Pennington County Storm

After a long day in Badlands NP my daughter and I decided to try to capture lightning. We drove north of Wall after dinner and watched the sky. It was fun to watch and quite an experiment in camera settings. We finally settled on a shutter speed of about 1-2 seconds to balance the brightness of lightning with the dark sky.

Mule Deer Action

Visiting Badlands National Park to watch the mule deer rut is becoming a yearly event. Most of the behavior is bucks chasing does but occasionally things get real interesting. After watching a small herd for quite awhile I noticed the does had their attention directed to something behind the butte. Eventually I saw what the were watching. The following minute of action took place over about an hour in real time.

Bison Battle

My wife and I (actually more me) have been searching for bison during mating season for years but we always seem to miss it. Badlands National Park has a good sized herd that is accessible and the Park is without the mayhem of summer visitors like Yellowstone. I made some calls and got conflicting information but decided to head out there anyway for a few days. This battle was taken one morning and by late afternoon 500 bison had disappeared. Mating season may still be in progress but if it is taking place it's a secluded draw. I don't think I'll hike in to look for them.

Shake that booty!

This was another interesting behavior I saw at Badlands NP. I have no idea why the buck did this and it shows another reason to be outdoors. Photographers see things that never will be on TV (too boring, no blood, etc.) and occasionally we get a chance to record what we see for others to enjoy.

A great day

 

The goal each day when shooting video is a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end. When shooting stills it is a shot with great action, emotion, or light. I'm not sure which one is more elusive. This was a good day for video with the battling bucks being followed later in the morning with this sequence, not your average day.

Battle of the Bucks

By chance I witnessed this duel between four bucks during the  mule deer rut at it's peak last week.  Several other encounters were recorded, this is one of the more dramatic ones. I love the way the dominant buck comes in low as of sneaking up on the other buck. After a couple minutes it was all over and life went on. 

Technical: As with most videos the selection of background music is as time consuming as the video edit. Natural sounds was white noise: wind. 

Look at those ears!

Can you imagine the discussion when the first mule deer was seen by explorers? "It looks like a deer but it can't be with those ears. It must be some kind of mule." 

Technical: WB 2850

Badlands Morning

On the road again, this time to Badlands National Park. Early morning insomnia made me decide to get outdoors and try various settings on my new camera.  Of course, now I am just waking up from my noon nap.

Technical: ISO 3200, ND gradient in Lightroom to lower the color temperature and exposure of the sky.