do have to get the basic shot first. Yeah, yeah. And today you can do so much with Photoshop and to enhance your photo, you go even farther with AI. But that's kind of cheating.

That's a bit controversial. Yes.

I like the raw human.

Mark and I are just playing at it right there. Cheating.

Yeah, it is. I'll agree with you.

When did you go to a digital camera and what did you like about it and what didn't you like?

And what camera do you use?

I want to know all this stuff.

I have a Canon R5 and it's a full frame camera, which meaning it gives you a larger panorama, or not really a panorama, but a larger image, a wider image, let me say, than some other cameras. So it's a full frame camera.

It's more like a 28 millimeter, not.

Quite than a 30.

It is a little. Yeah, it is a little bit bigger.

And it's a Canon 3 R5. R5.

I'm sorry. Yeah. And I've had it for a while. I really like it. But I started digital really about the time I started working at the Times newspapers.

Okay.

So I didn't own a digital camera. They did. And so I used it for a while when I first started working there and then decided I wanted a nicer one.

I can imagine a newspaper Would need something like right away. We can't wait to get it developed.

Yes, they used to do that. Do it that way. It's a. It's a weekly paper, so you could take a little time, but. But yes. So it is more. It's quicker. Digital is much quicker, for sure.

And like I said, you can do some enhancements with newspapers. You're not allowed to. And so I was trained not to do a lot of manipulation. I don't take things in or out. I don't do that kind of thing.

I might embellish color a little bit, make sure everything's in focus, but I don't go much beyond that.

That's really the purest way to do it.

I like that.

Yeah, I do too.

That's really the way to do it.

Yeah. Maybe brighten it up a little bit or dim it down a little bit. But other than that, I love a raw picture like you're talking about.

You either see it or you don't make it up.

Is this an eye? Is it like, did they say, oh, you got a great eye?

A lot of people say things like that too.

It seems like a natural thing for the photographs that I've seen that are really famous. Great. It's just these people have a knack for that. It's like in a million years I couldn't get a picture like that even if I tried.

And I've tried to do it by framing where I'm taking a picture of getting all the background in there.

Right.

And then taking the picture.

By the time I get it figured out, it's gone.

That light streaming down.

An hour ago I should have taken that picture. Yeah, right.

As I look at these in here, where did you know to go to get some of these shots? This is like a waterfall. This is at the Sam Baker Volcanoes. Designed this park for kids.

The shut in trails at Sam Baker State park, which I don't even know where that's at, but there's a shot and I imagine, oh, I'm going to stand at the bottom of this thing and take a picture up of it. But where did you on all these? How'd you know? Did you walk around like the Welch Spring Refuge for relaxation, Rejuvenation.

Never heard about that place either.

I hiked and when I went to Sandbaker, I didn't. I. What I would do would research the trails, figure out which trail I wanted to take, which one might be the most peaceful, picturesque, whatever.

But a lot of times I didn't know for sure what I Wanted to photograph until I got there. And at Sam Baker it had flooded. There had been a lot of rain just before that.

So when I went on that trail, luckily there was water coming down those rocks. A lot of times I went back real recently and there was not. It was very dry. It was a way different picture because of that.

So I again, sometimes you just get lucky. And so I walked on that trail as far as I could, but I couldn't go a lot further because it was flooded.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Now when you take pictures, are you taking. Does your camera have different lenses so you can get zooming in and things like that?

Yes.

Okay, and then the next question. When you go to a place like this, like that, Sam Baker did you take like or any of the other places? How many pictures do you normally take?

And then you go back to the studio and say, okay, I really like these. These really fit. That's how you guys kind of did that.

Sure. Yeah, I took a lot of pictures. Depending on the site, I would probably have 20 to 30 photos easily. Sometimes more, sometimes a little bit less.

Sam Baker I went out, I saw that waterfall and I had to go back about a mile and get my tripod, bring it back so I could get the effect I wanted with the slow water.

See, thinking about I would have just been.

But yeah, sure.

And we all have cameras now. And so somebody might ask the question, why should I buy a camera, a professional camera, when I have one on my phone?

Because Apple and all the other ones, Samsung, they really promote that, these cameras, they Hollywood's using the cam, the phones for their cameras and stuff. Why should someone go out and buy a professional camera from your.

A lot of people do use their phones, you're right. And the cameras on the phones have gotten better. I understand. I have the very basic phone because I have a camera, so I don't need that.

That's a good one. I like that.

It depends on what you want to do with it.

If you're looking to do high end photography, you want your photos in a gallery, you want to be able to manipulate them a you probably should have a camera.

Okay.

Now I know there are some people that use their phone and still are able to do those things, but to me I just feel like I need a camera to do that.

You look more official then too. You look like you're with the press sorta.

Or I just look like this crazy little old lady that's carrying a big camera.

Is it different when you do you look through the lens?

Yeah, I do.

You don't look at the screen on the back.

Or normally not. I look at the. Actually, I use both. I will look through the viewfinder, but sometimes I also then look at the screen on the back.

Okay. Viewfinder. That was the word that you were thinking of.

Okay, we're gonna take a brief break and we're gonna come right back and talk to Diana Lindsley about the book she has collaborated with Don Corrigan on called Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri.

Don't go away.

We're gonna be right back.

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Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune.

This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston.

We are talking to Diana Lindsley. She is the photographer for the book Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri, a book she collaborated with.

Don Corrigan and I want to give Diana's website its own lynsleyphotostl.com that's L I N S L E Y photo P H O T o s t l dot com l I n s l e y p-o dash t dash o dash s dash t l dot com. What were some favorite sites that you went to visit, Diana, on this whole kind of extravaganza when you're working on this book?

My very favorite is up north of St. Joe. It's near Big Lake State park, but it's a national wildlife refuge called Loess Bluff. And I went there twice, actually.

I went first just to photograph for the book and decided that I wanted to go back the following year, which I did. And when I was there, it was during the migration period for snow geese, and it was in March, and. And there were 700,000 snow geese there.

Now I'm showing this on the camera here. We're live on Facebook and YouTube, but I'm looking at this. That's 700,000 geese. Yeah, that's. It's like. It looks like it's snowing.

Yes. Yes. It's an amazing place. The sound. A lot of times the. A photograph will give you an idea of what something looks like.

But until you go experience the sensory of this, the sound, the sights of this is so amazing. And that's true with a lot of these. The waterfalls, you hear the water. And the springs, you hear the water trickling.

So that's part of the experience I hope people take away.

So was it like honking? A lot of honking. Loud?

Sort of, yeah.

Do that again, Arnold.

Honk, honk.

Honking.

That's pretty good.

A lot of ducks.

If that's one, I'll multiply it by 700,000 exactly. It's just crazy picture. That's just unbelievable.

It was great. Some people go and just take a lawn chair and sit on the shore. It's very large area. You can just actually drive around.

Could be a drive through, basically, But a lot of people pull over, put their lawn chairs out and sit on the shore and watch.

It's amazing. They migrate there. They come through there.

They come through there also in the winter. Eagles are there in the hundreds and thousands. I understand. I have not the attraction. I wanted that it's a safe place. It's the water.

It's on the Missouri River.

Do you have another favorite or is that kind of all?

Red Lake was one. I mentioned it earlier. It's the swamp area in southern Missouri. And that again, part of that is the. The sound.

You can hear the birds around you, the water kind of rippling, the wind in the trees. It's just beautiful.

And I look at another one. I just opened the book to Roger Pryor. Pioneer backcountry, named for Forrest's best friend. Another one I've never heard of.

This is off the Current river. But I look at this photograph and what I'm thinking of is absolute quiet.

It is very quiet. It's very remote. I did not know of that one. That was one Don had been to and he wanted that in the book. And it is very interesting place. Very quiet.

It's a lot of logging roads, but there's nobody lives back there. You have it to yourself. It's wonderful.

I was going to look up, Mark, how much the conservation department, the state of Missouri, owned of parks and those kinds of things that are mentioned in here. Because it seems, as you're reading, it's. Yeah. And they bought this from the family. And it's 500 something acres. There's 10,000 acres here.

And how many acres does the state own?

That's a good question. I don't know. But a lot of that. A lot of the areas we went to are public land. We didn't get permission to get permission. It was open to the public.

It's just not known.

Well, so how many of these are.

Close to St. Louis in the area? Not that we wouldn't want to go north of St. Joe to watch the 700,000 geese.

Yeah, let me know because I'll give you a ride. I'm planning.

Let's go. Road trip.

Yeah.

There we go.

Yeah, There's a lot of road tripping. Yeah. I have over 100,000 miles in my.

Car for this book.

A lot. There's a couple of other trips in there.

That's a deduction there.

Yeah, it is. I hope so. I got an account now.

Yeah. So places close by that you could go to. Powder Valley, obviously.

Love Powder Valley.

Yeah, Love it.

Forest Park. Forest park is in there. Forest park is 150 years old this year.

That's correct.

And Emmanager park is near Powder Valley in the Kirkwood area. Riverlands, which is another wildlife refuge.

Riverlands.

Yeah. It's up by Alton.

Okay. At the confluence.

Yes.

Okay.

It's near the confluence.

Another good one.

Very good one. There's a tiny little one in Sunset Hills called Clare Gimp Park. That was one Don also wanted. He was very strong about that one.

Look that up, will you? Come on.

But it's not very big, but it's a nice little refuge. If you're just starting to get into nature and be interested in it, this is a nice spot to go to.

Oh, wow.

Look at that.

Those are Timmajigger Trees. Those are.

Yeah, Those are cypress trees, too.

Yeah, cypress trees. Looks like that would be down in southeast Missouri.

It does, doesn't it? But it's very small, very nice little spot.

Never heard of it.

Yeah. And then we have some Route 66 sites in there as well. There's three of them. A chain of Rocks Bridge, Devil's Elbow, which is down Lansky County.

I believe that's Current. River or fork?

No, that is the Big Piney.

Big Piney.

Yes, one of the Pineies. The Big or small Piney. And then Route 66 park used to be Times Beach.

Times Beach. Russell Bliss.

Oh, my goodness. Look at you.

Yeah. All that dioxin, it's still spraying on the streets.

Does it still glow at night over there?

No. The deer glow.

The deer might.

I know. I thought.

Didn't they get all that off of that? They did.

They did.

Yeah.

They destroyed the town and it's actually. You can go biking in there.

Exactly. And it's all nature now. It's all.

Yeah. Deer are crazy down there. Unbelievable.

I'm surprised they didn't rebuild Times Beach. Myself, I'm kind of glad they did.

I think the state bought it, Didn't.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

I can't believe you remember Bliss's name.

It was all over the news at the time.

It's.

Don't ask me things that I really need to know, but I can give you all this unbelievable, worthless trivia.

I don't think he knew what he was doing either. What he was spreading.

As we both went.

Okay. There's a lot I don't know about this.

I'll get rid of this. Where the people really don't care.

Oh.

But it'll keep the dust down.

Yeah.

Wow.

And the population.

No kidding.

That's a terrible thing. But that's.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. So if you had to give some advice to someone who was considering being a photojournalist or professional photographer, what would you tell them?

You're going to be hungry for a while.

You can't eat your photographs.

It's a lot of work. I know. You have to stick with it. I know a lot of people will start out as a photographer, as a photojournalist and really want to do this.

But it's not an easy field. There's not a lot of jobs available, and it's becoming more and more of an online thing. Print journalism, unfortunately, is not what it used to be.

So much of it is online, and there's a lot of competition. Everybody's a photographer. These days with their phone.

So being able to actually find a gig that will last and will allow you to make a living is not a real easy thing.

So how have you done it?

When I started, it was easier. Yeah. I've been doing this for a very long time.

But you've also gone off out of the. What I would call the nature area. And you've done real estate photographs and have you done weddings and things like that?

A long time ago. I don't care much to do weddings, but it's not. When I started, it was easier. You could find. Like I said, I did black and white darkroom work.

I worked as a darkroom technician. I worked as freelancer for a very long time. Very different places. Health care. I had a job in PR at a hospital as a photographer.

That was very unusual. I don't see that happening so much anymore.

Why do you think that is?

I don't know. I think maybe because everybody has a phone. So you don't have to hire a professional if you have a phone and you think you can do it yourself.

But you can tell brochures and things that are done by, I'm going to say an amateur like Mark and myself. And ones that would be done by a professional.

Yes.

And you can also tell, actually, I think things done by AI.

Yes.

If you're really knowing what to look for.

Yes.

It's. This is too perfect.

It's getting more difficult to know what AI, what is AI and what's not.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah. Johnson Shut Ins is one of my favorite places. And what's the great pictures there?

Yes.

You gotta hike in though, to get to Johnson Shut ins.

Not very far anymore. There's basically a boardwalk along the edge. You can get there pretty easily.

It's been a long time since I've been there.

There's another Shut ins that is much quieter and very pretty. The water probably isn't as deep, the river isn't as swift, but it's beautiful. It's called Castor River Shut ins.

Never heard of that.

It's near Frederickstown. And the rock there is all pink rock, like Elephant Rock.

Okay.

And the river's not as wide. It's probably a nice place to take kids.

And that's not in here, is it?

It is in there.

Castor.

Castor River Shut ins. I think it's under Amadon because.

Oh, there it is.

Actual property that was owned Amadon Rocky.

Shut Ins with stunning views. Amadon Memorial Conservation.

There you go. Oh, yeah. I like looking at a picture. I Don't like looking at pictures on my phone.

It's great and all, but there's something to be said about actually holding a photograph or holding a brochure or something that's got. That's in my hands. It's like a newspaper. I have trouble reading it online. I have trouble reading it on my phone. I like to. I'm one of the old guys.

I like holding it in my hand and just really being able to look at. I just look at it differently.

Yeah.

I think my eyes go all around the. All around it.

You can take your time and look at it.

Yeah.

On a screen. Everything's going so fast.

That's a good point. Yeah.

Even with paper, I'd rather have a hard copy in front of me than try to do something I just haven't converted completely yet. I can do that, but it's like reading a book on a Kindle versus reading a paper book.

I like having it in my hand.

I do too, because I like to look back and I go over there, bookmark.

I get bookmarks all over the place.

One thing I really enjoy about the book is there are sections under Things to Know, like this. Abaddon. Excuse me.

It says bring water shoes and cut.

Off shorts if you wade here. Flat rocks are great for sunning after a swim, but a thick beach tile is advised for comfort.

Be prepared for a few nips from the fish when you take the plunge into the pools. And during your visit you may notice Missouri Department of Conservation Forest Improvements designed to encourage wildlife.

Don't mess with the happy animals here. Those are really all good. Are those Don's? Are those yours too?

Those are pretty much Don. Don did the writing for sure and he had been to. And that's one of his favorite places is Castor River. He mentions it a lot.

Okay.

Yeah.

Don't forget, folks, you can get this book really pretty much anywhere. Any bookstore but Reedi Press books that out. ReadyPress.com or it's probably available at Diana Lindsley's website.

Linsley Photostl.com we'll post all those on the webpage. And don't forget their times and dates that they are going to be doing some signings and what I would call book discoveries.

Are you going to talk about the.

Books and things like that?

Okay, so that is July 3rd, right. At Washington, Missouri, July 10th at Dutzow Winery, 7 to 8:30.

August 8th at Powder Valley, September 12th and 13th in Columbia at Cooper's Landing Riverside Resort. You might want to check ahead if you need tickets. Or getting the times corrected, etc, etc. Like that.

Yes.

Thanks for coming in, Diane.

Oh, thank you. I've enjoyed it.

All right.

We appreciate having you. We're going to take a quick break here.

We'll be right back. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston.

Of St. Louis and Tune. Don't go away.

The decision declared that Dred Scott could not be free because he was not a citizen.

The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of.

The man Dred Scott.

But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen. To achieve this goal, we ask you.

To download, sign and share the one.

Page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dred ScottLives.org and click on the Dred Scott Petition drive on the right side of the page.

On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis Intune.

The United States has a strong tradition of welcoming newcomers and refugees.

The welcome Corps is a new service opportunity for Americans inspired to welcome those seeking freedom and safety and in turn, help strengthen their own communities. Welcome Corps is a public private partnership that is inspired by what Americans represent to so many around the world. A beacon of hope and refuge.

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Foreign.

Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune.

This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston. That was a great time with Diana.

Mark.

Yeah, she's a. Yeah. Very fascinating lady.

Yes.

And folks, you can also get the.

Book at this website. Scenicnatural wonders.com scenicnaturalwonders.com we will post that on the podcast page stlntune.com after the show is over today.

Mark, do we have any days of the day?

Is it natural? Natural Scenic Wonder Day.

Well, before we do that. Sarah Ophelia Coley.

Sarah Ophelia Coley. Coley.

Coley.

Okay.

Yeah, Coley. Okay. I had to look. I had to look.

And who's that?

Minnie Pearl. Oh, that's her real name. We were talking at the very start of the show.

Okay.

Yes.

And the little tag. What did you say? How much did you say?

99 Cents.

You said a buck 99.

I said a buck 99. You said 99. It's actually a dollar. 98 Is what the tag said. 198.

Interesting.

So you're both wrong.

Yeah. It's you trivia folks out there.

You go.

I know. I think it's fascinating to know, but I did not know who. Why would you ever know what her real name was? I don't know.

That's why Minnie Pearl works for me.

Yeah. Minnie Pearl. Howdy.

Yeah, that's.

That's how she goes.

That's her deal.

Yep. So Armed Forces Day.

Okay.

Is today.

Yes.

I don't know how you do this.

Clean your disposal day. Do you have a.

Put some lemons down there.

I heard ice. You put ice?

Oh, yeah. Gut. Cleans off the blade.

That's true. That's true.

National Corvette Day. Used to have a Corvette, didn't you?

Me? No. No, never.

National Meteor Watch Day.

Meteor watch.

I just saw something about how to watch meteors and there's. It's actually National Meteor Watch Day today.

Oh, I thought you were talking about.

Oh, no. To watch the meteors.

Watch the meteors.

Meteors in the sky.

Okay.

How you have to do that?

Okay.

That's really. There's not a whole lot going on today for a change. I guess the Congress is doing their job.

Who knew?

I've got some mental floss about why do we say cheese when posing for photographs?

Oh, there's a good question.

This is very interesting. And it also has what people say in different countries. In the United States, we say cheese. In France.

Excuse me.

Sweden, they say omelet. In France, they say marmoset. German photographers ask folks to say cheesecake or spaghetti. Russian speakers say raisins. Koreans say kimchi.

Danes say orange. Bulgarians say cabbage. And Finns say the local Finnish word for the word vendas. Freshwater fish.

And the reason is because of these bizarre and random words is how the vowels end. Like when you say cheese for a long period of time, you've got an ease. So it's more of a smile, framing.

And actually the French word, when they say marmoset, that is a. It's kind of like a small monkey. And it's just bizarre. But those are some reasons why we say some strange words for photographers.

I like it goes with the theme today.

Yeah. And I've got something that actually goes with that. Do you know what the difference between iron man and aluminum man is?

No.

Iron man stops the bad guys, but aluminum man only foils their plans.

Wow.

And for all those folks who wore a mask while driving alone, there's a new outdoor seat belt available.

Okay.

And this was a sign on the back of a guy's shirt. He says, before I die, I'm going to swallow a bag of popcorn kernels. My cremation is going to be epic.

That's really a good idea.

Pop goes the weasel.

Oh, my gosh.

That's all for this hour, folks. Thanks for listening.

If you've enjoyed this episode, you can.

Listen to additional you can listen to additional [email protected] where you can follow us. Thanks to Bob Berthicel for our theme music, our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage, our guest, Diana Lindsley and co host Mark Langston.

And we thank you for being a.

Part of our community of curious minds.

St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network. Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.

Sam.