December's Best

December's first significant snow falls on Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls.

Here are my twelve favorite photos from a cold and snowy December of 2013.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in.  Happy 2014!

Sunset skies near Hartford, SD in early December.

Steamy breath and jingle bells adorned this hard working horse pulling sleighs at Fort Sisseton State Park's Frontier Christmas in mid-December.

Sunset over Willow Creek Lutheran Church in rural Minnehaha County.

The last light of the sun reflected off distant clouds adds a unique color to this old thistle weed.

Winter Solstice sunset in rural Miner County.

Subzero temps collided with open water below the Oahe Dam to great wonderful hoarfrost creations on December 23rd.

Grazing horses on distant hills artistically colored by late sunlight and snow in rural Stanley County.

A negative seventeen sunset along the Sansarc road in Stanley County.

An abandoned schoolhouse in rural Stanley County.

Pre-sunrise skies with the Korb windmill in the foreground just south and east of Isabel, SD in Dewey County.

Abandoned Our Savior Lutheran Church in rural Dewey County just before sunrise in late December.  This church and cemetery is located a few miles northeast of Firesteel, SD.

November's Best

A weak geomagnetic storm caused faint northern lights in early November.  Taken in McCook County.

Here are my favorite 12 photos from the month of November.  Just one more month on this little pet project of mine.  It will be interesting (and hard) to try to pick favorites from each month for the overall top 12.  Regardless, it has been a fun endeavor!  As always, click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for stopping by!

Sunset and prairie windmill in southern McCook County.

A church made from the stones found along the James River south of Menno, SD.

A Bighorn Ram at sunset in Badlands National Park in late November.

Pre-dawn clouds over Badlands National Park.

The first light of dawn strikes the Badlands.

A rather large Ferruginous Hawk perched above a prairie dog town.

A coyote howls along a road overlooking a prairie dog town at Wind Cave National Park.

A white-tail buck in Custer State Park.

Morning breaks over Custer State Park.

A white tail buck a few miles south of Isabel, SD in Dewey County.

An abandoned farmstead in Dewey County, SD

October's Best

Fall color as seen from the overlook at Little Moreau Recreation Area in Dewey County on October 1st.

Here are twelve of my favorite photos from the month of October, 2013.  For those visitors to this blog who may be new, check out "January's Best" entry for the rhyme and reason of why twelve photos per month.  It will be an interesting task to cull the best of 2013 at the end of the year.  It's been a fun process so far.  As always, click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in!

Rare red aurora borealis in central Minnehaha County in the last hour of October 1st.

A self portrait with the northern lights on the dock at Island Lake taken during the first hour of October 2nd.

A windmill and corn field at twilight in McCook County in mid-October.

Beaver Creek Lutheran Church at Heritage Park on the campus of Augustana College in Sioux Falls.

Evening light highlights this autumn splendor in Brookings County just after a rain shower passed.

Sioux Fall's Old Courthouse Museum at twilight.

Harvesting corn with farm equipment of yesteryear at Beaver Creek Nature Area.

Allen Severtson looks back from his seat on a 1954 SC CASE tractor at the corn picker doing it's thing.

Fall along the Big Sioux River near Newton Hills State Park.

Golden leaves dress up these overhanging limbs along the Big Sioux River.

The setting sun through aligned openings of an unused barn west of Wakonda, SD.

September's Best

A white tailed buck fleeing from yours truly in Corson County early on the morning of September 1st.

Welcome to a collection of twelve of my favorite photos from September, 2013.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for checking in!

Just a few miles east of Leola, SD in McPherson County.

Fog over the Big Sioux River Valley from Arrowhead Park on the east side of Sioux Falls, SD.

A roosting Monarch in the early evening light at Spirit Mound in Union County.

Sumac leaves blushing with autumn color in Good Earth State Park southeast of Sioux Falls, SD.

A mountain bluebird in Custer State Park.

An early autumn sunset over Belle Fourche Reservoir in Butte County.

Fly fishing on Little Spearfish Creek.

Lower Roughlock Falls surrounded by fall's color.

Late morning light on Spearfish Canyon in late September.

A fast moving rain storm left this full rainbow over the Castle formations of Harding County's Slim Buttes.

The last day of September in the Slim Buttes.

August's Best

Rain clouds collided with the sunset over Flandreau, SD's baseball diamond.  My nephews played in SD Teener championship weekend in mid-August.

Welcome to a collection of twelve of my favorite photos from August of 2013.  Click on an image for a larger file to view and thanks for dropping in! 

I found these prairie blazing stars near Dell Rapids.

This sunset with a rural water tower and country church silhouetted was taken south of Hartford and north of Wall Lake.

Crop dusting over a sunflower field in Aurora County.

I found this beautiful owl in LaCreek Wildlife Refuge in Bennett County.

Both male and female red-tailed and yellow headed blackbirds were flocking near the edge of the Nebraska Sand Hills in Bennett county.  I assume it was to feed on the sunflowers which were abundant this year.

Bennett County sunset.

South Dakota's sand hills on an early, hazy summer morning.

A gumbo evening primrose in bloom with an unidentified caterpillar feeding in the background.

Horse in a pasture of sunflowers on the edge of the sand hills.

Headlights, the Badlands and the Milky Way in late August.

A late summer storm provided quite a show above Badlands National Park.