I'm Back From Therapy

The prescription was a week of sailing on Lake Oahe and I gladly complied. My ailment? Nothing really, given that I have a good life.But being on my boat for a week is my meager excuse for ignoring my "Photo A Day" blog. I should have called it "A Photo Once and A While."(Thanks, Alexis, for scolding me into action.)Oh, and what you are looking at is birds in flight. And, as astute observers might notice, I have applied my favorite new Photoshop process, which is top secret for the time being.[smugbuy gallery="http://scottshephardphoto.smugmug.com/Fine-Art-Photography/Fine-Art/21122937_fHW9Lh"]

Really???!!!

Yes, this is my Ford F150 pickup truck. The story is that I was out taking photos of an old farm around sunrise and when I finished, I turned towards my truck and there it was, looking like an advertisement.And so I took this photo. I promise something better tomorrow, though it's hard to match the beauty of a pickup truck at sunrise.

Sunrise With Grazing Cattle

It looks like I am on a sunrise kick lately. So here's another, this time with cattle, though they seem more focused on breakfast.

Sunrise - July 4, 2011 (Looking East)

Any experienced sunrise observer knows that often the most glorious part of the sunrise is what you see just before the sun comes up, especially if clouds are present as they were on this morning. I have found that you have only a few minutes before the clouds loose their red rims from the insipient sun.

Sunrise - July 4, 2011 (Looking West)

Generally, the western sky isn't what gets our attention at sunrise. But on this morning, from one of my favorite locations in South the Dakota, what I saw when I looked west was worth capturing.If you knew what to look for in this photo, you would be able to find Harney Peak, which is the highest peak in the US east of the Rocky Mountains. Mount Rushmore is also visible on the far right.I'll show you the view east tomorrow.

Elemental

The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers spent considerable time pondering the nature of the universe. One, whose name was Empedocles, said simply that everything can be reduced to four elements: air, earth, fire and water.Of all of these, my camera is most often drawn to the latter. Maybe that's why I return again and again to Iron Creek when I am in the Black Hills. I was just out walking along the creek when I found this photo. I figured I had enough of Iron Creek, though it's not often that the rocks are wet and the creek is running high so late in June.Canon 5DII 2.5s f/11.0 ISO200 32mm

Rigadoon

It was a beautiful day for sailing yesterday. This boat is Rigadoon, owned by Dan and Pam Cronin of Pierrie, SD. This is the same boat posted yesterday, incidentally. Pam was at the top of the mast replacing something called the windex, which helps a sailor judge the wind. If you look towards the top of the mast in this photo, you can see it working perfectly.

The Big Picture

Rain, Fog & Trees

I drove up to what some people in Watertown call "Harmony Hill." It was a foggy morning and I was thinking that I would get an interesting shot of the ethanol plant down below, belching steam into the early morning fog. But when I got to the top of the hill, I couldn't even see the ethanol plant. But I did see this small group of trees, edged with the serpentine road that led to a nearby monastery.This shot is pretty seriously Photoshopped, in part because I've been learning a few new things and I wanted to practice them. This photo had 4 layers before I flattered it to publish it.Revision: I orignally posted a nearly square version but Jack's post inspired me to look again at the original crop. Jack's right: the full view is more "atmospheric."

Iron Creek

I'm back at Iron Creek again, but this time with my cell phone camera and Instapaper.I made a short video of this place, which you can view here. The video was made with my iPhone and then edited and published (via ATT 3G) with my iPad 2. The movie needs more editing but it is testament to how fairly simple tools allow for creation and publication in the field (or in this case, in the woods).

Where I Work

Just in case some of you are lounging in tropical climes and were missing the experience of a South Dakota winter, this may help. This is one of the west doors at Watertown High School a month ago on a day that wasn't exactly a "Chamber of Commerce" day.The good news is that most of that snow is gone now, though we did experience a mini-blizzard earlier this week. Years ago our state tourism department used "Be glad you live in South Dakota" as their slogan. But they dropped it for some reason.But, still, I do like South Dakota. I just don't like winter. Anywhere.

A Summer Morning

I wasn't really looking for a photo like this to post but when I came across it, I was so powerfully reminded of what it feels like to stand in this place on a promising summer morning that I had to publish it. I can feel the humid breeze, I can sense the growing warmth of the sun and I can smell the wild prairie grasses. I also know that as I took this photo I was thinking about the kind of day of sailing I would have.This is all a sort of rapture for me and it is risky, given that summer is still 3 months away. But I can dream.