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.

More flowers....

I made quite a few images of tulips yesterday so I'm just gonna put a bunch right here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was good practice and I like all the color.

 

 

Flowers and a baby squirrel..

I normally don't photograph domestic flowers, but I had a couple of hours to wait for my son and there was a cemetery nearby. I drove through and saw lots of tulips and decided to try for some color.

 

The first flowers I worked with were red or orange. I tried using a 180mm macro and wasn't having much luck so I switched to a 18mm-200mm lens and things got better.

 

 

I was laying on the ground and shooting up, trying lots of different angles,

 

 

and working around the plants to find decent compositions.

 

 

 

I liked the yellow patterns at the base of these flowers.

 

 

The light changed after a bit and I moved to a different group of nearby flowers.

 

 

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised how the yellow petals popped against the blue sky.

 

 

 

It was sunny and 75 degrees and I paused to look at some of the images under the shade of a big pine tree. While I was standing there I heard a couple of crows about fifty yards away, they sounded a little too excited. I looked over and saw one crow on the ground and one on top of a tall headstone calling. The crow on the ground looked to be pecking at something. I ran towards them expecting to find a young robin or some other bird.

 

 

There wasn't a bird. There was a baby gray squirrel the crows had been menacing. The crows had flown when I ran over and were perched in nearby oak trees. I checked to see if the squirrel was injured. It wasn't bleeding and seemed ok.

 

 

I looked in nearby trees for it's nest or family and couldn't find it. The little squirrel was calling out, but no squirrels were answering. I thought it likely, that it lived in one of those trees and the crows had grabbed it, so I didn't want to take it anywhere. I did want to give it some protection from the crows and a fighting chance to live.

 

At the bottom of a nearby headstone were hostas, (a sort of thick sturdy plant) and I found some tree branches nearby. I encouraged the squirrel to move between the dense plants and the tombstone and then placed the sticks across the top of it as a barrier against the crows. Hopefully I created a safe spot for the squirrel to wait for its mom to come and get it. Then I went back to the flowers.

 

 

 

 

Soon it was time to go and pick up a kid. The squirrel thing was a little different, but I did capture lots of color.