Today’s post is in fact, all over the map.

The Badlands of South Dakota is among my favorite places. In certain portions of the Badlands you can almost become overwhelmed by the diversity of rock. Short-medium telephoto lenses help to stack or sandwich rock forms into an image that takes the viewer into a world that is edge to edge, pure rock.  The Badlands actually live in a national grassland and there are many places where the photographer can stretch out the rock forms,  and give the viewer some space.  Also from a natural history standpoint those grasslands are important.  Putting the rock and grass into the scene gives some context to the story.

Rock…….with a touch of grass.

A sense of place.

In my opinion macro photography is the most difficult form of outdoor/nature photography.  It is an effort that is well worth it.  Morning dew “cleanses” that small world and makes it fresh and new.  Flowers and orb webs are two great subjects for dew. 

Of course all flower photography need not include dew.  Photographically breaking down flowers section by section doesn’t sound very artistic, but it is one of nature’s most artistic endeavors for the photographer.

For all of you bird photographers, spring is starting to move forward and birds like the Horned Grebe will soon a common subject.  Once the harbors and marinas clear themselves of ice, look out.

This bird photo tells a different story.  This was made in early autumn just before the Tree Sparrows begin their long journey south.   Spring and fall are both seasons to photograph bird migration but you get very different pictures in each season.  Autumn is a time for flocking up. It is somewhat “organized”.  When these birds return the next year it will be a helter skelter experience as they search for nesting sites and mates.

Late spring will mean that those cold-blooded herps will also appear.  Actually, their blood isn’t cold but it does go up and down with outside temperatures. Caught this little Bull Frog way back in 2009.

I know I’ve shown this sunrise/sunset before.   I have lost the key to where it was created but it is definitely a digital copy of a film image.  The problem is it was either made in Big Bend N. P., Texas, White Sands New Mexico, or Badlands South Dakota and I have worked all three places in both the film and digital formats.  I have lost my recollect of where a few of my river and waterfall images were made and now some of my sunrise/sunsets.  That is what happens when you get sloppy with your labeling and when you make a few hundred thousand pictures.

Regardless of where it was made, it is a good example of sunrise/sunset silhouettes.   Crisp edges of your subject are important and with subjects like this, your composition is a make or break proposition.  In this case, how to divide the slope of the rock form, and how to divide the proportions of sky and rock meant everything.

If it seems as though I have been publishing a lot of articles lately.  I have indeed been putting one out every other day.  Just when I was considering limiting this to once a week, the readership began growing.  It’s hard to stop when you know your audience is growing.  Some of this is certainly because of all the great photographers I have been featuring on these pages. Earth Images has also been receiving  a lot of search engine hits for a large variety of subjects.  I also began commenting on the blogs of photography greats like John Shaw and Art Wolfe and the link to Earth Images that I leave behind, has been used on a daily basis to visit this blog

This particular post (as you can see) contains mostly my own imagery, and that might be the case for my next as well. I will not however, abandon the showing of work from (mostly) other photographers.  There is too many great images from superb photographers not to share it.

That being said, let’s close today’s post with an exquisite image from Denise Ippolito.  There is little that needs to be said about this “perfect” picture.

I’ll meet you right back here in a couple of days,                                                          Wayne