South Dakota

My Image Reflected in the Eye of a Meadowlark: Badlands National Park

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The feature image was a surprise to me. It was not until I started editing the image did I discover that I was reflected in a bird’s eye.

Feature Image Details

I pulled off the side of the road to photograph Prairie Dog colonies near the Prairie Wind Overlook. A curious Meadowlark flew up near the car, perhaps 10 feet away. At first, it was in bright sunlight, not a good spot. I wanted the Meadowlark to hop into the shade and it did.

I already had my longest lens attached. I grabbed a few shots and it flew away. It may have been on the lookout for free peanuts that people toss to the Prairie Dogs.

What Would I Have Done Different?

I always ask myself what I could have done better. In this case, I could have had the car trunk closed to make the reflection better. I might have had brighter clothes on. I zoomed in to about 300mm but I could have come in even tighter. The image shown is cropped heavily, but it works because I have 30 megabytes to work with.

But realistically, I was not attempting to get my image reflected in a Meadowlark’s eye. It just happened.

Here are some more wildlife images from the Badlands, all taken with the 100-400mm lens.

Prairie Dog Badlands

Pronghorn

That shot was from Sage Creek Road, through the window of the car, with the window rolled down. If you get out of the car they will be long gone in less than a second.

Bighorn Sheep

I used my 100-400 lens for all the images on this page, a rarity lens for me.

Why? The weight.

I hike a lot and it is not a hiking kind of lens. It weighs over three pounds. If I am hiking more than 1-2 miles round-trip, it sits in the trunk unless I am 100% positive I need it.

At Badlands National Park you can get close to wildlife from the road. If you see something, pull off the road and shoot.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

Additional Badlands Articles

  1. Badlands National Park Yellow Mounds Overlook, Big Badlands Overlook
  2. Badlands National Park Pinnacles Overlook: Sunset, Panorama, and Milky Way Images
  3. Badlands National Park – Double Rainbow at Pinnacles Overlook
  4. Badlands National Park – Castle Trail and Notch Trail Images

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Next Up: Monument Valley

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Badlands National Park Yellow Mounds Overlook, Big Badlands Overlook

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These images are from a trip to Badlands National Park in September of 2017.

We went to the Yellow Mounds Overlook area on two occasions. After Pinnacles, it is my next favorite overlook. There are opportunities on both sides of the road if you wander around a bit.

Feature Image Details

This image and two that follow are stacked images. That means I took multiple images, each focused on a different spot. I used Lightroom to adjust the exposures and color, the same for each image in the stack. Then I manually blended them in Photoshop using layer masks.

With four images, I blend two images. Then blend the next. Then the next. I find starting with the foreground the easiest.

Here are more Yellow Mounds images.

The final image above was not focus stacked. It was taken at 28mm with a Canon 24-105MM F4 L Lens

There was little need to stack. Everything was in focus because this was a distant shot. When you are very close to the subject and want every part of the image, you need to focus stack.

Big Badlands Overlook

Big Badlands Overlook is an excellent location at sunrise. At sunrise, it’s my favorite overlook.

I went to this overlook five times at sunrise and had good clouds only once. The best light was before sunrise. Compare the above two images. I prefer the first. It was 10 minutes or so before sunrise.

Big Badlands Panorama Stitch

That’s a crop from an even wider sequence of five images stitched together. I took that sequence one morning when there was decent light but no clouds.

Lightroom usually does a good job of stitching automatically as was the case here. I use Photoshop merge on occasion, but Lightroom is easier to work with.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

Additional Badlands Articles

  1. Badlands National Park Pinnacles Overlook: Sunset, Panorama, and Milky Way Images
  2. Badlands National Park – Double Rainbow at Pinnacles Overlook
  3. Badlands National Park – Castle Trail and Notch Trail Images

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I will wrap up the Badlands in my next article. It has an image of me reflected in a Meadowlark’s eye.  Stay tuned!

Much more coming: Click to Subscribe by Email.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Badlands National Park Pinnacles Overlook: Sunset, Panorama, and Milky Way Images

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These images are from a trip to Badlands National Park in September of 2017.

We went to the Pinnacles Overlook area on three evenings. My last post described a lucky double rainbow. Here are some additional images from the same location.

Feature Image Details

People pull up to the Pinnacles Overlook parking lot, walk down the steps take a few shots and walk away. One of the best area to photograph is just up main park road. There is no parking, you have to walk up the road. That’s where this set of images is from.

Pinnacles Panorama

That is a panorama stitch of seven images, stitched to make a single horizontal image.  The focal length was 32 mm.

I overlapped the images greatly. At least half of every frame was in the next frame. This makes it easy for the stitching programs to align the images properly. It also ensures the center of each image is what goes into the final composite. The center of the lens always provides the best resolution. You get super-sharp images this way, also very large file sizes.

Milky Way

That is a composite image taken in the waning moments of sunset with the milky way about three hours later.

Pinnacles Sunset

The above image and the panorama image were taken on the same evening.  This image was taken with a Canon 11-24 F4.0 L lens at 15 mm. I am right on top of that formation in a very steep and precarious spot, somewhere up in that ridged area visible in the feature image and Milky Way image. Some of the places I wanted to get too were simply too steep.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

Additional Badlands Articles

  1. Badlands National Park – Double Rainbow at Pinnacles Overlook
  2. Badlands National Park – Castle Trail and Notch Trail Images

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Much more coming: Click to Subscribe by Email.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Badlands National Park – Double Rainbow at Pinnacles Overlook

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These images are from a trip to Badlands National Park in September of 2017. As is typically the case, sunrise and sunset images provide the best light, but there are exceptions.

Feature Image Details

The feature image and the next three images that follow were taken minutes before sunset.

There are at least six cars in the parking lot that I can make out in the feature images. At least another six left within ten minutes of these images.

It was raining hard the sky was 99.5% overcast. No one else got out of their car.

If one was not down at the canyon edge, there was no shot except for the parking lot and road.

The image immediately above was taken right at sunset. You can see the sliver of a hole the sun hit to create the rainbow. When I got out of the car, the only hole was way to the right. The gap lengthened horizontally just as I arrived at the above location. I did not expect this to happen, nor did anyone else, but I took a chance, and I got wet.

Just as the sun hit the sliver of a hole, it stopped raining on me but it did keep raining in the distance. That’s what it takes to make a rainbow. You do not see rainbows looking towards the sun. The apex of the rainbow is 180 degrees from the sun.

Decision Time

I walked down to the location with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens on my camera. It was not wide enough to catch that complete rainbow. When the sun hit the hold, I did not know if I had 10 seconds, 30 seconds, or two minutes, but I knew I did not have longer than that.

I  wanted that full rainbow image badly, so I took a chance and changed lenses. Taking an extra 15 seconds to change lenses in fleeting light is a huge gamble but it paid off.  I grabbed two quick shots, changed lenses back again, and rushed over to the ledge where I took the second rainbow image.

Note the foreground. Imagine the image without the railing. Extreme wide angle lenses must have a strong foreground. I used the railing because it was all that was available on the left side of the frame. I hopped over the railing to take this image.

Seconds later the light faded. I estimate I had about 90 seconds to photograph the rainbow. Had one been in their car, it would have taken most of that time to get down to the location where I was.

I had more time for the third image, as in several minutes. The rainbow was gone but the clouds in the West started glowing. It’s hard to tell from these images, but it really was 99.5% socked-in gray. That little hole provided the magic.

The third image is an exposure composite, one of the foreground, the other of the sky.

More Badlands Images

This is my second in a series on the Badlands. Please also check out Badlands National Park – Castle Trail and Notch Trail Images.

Equipment

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

Please Share!

If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.

Much more coming: Click to Subscribe by Email.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock