10-02-16 Change Is in the Air

It’s good and bad . . . (read more)

By Scott Shephard

I appreciate fall, of course, mainly because of all of the changing colors. But at the same time, the changing colors also signal the end of summer. Frankly, I like summer best, mainly because of the warm weather and the good sailing I enjoy on Lake Oahe.

But I’m not complaining. And to have been out on a perfect morning like yesterday trying to capture the idea of fall in the Black Hills is hard to beat, especially given that my good friend Bill Z. was there to enjoy it with me. 

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/2.8 ISO200 100mm

09-26-16 Come to the Window

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

09-25-16 Ibby Outside

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 

09-22-16 Sparkling Harvest Moon

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)

09-05-16 Bent with Age (Polo, SD)

“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

09-01-16 Out in the Middle of Somewhere

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)

 

08-26-16 Off the Beaten Path

A turn here and a turn there and you are a world away from the throngs. . . (read more)

By Scott Shephard

On a typical summer day in Venice, Italy, it is likely you’d find throngs of tourists. Some complain that the city has become a sort of Disney Land in that it is a place that people visit for all of it’s attractions and leave at the end of the day.

I don’t like crowds but being a tourist myself, I am often part of the crowd. I discovered, however, that in places like Venice it isn’t hard to “get away from it all.” This 2005 photo is evidence. Not too far from this place you’d be hard pressed to avoid bumping into someone. But here you’g be hard pressed to find another person. It’s my kind of place. I love the textures in this old place. And I love the silence, which I hope you, too, can appreciate when you look at this photo.

Canon 20D 1/15s f/4.5 ISO400 30mm

08-25-16 Old Friends (Happily Getting Older)

62 is the new 47 . . . (read more)

By Scott Shephard

Selfies of sixty-something men may seem insipid. (Today’s word is “sibilance”). But I couldn’t resist getting a photo of the two of us at a place we have been visiting for over three decades.

I have discovered that things haven’t changed much up on “The Rock,” as I call it. If the stones could speak, they probably wouldn’t say the same about us. Human time is just a little different than geologic time, after all. But that’s OK with us.

We are still fairly mobile and generally lucid. And while I can’t speak for my friend Scott P., I would dare suggest that whatever limits age has forced on us are more than compensated for by a greater appreciation of life and friendship and the blessings they both continue to offer.

Canon 5DIII 1/1000s f/4.0 ISO400 28mm

08-20-16 WHS Video Club (2006)

So many friendly faces and fond memories. . . (read more)

By Scott Shephard

Once again, in the process of organizing my photo collection, I have come across a photo that hasn’t seen the light of day in a decade. I believe I took this one for the 2006 WHS yearbook and it shows several of my favorite people from that year – all members of the WHS Video Club.

I don’t look back much on my career as a teacher but when I see a photo like this, I am reminded of how lucky I am to have been involved in all of the many facets of being a high school teacher. I don’t miss the grading and the other administrative aspects, but I do miss getting to work with people like the great folks you see in this photo.

Canoon 5D 1/60s f/2.8 ISO400 24mm

08-19-16 The Earth Is Flat

Have you travelled the Polo Road? (read more)

By Scott Shephard

I am not a member of “The Flat Earth Society” whose credo suggests that the idea that the earth is spherical “is the biggest lie ever told.” I guess I believe that “lie,” though when you drive in parts of my state, it is easy to think that the world is very flat indeed.

This is the Polo road somewhere west of the little town of Polo and there is very little undulation in the landscape. I have driven this road many times but on this day, I was impressed by the clouds and the sun rays that I could see off to the east. 

And so I stopped my truck, kneeled down on the middle of the road to lower my point of view and took several photos. It was dead calm and very quiet. I spent several minutes in the middle of the Polo road and felt like if a car had been approaching, I would have heard it long before I saw it.

But no cars came. The empty Polo road is one of the things I like about South Dakota.

Canon 5DIII 1/1000s f/5.6 ISO400 24mm (3 sequence HDR)