Friday, August 12, 2011

Endless Horizons

Endless Horizons
BADL09D-93
July 4, 2009

Before one of the workshops that I teach, this one in North Dakota working with the five tribes and the United Tribal Technical College, I decided to take a little vacation.  Despite some reservations I had about spending time in the Dakotas, I headed out to see some of this least-visited region.  I was astounded.  I spent a little over a week in the Badlands of South and North Dakota and the Black Hills.  It was quite a beautiful area, the Badlands reminding me a lot of the canyons of the Southwest.  It was also a chance for me to be alone on the 4th of July, something I have not experienced very much.  It is such a social holiday, to spend the 3rd of July on the road and the 4th on the trail, was quite a unique treat.  It also started a tradition of hiking on the 4th of July, which has continued up to this day.

The image was taken just north of Badlands National Park.  That park is remarkable as you can't see it until you're right upon it; they don't rise very high, but have been dredged out of the ground.  So the rolling hills of hay suddenly descend into these canyons.  But outside the park, these large open spaces teemed with fields, those waves of grain (that wasn't quite amber yet); in the summer light, the storm was breaking up, and these clouds went dotting across the sky.  It was a perfect summer scape, very apropos for our national holiday. 

Technical notes:
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6
Focal length: 20 mm
Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f/16, ISO 100
Post-processing: Toning, curves adjustment in PS4

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