ENCHANTED HIGHWAY (A SLIDE SHOW)

Taking pictures of other peoples art makes me always hesitate and asking myself, why would I ever publish them? Here I try to put that in context with the Black & White photo “Enchanted Highway”, the only picture of that shoot that I really value. I do a bit of travel photography but mostly publish it in privately distributed books, and that’s where the pictures of sculptures would have a place to live. The photo of the “Enchanted Highway” stands out on its own, but why we would even go there, in the middle of frigging nowhere in North Dakota?

Wikipedia says: The Enchanted Highway is a collection of the world's largest scrap metal sculptures … along a 32-mile (51 km) stretch of two-lane highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of North Dakota. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Highway)

I would agree not to call it a “tourist trap”, because we didn’t really see many people at the end of August 2020, during some of the best travel times.

For my photography friends, here is a little information for those who may consider to include this remote location in one of their future travel plans. If you just travel this road during the day, as we did, the direction of sunlight may not be in your favor. Some of the metal sculptures have their face pointed at Polaris and keeping the sun out of the frame might be a challenge during the day. As you can see in some of the images, clouds help a lot and finding a way to place them in your photo may be beneficial. Towards the end of this 32-mile trip the blue parts of the sky were completely covered by clouds and that was the other challenge to deal with… If time is not a factor and you can stay in the charming little town of Regent, North Dakota , I’m sure sunrise and sunset are your best friends…

NATURE CLICKS #475 - LEAST CHIPMUNK

Least Chipmunk, Little Missouri National Grasslands, North Dakota, September 2020

The Least Chipmunk is the smallest of its kind here in North America but it is the most widespread. We don’t have it here in Iowa but during our trip through the Dakotas and eastern Montana we had a chance to watch these agile little fellows several times. Seeds, berries, nuts, fruits and insects are on their menu and most of the time we saw them chewing or carry something to their burrow.

Sure, this is not a critter that is difficult to photograph but therefore the photo has to be a little different. Light, color, or gesture  This Least Chipmunk was busy finding something in this tree but when he or she paused and observed the surrounding neighborhood, it was time to press the shutter release button of the camera.

1/320 s, f/6.3, ISO 320, @600 mm, with Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head;

GRASSLANDS, BADLANDS, AND BIG SKY

Sky after sunset just outside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Hi, we are back from a trip to the Grasslands and Badlands that stretch from South Dakota  into North Dakota and eastern Montana. Our tent was pitched most of the time in remote locations with no or very few people around, making social distancing easy. We watched lots of wildlife, small and big, and enjoyed some “Big Sky”. As time allows I will post some photos that hopefully tell stories about all this during the next few weeks and I’m glad if you find the time again to stop in here in my blog to read about nature and photography.

NOW ONLINE: VISUAL STORIES - THROUGH THE DAKOTAS

Castles-Slim Butte, North Dakota

Some projects take a long time to become reality and some take even a little longer…😉

I just finished a new set of VISUAL STORIES here in my blog. The collection THROUGH THE DAKOTAS is finally online and you can find it by clicking up in the “Collections”-bar or by clicking right HERE. Some of the photos about a journey through the Black Hills and different “Badland” areas in the Dakotas have been previously posted in my blog a while ago and a coffee table book “BADLANDS - North and South Dakota” has been created as well. The only thing missing was a slide show in the blog. Well, as people in Germany say, …. gut Ding will Weile haben!

UP EARLY

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs

I shot a ton of pictures of Black-tailed Prairie dogs during last year’s vacation in the Badlands of North and South Dakota. The ones that stood out for me are those that show the critter with a great gesture or in beautiful light.

The whole prairie dog town was out of their dens already shortly after the sun raised over the mountain ridge. They probably tried to warm up a little after a long night and watched us very carefully while we moved closer with our cameras.

AGAIN AND AGAIN

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

I hope you had a good start into the new year. May it be a good one for all of you!

For many photographers the period between Christmas and a new year is often time to reflect on the work of the previous twelve months, by naming maybe personal favorites, or by looking back into the archive and finding pictures that may have been overlooked.

I kinda do the latter and open my first blog post in 2016 with an image that has clouds and sky as its subject. This was something I wanted to do more in 2015 and I did. It didn’t always work out the way I thought it would. Sometimes you may come across a great sky but have no foreground or interesting skyline. Other times you think you are in the right place, at the right time, and then the clouds dissolve or the light suddenly becomes crappy. The only way to do it is being out there and try it again and again...

NATURE CLICKS #314 - ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORN SHEEP

Theodore Roosevelt NP, North Dakota

We hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend. I won’t bother you today with a long story about the making of the photo or any other nature observations. This is just another image from our visit in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. The picture is the result of a very slow and careful approach to a herd of Bighorn Sheep. It was a lot harder to get the glass on them than it was in Badlands NP. I hope you enjoy!

THERE ARE REASONS

Missouri River, near Bismarck, North Dakota

The photo was made on our way home, just southwest of Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota. There are reasons why getting up early in the morning may lead to a desired image. Pitching the tent next to the Missouri River made it a lot easier to be on site before sunrise. A few minutes later a beaver swam down the river. Those are the moments when you realize, being in the right place, at the right time, is not solely due to just having a lucky day…

FIRST PRIORITY

American Bison, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

No, we were not stupid enough to lie down in the prairie grass and in front of a full grown American Bison male just for making a photo from an interesting perspective. We rather used a drop in the terrain and repositioned our car several times for good perspective and background. Staying safe while shooting has to be first priority at all times!

SERIOUS TALK OR JUST CHITCHAT?

Hands down, this is my favorite shot of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog. The little guy moved around with its mouth full of grass, obviously ready to add it to its winter hoard. I was thinking the whole time while following the critter with my lens, come on, stand up, and the prairie dog finally did me the favor. Even with the food in its mouth, it still participated in the Prairie Dog’s communication system. Who knows what they are talking about, but Prairie dogs have a big arsenal of calls and gestures to warn each other or maybe just to chitchat. We love watching these critters…!

SPARSE FALL COLORS

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North unit

The grasslands of the Dakotas are not a prime destination if you want to shoot nothing but fall colors. However, any time we saw a Cottonwood or any other tree that had some fall colors we stopped and tried to integrate it in a landscape photo. Nothing tells the story of fall season more powerful than the changing colors of leaves.

EXTRACTING THE SUBJECT

South unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Sometimes it needs a different approach to extract a subject from its surroundings. Here it is clearly the cloud that is my subject, but by using a mid-range or wide angle lens this was not obvious. The cloud would have been a small band above the horizon. I zoomed in at 500 mm with the Sigma 50-500, usually my workhorse for wildlife photography, and suddenly the cloud really became the story telling element in the photo. Sure, this photo is about a mood, but without the interesting cloud it would have been just another plain sunset picture.

NATURE CLICKS #311 - RED CROSSBILL

Juvenile Red Crossbill

There are little chances that we would see a Red Crossbill in our woods here, simply for the fact that their preferred habitats is coniferous forests. With other words, it was a first sighting for us and we found the birds in the Slim Butte area, located in the grasslands between the Black Hills, South Dakota and Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. There were plenty of pine trees and we saw a female and a juvenile crossbill feeding on them. Their unique bill shape is perfect for getting the seeds out of the pine cones and make it easy to identify the bird. Red Crossbills show a great deal of variation in bill shape and voice and there is a debate over that this member of the finch family is composed of several different species.

The birds were on a feeding frenzy and in constant movement and the only way to keep up with them was to handhold the camera. Fill flash was used to overcome the harsh contrast and to show the colors.

Female feeding a juvenile

CHOOSING BLACK & WHITE

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, @ 16 mm, 1/200s, f/10, ISO 100

Although the moon is in the picture it wasn’t the light source for this image. The setting sun painted the rugged slopes at “Canonball Concretions" in Theodore Roosevelt National Park orange. It sure was a great color contrast with the steel blue sky, and I may show some color photo of this place sometime. I saw this photo in B&W already in my mind while pushing the shutter button, and I like the result...