Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

This Weeks Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper: Badlands National Park Detail
Friday Freebie features an image to liven up your iPad display with images from my travels… all for free.

Badlands National Park in South Dakota is an abrupt transition between the prairies and the mountains. Erosion has created an amazing tapestry of color and texture that is as beautiful as it is rich in history. I was surprised at how photogenic this national park was when I visited. Truly an amazing landscape to behold. If you enjoy this photo be sure to check out my other badland landscape photos from across the United States.

Click here to download your free iPad wallpaper. Have a great weekend!

Note: This image is distributed for personal use only and all rights are reserved. If interested in using this photograph commercially please contact me.

Technorati Tags: Photography, nature, landscape, Free, Friday Freebie, iPad, Wallpaper

Traveling you often see things that require a double take. On my last trip through South Dakota, at the Crazy Horse Memorial to be exact, I witnessed this classic moment…

A man walking his dog while he rode his ATV.

South Dakota Dog Walk

As a dog owner I walk my dogs at least two times a day and if it were up to my wife I’d be out with my dogs 3-4 times a day… so seeing this was really foreign. I witnessed this last year, but only a couple of months ago a British citizen was disciplined (no driving for 6 months) for doing the same thing from his car.

What makes this photo for me other than the absurdity of the situation is the inclusion of the “no walking” sign in the background. How apropos.

Technorati Tags: photography, humor, dog, photo, stock photo

Some landscapes are so sweeping its an incredible challenge to portray them properly in a tightly constrained photo, no matter what the format or lens used. The South Dakota Badlands fall into that category. Standing at any one of numerous scenic lookouts one’s field of view is completely filled with this amazingly surreal landscape.

South Dakota Badlands Spring Panoramic – Badland National Park, South Dakota
Click to Enlarge

On this particular day the weather was turning for the worst, but the cloud cover provided nice even lighting to bring out the color in the eroded hillsides. Sporadic rain rejuvenated grass and flowers sprinkled through out the scene giving this otherwise desolate landscape vibrancy of color and life. Impossible to capture in entirety I opted to capture this scene in a panoramic format with a hint of  life revealing itself amidst an endless maze of canyons.

Photo Details:
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 90mm tilt-shift, 3-image horizontal panoramic

Technorati Tags: photography, South Dakota, badlands, landscape, panoramic, stock photo, fine art

The South Dakota Badlands have a menacing beauty. Colorful, rich in texture and expansive, the Badlands under the right conditions can provide a landscape photographer endless opportunities. Having visited the Badlands National Park in the spring I was happy to find intense green grass dotted throughout the landscape. Recent rains and overcast light enhanced the intensity of the green grass providing a nice offset to the rusty red color normally found in the sedimentary layers of the eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires. Spring in the Badlands is certainly not a bad place to be with your camera.

Stormy Badlands - Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Technical Info:
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm f/2.8 II USM, f/22, 1/10 sec

Technorati Tags: photography, landscape, Badlands National Park, badlands, South Dakota, stock photo