Over sixteen years ago, when my dad put a camera in my hands, I began to explore the world of the small.  Macro photography continues to be one of his specialties, but it’s something that I didn’t feel that I had the patience for.  At the time, I was right.  Who knows, that still may be true to some extent–I was hand-holding, after all–but as I begin the process of bridging documentary photojournalism with nature photography, a need to enlarge the world of the small has arisen.

In another day or two, I should have a new Canon 100mm macro lens, but in the mean time, I am working with one of the university’s Nikon D700 bodies and a Nikon 105mm macro lens for the close-ups for on a new project on the MKT Trail.  The trail runs through Columbia, Mo. to McBaine, and then connects to the Katy Trail–a large trail that runs where the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railway used to have its tracks.  While it is conceptually similar to the piece I made on Stephens Lake Park, it is because I remain curious how people in urban environments connect back to nature.  For some of them, parks and trails may be the closest they ever come to experiencing something truly “wild.”