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Today is my last post of the year and with that I leave you with one of the most graceful creatures on earth, the pronghorn antelope.
As for next year, I wish everyone a happy, prosperous, and inspirational 2012!
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec.
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
Following the lead of my An End of Year Retrospective for 2010 and An End of Year Retrospective for 2009I am presenting my favorite images of 2011. These have been mainly chosen not only because I personally liked the image, but in many times because of my experience while capturing the image.
I begin with one of the first images I captured in 2011, an image of Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge. This made the list for two reasons, first, because of the flooding of the Missouri River, Boyer Chute has not been accessible and I am not even sure how it will look. Second, this was the first image I made with my Tilt/Shift 24mm TS-E II and it really showed me how much fun I was going to have with that lens.
This image almost didn’t happen. As I mentioned in my post from July, I don’t normally capture agricultural scenes, but as I was driving to my destination, I couldn’t help but stop and capture this image. The wheat, the clouds, the silos all just seem to come together.
This image made the list for a similar reason as the previous entry, I was driving on my way somewhere, saw these two horses hanging out in a field and I stopped and made a quick image. Later, upon review, I found that I liked the composition and the poses the horses had.
I included this image because it was a little outside of my norm of shooting, much like “Almost Harvest”. Due to high winds across the prairie at Ft. Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, these tumbleweeds had piled up against a long fence. I liked the contrasts and patterns and decided to spend a little time, probably almost 2 hours, working various compositions. Although I captured a few I liked, this was the one that resonated with me the most.
Every Time I go to central or western Nebraska, I have to shoot the Milky Way. Toadstool Geologic Park lends itself well to this type of photography, so naturally, I had to take advantage of the opportunity.
This photograph made the list, well, because pheasants are darn hard to shoot and I feel like it came out pretty well!
This image made the list because I wanted a unique perspective on Snake River Falls in Nebraska. I found this high vantage point after searching and hiking for a bit. Additionally, because of new developments, Snake River Falls is endanger of no longer being publicly accessible, so this could potentially be the last image I capture of it.
Forty mile per hour winds, pelting sand, lousy light, everything seemed to be against me for this image. Then, only 10 minutes prior to sunset, clouds rolled in and the sun’s light shot out from behind with a beautiful intensity. It’s good to be patient.
Fog, trees, contrasts, shadows and patterns, I like the simplicity of this image.
After walking about a mile in waist deep snow before sunrise, the sun finally crested the horizon and bathed snow covered Rocky Mountain National Park and Long’s Peak in warm light.
Lastly, after a spring snowstorm came through Rocky Mountain, I ventured to Moraine Park and waited for sunrise. The light was good and by using my Tilt/Shift I was able to shift for greater detail. That’s when a plan really comes together – good plan, great weather conditions and cooperative gear!
As has been the tradition on this blog, I am ending the year with a couple of retrospectives. Today I am presenting a slide show that encompasses the majority of my scenic landscape, nature, and wildlife work from the past year. As I put the slide show together, it was a good reminder of some of the my highlights – Nebraska’s Central Platte River Valley for the migration of the Sandhill Cranes, Colorado on a cold, snowy May, the Badlands in South Dakota in early autumn, and the Sandhills of Nebraska. Tomorrow I will presenting my favorite images of 2011 For now, however, enjoy the slide show. Also, if you want to view all the images from 2011 that I’ve published on my website, feel free to follow this link: http://www.journeyoflight.com/journey06/photo-keyword-sort.asp?keywordselected=2011
Thank you for a great year!
*Music courtesy of danosongs.com
According to the official DeSoto Wildlife Refuge website, the park’s public roads will re-open on January 2nd. I plan on taking a tour sometime on that day to see how the flooding has changed the park. While there, I am sure that I will not see a scene like the one above since it’s been so warm. Eastern Nebraska may even see the lower to mid fifties this week! Here’s hoping for a little snow before this winter’s over.
Following up with my last pheasant wildlife photograph from December 2nd (been a bit busy), I am posting an image taken this past fall at Smith Falls State Park in North Central Nebraska. I very quietly crept up on a family of deer grazing in the fields, catching an image when I could. I did not want to disturb them, but unfortunately, my presence caused them to move, albeit not very far as they must have felt somewhat safe. Deciding not to disturb further, I only captured about a half dozen images, of which, this was the strongest.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4L + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/640 sec.
Smith Falls State Park, Nebraska
