April's Best

Salem United Methodist Church on the Minnesota border east of Dell Rapids, SD.

Old Man Winter stayed around most of April this year in South Dakota.  The weather provided some nice opportunities to play around in the black and white medium if nothing else.  The four of my favorite shots from this month are all black and white.  More than half of the shots this month come from my late month trip out to Butte County to photograph the Greater Sage Grouse mating dance.  For more photos of that trip as well as some video I shot of the birds, check out my e-column over at southdakotamagazine.com:  http://southdakotamagazine.com/sage-grouse-courtship-2013

A wider shot of Salem United Methodist Church featuring fresh snow and a beautiful sky.

St. Paul Lutheran Church in Union County - celebrating 150 years of existence later this year. 

When I saw this abandoned school house in Butte County, Alice Cooper's lyric "School's out forever" immediately came to mind.

A snow flurry breaking up at sunset just east of Hartford, SD.

Post sunset colors over the pinnacle formation of Badlands National Park.

Same as above but about 10 minutes later into the evening.

Greater Sage Grouse dancing on a lek in Butte County.

Showing off the tail feathers.

Pronghorn and Bison in Custer State Park.

Bison calf nibbling spring's first green grass.

I found this Tom displaying along Highway 79 in near the Butte and Harding county line in northwest SD.

March's Best

Volcan De Agua - Near Antigua, Guatemala

The last month has been a whirlwind of travel.  I was in Guatemala doing some work for Hope Haven International the last week of February.  I did some comet chasing the second week of March closer to central South Dakota and then left for Tanzania (East Africa) and Oman (Arabian Peninsula) respectively for the last two weeks of March.  Picking twelve favorites from all that travel was hard to to, but here they are for you.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in!

A rural Mayan child looks watches a Hope Haven International's wheelchair fitting sessions.

A face of a elderly Mayan woman on the streets of Antigua, Guatemala.

The waxing moon and comet Pan-STARRS in Aurora County, South Dakota.

I found a lone prairie windmill to help me frame this shot before the moon and comet sank below the horizon.

Sunrise over a bay of Lake Victoria in East Africa.

A Mwanza Agama Rock Lizard sunning himself on rock on the edge of Lake Victoria.

An African Fish Eagle taking off.

African Fish Eagle in flight.

I was able to take a boat ride on a traditional (and leaky) fishing boat.

A ghost crab curiously watching me on the shores of the Arabian Sea in Oman.

These African Monarchs or Plain Tiger Monarchs were congregating all over the short, woody plants along the beach we camped along near the little village of Fins, Oman.

February's Best

Sunset over Skrefsrud Lutheran Church on Super Bowl Sunday.

Even though the month isn't quite over yet, I wanted to gather and post February's shots this weekend as I will be in travel mode the rest of the month.  As I mentioned in January's post, I'm trying something new in 2013. My goal is to post my 12 favorite or most "significant" photos of the month once a month, each month.  So at the end of the year I should have 144 photos altogether.  Two months down, ten to go...  Hope you like the photos and thanks for stopping by.

Taken a few minutes later the shot above as the colors deepened.

A wide angle shot to show the swath of color across the western sky.  It was one of those unique post sunset scenes we get here in South Dakota.

Switching gears to a shot of Frost Arena before the SDSU-USD men's basketball game.  I added a tilt-shift look to the shot in post.  Fun to be there to take in the festivities.

An abandoned farmstead shortly before a rain/snowstorm moved into the southeastern part of the state.

The last light of the day colored the distant tree line with red hues as these Brookings County deer grazed in open field.

Oslo Church near Lake Campbell in southern Brookings County taken on the same evening as the shot above.

A prairie windmill standing alone against the sunset sky over southern Hutchinson County.

Just a bit up the road from the windmill above stands this small barn.

Hoarfrost and an old barn in McCook County.  The deep blue sky just after the fog lifted in the morning made for great fun playing with black and white options in Apple's Aperture.

Another old barn site in southern McCook County framed by a frosty tree along the county road.

January's Best

Sunset light through the trees in north central Minnehaha County

I'm going to try something new this year on this blog.  Ansel Adams has a pretty famous quote saying if a photographer creates twelve significant photos in a year then that is about as good as it gets (my paraphrase).  What constitutes significant is sort of up to the eye of the beholder.  However, with that thought in mind, I decided to post once a month with what I consider to be my favorite twelve photos of that particular month.  We'll see how it goes.  Thanks for checking in.

 Bald Eagle in flight at Yankton's Riverside Park.

An ice-level view of the sunset at Palisades State Park.

I went winter birding on two separate cold and snowy days at the Sioux Falls Outdoor Campus.  The next five images are all from those trips.

Sunset over the Missouri River just below the spillway at Fort Randall Dam.

Zion Lutheran Church between Hartford and Wall Lake, SD.

A rural cemetery in Moody County at sunset.

A barn on the edge of a corn field in Moody County after the sun had set and there was just a little pink light left in the western sky.

Southern California Christmas

A willet at sunset on Manhattan Beach

I spent my first ever Christmas in California visiting family.  The temps were in the 50s and low 60s and rainy in the evenings.  Quite a difference from South Dakota's December temps.  We were able to spend some time at Manhattan Beach's pier for sunset shots one evening.  The surf was up and there were a handful of surfers showing their stuff close to the pier.  A few days later we went on a whale watching boat tour, but were skunked.  We did see a lot of birds, some harbor seals and a single sea lion though.  It was a windy day and the sea was rough.  Even though we didn't see any whales, I still really enjoyed being out on the rolling sea.  Here are a few photos from the trip.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in. 

Manhattan Beach Pier at sunset. On the extreme right of the photo just off the edge of the pier, you can see a surfer waiting for a wave.

This image was taken with a much longer exposure as above to smooth out the surf and give the water an interesting ethereal look.

I followed this shorebird (I believe it is called a willet) along until he was lined up with the setting sun's reflection on the water's edge for this silhouette shot.

This Heerman's Gull glided just above our whale watching ship for a few minutes as we exited Long Beach Harbor.

Harbor seals soaking up the sun.

A lighthouse along the outer barrier of Long Beach Harbor.