A Few More Buffalo and a Turkey

The turkey however is not who or what you think. Roy is a turkey yes, but he is not a wild one. On one of our last days in South Dakota we decided to do the wildlife loop one more time. Roy and I were talking about how we had not seen any turkeys this year. Someone had to be listening because just about then on the side of the road we saw turkeys. We were able to follow their journey in the brush for a couple of hundred yards.

We had to go off the beaten path to find where the buffalo were hiding. Unlike, the time we thought the day was going to be a bust and discovered them right around a curve where we had never seen them before.

Early evening right before sunset the light is definitely golden and magical. If you add a little dust in the air you can capture (in my opinion some iconic buffalo pictures).

I also loved the fact that the crowds of the summer were gone by late August early September. I think the animals were also happy for that. I love how the buffalo will use anything they have to itch that scratch. He must of spent a good ten minutes just standing around and loving all over this tree stump.

I am in awe especially after spending all summer around these massive animals and the herd.

Seeing the interaction between mom and calf and how it changed over the summer. The powerful image of a male standing firm and tall. I felt blessed and lucky to be able to take photographs this particular night because it seemed like everything came together. The rain had finally stopped so when a buffalo would lay in a ‘mud’ hole you wondered where Pigpen was from Charlie Brown.

I could have spent all evening hanging with the buffalo but that was not to be. We saw some clouds building on the horizon which meant only one thing. There was going to be an awesome sunset. This summer we did not have many colorful sunsets. I am glad that we experienced this one.

I wasn’t done taking photos yet. I was going to try and recreate a cell phone photo that Amanda one of the workers at the campground captured. The backstory: She is a camper and every weekend she would pitch a tent. Then one weekend she was walking towards her tent that was lit up just enough to show a silhouette of her dog Zeus. She snapped the picture with her cellphone. I loved it and thought maybe I could repeat it for her using my camera. We tried to repeat it but the magic was gone. This was one of the nights that the moon looked full so, we decided to try a silhouette of her and her dog with the moon in the picture. I had fun setting the scene and snapping the pictures. It was the perfect end to a day of magical photographs.

Only 68 miles.

That is how far away the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery is from our campground we are staying at for the summer. I bring this up because. Spearfish and Deadhorse was warm and sunny. We had an amazing time even stopped for ice cream. On the way home we were delayed by some big horn sheep. right outside of Deadwood. You can see a few clouds in the sky and a bit of blue. So, it should be nice like that at home, right!

That was not the story at all. 68 miles away there was a freak storm. I get a text from Monica the owner of Timber Ridge Campground (which is home base for the summer). Asking where we were and how was the weather. I said Deadwood and the weather was good. She then sends me a video.

All I could text back was holy CRAP. I guess it came out of nowhere. It did not appear on radar and only lasted for 10 minutes. Her hubby Pete was shopping in Custer SD which is only 14 miles from the campground, and it was blue skies. Just strange how weather can be so different within a few miles. After about ten minutes the skies cleared, and the sun came out. It took us about an hour to get home and there was still hail on the ground. The damage we received from this hailstorm was very minimal. It involved the lid to the citronella candle, our decorator lights and a bunch of leaves in the yard. The lights looked like someone used them for target practice. The awning had tiny bb wholes near the edge that is attached to the trailer. The awning is self-retracting and will roll itself up if there is a threat to it. This worked like it was supposed or we could have had more damage.

I don’t remember every being in a hailstorm before. This is one first I did NOT need to experience. We got ‘treated’ to a hailstorm the next night. It seems I needed to get the full effect of a hailstorm not just the damage afterwards. We were just leaving Rapid City after dinner and some shopping when, the hail started to pound. You can see us pull under the awning of a gas station to wait for it to pass over us.

We pulled out from under the cover when it looked like it was letting up. This allowed us to stay behind the storm. Our dash cam was able to catch the aftermath of hail on the road by catching the steam rising from the road. Once in the trailer and getting ready for bed the sky let loose again. This time I think the hail was larger. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks down on the trailer roof. One sounded like it was the size of a bowling ball had hit the roof. Lucky for us the only damage was a small crack in the skylight over the shower.

This has been a crazy summer of weather. I was however able to practice shooting lightning so that is a plus.

Fireworks

I can’t believe that this year’s 4th of July was almost 10 days ago. This summer is flying by. We spent a quiet 4th at home until the fireworks. Dave and Candi left in the morning, and there was rain here on and off all day. That also meant that the fireworks were touch and go. Thankfully it settled down and dried out enough for the show to go on.

Here are clips of the fireworks from the dash cam.

Enter the Night

I love this time of year because I can explore my dark side. At least for a couple days of each month I turn into a night person and become allergic to the sun. Milky Way season. This year we tried a completely different place in Custer State Park to capture the Milky Way. So earlier in the day we checked it out and I was lucky to capture this red winged blackbird. I never did get a clear shot of him in flight. (I think he knew I had a camera and wanted his picture.)

There were also geese in the lake they even made an appearance in the middle of milky way shooting. Roy turned the car lights on to leave and they froze like deer in the headlights. Shooting at night at least for me adds an unreal fear of being eaten by big foot or at least being nudged by a deer. The funny thing is I do become super aware of every noise, water drop, or breeze.

The first night as always was like a little refresher. The night was perfectly clear so clear in fact I was able to get milky way reflections. We started at the lake and I got some reflections and free light painting compliments of a campfire and some car lights. I also was using a higher ISO and shorter shutter speed.

You can see in some of the pictures a mist lifting off the lake. This sight was super freaky in my opinion and the picture below doesn’t do it justice. This is me trying to get some light from the car to paint the lake, not the effect I wanted, still a cool photo IMO.

We decided to leave the lake and head over to Legion Lake which is where we shot last time. We did however move parking lots to get a different perspective. It is interesting how just a slight change of position can change the whole focus of a photo. Here are some pictures from the second stop of the night.

On the way out to hunt the lights we had a fox cross the road in front of us.

tiny guy

Then we were greeted by deer on our return home. Off on the side of the road we did see some elk.

deer me

The second night started off not looking good at all. We went to the lake first and the milky way was socked in. So as always I’m like that sucks let’s head home. Roy in his wisdom that I am starting to listen to more. (only took 30 years). First wanted to head around wildlife loop in the dark, I said no. This is right after we left the lake and had already spotted two deer in a matter of thirty seconds.

get outta the road

So then he says let’s stop at Legion Lake. We did and something wonderful happened the sky started to clear. That red in the picture is someone me who forgot to turn off her headlamp. So, once we saw that it was clearing, we headed back to where we started the night before.

After learning from the night before I changed where my camera was set up and did a few more portrait style inside of landscape.

Tonight, seemed extra quiet and every little noise had me thinking I was going to be eaten. I am so glad I didn’t make Roy take me home.

Two things he always says that are right.

You don’t know unless you go
Wait awhile things will change!