A glimpse of Iowa
I traveled to Iowa in early September 1999 to meet with Greg Carmichael of the University of Iowa's Center for Global & regional Environmental Research. Specifically, we were going to discuss some ideas I had gotten on cooperative research with Chinese atmospheric scientists while visiting there in June and July of this year. (See "Images of China" on my home page.) I had contacted Greg by E-mail, and after a few brief exchanges, he invited me there to give a seminar and discuss prospects with him and his students and staff. The visit was very helpful to me, and I had a great time in Iowa in general as well. I was all psyched up for the trip because I have never visited Iowa. After hearing about its fat hogs and tall corn for all my life, I was ready!
I brought my new camera and its newer 19-35-mm zoom lens, the one that I am still getting used to. Iowa was to be my second big trial of it, and the first with the flash attachment that is necessary to prevent the lens from casting an ugly shadow at the bottom of all photos taken wider then 35 mm. (See the photos from Montpelier on the previous trip for examples of this unexpected phenomenon.) This time all the photos came out very well, however, to my great relief.
A brief word about the sections below. Haug Heaven refers to the Bed & Breakfast in Iowa City where I stayed. Campus is of course the buildings and grounds of the University of Iowa, together with parts of the town that they glide seamlessly into. Iowa football is my experiences walking around the stadium where, by chance, Iowa was playing Nebraska on my free day. Corn to the max means some of the beautiful rural scenes I saw while driving north of the city after the game. Field of dreams is my destination on that drive, namely the site of the famous movie of a decade ago, Dyersville, Iowa. Mississippi dreamin' is a small collection of shots of the great river, which I stumbled upon almost by accident while driving north from Dyersville. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
The wide angle of view of all these pictures gives them an almost uncanny realism when viewed up close and near their center of perspective. For that reason, I have kept the images large, at the price of making their files large, too. Viewers connected by 28.8 modems will require up to 30 seconds to retrieve each picture. My apologies in advance for the time taken. I hope you find the pictures worth it! Remember to sit up as close as is practical. (If the large files discourage too many viewers, I will try to make a smaller version in the next month or two.)