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
South Dakota
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.
Western Salsify
While hiking though the woods in South Dakota we came upon this blooming weed. It is western salsify. It is also known as goat’s beard. It has been described as a dandelion on steroids because it looks similar to a dandelion but the plant can grow to several fee tall and the bloom can span 4-5 inches.
You can view the very cool details 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.
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.
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.
A Begging Burro
This is one of the friendly “begging burros” of Custer State Park in the Black Hills area of South Dakota.
These burros have been peaceful residents of Custer State Park for nearly a century. They were first used as pack animals to get visitors from Sylvan Lake Lodge up the steep path to the summit of Black Elk Peak, the highest point in the U.S. east of the Rockies. When those tourist trips ended, the working burros were released to the wild and the small herd have been a favorite of Custer State Park visitors ever since.
On our trip to Custer, these were my wife’s favorite and we had to stop and feed and pet the burros. She got to know them pretty well. The one pictured here is a female and the mother of a young colt. She also seemed to be the ring leader and could be pretty pushy and rude to the others when tourists would offer apples and carrots and such.
You can get a better, more detailed view of this friendly face by clicking on the photo. When you do, a larger version 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.
Buffalo Grass
American bison roam the prairie in Custer State Park. In this shot I was focused on the prairie grasses. This is one of those images that I would usually pass by but, for some reason, it struck a chord with me.
Custer State Park is in Custer County, in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. The park has a managed heard of about 1,500 bison. On any given day you will see many of them as you drive the roads of the park. In fact, sometimes they are on the road.
If you’re into grass, you can click on the photo and view a larger, more detailed version.
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.
Stars and Stripes Above Mt. Moriah
This is a special American flag. It proudly waves over Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota. By special permission of the United States Congress, this flag is never taken down. The large bronze sign beside the flag says, “The flag never goes down on Mt. Moriah Cemetery, as Deadwood was granted permission by the U.S. Congress during World War I to fly the flag 24 hours a day to honor all veterans who have served our country.”
We toured the cemetery on our recent trip to the Black Hills area. This cemetery is high on a hill and, according to the Deadwood City website, “…the final resting place of western legends, murderers, madams, and pillars of Deadwood’s early economic development.” There, you will find the graves of James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill Hickok); Martha Jane Canary (aka Calamity Jane); and Johnny Perrett (aka Potato Creek Johnny).
You can get a better, larger view of any of the images on this post by clicking on them.
This flag photo is 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 Beautiful Capture
This is a panoramic view of Lakota Lake. This is a small lake in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
We stumbled upon this calm, out-of-the-way lake while driving though the park. This was one of my wife’s favorite spots at Custer State Park. She is the one on the shore taking photos of the beauty that she sent to her parents. This is a very wide image – a compilation of five individual photos taken.
According to the US Forest Service, “Lakota Lake is located southeast of Keystone, SD, on US Highway 16A (Iron Mountain Road), within the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. It is a small, non-motorized lake and a popular destination for fishing and kayaking. A hitchrail is provided for horses, along with access to Iron Creek Trail #15. Several picnic tables offer a scenic view of the lake. Lakota Lake Road was upgraded in fall 2021.”
You can get a little better, larger 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.
Kid Crusher
A young mountain goat posed for its portrait high above us. This was one of our delightful finds on our drive through Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. If you look close, you can see the tiny, black nubs of its horns starting to show.
We had heard that there were mountain goats in the hills of Custer State park, but didn’t see any there. We saw a number of them in Spearfish Canyon – some up high and some grazing along the road. They seemed to be very comfortable with people and cars going by. More photos of the mountain goats will be coming in the future.
You can get a better, more detailed view of this youngster 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.