Nature

11-20-13 Fall Colors At the Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha

2013 11-20 Fall Colors At the Lauritzen Gardens by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard The leaves have turned and fallen in Watertown, SD, but I discovered that if you go south about 300 hundred miles, you will find that you can still find fall colors. These leaves were photographed at the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha and though the flowers beds were tilled and ready for winter, there was still plenty to enjoy.

The way leaves fall is random, of course, but if I had arranged these leaves, I would have put them just like this.

Canon 5DIII 1/200s f/4.5 ISO200 100mm

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11-18-13 Going To School

2013 11-18 Going To School by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard Those who follow my Instagram feed will have seen a variant of today's post. Both were taken at the Henry Doorly Aquarium and Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. Deb is here for a Midwest Higher Education Compact meeting and I'm along as her driver, body guard and photographer. You didn't know that the president of Lake Area Technical Institute had people like me did you? All are unpaid positions.

Our group was visiting the aquarium for our dinner last night and I agree with Deb, who observed that she had never eaten a meal with sharks circling overhead.

We were served beef, not fish, so as not to insult the sharks.

MHEC Dinner, 11-17-13 at the Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

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11-16-13 Tropical Colors

2013 11-16 Tropical Colors by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard This photo of a Hawaiian gecko is the third in a row in this blog that come from my 2006 collection. Like so many other photos of mine, it had been abandoned and exists only because I'm not good at throwing things away.

The colors in this photo are unlike almost any that occur naturally in South Dakota, though I am struck by how similar the color palettes are in this photo and in my recent post from Salt Lake City called "A Little Color." Check it out.

Canon 5D 1/2500s f/3.2 ISO100 135mm

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11-11-13 A Little Color

2013 11-11 A Little Color by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard My blog has been dominated by monotones lately so I decided it was time to brighten things up a bit. These leaves were found in a small park below the state capitol building in Salt Lake City Utah.

Canon 5DIII 1/80s f/3.5 ISO400 100mm

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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

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11-02-13 Patterns

2013 11-03 Patterns by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard Why take a perfectly good colored, fall foliage photo and turn it into an antique-looking sepia-toned print? I guess I was playing. And I am more interested in having you see the incredible symmetry of nature than I am about have you see the bright color.

Canon 5DIII 1/200s f/3.5 ISO400 100mm

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10-23-13 Flow

2013 10-23 Flow by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard Anyone who knows this blog knows that I often repeat myself. I have not yet tried to re-invent myself as a photographer and, at my age and inclination, I'm not sure that it is possible. Or worthy.

So here I am again at Iron Creek. But today, when I made the trek from our family's cabin to this spot a few miles away, I found a flow of water unlike anything I have seen in the many years I have been photographing the stream. I am at our cabin right now to clean up several fallen trees on our property. There was a major winter storm three weeks ago that dumped 4' of wet snow on the Black Hills and that caused significant tree damage.

The Hills are a mess - it looks like a bomb went off. But the up side is that the snow melt has caused significant run-off. And thus, my trek to Iron Creek.

Astute observers will not doubt see that this photo is not quite, "real." And they would be right. This is actually 4 separate exposures combined in HDR Efex Pro 2.

I hope you like it.

Canon 5DIII 0.8s f/20.0 ISO100 40mm

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10-18-13 Hope

2013 10-18 Hope by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephardf 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

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10-17-13 Geometry

By Scott Shephard

It's hard not to get caught up in the amazing symmetry of humble sea shells like these. And when you move in close, as I did here, you are seeing details that many fail to notice.

This photo, incidentally, was taken at a state park near Gulf Shores, Alabama. The sand is some of the purest powdery sand I've ever seen. When you walk on it, it squeaks. And in October the beach is nearly empty.

Canon 5DIII 1/3200s f/2.8 ISO100 100mm

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10-10-13 Change of Seasons

2013 10-10 Change of Seasons by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard 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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10-08-13 Atmosphere

2013 10-08 Atmosphere by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard Our journey into Glacier Bay in southeast Alaska on the Un-Cruise Adventures Safari Endeavor was unlike anything I have ever experienced. What I remember most about this place was the eerie, fog-shrouded silence.The fog certainly muted the colors of the rocks and trees on shore but it also seemed to mute the steady drone of the diesel engines of our ship.

This photo is one of those shots where I was in the right place at the right time. Besides the blue tones of the rock and the wispy white of the fog, I like the arching line of the ledge the pine trees are growing on.

As with so many things that we experienced in Alaska, I will say, "You had to be there," though I think this photo gives a pretty good sense of what this particular place was like.

Canon 5DIII 1/800s f/6.3 ISO400 175mm

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10-04-13 Variation On A Harvest Moon

2013 10-04 Variation On A Harvest Moon by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard In case you are counting, this is the third Harvest Moon photo I've posted in the last couple weeks. Why do I repeat myself? In part because I like full moons. And thieves, sailors, lovers and vampires love them. But the best reason is to illustrate the fact that the same subject (the moon) can have very different looks given the variables of time, place and composition.

This shot is very similar to this one. But I thought I would show you how I experimented with the leading lines that were present - in particular, the road, the fence and the horizon. Incidentally, this is an HDR photo in which I combined two exposures. Which do I like better? I can't say. . . .

Canon 5DIII 1/80s f/13.0 ISO200 200mm

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