Sunset over War Creek {Stanley County}

Last Friday, my husband and I went on a date. As we drove home, we took the gravel back roads instead of the Highway and Interstate. I enjoy these drives so much!

We stopped at a few places along War Creek so I could capture the colors of the sunset against the green coming through last years grasses.
Watching the colors change on the prairie, as evening sets, is my favorite place to be.

Badlands in Light {Take 2}

Here are my next five favorite photos from last weeks evening in the Badlands. 
You can find my top five here.

Over a week later, I'm still so excited by the light I found that night!

 Even though the colors were so amazing, these clouds desired to be black and white. 
 

 This one is my favorite. The way the pink popped out in the sky and the contrast of the tiny bits of green just have me in awe. 

 This was taken after the sun had fully set.  

Badlands in Light

I spent an evening in the Badlands earlier this week. 
It was amazing! The sky was so full of drama and the evening colors so vibrant. I was so excited by what I'd captured!

Here are my top five favorites (not necessarily in that order):

I really love these yellow rocks, found on the west side of the park. They were what I'd mainly come for. When I arrived to this location, the colors looked beautiful and the sky thrilling. 
Then the sun peaked out, cascading the land in a patch of light.  

While shooting into the sun at sunset has it's appeal, turning around to see what the sun is looking at is often more exciting. 

I just can't get over the pink in these clouds. How amazing! 

As the sun began to fade, so did the bright colors, which gave way to soft blues.

I shot this one about an hour after sunset. As I meandered through the rest of the park in the dark and headed home from the east side, I stopped at the Door and Window Trail access. The stars were just coming out and there was just enough light to illumine the landscape. The clouds behind the formations were what really captured me. I used a 30 second exposure for this shot. 
 

Happy Mother's Day!

To my mom and the rest of the mom's out there: 
                          
                                   Happy Mother's Day! 
                                         You are a blessing to your children! 

Kittens!

Warning: cuteness ahead.

Basic Photography Class Recap

I live in a rural community in central South Dakota... 

And in my community, any continuing education requires either a long drive or an online class. I'd been hearing from many people how they wished they knew how to fully use their cameras, so I thought I would offer my services to the community and see if anyone would be interested in taking a photography class from me. 16 participants signed up for the class!  So, for the past seven weeks, I taught a basic photography class.

We finished our final session last Tuesday. To celebrate, each participant was to submit their favorite photo, taken during the course of the class. I sent off the files to one of my pro labs and received the prints in time for the last class. Everyone mounted their own photograph and we had an in-house gallery show, complete with wine and cheese.

I've often heard that a teacher learns more than the students. I sure learned a lot as the teacher! I came up with my own materials that I handed out each week, some from my own brain and some from reliable resources online. It was rather challenging at times for me to start from the beginner level but it pushed me so much, too! I'm so used to just doing my own thing without thinking about how I'm doing it.

We covered topics such as how a camera functions, types of cameras, lens focal length, ISO, White Balance, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Composition and Lighting. It was so rewarding for me to hear the ladies excited about the new skills they were learning. 

I'm so thankful for each one that participated! I enjoyed getting to know these women and looked forward to each Tuesday night with them.

(Here I am with 11 of the 16 photogs. A few weren't able to make it to the last session and I forgot to get a group shot before some had to leave for the evening.)