Tag: Nikon D850

Road Trip Photography, September 2022, Part 2 – Historical Bryan Bridge, Niobrara River, Nebraska

Homeward bound from the Badlands National Park of South Dakota and traveling through Nebraska, I needed a place to pull over for lunch.  Seeing a sign indicating a historical bridge loop, I was too slow to react to take the first exit to that loop, but I was able to take the second exit.

I pulled over just before a bridge at a small parking lot with this historical marker.

Bryan Bridge Historical Marker

I made a sandwich, taking it with me as I walked onto the bridge.  Soon another person joined me on the bridge.  He informed me that the Niobrara River had no fish in it.  I found that quite surprising, as it looked like a nice, but shallow river.  His theory as to why there are no fish in this river is because the river water gets too hot for fish, since it is shallow and completely open to sunlight all day.  My research indicates that there are fish in this river.  However, I did not see any fish in the clear, shallow water at this location.  So maybe the range of the fish is limited in the Niobrara River.

Niobrara River and Valley

The river at this location, at this time, was quite shallow and one could easily walk across it.

Bryan Bridge over the Niobrara River

This bridge has been bypassed by a newer bridge nearby, but the Bryan Bridge still seems to be in good condition and is open to traffic.

Niobrara River

The water level was too low, at this time, to float that downed tree in the middle of the river; although, the fact that the fallen tree is in the middle of the river, indicates that the river level was higher and flowing rapidly to deposit the tree there.

Algae Island
Niobrara River and Newer Bridges

The newer highway and railroad bridges are just downriver from the old Bryan Bridge.

Square Blocks with Holes

In the river near the bridge are square blocks with round holes in their centers.  Were these an original part of the bridge structure or were these dumped here for another reason?

Maybe there is a reader that can answer this question.

More later,

Ken

 

 

 

Road Trip Photography Between Destinations – September 2022, Part 1

When traveling from one destination to another, I always keep an eye out for interesting subjects to photograph.  Taking time to stop and photograph in route helps to break up a trip and it is good to take breaks from sitting in a vehicle for hours at a time.  So if I can afford the time, I will stop as often as necessary to capture images along my route.

Fading Away

There are many abandoned homes throughout rural areas.  Often these can be photographed from a public roadway.  These abandoned places are always on private property and nearly always posted with “No Trespassing” signs.  Please respect others’ property and obey these postings or get permission for access.

Peeling – An abandoned rural church.
Abandoned Church
Bird House
Obsolete
Abandoned Farm or Ranch Home
Untinned
Abandoned Home and Farm Sheds
Terrestrial Lean

When shooting such scenes during a road trip, one can’t be too choosy about the time of day or the lighting conditions.  It is best to get a shot, when the opportunity arrises, as one may never pass this way again.  Indeed, on this trip and others, I’ve often used the excuse of being in a hurry or worrying too much about  shooting conditions and passed up opportunities.  I nearly always regret those decisions.

More road trip shooting next,

Ken

 

Badlands National Park, September 2022 – Final Afternoon and Sunset

On the final day of my visit to Badlands National Park, South Dakota, I drove to the Visitors’ Center, where I would usually stop early in a visit to such a place; but so far I had ignored the Visitors’ Center, perhaps because it had been so far from my base of activity in the park and it is a large park to explore.

Somewhat past the Visitors’ Center there is a parking lot and walkways that let one get a wide view of some of the Badland features.

Badlands NP, Near Visitors Center, September 19, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo
Walkway, Badlands NP, Near Visitor Center, September 19, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo

Continuing past the Visitors’ Center there are other areas of this park that I had not yet seen on this trip.  Although, I recall being in this area the first time I came here years ago.  There are hiking trails, long and short, in this area.  Now that my time here is ending, I’m wishing that I had come this way earlier and hiked some of these trails.

Badlands NP, September 19, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo

The image above was taken after hiking a short trail from a parking lot.

I had picked out a place from which to shoot at sunset today.  Yet on the way to that destination, I saw the distant features that I had planned to shoot were visible from a view point.  On a spur of the moment, I decided to change my plans and shoot from this viewing area.  I hiked out onto some features down from the viewing area in an effort to get better vantage points.

Shadows Grow, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM

I quickly realized that those distant features I had planned to shoot were too far away, but I did not think I had time now to revert to my original plans, so I stuck it out here and tried to make the best of shooting at this location.

Deepening Shadows, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM
Ridge Light, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM

The nearby feature quickly began to fall into shadow, even though the sun was still relatively high in the sky.

Golden Hour, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM
Receding Light, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM

As I noted how the light changed and how those distant features were getting the best of the golden hour light, I realized how bad my spur of the moment decision to shoot here was.  I would have been much closer to those distant features at my initially chosen location.

As the shadows began to quickly progress across the landscape, I began to retreat towards the parking lot.  In that retreat, I noted that I could navigate around some of the nearby features to the east and get better views than from where I had been shooting.

Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, PM

The image above shows an area into which I could have hiked and gotten much better golden hour images, but it was too late now.  Live and learn.  If I’m here again, I will know how to get here and when to be here.

Sunset Scene, Badlands NP, September 19, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo

I shot this final image of the sunset sky with my iPhone as I was making my way back to the parking lot.

This wraps up my 2022 photography in Badlands National park.  I will begin the multiple day journey home tomorrow morning.

Ken

 

Interior South Dakota

On the south side of Badlands National Park is the tiny town of Interior, South Dakota.  I drove through this town a number of times during my September 2022 visit to the Badlands.

Plaque, Interior, SD

I found little of photographic interest in Interior, but there were a couple of small churches that I stopped by to photograph.

Church, Interior, SD
Church and Bell, Interior, SD
Church Bell, Interior, SD
Small Church, Interior, SD

These two churches were within visual range of each other with the larger one being the first that I saw and then spotted the smaller one just down a side road from the larger one.

That’s all I have from Interior, SD.

Ken

 

Badlands National Park, Day 5 – Sunrise Photography Part B

This is a continuation of my sunrise shoot on day 5 of my time in Badlands National Park, South Dakota, September 2022.

Light Arc, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

As I was about to wrap up my morning shoot, I decided to experiment with compositional variations using the wide area of grass in the area where I had been shooting as a foreground with Badlands features in the background.

Grassland and Badlands 1, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

I changed my distance from the Badlands and modified the zoom to include more or less of the background and more or less of the foreground.

Grasslands and Badlands 2, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Grasslands and Badlands, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

I like all of the images that I shot in this manner,

Badlands Emerge, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

however, I think this final image, shot by going down a slope and shooting up at the background feature is the most dramatic.  This gives the impression of a vast sea of grass with the Badlands emerging from the grassland.

Until next time,

Ken

 

Badlands National Park, Day 5 – Sunrise Photography Part A

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.

 

Badland Morning
Sunrise Curve
Badland Notch
Rabbit Bush Morning
Regression and Progression
Ridgy Morning, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Ridgy Morning 2, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Red Sky Morning, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Living on the Edge, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Break Out, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM
Ridgy Morning 3, Badlands NP, South Dakota, September 19, 2022, AM

To be continued,

Ken

 

Badlands National Park, South Dakota – Day 4 Sunset

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.

Diversity

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.

Red Grass Sunset

For the image above, I stood in the shadow of a ridge to avoid having my shadow in image.

 

Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Grassy Ridge
Grass, Rock, Sky
Grass Division
Grass, Rock, Sky 2
Red Grass Valley

Time to head back to my campsite,

Ken

 

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Part 7B – Day 4

This is a continuation of my morning shoot on the fourth full day of this visit to Badlands NP.

Grassland and Badland

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.

Prickly Edge

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.

Prickly Edge – Wide View

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 is the Way
Darkland

This concludes my morning shooting in Badlands NP today.  Time to explore more of the park.

Ken

 

 

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Part 7A – Day 4

It was another heavily overcast morning in Badlands National Park with sporadic light rain.

Traffic Stop, Badlands NP, September 18, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo through the windshield

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.

Bighorn, Badlands NP, September 18, 2022, PM, iPhone Photo

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.

Sunrise Mute
Orange Horizon
Layered Morning
Sky Soft
Ravine Maze
Rain Horizon
Distant Storm
Storm Horizon
Clearing Badlands Storm
Badlands Sky
Morning Spotlights
Morning Spotlights 2

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

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Part 6

I returned to the Yellow Mounds area of Badlands National Park for sunset golden hour photography on my third full day in this area.

Yellow Mounds, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

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.

Yellow Mounds 2, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Yellow Mounds 3, Badlands Np, South Dakota
Yellow Mounds 4, Badlands NP
Badlands and Grasslands, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

That’s it for this shoot,

Ken