Morning walk

On one of my last mornings here in Pierre, the weather was just right at 6:30.  My daughters home is just above Hilger's Gulch.  A small marsh runs through the Gulch and I had fun with some closeups of floral and fauna.  

Marsh flowers

 

 

Dragon fly on cattail

Cattail and flowers

Full Moon over Pierre

It was a busy weekend with the new grand daughter being born early Friday morning.  Baby pictures have occupied most of my photography this weekend.  But I could not resist these couple of shots of the full moon rising over the State Capital in Pierre Saturday.  Luckly my daughter only lives a couple of blocks from the Capitol building.  The first was the scene as we got out of our car at her house.  It shows the moon rising over the elevator building on the east edge of Pierre.  The second shot I quick ran to the capitol complex and caught the moon over the top of the capitol building as well as the color of the setting sun in the western windows.

New Grand Baby

Jul232010_1134, originally uploaded by Sue Gannaway.

My post today is all about my new grand daugher. Josie Rose Bowman made her way into the world this morning at 4:43 a.m. She is beautiful! Pictured above is my daughter Deb with Josie and son-in-law Corey Bowman.  Baby Josie weighed in at 10 lbs 5 oz!  So a little rough for Mom, but all are doing well!

You will find more photos of Josie at flickr.com/photos/dakotaimpressions

Twilight Capitol

twilight Capitol_1070, originally uploaded by Sue Gannaway.

A short post today. I posted this on flickr and have received a few comments on it already. The lighting was just perfect with a cloud cover and light rain to reflect the lights in front of the capitol building. This year marks the centennial of the SD State Capitol building. Thankfully it was restored and is now preserved for future generations to enjoy its classic beauty.

Storm Clouds over Pierre

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Last night a brief thunderstorm rolled through Pierre.  Watching from my daughter's house I watched the clouds retreat just as the sun was setting.  From these shots the storm actually looked worse than it was.  Note the sunlight caught in the windows of the Kneip Building above.

As the sky cleared, the moon came out over the dome of the state capitol building.  This is what it looked like with the storm clouds moving off to the east.

It's July in central South Dakota.  The day's are long, its hot and the landscape is changing from the greens of spring to the golden colors of later summer.  Above is a grain field located near Lake Oahe.  The blue, gold and green makes a pleasant contrast.  Below is a wild flower that was attracting a number of yellow butterflies just to the north of this field.

Because of the cooler, wetter spring, the western and central part of the state are covered with swarms of grasshoppers.  The final image was a late afternoon thistle with one of the many "hoppers" at rest on the top. 

More from Pierre

The upside of waiting here in Pierre for grandbaby is having time to take a few photos and getting caught up on editing from the last month or so.  So my plan is to post a few at a time but current and older.  Here are three I took at the South Dakota Capitol grounds this week of the WW II memorial.  Trying to find different ways to shoot these iconic figures is a challenge.  Here are some of my attempts:

Looking through the cutout and over the fountain to try and pick up the faces as well as part of the eagle statue.

The faces draw me to these figures.  I love the simple beauty of this memorial!  And it always touches me when I visit especially now that my Father, a WWII vet himself is gone.

Central South Dakota

I am currently spending a few days in Pierre and the winter wheat harvest is underway.  Here are a couple of shots on one of the cooler days this week.

Another stop on our afternoon out was at Spring Creek Resort and Lighthouse Point on Lake Oahe.  Sunflowers on the bank became my focal point for these two images.

Summer Wildflowers

Seems like a long time since my last post.  Life has a way of throwing a few kinks your way and interfering with your fun!  But I have found time to snap off some shots of more wild flowers.  Today I focused on two not so pretty plants.  A thistle and a cactus.  While not pretty or impressive or even desired plants, the flowers make for pretty photos.  The thistle was taken in early evening as the sun was setting and I experimented with the light from the setting sun a bet.  Love your feedback.