Category: South Dakota

02-16-14 Early Morning With Wandering Star (Reprise)

Early Morning With Wandering Star
Early Morning With Wandering Star

You may not know it but this blog is approaching its fifth anniversary. I started it in February, 2009, thinking that it would be good for me to find and post one decent photo a day. Some of you may have noticed that I am celebrating the approaching anniversary by taking several days off this month. It’s not willful. I am just fighting my way through the midwinter blues by being neglectful.

Today’s post isn’t new to this blog but I’ve decided to post some of my favorites from the past five years this week. This particular photo of our sailboat Wandering Star anchored Mediterranean style in Mission Creek on Lake Oahe may well be one of those photos that has more meaning and value to me than it does to anyone else. But, to paraphrase a hit song from decades ago, “it’s my blog and I’ll post if I want to.” 🙂

Ice still covers lake Oahe, but it won’t be long now . . . .

01-18-14 The Good Life

2014 01-18 The Good Life by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
2014 01-18 The Good Life by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard

We are being hit with the second Alberta Clipper (translate: mini blizzard) in less than a week. While I enjoy seeing the swirling snow and fierce winds lash the gray/green pines outside my window, I prefer more summery scenes as a rule.

Thus, I am resurrecting a photo that made it to my Instagram feed but not to this blog. Subject: son Jon floating serenely on a back bay on the amazing Lake Oahe. Jon had made a rare visit to the midwest last summer and an even rarer visit to a place we both love, Lake Oahe.

iPhone 5 1/1153s f/2.4 ISO50 4.13mm (35mm eq:33mm)

12-13-13 I’ve Been Here Before

2013 12-13 I've Been Here Before by Watertown, SD, photographer Scott Shephard
2013 12-13 I’ve Been Here Before by Watertown, SD, photographer Scott Shephard

This is a place I’ve photographed four or five times, but always in different light. Yesterday morning I had only a few minutes to get this scene before the beautiful pink hues were washed out by the rising sun. One of the features of this scene that I like is that the snow cover is light enough that the brown grass underneath allows for contrast and texture.

I will admit that I was a little lazy in that I shot this through the open passenger window of my vehicle. I am a bit of a perfectionist and yet I use imperfect practices from time to time. Why is that? Well, yesterday morning it was -3 fahrenheit. But that’s a poor excuse. . . .

Here are two previous posts. The framing is a bit different in today’s post and, interestingly, where there used to be two trees in the foreground there is now only one.

Missouri River Bluffs Side by Side
Missouri River Bluffs Side by Side

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

12-09-13 Where I Want To Be

2013 12-09 Where I Want To Be by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
My friend Dennis Newman, who is an artist and an art/photography instructor, says that good art (including photographs) should invoke emotion. I heard him say that about a year ago and since then I have tested most of the photos I post here with this question: “What do I want my viewers to feel and think?” Not all of the photos I post have a certain answer to this question, though I’ve been posting long enough to know that what I feel as the photographer isn’t always the same as what you feel as the viewer. Such is the nature of art. . .

A problem that photographers often have is that a photo that they have taken invokes strong emotion in them but is otherwise meaningless to their audience. And perhaps today’s photo is an example. Many might say, “An orange float in a big, nondescript body of water? Big deal!”

But if you live where it is very cold (-9 fahrenheit in South Dakota today), and if you live where the world appears predominantly in tones of white and gray (South Dakota in December) and if you love warm sun and water (I do) and if you love the solitude and silence on a reservoir on the high plains (me, again) and if you like the color blue (guess who?) then you can’t help but feel something when you see this photo.

And if I am the only one, oh well. Not everything I photograph turns out to be art. . . .

GoPro Hero III Black Edition 1/589s f/2.8 ISO100 2.77mm (35mm eq:15mm)

11-14-13 The Festival of Trees Metal Print Is Here!

2013 11-14 Festival of Trees Print Is Here!
Each year I donate a photo to the Lake Area Technical Institute Foundation to be auctioned at their annual Festival of Trees, which is quickly approaching. The photo usually has a winter theme and this year’s picture is called “Spring Melt” and was photographed along Iron Creek last April.

Being a perfectionist, I rarely like my photos in print form but I have to say that this one, printed on metal, is pretty special. Of course it helps to have such great scenery. 🙂

20x30 Used Perfect Resize

11-05-13 The Golden Hour

2013 11-05 The Golden Hour by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
The “golden hour” is generally defined as the hour of sunlight just before sunset. It is particularly conducive to natural light portraiture, though other things, including landscapes and cityscapes, look better in this light, too.

I also think that there is a golden hour in the morning. But to catch it on a summer morning in South Dakota means being out sometime around 4:30 am, which is not exactly “golden” for most portrait subjects. But I will say that Lonesome Lake, where I took this photo, is flattered by this light. Even my 59 year old face might have been improved by the soft cloud and fog filtered light present on this morning. 🙂

Canon 5DIII f/16.0 ISO100 85mm

10-27-13 “What You Are Now, We Once Were. . . “

2013 10-27 "What You Are Now, We Once Were" by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
In all of my travels, perhaps the most bizarre place I have ever visited is the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. I have no photos of my own of this place because photography is prohibited, but here’s a photo that gives you a sense of the place. It has room after room decorated with the bones of deceased monks. Hanging in the crypt near the many skeletons is a plaque that reads: “What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you will be.” That’s a happy thought, isn’t it?

When I see vast fields of withered sunflowers, I can’t help but think of this plaque, because, to me, dried sunflowers look like withered skeletons hanging their heads. Like all flowers, they show their beauty and all too soon, they pass on. Just like us, I suppose. . .

Astute readers of this blog may be inclined to think that, combined with yesterday’s post, I am on an existential kick. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace” blah, blah, blah.

But don’t worry. I am happy, well adjusted and I rarely recite somber soliloquies like Macbeth’s. I’ll try to find something bright and happy for tomorrow’s post.

Canon 5DIII 1/640s f/4.0 ISO100 102mm