Photos in National Parks
I arose early on the last day I had to spend in Badlands National Park, once again driving that slow, washboarded gravel road from Interior to SD 240.
I went back to an area from which I had shot a couple of morning already, when the sky were cloudy. Today the early morning sky was mostly clear and I anticipated a good sunrise golden hour.
To be continued,
Ken
As the sun sank lower into the western sky, I walked back into the grassland area to the east of the gravel road connecting Interior, SD to SD 240 in Badlands NP. I had pulled over maybe a half mile before the intersection with SD 240 and scouted this area a little earlier.
I always try to begin shooting a little before golden hour, since one can never predict what will happen with the light and today I have a large area from which to shoot, so I want to have time to get a number of compositions and hopefully have sufficient time to move around and vary my compositions as golden hour advances.
What happened to all those big fluffy clouds that had been so prevalent in the sky as I was scouting here? They’ve all disappeared, leaving a blank, bland sky.
For the image above, I stood in the shadow of a ridge to avoid having my shadow in image.
Time to head back to my campsite,
Ken
There is a gravel road from Interior, SD that goes into the Badlands NP, connecting to SD 240. I took this road, intending to go all the way to SD 240 and shoot sunset images in the same grassland area from which I had shot earlier this morning, when the sky was completely overcast.
This gravel roadway was very washboarded over long intervals, when I drove it, requiring slow driving. As I got nearer SD 240, I began to realize that it might be better to shoot from a grassy area to the east of the gravel roadway, rather than going back to my morning location.
I had plenty of time prior to sunset, so I pulled over to scout nearby.
The big clouds are still hanging around, which bodes well for sunset shooting today.
After walking around this grassy area and shooting a few scouting images, I decided that this would definitely be a better area from which to shoot than where I had planned to go.
Stay tuned for the results of todays sunset shoot,
Ken
This is a continuation of my morning shoot on the fourth full day of this visit to Badlands NP.
I parked at a small pullout along SD240, where I noted a path through the grassland. I took that path into the grasslands to see what opportunities I might find for photographing a large badlands feature in the distance.
The sky was still heavily overcast, which at this time of the morning was better for photography than having a clear sky and overly brightly lit landscape.
Normally, I would not put the horizon at or near the center of an image, but here the sky was as interesting, perhaps more so, than the foreground. So I’ve ignored that general rule about horizon placement in a number of my compositions here.
This concludes my morning shooting in Badlands NP today. Time to explore more of the park.
Ken
It was another heavily overcast morning in Badlands National Park with sporadic light rain.
These female Bighorns and lambs were in no hurry and did not care that they were holding me up in my quest for early morning photos.
Shooting under the heavy overcast, most of my images were dark. I brightened them, but did not want to overdo that and ruin the reality. These images look better on a large screen with proper brightness for viewing images, but may look very dark in this blog post, especially if viewed on a small screen. Some of these images have embedded links to the images on Flickr, where these usually look much better than in this blog.
I shot all of these image at a number of different viewpoints along SD240, the main road through the park. I met a young lady from Michigan, who was also shooting images. We seemed to be stopping at the same places for awhile. She observed that the color in the badlands rocks were more saturated when wet. I told her that she had discovered the reason geologists like to view wet rocks, rather than dry ones.
To be continued,
Ken
I returned to the Yellow Mounds area of Badlands National Park for sunset golden hour photography on my third full day in this area.
I had to watch closely to keep my shadow out of a number of my late day images. Looking closely, one can see the shadow of that foreground Rabbit Bush on the far side of the ravine.
That’s it for this shoot,
Ken
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, I did not get out early for morning photos on the third full day in the Badlands NP area. Instead, I drove through more of the park in the morning hours, scouting more potential shooting locations.
I checked out many locations along SD Route 240 this morning, shooting many iPhone photos, most of which were uninspiring. The few posted here are the ones I found most interesting and showing potential for golden hour photography.
As I backtracked out of the park, I spotted a couple of Bighorn sheep high up on a ridge. I stopped, put my big zoom lens on my camera and shot a few images.
Until today’s sunset shoot,
Ken
After my early morning sunrise session, I scouted other areas along SD Route 240 for potential sunset today and/or sunrise locations tomorrow morning. As typical, I used my iPhone for the scouting photos, so that I could move around more easily, unhindered by heavy camera gear.
My first scouting stop was a viewing area designated as “Yellow Mounds Overlook”, where I climbed a steep slope to check out the views from a higher elevation, after scanning the area from the parking lot.
I continued along SD 240, stopping to check out the views from other pullouts.
At each location, I made a number of images, testing compositional variations. This post contains a few selected images from a few of those stops.
Until next time,
Ken
Continued from Part 2, Day one AM
I continued driving SD Route 240 through Badlands National Park looking for other photography opportunities.
Near one pullout there was a small herd of Bighorn sheep posing for the park visitors that had begun to filter into the park. It might not be appropriate to refer to these Bighorn as “wildlife”, since they do not pay much attention at all to the visitors, do not appear aggressive (at least, these ewe and lambs) and can be approached fairly closely. Yet, I put on my big zoom, just to be able to shoot from a distance without getting so close as to possible startle or cause them to move away.
Today’s journey through Badlands National Park will continue,
Ken
I had decided to shoot at one of the overlooks in Badlands National Park my first morning here, but when I arrive at that destination, I did not like the view and proceeded down the roadway to another pullout. That pullout was intended as an overview of an area to the north, but I climbed a grassy slope on the opposite side of the roadway, anticipating better sunrise lighting on the features on that side of the roadway. That is, if there was a sunrise this heavily overcast morning, after a storm came through during the night.
Looks like no golden hour this morning, but the clouds are dramatic.
With the sun just barely peeking through the heavily overcast horizon, I decided to move on down that roadway and look for other photographic opportunities.
To be continued,
Ken
