The question isn’t, “what’s more appealing, black and white or color”, but what makes each appealing. The answers will be different for each observer.
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Where I Lost My Phone
I went to the place where I shot the image a couple of posts ago looking for a new composition. I found and shot several, but when I got back to my vehicle I discovered I didn’t have my phone. Panicked, I tried retracing my steps to all the places I stopped to photograph but couldn’t find it. Later I came back with my wife hoping we could use her phone to call mine and locate it that way. Nope, no service, so after searching most of the afternoon, we gave up.
That night I went through the images I shot and discovered one place I hadn’t looked so I printed that photo and, with very low expectations, set out the next morning for another search. As you can see by the image, the area was covered with thick ferns so I had to get down on my belly to see under the canopy, and after several minutes of crawling around like this, what do you know, I FOUND IT!!! I guess life can sometimes be fair after all.
Wet Summer
This year hasn’t been one for the record books as far as rain is concerned, but you couldn’t tell it by how lush the foliage is in the Black Hills this summer. This image was made at Iron Creek in Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota, and is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
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Summer Ferns
Not usually plentiful in the Black Hills, but this year large groves can be found if you know where to look. This very large growth provides a thick canopy over the forest floor almost like a jungle in itself. Be sure to tread lightly though, as the plant stems are very fragile.
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Hidden World at Iron Creek
You’ll have to get in the water and wade up stream to get to this spot on Iron Creek in Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota, but it’s worth it. I love the way the mossy rocks almost glow green and yellow in the summer.
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Cabbage Patch
Well not actually cabbage, but similar. Still playing with the light and close-up of leaves in Spearfish Canyon.
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The Overseer
Shot literally feet from an earlier post in Spearfish Canyon, this composition features the same foliage but the little flower at the top seems to be overseeing the chaos of the surrounding leaves. A challenge in this image was balancing lights and darks to keep the flower from blowing while still maintaining enough light in the shadows so detail in the leaves stood out.
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Night Trucker
After shooting the milky way and the landscape, I patiently waited for a car to pass by in order to capture some retreating tail light. Instead, (and surprisingly) an eighteen wheeler rumbled by. Even better!
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Lost in a Crowd
One of the most challenging things for me when it comes to capturing close ups of wild plans and flowers is identifying a subject that brings together a subject that brings together various photographic elements that makes the image interesting and pleasing to the eye.
For me the star of the show is the smaller leaf in the center. It has a more vibrant yellow color and is nicely framed by the twig coming in from the right. The larger leaves seem to be milling about randomly while giving the little guy some space.
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Ancient One
This massive cotton wood tree is long since dead, but when it saw a lot of ancient history when it was alive and growing.
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Sunrise on Amber waves
The winter wheat in central Nebraska, not far from the town of St. Paul is looking pretty good.
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Still Waiting on Spring
This image was made in the middle of May of this year at the Roughlock Falls picnic area in Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota and except for a little green grass and a few leaf buds, you’d never guess we were a month into spring.
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Spring Time at Roughlock Falls
This is my third in a series of images I’ve taken in the exact spot at Upper Roughlock Fall in Speadrfish Canyon to capture the seasons of the year. Here I wanted to depict the early spring foliage emerging after a long cold winter. You can see the other photos in this series here
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Badlands Mirage
I was watching the sunrise the other morning from our guest bedroom window and just before the sun broke the horizon I could see what looked like the badlands. Impossible, I thought, since the badlands are 90 miles away as the crow flies. It must be some kind of weird cloud or fog formation, so I took this picture and did a little research. Now I’m not so sure.
WARNING NERD ALERT!
There is a phenomenon known as refraction that bends light rays similar to what happens when light passes through a prism, allowing the us to see the other side of the horizon. It depends on getting the right atmospheric conditions and the angle of the sun relative to the observer.
What do you think? anybody else ever have a similar experience?
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Northern Light Show
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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Touching Winter
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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Snowy Canyon
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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Erosion on Steriods
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
Spring Snow
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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A Long Night
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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