I got a chance to spend a few days this summer shooting an assignment in the tallgrass prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills. It is a beautiful place, filled with unexpected little surprises, like this little box turtle. At my standing height, the prairie looked like it rolled on forever. At the turtle’s eye level, the world looks like a thick, impenetrable jungle.

Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) in prairie grasses Flint Hills, Kansas, USA. Tentative ID

Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata) in prairie grasses Flint Hills, Kansas, USA. Tentative ID. Canon 5D III. 35mm. ISO 800. f.11@ 1/400 second. EV +⅓.