By Scott Shephard

I had taken my Black Hills Photo Adventure group to Lake Lakota for our "early bird" outing on Sunday morning. Even if we didn't have cameras, it would have been a perfect morning to be at this lake. It was relatively cool, windless and, except for the beautiful bird song, quiet.

I didn't take many photos during the two days of the workshop workshop but on this morning the participants seemed occupied with their own quests so I took a few minutes to capture a few of my own photos.

One of my students told me that the orange dots in the background looked like Christmas lights and I guess that the lights put against the pine bough could lead you to think that. But the soft orange dots aren't Christmas lights. It's bokeh, the word that describes the out of focus part of a photo.

To see some of of the great photos my "students" took, look here. And it's not too late to start thinking about the 2015 Black Hills Photo Adventure. Space will be limited.

Canon 5DIII 1/80s f/2.8 ISO200 100mm

PS: Here's the 2014 group. They look happy, don't they?