June Sunsets

You can't beat South Dakota for amazing sunsets. This June was no exception. Here are a couple of the scenes I was able to capture this month. Enjoy!

The 3 shots below were all taken on the same night in early June in roughly the same area. This is Skunk Creek before it hits Sioux Falls just east of the Ellis area. Watching the colors evolve and trying to capture them is both fun and challenging. In hindsight, I wish I would have stayed in my first location throughout the evening but impatience was my downfall... I kept thinking the sunset was over and then the sky would change color again. Live and learn!

I hiked the "Hall of Giants" trail at the Big Sioux Recreation Area near Brandon and was able to capture this late day sunburst through the branches of one of the giant cottonwoods along the path.

One of the more breathtaking sunsets of the month happened just on the south boundary of Fort Pierre National Grasslands. As I was driving I had a hunch that the clouds and sun would put on a show so I hustled to an abandoned farm house I had noted on an earlier trip to get this shot. It is made up of 3 images bracketed and merged in photoshop in order to get detail in the clouds and building.

As good as the sunset was above, I really think the next night's was even better. I was driving away from the Slim Buttes in northwestern SD when the sky starting popping. I was lucky enough to drive by this prairie pothole filled with absolutely still water for an amazing mirror effect. I love how the colors change in just a few minutes time. I can't decide if I like the orange-red or purple-pink version better.

Spring Stargazing

The milky way shines bright above a prairie windmill near Isabel, SD.

Recently I've tried really hard to capture one of the coolest things you can see in our night sky; the milky way. It is elusive to see anywhere where this light pollution, the moon showing or clouds... all of which are present near Sioux Falls in springtime. I was, however, able to get out and any from the city lights a couple times over the last month to capture the few images posted here. If you like these then you have to see what photographer Randy Halverson in Kennebec, SD has done. He has put together a time lapse video of the milky way moving through the night sky in various locations. It really is amazing and worth a look (or two). Check out his website here: dakotalapse.com

The milky way over Lake Vermillion.

Another shot with the same windmill as above but a little further away.

This is an hour and a half exposure looking north over the abandoned Lightcap school building about 10 or 12 miles north of Isabel SD. The moon was nearly full that night and lit the land as if it was day with that long exposure.

Finally a shot of my hometown, Isabel SD as an evening thunderstorm moved east towards the Missouri River and Lake Oahe. No stars in the shot but if you've ever watched a thunderstorm at night on a South Dakota horizon, then you can appreciate this photo. In my opinion, it is more entertaining than watching prime time television!

Evening in Sioux Falls

Looking north from the top of a downtown Sioux Falls parking ramp Sunday evening, June 26th after storm clouds had passed.

I have been experimenting with bracketing exposures lately and manually merging them in photoshop to create some HDR images. HDR means High Dynamic Resolution and basically the idea is to try to recreate as much detail in the shadows and highlights of the scene as possible. The human eye sees a lot more detail in any given scene than a camera can accurately expose for, so what I do is take a 3 images in a row about 2 stops apart. This allows me to get good detail in the bright areas as well as the shadows. Then in photoshop I can merge these images to recreate something closer to what our eyes see. It's pretty fun and addicting especially at sunset or twilight when there are cool things going on in the sky. Here are some of my experimentations from various scenes in downtown Sioux Falls during the month of June. Click on an image for a larger file to view and enjoy!

The view from Turner Field

While in Atlanta (see previous post) I took my wide angle camera to try and get some cool stadium shots for my friend. Saturday night was a beautiful night for baseball with an amazing sunset so I was really happy with what I was able to get. Here are my favorite shots ranging from no touch up to stitched together panoramics and faux tilt shift effects. Click on the image for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by!

OK, so look at the skyline in the photo above. We stayed in the circular skyscraper which happens to be a Westin hotel that is 70 plus stories. They have a restaurant at the top that rotates. Below is a night view of downtown Atlanta from that restaurant. Sorry for the glare and reflection of me in the night sky. Photoshop could fix it, but it would be a lot of work that I'm not up to tonight.

Reds and Braves 2011

Brandon Phillips flashing his smile during an interview before the Reds - Braves game on May 28th, 2011

A friend of mine from work and I decided to go to Atlanta over Memorial Day weekend to catch our favorite teams play each other live and in person. We had great seats both nights so I was able to get some interesting shots. This post has some of my favorites for you. Click on an image for a larger file to view and enjoy!

Brandon Phillips before the game.

You can see a mic on his jersey lapel. I wonder if he was mic-ed up for the whole game?

Bronson Aroyrro pitching.

Edgar Renteria with a nice over the shoulder catch of a bloop hit to shallow left field.

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball crew was there to do the game on Sunday night. It was fun to see their set-up and watch the crew interact when the cameras were not live.

Soon to be Hall of Famer Barry Larkin - former Red great. Very cool to see him live and in person.

John Kruk with the make-up. Poor guy was sweating away in the Atlanta heat.

Someone needs to create some fun captions for this shot. Got anything good? If so, let me know and I'll send it to ESPN!

Joey Votto dives back into 1st base during the game.

Brandon Phillips making it look easy at 2nd base.

Votto gets in safe at 2nd. I like how Brave's shortstop Alex Gonzalas is in the air to save a bad throw.

A really nice catch and near collision in shallow center/right field by the Brave's center fielder.