12-13-13 I've Been Here Before

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

12-11-13 The End of the Season

When Deb and I paid the entrance fee for the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, a few weeks ago, we weren't expecting much given that the gardens were past bloom and prepared for winter. But we were surprised by what we found. And even if we hadn't found anything worth seeing, it would have been good just to stroll through a largely deserted landscape on a nice November day.

I suspect that many gardeners would feel that what you are seeing here is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. But I see a great mix of lines, colors and textures. This isn't quite like Monet's famous lily ponds at Giverney but this but perhaps a way to pay tribute the one of my favorite artists.

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/5.0 ISO200 100mm

12-09-13 Where I Want To Be

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)

12-02-13 Caribbean Shores

So today's photo is a huge leap from what I've been posting the last couple days. Is there some plan that I have so that I can keep my viewers off balance? No. In fact, the number of views I get when I post kids goes way up. Today's photo won't get a third of the hits yesterday's got. But that's OK with me. . . .

Geographic Note:

The island upon which we have landed with our dinghy (that's our larger vessel in the background) is called Sandy Cay, which is just a short distance from Jost Van Dyke. (Click here to see it on a map.)

Canon 5DIII 1/500s f/10.0 ISO200 16mm

Caribbean Shores by Scott Shephard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

11-14-13 The Festival of Trees Metal 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. :-)

11-05-13 The Golden Hour

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

11-01-13 A View East from Antelope Island (Great Salt Lake)

I spent about two hours on Antelope Island on my recent visit to Antelope Island. I've already commented about my general experience there so I guess I'll keep this post simple: this is native grass, backlit by sun framing part of the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch mountains in the background.

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/18.0 ISO320 100mm

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10-29-13 Antelope Island - Great Salt Lake

I am in Salt Lake City for a couple days and on my first morning, I drove north to Antelope Island State Park. Part of what intrigued me was the fact that the island was connected to land by a long causeway across part of the Great Lake Lake. It turns out that much of the water had evaporated and so I drove across flats of brownish white minerals.

Antelope Island was well worth the visit, partly because of the soft fall colors but largely because at this time of year, there are few visitors and so I felt like I was alone on this island. I also was lucky because there were fairly thin clouds covering the recently risen sun and that helped create strong, soft light. (Oxymoron?)

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/11.0 ISO200 40mm

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10-18-13 Hope

My friend, Scott, may dispute my choice of the word "hope" in the title of this post. I have no idea if he was hopeful when he took his rod and reel out into the gentle surf at sunset on a perfect October evening along the Florida Gulf Coast.

I know he would rather catch fish than not when he casts. But I wonder if his fishing isn't sometimes like my photo hunting: it is often less about getting a photo that is a "keeper" than it is about the hunt for the photo.

Scott didn't catch anything of significance on this particular outing but he didn't seem too depressed when he came back to our room. He will live to fish another day. . . .

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/2.8 ISO500 70mm

10-10-13 Change of Seasons

The Lake Area Technical Institute Photo/Media class took its annual field trip to Sica Hollow, near Sisseton, South Dakota yesterday. Finding a perfect day near mid October in South Dakota is difficult but we got lucky. With little wind, blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s, it's hard not to think that life is good.

We don't get a riot of color in the fall as some states that I've been to do, but if you look, you can find good examples of the flamboyance of fall. I guess these leaves are in the throes of death. But they are going out in style.

Canon 5DIII 1/400s f/2.8 ISO400 100mm

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