When the public found out about the near certainty of an Aurora the other night you almost needed a reservation to get a shooting spot at Bear Butte State Park. I fired off about 70 shots trying to get a clean image without all the head and tail lights in the background, but this was the best and cleanest I could manage. I put myself in the photo to add some interest.
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I’m not sure if this is one tree or several trees sprouting from the same location. Regardless, I love the way the thick trunks gradually split and divide into smaller branches and stems until there is nothing left but the delicate bare twigs that seem to reach out and touch the cold winter sky.
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Another image from a snowy Spearfish Canyon a few weeks ago. I have to give a shout out to the snowplow driver that morning, so if you see this; sorry for being a pain in the asteroids and thanks for slowing down and not blowing me over the edge of the canyon.
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One phenomenon on full display at Badlands National Park is the effect of soil erosion on the landscape. I made this image at golden hour while I was killing time waiting for it to get dark so that I could shoot the milky way panorama featured in my last post.
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Golden hour at the Badlands
In the Black Hills I have a saying: “When the calendar says spring, that only means winter is half over” and this mid-April snow storm makes the point.
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I spent about 10 hours in Badlands National Park recently scouting a location, shooting a blue hour landscape pano then waiting for the milky way core to rise so that I could shoot another pano of the milky way arch. I finished around 3am and got home around 5am, just in time for breakfast!
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This image was captured as the sun was going down and It’s of the same farmstead, but from a slightly different angle. The snow had just stopped and bitter cold was settling in.
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Moonlight brightens the snowy plains and hills as twilight settles in over the landscape on a bitterly cold evening in the South Dakota Black Hills, and at the base of the hills, nestled in the pines is this secluded farmstead. The yard light casts an orange/yellow glow on the structures and surrounding farm yard providing a warm oasis on a frosty night.
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I’m starting to get into the habit of photographing this scene in various weather conditions and times of the day (and night). A 30% waxing gibbous moon almost makes it seem like daytime and only the stars let you know that it’s long past sunset. Besides the moon, the other bright object just above the horizon is Jupiter setting in the west. The reddish color cast in the pine trees is the result of using my hydrogen alpha modified Cannon 5D III. This is a six shot vertical panorama at 24mm focal length.
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Looking south in Spearfish Canyon in the South Dakota Black Hills, the low clouds and cliff faces catch the last light of the setting sun on a cold winter evening.
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I’ve been to this spot on Little Spearfish Creek many times looking for a dramatic sunset, but haven’t come away with the photo I’m imagining. On this evening I was ready to pack it in when a flock of geese landed not far away (look closely in the center right of the frame) and I thought it would make a cool shot if they would just swim a little closer. It wasn’t to be as it started getting dark and the geese were staying put, but I did get this image at almost twilight that I’m reasonably happy with.
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Here is another image I shot at Owl Creek on the same cold, grey day as my last post. I got as close to the creek as I could without getting wet in order to capture the ice floating down stream and the reflections of the mid-ground trees.
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I was at this location on Owl Creek last December and captured a sunrise image I was fairly happy with. I returned a few day ago after our latest snow storm hoping to get another colorful sunrise, but the sky didn’t clear as it was supposed to so all I got was flat gray clouds, ergo the black and white processing.
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Another image from my little hike along Spring Creek in the Black Hills. I was particularly amazed at the clarity of the reflection in the flowing waters of the stream. I don’t think it would have been any better if a giant mirror had been placed there.
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I took a short hike along spring creek near Rapid City, South Dakota on a warm winter day and found these old pillars in the middle of the stream. They make an interesting subject, but I wonder what their purpose once was.
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This image was made at a spot on Little Spearfish Creek about 3/4 of the way down stream from Rough Lock Falls in Spearfish Canyon. The temperature was well below 0 deg/f and had been for several days but, except for some paper thin ice at the edges, the water never freezes. Its always baffled me because further down stream and at lower elevations the creek freezes solid. Comment by clicking on the title above if you know the answer.
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I hope so, because is sure was. -17 deg F to be exact, but it was an image I had imagined ever since I shot this same image last fall and hope to get another one this summer.
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On a cold January morning the sun just manages to peek between the clouds and the horizon bathing Bear Butte mountain and the low clouds in orange light. Ice and snow around the foreground rocks tell a cold story of winter’s arrival.
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At first glance it might be tough to figure out whats going on in this image. If you haven’t guessed, its my neighbor’s bottom deck after a heavy snow we had last week. The pattern was created by the fresh snow falling down between the deck boards and joists. I thought it looked kind of cool.
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It was really slippery getting to this shooting spot on Bear Butte Lake and like a dummy I left my crampons in the truck. I managed to stay on my feet (and knees) and captured a snow covered lake and Bear Butte Mountain a day after out first winter storm.
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