This gallery contains 7 photos.
i Love these photo challenges: this one is about animals, enjoy, til Tomorrow MJ Click on any image and follow the arrows for a full-sized slide show, thanks
Blog Archives
Bird on a Wire
Friends, tiny swallow is a Barn Swallow of the South Dakota Badlands. He posed for my camera on this barbed wire. They were eating the pesky mosquitos and other flying insects. There was not a barn in sight. til Tomorrow MJ
Prairie Songster
Friends, this songster is a Western Meadowlark and he is singing from a tree, usually you find them on the ground or on a fencepost, singing singing singing. This time of year they are everywhere on the prairie lands of South Dakota and I always stop to try to capture an image of them. That yellow shirt with the black tie looks a bit formal but daring at the same time. I think they are my favorite bird and the state bird of North Dakota. Too bad I couldn’t capture their pretty song. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge: Home
Friends, Home is where the heart is, so I am always at home when with my husband. He is my life. When I was young the hills of North Dakota Badlands were my cherished home, where my mother had been raised and my grandparents lived. When I visited them I was allowed to be a child, and alone I would scour the hills and river bottom for pretty rocks, flowers, and fill my pockets with tiny trinkets. My grandfather had ridden horses all over the badlands chasing cows and wild horses. Now his homestead is part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and this place, Scoria point is by far the prettiest place in the park. I captured this image when wet with a rare overnight snow when the red rock is very saturated. No photoshop was needed to saturate the red rock as nature was at work. I am at home when in the badlands. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Happy
Oct 7
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Friends, these are things that make me happy, click on any image to see the captions and full-sized images in a slide show. The right and left arrows direct you through the show and the small x in the upper left hand corner returns you to this post. Enjoy , til Tomorrow MJ
Clouds of Summer
Friends, I think images of the sky are somewhat universal, this sky could probably be seen anywhere in the world. We saw numerous thunderhead-filled skies when we traveled in New Mexico last fall. Unstable air like unstable people can be found where ever the hot air meets the cold. We see our share of these clouds in summer and i like to collect them, the more textures, the better for me, til Tomorrow MJ
Redface the Magnificent
Friends, this beautiful roan stallion is called Redface, he is a herd stallion with about 6-8 mares running wild in the North Dakota badlands. He was peacefully eating his grass and raised his head briefly to see what i was doing but very relaxed with a piece of grass still peeking out from the corner of his mouth. i am experimenting with a frame and signature for my work as someone suggested that a signature will protect the image from “pirating”. I just want to share, not too concerned about deviousness, but a signature on a piece of art also shows that the photographer was proud of the work enough to attach a name to it. In the old days (before my time), women did not sign their art, and many of the watercolors of Medora De Mores are not signed. Medora and her husband the Marquis DeMores, were early historical figures who were instrumental in establishing the town of Medora. Medora is the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I will address this history in a later post. til Tomorrow MJ
Petrified Forest
Friends, on our recent trip to the badlands, we were fortunate to find one whole day when rain and thunderstorms were not in the forecast. The walk into the Petrified Forest is only 1.5 miles but the terrain is very rugged and for me it was challenging. We spent about five hours in the sun and wind, hiking in and exploring the ancient ruins (trees). These trees were a tropical redwood and are 65 million years old. Younger than the dinosaurs but older than the mammals. The top stump is about six feet tall and sits high on a mud pedestal that will eventually erode away and dump the stump 🙂 into the valley below. The bottom image shows a stump that is about six feet in diameter. til Tomorrow MJ
Flehmen technique-wild horses
Friends, these two handsome guys are both rolling their upper lip in response to a smell. This is called the flehmen technique, and stallions quite often exhibit this behavior when a mare is in heat. These two stallions are unique in that they run their mares together in one group. The top one is Singlefoot and the bottom image is Redface. There is sometimes some squealing when they meet head to head, but the dispute never seems to come to blows. til Tomorrow MJ
Orton Landscape
Friends, this image was taken right after a rain that left the clouds spotty The clouds were shading the background, while the foreground hill was in the light. I love to photograph the badlands right after a rain when the sun peeks out and gives spotlights on the saturated landscapes. This might be a candidate for the Orton Effect in Photoshop. Which rendition do you like? til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 