Tuliptree Blossom with Guest
Another Day at Work
Apis Workers' Party
Predator
Some of Your Beeswax
Sedum Bumbler
Look of Defiance
Chicory Bee
Bumbling Bees
Garden Cafe
Buzz By Here - To Infinity and Beyond
Pick Your Poison
Blind Side Attack
On a Mission
Honey Bee on Sedum
Covering the Cosmos
Center of the Cosmos
Three's a Crowd
Popular Spot
On A Pedestal
Big Harry Fireworks Display
To Impress the Girl
Different Perspective
Sweet Ride
Perfect Little Piggies B&W
Flipping the Light Fantastic
Festival of Flights
To the Crowd's Delight
Amish Go Round
Wondersome One
The Stars In Her Eyes
Tuesday's Child
Sleeper Hold
Considering the Next Move
Sugar and Spice
Front Porch Portrait
Caged Competitor
Early Adoration
Child In the Ligtht
Stroll Through the Weeds
Attention Grabbing
Eye Contact
On the Line
Eyes of Wonder
Rounding the Curve
Troubadours of Basin Spring Park
Down by the Creek
Sun Day
Catching Some Light
EAA Fireworks
Hear Me Roar
Pops Photos
Hiking Cathedral Spires Trail
On our recent trip to Custer State Park, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we did a lot of hiking. This was one of the trails we enjoyed – Cathedral Spires Trail. The “needles” rock formations were fun to explore.
The Cathedral Spires Trail is located inside an area of Custer State Park known as the Needles. As you might expect, it can be found on Needles Highway. The trail is approximately 1.5 miles one way.
This photo was taken with my fisheye lens. It provides a very wide view but also gives it that curving inward look. My hiking partner and beautiful wife is pictured on the trail ahead of me.
You can get a larger more detailed version of this image by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Moment of Reflection
These common wasps seemed to be admiring themselves in the water’s reflection. Actually, they were getting a drink at the birdbath in our yard.
I happened to notice a few wasps at the birdbath one day and keep watching. I found a steady stream of wasps visiting the birdbath all day long. Shortly after, I discovered a steady stream of wasps flying up into a corner of our house. They obviously they had built a nest there.
I also found a couple of wasp nests in the ground of our yard. It must have been a good year for wasps in our area. On a good note, they were never bothersome to us; a little worrisome when one found its way into the house, but no stings. (Ironically, my wife was stung by one while hiking during our vacation in South Dakota.)
You can get a better, more detailed look at these by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Home On the Range
A resident of Custer State Park in South Dakota, this prairie dog is poised at the entrance to his den – ready to jump in if I got any closer.
I was using a 300mm lens, so I wasn’t that close to begin with (maybe 30ft), but they are pretty skittish creatures. The prairie dog dens dot the landscape at the park. It’s fun to visit a prairie dog village and hear the chatter and warning signals they create.
You can get a better, larger view of this critter by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Phoebe and Fly
This small and feisty Phoebe seems proud to show off its next meal. This is a photo taken in Missouri during the busy month of July; while they are raising their young.
You can get a better look at this cutie by clicking the photo. When you do, a larger version of this image will open in a new browser tab.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Spearfish Falls
This is a vertical panorama of Spearfish Falls; a popular attraction of Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. Spearfish Canyon was one of my favorite areas. Highway US-14A winds through an incredibly beautiful, deep and narrow gorge with a small but active river running alongside the road. This is also where we saw mountain goats along the roadway and on the hills.
This is a panoramic image (3 individual photos joined together) because the observation spot is so close to the falls, I couldn’t fit the whole thing in the frame using the lens I had with me. We were close enough to feel the mist/spray from the falls.
This photo was taken on a cool, dreary day and, in fact, it started to rain on us; which hastened our departure. To get to the falls there is a nice half-mile trail. This photo was taken in mid-September so the flow is considerably less than you would experience in the spring.
You can get a better, more detailed view (if you have a large monitor) by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
A Herd Mentality
Note: Don’t try to comprehend this photo by the view on this page. Click the photo and see it span your entire screen.
The original image is a very large, panoramic photo (more than 18,000 pixels wide). I features the Bison herd at Custer State Park in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. There hundreds of American Buffalo in this image – on the plain and on the hills in the background.
If you could really zoom in, you would also see about eight prairie dogs and four magpies in the photo, as well. But they are really small and you have to zoom in a lot. (I’m not sure you can really see them on this compressed version of the original.)
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Shaggy Ink Cap Mushrrom
This is an interesting growth I noticed in the newly-harvested field next to our home. A quick search revealed that it is a Shaggy Ink Cap Mushroom. Apparently, they are edible and quite delicious when fresh.
This is a rather large mushroom and it caught my eye because it was standing tall in the field of stubble. This mushroom is also known by the name, “lawyer’s wig.” They don’t last long, as you can see in the photo on the right. This is a view of the same mushroom just two days later. As far as being edible, they are one of the “fool proof four” along with giant puffballs, chicken of the woods, and morels.
You can get a slightly larger, more detailed view of either of these images by clicking on them.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
It’s a Trap
When the flowers began to fade and summer was being pushed out by autumn; an opportunistic spider was taking one last shot at securing a store of food before winter.
As I’ve mentioned before, when people ask what kind of photographer I am (as in, Landscape, Wildlife, Portrait, etc.) I tell them I just capture whatever catches my eye. This is one of those photographs. I’m not sure if any will appreciate it but the more I look at it, the more I like it. I like the variety and depth of colors and the near-perfect symmetry of the web.
You are looking at a spider web that was prominently placed in a large flower pot. The flower pot occupies a corner of the cement pad in front of our garage. I captured this on an early morning walk around my yard, while the dew was still clinging to the web. The spider was nowhere to be found.
If you’d like to see a larger version of this image, click on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
War Bonnet
The attention-grabbing, bold color and contrast on this small butterfly’s wings are clearly a work of God’s design and creativity.
Last month, during a trip to the Branson, Missouri area I spent a couple of hours at the Butterfly Palace. They have a variety of winged creatures flitting around their man-made tropical environment. When in the area, I try to make my way there because I’m always sure to get some worthwhile images.
The detail in this butterfly’s wings is amazing. You can get a better view by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.
Gooseberry Falls
Along the northern shore of Lake Superior you will find Gooseberry Falls State Park of Minnesota. This is the park’s namesake – Gooseberry falls.
This is one of the photos I found in my archives. This image was captured July 7, 2017. It was taken on a trip to the Duluth, MN area. It was a trip that ended in tragedy; where I broke my Sony A77V camera! Nobody was hurt, but it was a traumatic event for me. I got over it by purchasing the same model (used) for about half the price of new. And, as they say, the rest was photographic history.
This is a small panoramic image; where I combined two separate photos to provide a wider view. You can get a larger, more detailed view of these waterfalls by clicking on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me (pops@popsdigital.com) for digital purchase and licensing options.