It snowed quite a bit in South Dakota.....

On Friday I mentioned to my dad that the South Dakota Badlands would look great covered in snow.

He called the next day and asked if I wanted to run out there.

I sure did, but couldn't leave until Sunday night.

Sunday came and we drove all night hoping there would still be snow when we got to Badlands National Park.

As the sun lit the beautiful rock walls there wasn't much snow left. Temperatures had been in the fifties in the days before we got there and most of the snow was gone.

Oh well, the light on the rocks was beautiful and it was good to be back in the South Dakota badlands.

The rocks were lit, I had a blue sky with a few clouds and I couldn't stop smiling.

Just smile, compose, and shoot.

Just another beautiful day in the badlands.

P.S. Later in the day I did find a side hill along the park road still covered in snow.

Lake Superior springtime...........

It really is springtime in northern Wisconsin.

But you wouldn't know it by the ice still covering Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior in Ashland Wisconsin.

The only open water was at the west end where Fish Creek enters the lake at long bridge.

I made a few images, then drove north along the lake to see if I could find any open water.

Ice was piled up along the shore and there was a bit of water just beyond it.

I really lucked out, as some interesting clouds worked their way across the sky shortly after I got there.

It was windy and 33 degrees, I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. In order to get the low angles to highlight the ice and clouds I needed to lay on various blocks of ice for extended periods of time.

I was getting wet, cold, and occasionally hurt as some of the ice broke beneath me and I fell into larger sharp pieces below.

The sun occasionally went behind the clouds and it felt much colder as I waited for the light.

Madeline Island is in the distance on the right.

I kept looking for interesting shapes and good color.

Just before sunset, light filtered through the trees to the west and lit a small piece of ice at the edge of the lake.

 I worked quickly as darkness neared.

And just like that. The sun slipped behind the trees and the light disappeared.

West Thumb. What a morning...

When I got to West Thumb it was still snowing heavily. I took a walk around the Geyser Basin and along the boardwalk near the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

I stopped at Black Pool and made images of the turquoise water and the snow falling.

A few other visitors were enjoying the weather.

It was like a winter wonderland with snow covered trees and steam from the thermal features.

It was a lot of fun standing in the snow making images, wiping the lens off and looking for more.

About an hour later there was a hint of sunlight through the clouds and I couldn't wait to see what the light would bring.

A woman from Spain told me it seemed like a different world.

It was easy to agree as the clouds started to part and the light made it through.

I didn't want to get to far from Black Pool as the water and steam made for great images, but I did walk over to Big cone Geyser as the sky cleared.

I liked how the clouds and Yellowstone Lake looked with the new snow.

This was the view as I walked back towards Black Pool.

I was smiling the whole time and glad I hadn't made it to the Tetons.

The clouds were beautiful over the lake.

It just kept getting better and better.

As the sun hit the water the colors seemed almost tropical to me.

I kept shooting as tourists walked through the steam giving the scene scale and perspective.

Nearby, Abyss Pool looked beautiful as well. 

What an excellent way to spend a morning in Yellowstone National Park.

I didn't have long....

Just an hour on my way home to try and do something with the trees coated with ice and snow.

 

The sun only came out for a few minutes.

 

 

I was having trouble capturing the scene. Not only because the light was hit and miss, but composition wasn't easy for me at all.

 

 

The conditions were really neat, but I couldn't find any stands of hardwoods with blue sky behind them.

 

 

 

As soon as the sun came out water and chunks of ice were falling from the trees.

 

 

 

I tried several different forest roads, but none of it was very good.

 

 

 

It was only a small stretch of about ten miles where the trees looked like this. I did what I could with the time I had but don't feel great about the results.