Category: Black Hills

04-14-16 Photographer At Work (Andy O)

Have you seen Andy’s brilliant early morning photo in the LATI photo gallery? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

If you live in Watertown, SD, and haven’t had a chance to see the student photo gallery at Lake Area Technical Institute, you should try to do so. There are some great photos there but one of my favorites is a photo of Lakota Lake in the Black HIlls taken by Andy Olson last summer during the Black Hills Photo Adventure I hosted.

I’ve taken many photos of this lake but I’ve never captured it the way Andy did. But I did manage to get a decent photo of Andy taking the photo. That’s got to count for something doesn’t it?

Canon 5DIII 1/350s f/2.8 ISO400 145mm 

03-25-14 Weathered (HDR)

Another weathered and somewhat broken down oak tree waits for the resurrection that comes every spring. . . . 

by Scott Shephard

I’m on a “trees in snow” theme. As I’ve said, as tired as I am of cold and snow in my home state, it’s hard not to be enthralled with the beauty of trees in snow. In fact, when I went out driving in the snow storm on this particular morning, I was explicitly looking for bare trees with snow sticking to them. And I found a few . . . . 

Canon 5DIII 1/5000s f/2.8 ISO400 175mm

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03-24-14 Waiting for the Sun

Two bare oak trees at Lakota Lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota endure a March snow storm and wait patiently for spring.

by Scott Shephard

Children of the 70s may recognize my title’s allusion to the Doors’ song “Waiting for the Sun.” In the first stanza, Jim Morrison sings

“At first flash of Eden, we race down to the sea.
Standing there on Freedom’s Shore.
Waiting for the Sun Waiting for the Sun Waiting for the Sun
Can you feel it now that spring has come.
And it’s time to live in the scattered sun.”

— “Waiting for the Sun” The Doors

I’ve never really understood this song. In fact, there are a lot of Doors songs I don’t get. “Esoteric” might be a good word to describe them. Perhaps I need some kind of reality altering substance to truly appreciate the Doors? (I remember reading that the group’s name comes from a concept known as the “doors of perception,” which has something to do with LSD.)

Speaking of altering reality, no drugs are needed to understand this scene, though I have altered your reality a bit for you. I turned the scene to black and white (though it was pretty much gray as I originally photographed it). And I’ve cleaned up a few unnecessary distractions from the scene. So I hope you don’t mind that I cropped, flattened, adjusted and colored your view of reality today.

And, yes, I think these trees are “waiting for the sun.”

Canon 5DIII 1/3200s f/2.8 ISO400 170mm

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03-20-14 Cabin In the Woods On A Snowy Day (HDR)

A March snow storm in the Black Hills provides a picture perfect covering for houses and trees.

This home is called “Standing Rock” by its owners, Lorin and Mary B, though the huge rock that is its namesake isn’t present in this photo. Their home isn’t too far from our cabin and on one of my recent visits to the Black Hills, a March snow storm offered many good photo opportunities, including this one.

This photo, incidentally, is the result of what I call “road hunting.” I get in my truck with my camera ready and drive slowly, looking for interesting subjects and scenes. I usually get out of the truck to get the photo but on this one I just rolled down the window and braced my lens and camera on the window frame to capture the HDR sequence. Lazy? I don’t think so – I was just trying to keep my equipment out of the wet, spring snow.

Canon 1/4000s f/2.8 ISO250 70mm

 

03-09-14 A Return To the Beginning (HDR)

As with so much I photography, I have been here before. But I’m seeing a slightly different world. . . 

By Scott Shephard

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Earlier today I was wondering why I return to the same places again and again to take photographs and it occurred to me that it’s not just about a rut I’m in or just about the comfort of being in familiar places. Instead, it hit me that it is about practice. I go back to places I’ve photographed with new ideas and techniques to see if I can photograph something I haven’t seen before.

And so today’s post is about a return to a place that I’ve been before. The place is “The Rock” and my very first post to “A Photo A Day” was a view looking west from the Rock. And this photo shows roughly the same view.

There are many differences. One is the nature of light, of course. But another is the technique. This photo is an HDR composite of 9 exposures. Is is better that the one from 2009? I can’t say. But I like it. And, more than that, I like being in the Black Hills again. On The Rock. With my camera.

12-10-13 Late Fall

2013 12-10 Late Fall by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
It occurs to me that in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where this photo was taken, the ponderosa pine is visual white noise in that there are so many of them and, unless they are fallen or bug infested or on fire, they are rarely seen.

Good photography often involves being in the right place at the right time. But good photography also is about directing the camera towards things in ways that help people “see” scenes, events and objects in ways that make them worth noticing.

So today I present a detail of a lowly ponderosa pine which has probably been standing largely unnoticed for 50 years. And what is special about this tree branch? Perhaps nothing. But when photographed at the the right time with the right light, it is certainly interesting and, I think, worth stopping and looking at.

Canon 5DIII 1/200s f/2.8 ISO200 200mm

10-26-13 Dangerous Curves

2013 10-26 Dangerous Curves by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
This blog rarely editorializes. But today’s post could have existential meaning. Rather than merely documenting damage from a recent heavy snow fall in the Black Hills, am I saying something about life in general by posting a fallen, twisted twisty road sign? As with all art (if that’s what this photo is) you’ll have to impose you own experiences and sensibilities in an attempt to answer this question.

Canon 5DIII 1/100s f/5.0 ISO400 80mm

10-23-13 Flow

2013 10-23 Flow by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
Anyone who knows this blog knows that I often repeat myself. I have not yet tried to re-invent myself as a photographer and, at my age and inclination, I’m not sure that it is possible. Or worthy.

So here I am again at Iron Creek. But today, when I made the trek from our family’s cabin to this spot a few miles away, I found a flow of water unlike anything I have seen in the many years I have been photographing the stream. I am at our cabin right now to clean up several fallen trees on our property. There was a major winter storm three weeks ago that dumped 4′ of wet snow on the Black Hills and that caused significant tree damage.

The Hills are a mess – it looks like a bomb went off. But the up side is that the snow melt has caused significant run-off. And thus, my trek to Iron Creek.

Astute observers will not doubt see that this photo is not quite, “real.” And they would be right. This is actually 4 separate exposures combined in HDR Efex Pro 2.

I hope you like it.

Canon 5DIII 0.8s f/20.0 ISO100 40mm

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09-24-13 Harvest Moon II

2013 09-24 Harvest Moon II by Scott Shephard
Yes, I’m a lunatic, though I don’t howl at the full moon. I just try to take photos of it. This photo is chronologically misplaced in this blog in that it was taken about 12 hours earlier than the other full moon posted a few days ago. As you can see, the moon plays a much less prominent role in this photo. And I guess that was my intent. Here the landscape dominates and the moon just peeks in at the scene.

08-16-13 The Cathedral Spires (HDR)

2013 08-16 The Cathedral Spires (HDR) by Scott Shephard
I’ll have to admit that I was trying to channel Ansel Adams when I made* this photo. Of course, Ansel used a view camera, filters and elaborate dark room magic to make his great black and white landscape photos. In the digital realm, all of those things are done using software.

I had taken my Black Hills Photo Adventure participants to the Needles Highway in the Black Hills and when we arrived at this vantage point, low clouds were skimming over the Spires, though you can’t see it is this photo. It was the perfect moment to be at this place and I’m guessing that even Adams would have found it worthy of a photo or two.

Incidentally, what made Ansel Adams so good was that he didn’t see the landscape that he photographed as geologic architecture. Instead, he worked hard to show the landscape as an environment. I try to do this in this photo, but I would say I fall a little short, though there is plenty of texture in this photo. And texture is a hallmark of Adam’s work.

*Adams said, “You don’t take a good photo. You make one.”