By Scott Shephard
Years ago I got a surprising response to a South Dakota landscape I had posted to this blog. The author was a former student of mine, had grown up in South Dakota but now lived in Manhattan. She said, "Please post more of the South Dakota sky. We don't see such pure blue and open sky where I now live." And with her simple request, I began to see my landscape photography in a whole new way.
There is much that we take for granted as we go about our lives, including the simple and elemental colors of late fall in our state. The colors and the textures become part of the white noise that tends to dull our senses. Is the vast, brown landscape of central South Dakota monotonous and unremarkable? It may be if you compare it to the two photos of the Black Hills and the Devil's Tower I have shared here..
But I think a scene like this is anything but boring. All you have to do is take the the time to stop and look.
Phantom 4 Pro FC3310 1/1000s f/6.3 ISO100 8.8mm