South Dakota Sunset

Well, it was a great trip and I've had a lot of fun going through the photos, editing, organizing, and of course sharing them with all of you. Here is the last shot from the trip that I'll be posting and I thought it quite a fitting shot for a conclusion to the trip.

Sunset on the grasses of the Badlands:

Black Hills Landscapes

A friend of mine has an Infrared converted Canon D60 and she was kind enough to let me borrow it for the trip. Thanks MG! I didn't take a lot of photos with it mainly because I didn't always have it with me when hiking so most of the shots were taken with in walking distance of the vehicle. Here are the two best shots of the bunch with processing done in Lightroom for conversion to full grayscale and the addition of just a bit of Sepia in Shadows.





If you're interested in learning more about infrared conversions, here is the company that converted her camera and a page of sample images. Life Pixel

South Dakota Mountain Goat

The day we arrived, we pretty much went straight to Mt. Rushmore. I had seen it as a young child, but my memory of it was not that great. It really is a spectacular monument both to the people portrayed and to those who carved it. What a collosal effort. Just outside of the park on the road was this Moutain Goat. The only one we saw the whole trip. It was a bit dark and overcast but I think the picture turned out all right. I had never seen one before!

Custer State Park Pronghorn

Well, I can't leave out the Pronghorn! They were much more abundant than I would have expected. We saw them all over, but this shot with the wild flowers just seemed to be the right one to post.

Custer State Park Buffalo

I think that this was probably the most representative shot of the day. It was a great day that we truly enjoyed.

Custer State Park Buffalo

Here is another shot of a Buffalo (Bison) converted to Black and White. The original shot in color was pretty mediocre. It was the middle of the day with full sun so the color shot appears washed out. With a bit of work though, the contrast between the dark color of the animal and bright grass and sky seems to really work out well.

The Black Hills

So I am continuing, although quite slowly, to work through my photographs from South Dakota. The next few shots are some black and white (converted in Lightroom) that I was quite happy with. Below is a shot of the Black Hills in Custer State Park near Sylvan Lake. What a spectacular place to visit!



By the way, this one might be worth seeing in full size over on my Flickr account, just click the image to get there.

South Dakota - Bison

While we were in the Black Hills(Custer State Park), we took a Bison Safari which was very cool. They actually take you off road up into the hills and right into the Bison herd. There are about 1500 in the herd and you get quite close to them throughout the tour. Here are a couple of shots.

South Dakota - Black-billed Magpie

Here are a few more shots of the Black-billed Magpie. Not the most fantastic shots overall, but it is such a cool bird, I thought they were worth posting.

South Dakota - Black-billed Magpie

This bird was a close second in terms of a 'coolness' factor on the trip. I have a few more shots of the bird showing the wonderful coloring which I'll post over the next few days. It's much larger than I was expecting and they were very curious birds. Again, these were all around the cottage we were staying at in the Badlands. I never really expected to see the numbers of birds in the Badlands that I did. I fully expected to see more birds while in the Black Hills, but as it turned out, the majority of my photos came while in the Badlands.

South Dakota - Spotted Towhee

Well, here is another new bird for me, and probably the highlight of the trip in terms of birds. I was hoping to see one, but didn't expect it since this wasn't really a birding trip. I was pleasantly surprised to find this guy right next to our cottage in the Badlands.

South Dakota - Horned Lark

I was also able to see a number of horned Larks (another new bird for me) while in the Badlands. This particular bird was on the ground and at first appeared as though injured, although by visual inspection looked basically fine. He never flew away but definitely was wary.

South Dakota - Mountain Bluebirds

Well, I'm back from my trip to South Dakota and have been steadily working my way through all of the photos I took. We spent a few days in the Badlands and actually saw quite a bit of wildlife including some new birds for me. So here is the first of many posts about our trip to South Dakota.
I had never seen a Mountain Bluebird before this trip and they were plentiful and also quite stunning in the sun.