What I see when I say goodbye. . . (read more)
By Scott Shephard
We had a great weekend helping son Brian take care of his two girls while wife and mother Katie was away for a short family trip. I have suggested that both kids tend to be moving targets but I’ve found that there are some places where they will stand still for a while. The front door is one of those places.
The window already had a few hand prints before we started taking photos but there were quite a few more when we were done.
Canon 5DIII 1/180s f/5.6 ISO400 84mm
A brief pause for the perpetual motion machine. (read more)
By Scott Shephard
Ibby (aka Irene Bernice) doesn’t sit still for my camera very often. And when she does, I’m lucky if I get one or two shots before she moves on. Such was the case yesterday during our informal portrait session in her back yard. The session lasted all of two minutes
At 14 months Ibby is a perpetual motion machine. She has little to say and yet she always seems to get what she wants and needs. And, of course, she’s amazing to watch.
Canon 5DIII 1/1500s f/2.8 ISO400 130mm
What do you see that I don’t? (read more)
By Scott Shephard
I think a photo is a combination of what the photographer sees and composes and how the camera records it. And while the digital camera is designed to to capture the world the way most humans see it, that isn’t always the case. This photo is a good example.
Van Gogh might have seen funky things radiating from celestial objects (see “Starry Night”)* but I certainly didn’t see rays coming from the moon on the morning I took this photo of the Harvest Moon setting over the Black Hills. I also didn’t see the colors quite as vividly as you see them here. Finally, the clouds had a different look to me.
But my camera “saw” all of this. That’s part of what motivates me when I go out hunting for photos, especially in predawn light such as this. I often can’t wait to open the photo up in my “digital darkroom” when I get back home. I like to see what develops.
On this morning, I took several series of photos for well over an hour. The light and clouds were changing quickly and when I got done, I had the feeling that while I felt blessed just be witness to such a beautiful morning, I felt that my photography was a big FAIL. And while it may seem odd, it has occurred to me lately that my photography is less about results than it is about process. It’s also largely about being in amazing places like this in the dawn’s early light and completely losing track of time and self.
Is this a good photo? You’ll have to decide that. I’m just happy I was there when it happened.
*One theory suggests that Van Gogh’s exposure to lead based paint caused him to see halos around bright objects. My camera has had no such exposure.
Canon 5DIII 6s f/11.0 ISO320 16mm (five frame HDR)
“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. . . “
By Scott Shephard
I mentioned a while back that locations and subjects sometimes seek me out to photograph them (“Shouting Out in Whispers”). On the same day I photographed the old farm you see in that post, I also stopped to photograph this old building along the main road through Polo, SD. I’m glad I did because I noticed a few days ago that the building no longer exists.
If my Polo friends are reading this, perhaps one of them can give me a little history on this building, which I’m guessing was some kind of store. To me it was a curiosity. But to those who lived in Polo, I would guess it was much more than that.
Canon 5DIII 1/500s f/9.5 ISO200 99mm
Two numbers: 1100 or 11? (read more)
By Scott Shephard
When I finally get my drone-mounted camera (Deb, are you reading this?), I might finally be able to give you an idea of the immense scale of Lake Oahe. I might also be able to give you a better impression of the Mission Creek/Little Bend area of the Missouri River. It’s a place I have often referred to as “one of my favorite places on earth.”
I just returned from spending the better part of three days here and during those days, I saw two other boats – one fishing boat and one pontoon boat. That’s it. At the end of August, vacations end, school starts and the fish stop biting. That’s when this stretch of the Missouri River becomes an especially perfect place to get away from it all.
I am in flyover country in many places when I travel across South Dakota. Does that mean that I am in the “middle of nowhere?” I don’t think so. And even if it is, it’s where I want to be. Consider this: New Jersey has 1,110 people per square mile; South Dakota has 11. And on the day I took this photo, I’m guessing I had about 30 square miles all to myself.
And in South Dakota, I’m always in the middle of Somewhere.
Olympus TG-4 1/250s f/8.0 ISO100 4.5mm (35mm eq:25mm)