South Dakota Photos

This photo was taken at night in the Badlands National Park using a Yashica medium format TLR mounted on a tripod.  It was very windy, so I made sure the tripod was positioned firmly on the ground and removed the carrying straps from both the camera and the tripod to reduce the risk of vibrations.  I set the aperture to maximum and left the shutter open from about 9pm to 3am.  I used Ilford Delta 120 ASA 100 film.   Initially, when I set up the camera, the sky was clear with no moon.  However, after a period of time the moon became visible, which is why the landscape is illuminated.  There were also rapidly moving clouds, which explains some of the gaps in the star trails and lightness of the sky. 

I took this photo at a field just outside the Badlands National Park using the same Yashica camera. 

In the Badlands Park you'll often stumble upon a lone male bison grazing.  I give them a wide birth, but sometimes, you accidentally come upon one quietly wallowing in the sagebrush.  That was the case with the bison in this photograph.  I already had my camera set up on it's tripod to photograph a portion of the creek when I looked over and saw him standing there watching me.  I snapped this photo and continued on my way. 

Sheep Mountain Table

Sage Creek

Custer State Park annual bison round-up