Bear Butte Summer Storm

Sunday's drive home from Pierre started in the heat of a central South Dakota afternoon and ended in a cool afternoon thunderstorm over the Black Hills.  Because of car problems we didn't dare stop the car, but when the outline of the Black Hills appeared on the horizon with a line of thunderstorms, I couldn't resist trying to capture it.  So while sitting in the back seat I fired off a burst of shots and hoped for the best.  The beauty of the sunlight streaming through the breaks of the clouds highlighted the western landscape.  And since our car's air conditioner wasn't functioning, the cool summer shower that greeted us at home was an extra blessing!

Approaching the Black Hills from Hwy 34.

I also decided to convert these to black and white to enhance the feeling of the darkening skies and streaming sunbeams.

Rain showers sweep over the eastern slope of the Black Hills

Rural Churches

Harding County, near Cave Hills

Maybe because I grew up in a small town church, I am drawn to prairie and rural churches.  Sadly many are now shuttered and quiet.  This weekend I managed to catch a couple of new ones in Harding County and last night I returned for an evening shoot of the Dane Church in rural Lawrence County. 

St. Agnes Catholic Church, Cox, SD in Harding County

The Dane Church near St. Onge at evening

Sunflowers

Sunflowers-Orton_1509, originally uploaded by Sue Gannaway.

I love this time of year when the fields ripen and the sunflowers show their bright "sunny" faces! On our return trip Sunday from North Dakota, we passed this beautiful sunflower field north of Bowman. The play of the clouds, shadows, and contrasting colors of the fields begged me to stop. I played around in post production creating an Orton effect (or slightly blurring and lighting the scene in several layers) to give it a softer feel. The only downside was the 25 mph North Dakota wind, which made keeping the sunflowers sharp a little tougher, but using several high speed bursts I managed to "freeze" the front ones long enough.

Sunsets and Clouds

A summer sunset and storm clouds painted the skies over Spearfish last night.  Today's posting are a couple of those photographs taken from outside my front door.  I am so blessed to live in one of the most beautiful cities in South Dakota (and perhaps the world)!  I hope you agree.

Sunset over Spearfish, August 9, 2010

North over Spearfish, storm clouds are painted by the evening light

 

 

The setting sun colors Look Out Mountain

Night skies

Over Bridal Veil Falls.  f3.5, 100 ISO, 20 min.

Last night a clear, starry night and a new remote shutter release prompted me to try shooting star trails.  I have been fascinated by this technique for some time, but have not had all of the equipment to attempt it.  Since the evening was so clear and not very cold, I decided it was a good time to try it.  The only drawback in my timing is that the Sturgis Rally is in the Hills, so even at 11:30 at night, Spearfish Canyon's peace and quite was still broken by a fairly steady stream of motorcycle traffic.  I wasn't sure either how the headlights would affect my exposures.   Over all though, I was fairly pleased with the results and look forward to doing more of this against different backgrounds.

Looking NW at midnight.  f3.5, 100 ISO, 23 min.