The husband and I were on a photo trip a few weeks back, in Badlands National Park in South Dakota, USA. I’m sure over the next few weeks/months you will see more and more photos from this trip right here on the blog. I thought as a jump-off I would share some startrail photos I took on our last night in the Sage Creek Road campground. It was an amazing experience in the park, and Mother Nature offered us some beautiful sunrises, sunsets and magnificent starry nights. During the photos at Sage Creek we were being grazed by bats flying around, and it would have been more amusing if I wasn’t so freaked out. There’s just something about being somewhere unfamiliar in the dark. Boogeyman or not.
Taken infront of our tent (a.k.a. homebase):
A 5 minute hike from the campsite, Sage Creek:
I promise that the next few weeks shan’t be bird related posts. But today we have a sparrow of some kind (with his lunch), and my ever-elusive barn swallow (who appears to be watching me).
Killdeer are such strange birds. If you’ve never seen one defending it’s nesting area, it will act hurt to draw your attention away from it’s “nest” (It really just lays them in the lawn, not a real nest per se), to try and lure you away from the eggs. And they run. When they run, they kind of remind of Fred Flintstone when he bowls.
Moth.
Alas, the circle of life hath come ’round. My husband Mike said he had witnessed the carnage of the woodpecker, as it had fallen victim to a hawk (I think that’s what he said?). But the hawk had had help, as the woodpecker had sadly hit our window a few days prior, and either didn’t survive the hit, or was caught by the bird of prey while still dazed & vulnerable. I took a few moments to capture the scene, as life isn’t always beautiful, and yet sometimes there is beauty in death. Fear not, there is nothing graphic.
A few weeks back I took some photographs of a Woodpecker – a Common (“Yellow Shafted”) Flicker. I’ve been expanding my wildlife portfolio by shooting birds lately. They are readily available in our yard and pond, so I try to take opportunity of it. The only bird I really would like to photograph and it continues to elude me, is the barn swallow. They are so darn fast! I’m relatively new to using a higher range telephoto lens (my digital kit only went to 70mm up until this March). But I hope to catch a few snaps of them by the end of summer. Not to steal his thunder, go ahead and revel in the marvel of this fine male woodpecker!
Here we are, post all Cuba posts. This batch of photos comes from the Easter weekend, when my husband Mike and I went up to the lake with the dogs. There was one clear night, with the most incredible moonrise. So outside I went to catch some of this beautiful scene!
Full moon. I've oddly enough, never taken photos of the moon before.
I was hoping to get out and do a bit of shooting this week, but with starting a new part time job, a golf tournament yesterday, and farmers burning their fields today… I was literally smoked out. Hardy-har, har. I know. But seriously, for those who don’t live where I do, it is common for the farmers to burn the stubble (the 6 or so inches of stalk left behind from harvesting their crops that their farm machinery can’t cut) instead of spending the time turning over the fields. So usually around this time of year you get a few days where the wind (or lack of) causes the smoke to linger. It’s not the greatest to breathe in, espcially if you’re an astmatic like me.
But, fear not! I still have a photo to share. And it is prairie-field related. I went out shooting last week with Dan from my 150K crew in the Tiger Hills. So here is a self portrait. Sometimes I really do love my (non-paying) job!!
So a few weekends ago Mike and I went up to my Grandparents’ cabin at Wallace Lake. It wasn’t the greatest weekend weather-wise, but a weekend at the cabin is always a good weekend. We swam (strictly to bathe – the water was cold), read, fished, and went to the airstrip at the gravel pits to try out the new Savage Arms .22 Mag rifle we had bought. Neither of us had done any shooting in a few years, so we weren’t expecting it to be amazing. But eventually we got the sights dialed for the distance we were shooting, and our accuracy improved immensly. We had brought a few pop bottles with water (they explode when they get hit) and a couple paper targets to shoot at. We obviously weren’t the only ones who go shooting there as there were tons of shotgun shells on the ground as well as a few .25-06 casings. Someone had left a tv and a whole bunch of large 9-volt batteries that they had used as target practice. Anyways, I only shot with my point & shoot and film SLR that weekend. I have yet to develop the film, so here are a couple photos from the point & shoot:
Mike lining up his sights
Mike taking a shot
So here is another little (ok, HUGE), sneak-peek at some of the work I’m doing with my 150K project. I was just wayyyy too excited about this photo to not share it. So consider yourselves very honoured!!! 
I give you, The Milky Way!!!!!!:
