This is close-up of one of the many plants growing in the back yard of the house we stayed at on the Big Island in 2006.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
Those who live in Watertown, SD, know this house well. It sits on a large lot on the edge of town. It's current location isn't where it was originally built. Perhaps someone else knows the history?
Check it out on a map here.
To say that the Missouri River dams in South Dakota have changed the face of the river is an understatement. In the attempt to tame the river and tap its potential for irrigation and power, towns and burial burial sites were submerged and the original landscape of the "real" river was lost forever.
But just below the dams, I imagine that the River looks as close to what it might have looked like before the US Army Corps of Engineers brought in their heavy equipment. I also think that what you are seeing in this photo isn't significantly different from what the Lewis and Clark Expedition might have seen in 1803, when they made their way up-river.
They would have been blessed, as I was, to experience the quite calm of a Sunday afternoon on the Missouri River. View on Panoramio to see its geographical setting.
Canon 5DII 1/400s f/13.0 ISO250 45mm
Though you can't see the Missouri River in this shot, you would if you walked up the hill you see in the background. This particular area is near the famous "Al's Oasis" restaurant in Central South Dakota. The evening before this picture was taken stormy weather moved through. But the morning dawned clear and bright.
View on Panoramio Compare to "A Different Season"
Canon 5DII 1/80s f/13.0 ISO320 82mm
Forgive the self-portrait, but since I posted my cat Mac yesterday, I thought I owed it to my dog Polly's memory to post one of her.
This is the last photo taken of Polly. She had been struggling with bladder cancer and had already had 1/3 of her bladder removed when symptoms of her problem recurred. On the day we took her to the vet to have her put to sleep, she and I went out to my studio for one last official portrait. I set the camera up on a tripod and hooked up a self-timer and took four shots. This is my favorite.
People who see this picture comment on the adoring way she seems to be staring at me and the way her paw seems to be posed on my bare foot. The adoring look really comes from Polly's eagerness for another treat, which I am holding in my hand. And the paw just happened to rest on my foot - it wasn't posed there.
They say that we should try to be the kind of person our dogs think we are. Even though Polly has been gone for over five years, I still try to keep that saying in mind. Are we too crazy about our pets?
By Scott Shephard
This one showed up in a folder of film scans I hadn't looked at in a long time. Mac is fairly young in the picture and looks a little suspicious - he's probably afraid of my camera.
By Scott Shephard
After my father died and my mother decided to move to an assisted living center a few years later, she sold the house in which I had grown up and held an auction for its contents. I was present at the auction and although I wasn't sad that day, I am saddened now when I look at the photos I took. If you could imagine all of the things that decorated the walls and stood on the shelves being boxed and then, with any luck, sold for a dollar or two, maybe you can understand my sadness.
This box of bowling trophies won by my mom and dad was one of three that was up for auction. No one even bid on them and I suppose they were thrown away. I guess there is no market for old bowling trophies. But when I look at these, there are so many things that I recall about the bowling leagues my parents participated in, the times I hung out at the bowling alley and the friends my parents knew through bowling.
For me, this picture is the most personal and powerful photo I have posted in this blog. I'm guessing most of you will look at it and wonder what the big deal is. . . .
This photo was taken with a macro lens, which allows the camera to get within inches of the subject. The actual cactus is hard to see in this photo and the flower itself is less than 1" across. When my son, Jon, who lives in Hawaii, saw the photo, he said I was lucky to get this photo since they don't bloom very often. I wish I hadn't cut the tips off the ends of the star - I need to go back to Hawaii to get it right!
Canon 5D 1/30s f/10.0 ISO250 100mm
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
This serene lake is part of a beautiful garden outside of Kyoto, Japan. We visited Japan in 2004 and as I browsed through photos I had taken, I had the reaction I often have when viewing older digital photos: I want to go back and re-photograph the areas we visited. But this desire isn't because I have a better camera or a better lens, but because I think I have a little better eye and also because I'm sure I missed some great shots.
I have many strong memories of Japan but one of the oddest involves the camera I was traveling with - a Canon 1D Mark II, which was considered a state-of-the-art dslr in 2004. The Japanese are gracious and friendly people but many were especially friendly when they saw my camera. They would walk up to me and, though they couldn't speak my language, would point to my camera, smile and shake their head in an affirmative way. The Japanese love quality electronics - especially electronics made in Japan.
Canon 1DII 1/160s f/6.3 ISO400 115mm
By Scott Shephard
I'm back in the country today - this time showing another shot of an area already pictured in this blog. On this particular summer morning, the humidity left wisps of low-lying fog surrounding this long-vacant farm.
Canon 1DII 1/2s f/7.1 ISO400 24mm
By Scott Shephard
I'm guessing that there have tens of thousands of photos taken from this vantage point. So what makes this photo different? Maybe two things. First, it was taken just after sunrise (on this day about 5:30) so the sunlight is casting strong horizontal shawdows. Second, I framed this photo with the curving road leading the eye to the break in the trees which reveals Mt. Rushmore in the distance. Remember to look for elements that can help frame the main subject in your photo.
Canon 1D 1/320s f/3.5 ISO250 200mm
By Scott Shephard
Here's one of the 75,000 photos that I can distinctly remember taking. And it is, like many of my photos, a bit of an accident. I had been taking photos along Iron Creek in the Black Hills and was walking back to my truck. There had been a brief rain shower, which left the vegetation wet and shiny. And then the sun came out and almost as an afterthought I took a picture or two of the trail looking back towards the sun.
Without the sun, there would be no bright highlight on the trail and the little pine trees and the birch trees wouldn't be rimmed by back lighting. In the viewfinder, I didn't see this - it was only when I viewed the photo on the computer screen that I saw how interesting the lighting made this picture.
Discolosure: this photo is enhanced with a Photoshop filter called "Midnight." Altered reality? This isn't photojournalism - it's an art form and I guess you'd called "Midnight" "artistic license."
Canon 5D 1/30s f/6.3 ISO125 60mm
