Lightscapes Nature Photography Blog

Posted by: kerryl29 | September 14, 2026

The Story Behind the Image: McConnell’s Mill

About 15 years ago, I took a fall trip to locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio that I’d never been to before. My timing wasn’t great. It had been a hot, very dry summer throughout just about the entire eastern half of North America that year, and the fall color was…poor. Virtually non-existent, in fact, in some spots where the leaves just turned brown and fell off the branches.

As is my wont, I tried to make the best out of the situation. One of the spots I visited was McConnell’s Mill State Park, in western Pennsylvania. I was there about halfway into my trip, which lasted a bit more than a week all told, and arrived to scout the park one afternoon. (I had all of the next day to photograph.) The most noteworthy features in the park itself are a covered bridge, McConnell’s Mill itself, and the waterway that the mill sits alongside, Slippery Rock Creek. I checked all of this out, and more, on the afternoon of my scout, and then planned to return before sunrise the following day to photograph the mill. The fall color was, unsurprisingly, not great. There was some here and there–there was also a fair amount of coniferous growth throughout the park–but mostly it was pretty dull.

I arrived the following morning and it was…chilly. The temperature was right around freezing. Mist was coming off Slippery Rock Creek in abundance, particularly obvious at water level, but even visible from a higher perspective along the rocky shoreline. I moved to one of the locations to photograph the mill that I had identified the previous day. I was standing along the road bed that led up to the aforementioned covered bridge, which lies downriver from them mill. While the color wasn’t great, as I’ve mentioned several times already, I had found a spot where branches from a tree along the shoreline, with some measure of yellow-orange leaves, appeared to be hanging over the creek. The scene was entirely in open shade, even though the sun had risen by the time I made the image you see below. It remains, for me, one of the more evocative photographs I was able to produce on a trip that wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be.

(Click on the image below to view a larger rendition.)

McConnell’s Mill, McConnell’s Mill State Park, Pennsylvania

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips, The Story Behind the Image | Tags: landscape photography, mcconnell's mill, mcconnell's mill state park, nature photography, pennsylvania, photography, slippery rock creek

Posted by: kerryl29 | September 8, 2026

The Story Behind the Image: Lower South Falls

At the end of a trip I took to the Oregon Coast in May of 2015, on my way back to Portland to fly back home I stopped briefly at Silver Falls State Park, east of Salem. The park includes 14 named waterfalls (none of them named “Silver Falls,” by the way), all of them accessible by a loop trail approximately seven miles in length. I had allocated one full day, plus a late afternoon/evening (the day I drove in) and a morning (the day I headed back to Portland to fly out) to the park. The full day turned out be just about perfect weather-wise for the subject matter: cloudy, with no rain (other than one brief shower) and little wind.

The Trail of Ten Falls is the main attraction at Silver Falls SP, which can be accessed at several spots. On my first day–when I only had 2-3 hours of daylight–I drove up to the North Falls area and explored (and photographed) there. When I came back on the full day, at first light, I started in the South Falls area, and after photographing South Falls extensively, I hit the trail, in a clockwise direction, and shortly came upon Lower South Falls.

The trail itself actually passes behind Lower South Falls. I should mention that all of the waterfalls in the park were gushing while I was there. (I don’t think water flow is ever much of a problem at the park, but I don’t know that for a fact.) The trail actually bends around a cliff face before going behind Lower South Falls.

Given the layout, photographing the waterfall without including the stone wall that makes up part of the trail infrastructure is virtually impossible, so I very quickly stopped trying to exclude the wall. Instead, I spent some time trying to figure out how to incorporate it in a way that would compliment the scene. I set up to use the arc of the wall as a leading line, and also elected to show neither the top, nor the bottom of the waterfall, which I think adds a hint of mystery to the frame.

When I’m photographing waterfalls, I invariably spend time looking for unorthodox ways of portraying them. That’s not always a straight forward exercise, but in the case of Lower South Falls, the goal was fairly easily achieved.

Lower South Falls, Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips, The Story Behind the Image | Tags: landscape photography, lower south falls, nature photography, Oregon, photography, silver falls state park, trail of ten falls, waterfalls

Posted by: kerryl29 | August 31, 2026

The Story Behind the Image: Medicine Lake Sunrise

On my first trip to the Canadian Rockies, I spent four days in Jasper National Park, and on my second full day there, I scouted Medicine Lake, which is about halfway between the town of Jasper and Maligne Lake on the Maligne Lake Road. I was there late morning under what was, at that point, a nearly clear sky. I made no images at Medicine Lake that afternoon, but my brief scout suggested that the site had much potential. The north end of the lake–which is much longer than it is wide and runs basically from northwest to southeast–looked like a fine spot for sunrise, and I spent some time looking over possible compositions. I resolved to return the following morning.

The next day–my last full day in Jasper on that trip–I put my sunrise plan into action, though things didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. As I wrote in my chronicle of that day:

I got a little bit of a late start that morning, with no particular expectation of a brilliant sunrise, but as I was turning onto the Maligne Lake Road–the access route to Medicine Lake–I could see that something noteworthy was underway. I sped to the shores of Medicine Lake as quickly as possible, pulled into the empty parking area, grabbed my things and quickly raced down the stairs from the lot to the meadow that surrounds the lakeshore.

It was another very chilly morning–about 25 degrees F, at daybreak–but I hardly noticed given what was going on in the sky. Fortunately, based on my scouting session the previous day, I knew almost exactly the spot where I wanted to set up and I was able to catch some of the best color in the sky that morning. I deliberated wanted to include some of the rocky meadow as a foreground. Besides, the lake itself was full of ripples–colorful ripples, admittedly, but there was no glass-like reflection to serve as a foreground.

I’d had to make the decision about which composition to pursue that morning very quickly, because I’d arrived later than I had intended; given what was happening in the southeast sky, there was no time to lose. While there was apparently enough breeze to ripple the water, I remember noticing that the tall grasses, amidst the boulders on the slope leading down to the water’s edge, were (mostly) not moving at all. Thus, I made the on-the-run decision to set up in the meadow, rather than go all the way down to the lakeside. That allowed me to set up a bit earlier, which was, all things being equal, the better option anyway. In the end, I think things worked out well.

(Click on the image below to view a larger rendition.)

Sunrise, Medicine Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta

Epilogue: I returned to the Canadian Rockies the next year and was really looking forward to visiting and photographing Medicine Lake again, but when I arrived I faced a tragic scene: about two months before I was there, a large wildfire tore through the area and completely altered this place for…ever, probably. I didn’t find out until I drove to the lake and, rounding a bend in the road, was faced with a seemingly infinite length of blackened slopes. I wrote about that sobering experience in this entry (about halfway into the chronicle), if you’re interested.

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips, The Story Behind the Image | Tags: Alberta, Canadian Rockies, jasper national park, landscape photography, maligne lake road, medicine lake, nature photography, photography, sunrise

Posted by: kerryl29 | August 24, 2026

The Story Behind the Image: Summer Icon

Over the years, I haven’t engaged in a lot of photography during summertime. Most of my photo excursions take place away from my home base–wherever that may be at a given time–and, while there are certainly some exceptions, most places where I’d go to photograph aren’t at their most appealing during summer months. Destinations are crowded, often hot and with subject matter not in its most photogenic state. So the majority of my photo outings take place during spring or fall.

But, as I implied above, there are exceptions to every rule, starting with “most of my photo excursions take place away from my home base.” There’s a county forest preserve not far from my base in the Chicago area that includes some protected prairie. I used to drive past this area twice daily during my commute back in the early 2000s, and during mid-summer, I could catch views of prairie wildflowers blooming there. When I finally got around to taking to taking a look in some form that didn’t involve a moving vehicle, it was late in the summer and the flowers were well past their peak. I made the decision to take a closer look the following year.

And so I did. I took a series of hikes earlier the following summer, before the bloom had fully peaked, to get a more complete sense of where the best clusters of blooms would be, and then planned to return, with my camera gear, when the light would be nice. About two weeks later, on a windless evening at dusk, I returned, having sprayed myself with insect repellent to fend off the mosquitoes. I traipsed to an area that I had seen during my scouting session with numerous purple coneflower buds. Those flowers were now in full bloom. Using a stand of trees as mid-ground/background stoppers, I placed myself very close to the nearest flowers. I was photographing with a camera that had an APS-C sensor back in those days, which meant that the 1.5X crop factor made images photographed with an ultra-wide angle lens (say 16 mm) frame like a regular wide angle (24 mm), but with the depth of field that comes with the ultra-wide. This was before I had started working with image stacking, so I only had one frame to get everything sharp. The 16 mm lens, stopped down to f/11, did the trick. It was fairly dark–the sun had dropped below the horizon on this clear evening–so the dead calm conditions were necessary to keep anything from moving for the two-second exposure.

The resulting image remains one of my favorite summertime photo memories.

(Click on the image below to view a larger rendition.)

Purple Coneflowers, Danada Forest Preserve, DuPage County, Illinois

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Posted in The Story Behind the Image | Tags: danada forest preserve, dupage county, illinois, landscape photography, nature photography, photography, summer, wildflowers

Posted by: kerryl29 | August 17, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 7

What turned out to be my final day at Badlands National Park started out at the same location that most of the previous days had begun: Big Badlands Overlook. I was still hoping for a genuinely good sunrise at this location–something I really hadn’t seen in four previous attempts–but the importance to me of such an event had dipped dramatically after the epic sunset I had witnessed at Homestead Overlook at the end of Day 6.

Prospects for an impressive sunrise were, in any event, dim, as a large cloud bank was hovering along the eastern horizon shortly before daybreak. In fact, I turned my attention initially to the west, where I captured the setting moon.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

Moonset, Big Badlands Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

But, as sunrise approached, the situation in the sky to the east changed, and I quickly altered the focus of my attention accordingly.

Sunrise, Big Badlands Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

A crevice of clear sky appeared on the eastern horizon, and I hoped the gap would provide something of a sky show for a brief period. I was indeed rewarded.

Because the crevice had appeared so close to the actual sunrise, the light show didn’t last long at all–just a couple of minutes–but it was quite something when it was in evidence.

I made one more image facing southwest before I wrapped up the sunrise shoot.

From here, I followed my usual daily pattern, driving the Badlands Loop Road into the park, to the south and west. When I reached the area that included the trailhead for the Window Trail, I stopped, as the early light on the formations was entrancing and the sky backdrop was compelling as well. I moved quickly along the short trail and made several images, as clouds danced periodically in front of the sun.

Window Trail, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

From here, I continued along the Badlands Loop Road to the east, and stopped to photograph the unmarked Balanced Rock formation that I had scouted much earlier in the week that I’d been in the park. This required stopping at an unsigned pullout, crossing the road, meandering down an embankment, and making a fairly short, easy hike to the formation, which I had initially–and serendipitously–seen from the loop road, heading in the opposite direction, on Day 2.

Balanced Rock, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Balanced Rock Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

While I was in the smallish cove area that contained Balanced Rock, I spotted some other compositions and elements that I thought were worthy of my time.

Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands Loop Road Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Flowering Cactus, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

From there, I continued along the Badlands Loop Road.

I stopped at Panorama Point Overlook…

Panorama Point Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Panorama Point Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

…and at a spot not far from Prairie Wind Overlook, where the prairie dogs have a large colony…

Prairie Dog, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Prairie Dogs, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

…and, finally, at Pinnacles Overlook.

Pinnacles Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

It was late morning when I wrapped at Pinnacles and made the short drive back to Wall. It had clouded up considerably, and that was a bit of foreshadowing for the afternoon.

It was a bit after 2 PM when I headed back to the park, and started with a short run down Sage Creek Rim Road. I made a few images at Badlands Wilderness Overlook.

Badlands Wilderness Overlook, Sage Creek Rim Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands Wilderness Overlook Black & White, Sage Creek Rim Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I then moved on to Hay Butte Overlook.

Hay Butte Overlook Black & White, Sage Creek Rim Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

It was overwhelmingly cloudy at this point, with just a few windows of clear sky visible to the southeast, which was useful as this was the viewing perspective best available from Burns Basin Overlook, where I next stopped. The sky to the west and southwest was getting darker and darker during this time, but I spent a fair amount of time at Burns Basin.

Burns Basin Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Burns Basin Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

There was no direct sun on the badlands at this point, so I pulled out the telephoto lens and picked out some spots that appealed to me.

I continued along the Badlands Loop Road, with the sky getting darker and darker with each mile I traveled. Eventually, just as I reached the area around the visitor’s center, it started to rain lightly. There’s a building in the greater complex that includes the visitor’s center that has a gift shop, and public restrooms. I pulled into the parking lot to use the restroom, and simply ignored the light rain as I went in. In a few minutes, I was done, but the rain had become much harder when I was ready to leave. Realizing that I would be soaked if I tried to head out to my car, I decided to wait out the rain. Well, it got harder and harder. I ended up waiting about 30 minutes as it absolutely poured–some of the heaviest rain I’d seen in quite some time. Eventually, it got much lighter and I decided to make a break for the car. That went fine, and I continued driving toward the park’s northeast entrance, which is about five miles up the road from the visitor’s center complex.

Within a couple of minutes after I pulled out of the visitor’s center complex parking lot, the rain picked up again and within seconds, it had turned into a massive downpour–heavier than it had been at any point while I’d been inside the building. With rain this hard, I knew, the ground would be a collective mud pit, so I decided to head back to I-90, which was just a few miles down the road from the entrance gate, and then make the 20-odd mile drive back to Wall. It was about 5 PM at this point. The rain was so hard as I drove back to the Interstate that I had trouble seeing, even with the windshield wipers going full tilt. I thought about pulling off the road to wait for the rain to lighten, but most of the pull-offs–to the extent that I could see them–were unpaved, and I didn’t want to take a chance on getting stuck, so I kept driving, slowly, hoping that the rain would let up. It did, eventually, but not until I was on I-90 and had traveled a few miles. It eventually eased up significantly and, by the time I got back to Wall, it had almost stopped completely.

This turned out to be the end of the trip. The rain wasn’t over for the day, I had just caught a short break. All evening, and well into the night, there were thunderstorms, some of them extremely heavy. The forecast for the next morning was completely cloudy with a chance of more rain, so I decided to simply not set an alarm, get up when I was ready, and begin the drive back to the Chicago area. I knew that the park would be nothing but mud until it had the chance to dry out, and that might not happen for another day, or more. I ended up waking up before daybreak the next morning, packed up the car (it didn’t take long) and was on the road before sunrise. The forecast had been correct; there was no sunrise at Badlands National Park that morning. I dealt with on-and-off light rain until I was almost two hours east of the park, so I’d made the right call.

The tail end of the trip had been a bit of a downer, but, truthfully, I was unbothered. The seven days I had spent photographing in and around the park had been, on balance, excellent. I had wanted to visit this area to photograph for roughly 25 years and I’d finally made it happen.

I hope you enjoyed viewing some of the images I made in the badlands.

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips | Tags: badlands loop road, badlands national park, badlands wilderness overlook, balanced rock, big badlands overlook, burns basin overlook, hay butte overlook, landscape photography, nature photography, panorama point overlook, photography, pinnacles overlook, prairie dogs, south dakota, window trail

Posted by: kerryl29 | August 10, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 6

Once again, I started the day at Big Badlands Overlook and, once again, the skies to the east weren’t particularly cooperative. At least the ground was dry, unlike the situation I discovered on the morning of Day 5.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

A few clouds did eventually drift into position, but it was fairly slim pickings.

Before long, I turned my attention in a westerly direction, which started with the setting moon.

After the sun began to crest the eastern horizon, the westerly view became increasingly photogenic.

A fascinating set of clouds had opened up to the northwest and, even though this didn’t look out over the badlands formations from Big Badlands Overlook, I photographed the scene anyway, with black and white renderings very much in mind at time of capture.

Big Badlands Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I also chose monochrome for one of the images that did look out over the badlands.

There were two notable things about this early morning experience. The first was a reminder of the broad, sweeping views–close to 270 degrees–available from Big Badlands Overlook. The second was a reminder that, as I have mentioned on this blog before, sometimes looking (and photographing) away from the sunrise/sunset leads to something quite memorable. That lesson would be reinforced again at day’s end, as you’ll see if you follow the rest of this post.

I did spend some time with the telephoto rig, picking out tight scenes in parts of the canyon that remained in open shade as the sun slowly rose.

Big Badlands Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When I finished at Big Badlands Overlook, I followed what had now become a familiar pattern: I took the Badlands Loop Road west, into the heart of the park, and drove around until I found something that caught my eye. I photographed at Burns Basin Overlook, Big Foot Pass Overlook and Conatas Basin Overlook this morning.

Big Foot Pass Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Conata Basin Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When I reached the Pinnacles entrance, I decided that the morning’s photography was over, and I planned to head back to Wall until some time in the afternoon, but I spotted several bison, just inside the entrance gate, and pulled off to the side of the road to make a few unexpected images.

Bison shed their coats at this time of the year, so they were a bit scruffy looking, but I wasn’t bothered by this fact. The bison in the second of these two images was using the fence as a backscratcher.

Bison, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When I headed back out to the park, midway through the afternoon, it was just about completely cloudy. I entered the park at the Pinnacles entrance and made my way east on the Badlands Loop Road. And I did make a few stops for image making as the afternoon drifted into evening.

White River Valley Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I was still at White River Valley Overlook, less than an hour before sunset, and it wasn’t looking great as far as an actual forthcoming sunset was concerned. In fact, on several occasions while I was out and about that afternoon, there had been some episodes of light sprinkles of rain.

White River Valley Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Still, I had already decided that if there was going to be a sunset, I was going to photograph it from Homestead Overlook, so when I was done at White River Valley, I made the relatively short drive to Homestead and set up. I had the place entirely to myself.

While I was waiting to see if anything would happen, sunset-wise, I spent some time picking out tight shots with the telephoto lens. The sun had dropped below a huge cloud bank as it approached the western horizon, so I thought maybe, just maybe, something would happen. But while I waited, I looked at a few intimate scenes.

Homestead Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Homestead Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

And then, it started to happen. I noticed that the still sinking sun began to produce a significant effect on the clouds that were dominating the sky in all directions except near the horizon to the west. I very quickly switched to my camera with the wider angle lens attached and started looking around, from the eastern horizon to the southern horizon. The sun itself still hadn’t set, but this is what was happening to my left and right in front of me (Homestead Overlook basically looks due south):

Sunset, Homestead Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The clouds were being spotlit. And the effect was growing stronger.

I very intentionally altered my perspective to include some of the badlands formations in the composition.

None of what appears above was happening facing west, but when the sun finally dipped below the horizon, I began to photograph facing towards the west. You can see the crevice in the clouds that led to the sky pyrotechnics of this evening.

Things faded pretty quickly from this point, and I packed up my things and began the drive back to Wall, but I was absolutely gobsmacked but what I had seen. And, I should note, I did spend some time while I was at the overlook, while this was all unfolding, just looking at it with the naked eye. It was truly one of the most remarkable sunrises/sunsets I’ve ever seen over the years. I don’t think the images do it justice, to be honest.

I hadn’t been very lucky with sunrises and sunsets in the badlands up to this point, but this evening had made up for it, and then some. I wasn’t expecting to see anything remotely like it during the little time I had left in South Dakota, but the sunrise the following morning, Day 7, wouldn’t disappoint either.

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips | Tags: badlands loop road, badlands national park, big badlands overlook, big foot pass overlook, bison, burns basin overlook, conata basin overlook, homestead overlook, landscape photography, nature photography, photography, south dakota, sunset, white river valley overlook

Posted by: kerryl29 | August 3, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 5

Overnight, from Day 4 into Day 5, it rained in western South Dakota. It had stopped raining by the time I was out the door (before 4:15 AM), but everything was still quite wet. The rain hadn’t ceased for very long.

I made my way east on I-90, headed for the exit that would lead to the northeast entrance to the park, very near Big Badlands Overlook, which was my sunrise destination. I wasn’t optimistic that there would be much of a sunrise, given the plethora of clouds in the eastern sky as I made the drive.

It was still pretty dark when I arrived at Big Badlands Overlook, and the sky conditions hadn’t changed much. Things were mostly clear to the west, but to the east, clouds were stacked. It didn’t appear that there would be any true sunrise. What’s more, because of the overnight rain, the ground had turned into mud, and there was really no way to avoid it if I wanted to photograph at all in the early light. I knew that things would dry up pretty clearly once the sun emerged from the clouds later that morning, but for now, it was deal with the mud or forget photographing. I decided to deal with the mud.

There was a bit of a cloud break, with color emerging, to the southeast, so my first image was made in that direction.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

But before long, seeing that the modest color to the south faded quickly, I moved to photograph to the southwest. I figured that, once the sun emerged from the disappearing clouds to the east–after the formal sunrise, which would be hidden–the light would be nice facing at an angle to the sun. That turned out to be correct, I think. There was one band of arching clouds in that direction that made for a pleasing backdrop to the badlands features.

Dawn, Big Badlands Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When I was finished at Big Badlands Overlook, I followed the Badlands Loop Road into the park, and stopped again when I reached the large parking lot for the trailheads that included the Windows Trail. I had scouted this trail a few days earlier–and done some photography as well–and had a strong feeling that this would be a good morning to photograph it. That turned out to be a good call. The light was still excellent this early in the morning, and the features along the trail really shined as a result. It was quite muddy here as well, but I was able to mostly stay on the boardwalk and avoid the mud.

Windows Trail, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I also stopped at the west end of the Castle Trail and made a few images, including the one you see below.

Castle Trail, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

That pretty much did it for me, photographically, that morning. I slowly made my way back to the Pinnacles Entrance of the park, and got out a few times to check on things, but didn’t take out the camera again. I made my way back to Wall by mid-morning and hung out at the motel for quite awhile, before heading back into the park mid-afternoon. I entered via Pinnacles and made my way to the east, with the intention of returning to Pinnacles Overlook for sunset.

While I was out and about that afternoon, I stopped at a number of places. The ground had dried completely in most spots, so I went where my eyes took me. Black and white was frequently on my mind, particularly early on that PM.

At one point late in the afternoon, I stopped at spot along the Badlands Loop Road that abuts a large prairie dog colony. Before I even had the chance to make a prairie dog image, an antelope trotted along in the nearby field and I nabbed a quick grab shot of it.

Antelope, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Then I turned my attention to the prairie dogs for a little while. I’d photographed prairie dogs once before, near Amarillo, Texas a few years earlier, and this experience wasn’t as rich as that one, but it was still kind of fun, as prairie dogs can make great subjects.

I moved along and made a few more images, at several locations, before it was time to make the drive to Pinnacles Overlook for sunset I stopped at Prairie Wind Overlook because the clouds in the eastern sky seemed quite interesting to me, making an otherwise featureless location worth indulging.

Prairie Wind Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Then I moved along, and stopped at several spots along the road that seemed promising to me.

It took me almost a half an hour to drive to the Pinnacles Overlook, and when I got there, it was very crowded; I was lucky to find a parking spot, and almost immediately regretted my decision to head there for sunset. (The truth of the matter is, I found very few genuinely good sunset compositions from any of the signed overlooks in the park.) In fact, the western sky wasn’t particularly promising for a great sunset, so I wasn’t highly motivated anyway.

I made my way down to a spot that I thought would work, set up, and waited. Unfortunately, given the crowds, there were people in my image, further along the canyon rim, near the best angle for the sunset itself. It was something of a consolation to me, I must admit, that the sunset itself was pretty blah, so I didn’t feel as though I missed much. I ended up focusing my attention more to the south, to the left of where the sun went down, from my perspective.

Sunset, Pinnacles Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

There was no post-sunset afterglow, so I made my way back to the parking area and, in less than 10 minutes, I was back at the motel in Wall.

I was hoping that Day 6 would end the string of non-existent to mostly blah sunrises and sunsets and (a bit of foreshadowing) I would find that to be the case, in epic style, at sunset. That will be documented, along with the rest of the day’s photography, in the next installment.

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips | Tags: antelope, badlands loop road, badlands national park, big badlands overlook, black and white photography, landscape photography, nature photography, photography, pinnacles overlook, prairie dogs, prairie wind overlook, south dakota, window trail

Posted by: kerryl29 | July 27, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 4

My fourth day at Badlands National Park was the least productive photographically, arguably even less productive than Day 1, which was merely a late afternoon and early evening session (it was the day I drove to South Dakota). Day 4 was mostly or entirely cloudy, all day long; that had, in fact, been the forecast. As a result, I didn’t set my alarm for 3:45 AM, as the forecast previous evening was calling for 100% cloud cover at daybreak. I ended up waking up on my own between 4:30 and 4:45, and was driving into the park when sunset was supposed to happen. It didn’t. It was, in fact, completely cloudy at the appointed time, so I didn’t miss anything.

I did not drive to Big Badlands Overlook this morning, as I had done on Day 3 (and would do on Days 5-7). Instead, I made the much shorter drive from Wall to the park’s Pinnacles Entrance. What I did see was thick fog in the town of Wall and for roughly half the approximate seven mile drive to the entrance. That fog disappeared as I got within three or four miles of the entrance, and it was never visible to me within the park boundaries. It was, however, occasionally visible in the distance, from overlooks, at times that morning. You can see it, in fact, in the first image I made that day, from an unmarked overlook on the Badlands Loop Road, very near where I photographed sunrise on Day 2.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

Morning, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The image above is as much sun as I saw the entire day, and it wasn’t much and it didn’t last very long. Still, I tried to make the best of it, and during my two lengthy forays through the park on Day 4, I picked out some compositions that I thought worked in soft light.

I made another stop in the Yellow Mounds area, which was just down the road from where the above image was made and explored a few new spots.

Yellow Mounds Area, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

After Yellow Mounds, I simply drove the length of the Badlands Loop Road, twice, once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. It was warm, breezy and there were a few instances where it rained briefly (and lightly).

Big Foot Pass Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I hung around for a possible sunset, despite the fact that it appeared that there was no chance of one being visible. There was a single moment, late in the afternoon, where the sun broke through the clouds for a few minutes. I made one image, from a spot along the road, before the sun disappeared for good that day.

Day 5 would be much more productive than Day 4. Stay tuned…

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips | Tags: badlands loop road, badlands national park, big foot pass overlook, burns basin overlook, landscape photography, nature photography, panorama point overlook, photography, south dakota, white river valley overlook, yellow mounds

Posted by: kerryl29 | July 20, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 3

After visiting/scouting Big Badlands Overlook, just inside the northeast entrance to Badlands National Park on Day 2, I made the decision to return for sunrise on Day 3. The fastest way to reach Big Badlands Overlook from Wall, where I was staying, was to take I-94 east, approximately 20 miles, and get off at an exit for the east end of the Badlands Loop Road. From there, it’s only a few miles to the northeast entrance. It takes about 30 minutes to make the drive, and I was on site at approximately 4:30 AM, nearly 40 minutes before sunrise.

Unfortunately, the skies didn’t cooperate very much. It was almost completely cloudy, and as I was driving east, I saw almost no brightening in the sky, so I didn’t have great expectations for the sunrise show. There was a bit of a scattered clouds effect on the eastern horizon, so it wasn’t a total bust.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

What the experience proved was that, with good skies, Big Badlands Overlook was an excellent venue for early morning photography, and, in fact, I came back for each and every morning during the rest of the trip (save one day when the forecast was so poor that I didn’t get up for sunrise–which proved to be the right call, as there wasn’t one that morning).

One of the nice things about Big Badlands is that the compositional possibilities lie over a span well beyond 180 degrees. Despite the cloudy conditions, I picked out a number of locations with a long lens in soft light before moving on this morning. Part of the time I was sill facing toward the east, but I photographed a number of spots looking to the south and southwest as well.

The skies would remain nearly entirely cloudy for the rest of the morning. I had spent time the previous day scouting the Window and Door Trails, as well as the Cliff Shelf Trail, all relatively short venues, on the eastern side of the park, between the Visitors Center and northeast entrance. On this morning, I scouted the Notch Trail–which is a bit longer and modestly more strenuous than the other three–as well as the eastern end of the Castle Trail. I didn’t take my camera on these scouts, given the light–and the threat of rain–and didn’t end up regretting that decision (except when I spotted a female bighorn sheep and baby while on the Notch Trail).

When I finished this scouting–which basically completed my scouting of the entire park–I made my way west on the Badlands Loop Road. I did stop a few times, including at Homestead Overlook, where again I used my telephoto setup exclusively.

I also made an image at Conata Basin Overlook and a couple more at Yellow Mounds Overlook.

Conata Basin Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Yellow Mounds Overlook, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

By late morning, I was practically back to the Pinnacles Entrance to the park and made my way the short distance back to Wall, where I hung out at my lodgings for a spell. The skies cleared up dramatically as the day advanced from morning to afternoon, and by mid-afternoon, I headed back to the park, with “black & white” imagery very much on my mind. I decided that this was a good time to revisit the overlooks on the Sage Creek Rim Road, in the western half of the park. I ended up photographing at Badlands Wilderness Overlook and Hay Butte Overlook.

When I finished at these overlooks, I was driving back toward the junction with Badlands Loop Road on Sage Creek Rim Road. Sage Creek Rim Road is unpaved, but has a very well-graded gravel surface. I was plodding along at about 25 MPH (it’s possible to drive much faster on this road with little concern) when I happened to glance in my rear view mirror and noticed, amidst the dust that I was kicking up, some kind of object spinning along in the road behind me. I kind of thought it looked like a wheel covering. As I was the only vehicle in sight, I thought that the covering–which was moving, after all–must have come off of my car! I made a U-turn and headed back, found the wheel cover, then checked the wheels on my car. Sure enough, the cover from the right front wheel was missing. It must have been all set to come off with little provocation, because it’s not as though I’d hit a significant bump or anything right before I’d made my mirror check a few moments earlier. I pulled off to the side of the road and firmly put the cover back on the wheel. (I should note that it’s still firmly affixed there, approximately seven weeks later.)

It was now late afternoon and I slowly made my way east on the Badlands Loop Road. My plan was to photograph sunset at the same spot I’d discovered along the road, in the eastern part of the park, the day before. On my way in that direction, in the open grassland area not far from the Prairie Winds Overlook, I spotted some antelopes. I pulled off at an unsigned pullout and grabbed my telephoto rig. The antelopes were a ways off, but I managed to nab a couple of images.

Antelopes, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Later, I stopped once more, just before the loop road descends to the lower plains, not far from the Visitors Center area. A scene, with exquisite late day light beckoned.

Unfortunately, while the skies were still partly cloudy to the east, they were becoming nearly fully cloudy to the west. My hopes for sunset dwindled, but I dutifully went to my predetermined sunset spot to see if I might catch a break. For the most part, I didn’t.

Sunset, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Dusk, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Sunrise and sunset had both been a bit of a bust on this day, but that’s how it goes sometimes. The disappointment would be more than made up for as the days in the park moved along. Stay tuned.

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Posted in Images from Photo Trips | Tags: badlands loop road, badlands national park, badlands wilderness overlook, big badlands overlook, conata basin overlook, hay butte overlook, homestead overlook, landscape photography, nature photography, photography, sage creek rim road, south dakota, yellow mounds overlook

Posted by: kerryl29 | July 13, 2026

Badlands National Park, Day 2

Day 2 at Badlands National Park began for me when my alarm went off at 3:45 AM. This would be a regular occurrence during this trip, as sunrise was just after 5 AM, and given the time necessary for me to shake off the overnight cobwebs and the time necessary to make my way to my intended sunrise destination (more on that momentarily), waking at 3:45 was a requirement.

As I mentioned in my recap of Day 1, my plan was to return to Pinnacles Overlook,where I had photographed sunset, for Day 2’s sunrise. Having surveyed the scene on Day 1, I was confident that Pinnacles would provide a fine perspective for the eastern sky. When I pulled into the deserted Pinnacles parking lot, I didn’t even have to get out of my car to see that my assumption was bad. The sun was going to rise well to the left (i.e. north) of any decent view from anywhere on the broad Pinnacles Overlook.

Oops. I needed to find a substitute, and quickly, or I’d miss sunrise entirely. I drove back onto the Badlands Loop Road and headed east–meaning, further into the park. I’d made up my mind to stop at the first location that looked remotely viable, as I didn’t have much time before the pre-sunrise color peaked.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to go very far. I could see very nice color in the sky to my left as I descended on the Loop Road, less than a mile from Pinnacles. I pulled into the parking lot of the Ancient Hunters Overlook, a spot I had scouted–and rejected as of no photographic interest the day before–quickly grabbed my bag and my tripod and walked speedily a short distance back up the road to an unofficial pullout that I had passed with interest moments earlier. I quickly sized up the location, deemed it as decent for compositional purposes, and quickly set up. The color in the sky was already good and getting better.

I made a number of images before the sky color began to fade, including what you see below.

(Click any of the images below to view a larger rendition.)

Dawn, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Sunrise, Badlands Loop Road, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When the sun began to peak above the horizon, I moved back down the road to my vehicle and moved on. After a short ride, I found myself back in the Yellow Mounds area that I had examined the previous day. The light was much better early this morning, so I stopped again. I made images at various spots on both sides of the road at Yellow Mounds, moving well off the road’s shoulder, for more than an hour.

By the time I was finished at Yellow Mounds, the light was already starting to deteriorate significantly, even though it wasn’t quite 7 AM yet. It was time to continue scouting the parts of the park that I hadn’t managed to see the previous day. I decided to continue east, towards the park’s northeast entrance. I figured I could scout the Sage Creek Road area–which was the western part of the park–during the afternoon. And that’s what I did. By the time I reached the part of the park containing the western trailhead or the Castle Trail–the only trail of any length in the park–the skies had turned mostly cloudy. So, I decided to hike part of the trail–with my gear, in case I came across something I thought was worth photographing.

I did, in fact, find a compelling scene, somewhat to my surprise given the sky conditions, on the mile or so of the western end of the Castle Trail I hiked before turning back. (I quit the hike because I’d moved out to a fairly desolate area of landscape and didn’t see anything of much photographic interest ahead of me on the trail.)

Castle Trail Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I kept moving east, continuing my scout, but made no more images until I reached my final eastern section scouting location, Big Badlands Overlook, just inside the northeast entrance. The sun was peeking in and out at this point and I didn’t expect to make any images at Big Badlands either, but after wandering around the extensive overlook, I changed my mind and went back for my telephoto rig and tripod.

This scouting session proved very useful, as I decided that Big Badlands was where I would photograph sunrise the next day (and every day thereafter, as it turned out–a bit of foreshadowing). I had also found an unmarked pullout on the eastern part of the park that I thought would make a good sunset spot, and planned to put it to the test that evening.

After I left the park via the northeast entrance, as I was making my way the few miles back to I-94, intending to return to Wall via that route, I passed an entrance to Buffalo Gap National Grassland and, under cloudy conditions, pulled in. It was just a short, unpaved turnaround and parking area, providing access to a (poorly marked) trail, but a scene, accessible from the turnaround, caught my eye and I made a couple of images, including the one that appears below.

Buffalo Gap National Grassland Black & White, South Dakota

It was late morning when I returned to Wall, and after catching my breath for a couple of hours, and eating something, I headed back into the park at around 1;30 PM, with the intention of scouting the Sage Creek Road area. It was almost entirely cloudy at this point of the day, and I did in fact scout the length of Sage Creek Road, checking out all of the signed areas and driving to within sight of the western entrance to the park, whereupon I turned around and headed back. It was late afternoon when I reached the junction with the Badlands Loop Road, just shy of Pinnacles Overlook, and I slowly made my way east. The skies partially cleared as late afternoon turned into early evening, and I did make a few images before driving to the pullout I hoped would work for sunset that I had scouted that morning.

White River Overlook Black & White, Badlands National Park, South Dakota

When I reached my hoped-for sunset location, it was about 30 minutes before the event, and I could see that, if the skies cooperated, the spot would work. So, I waited, and, in the end, though it wasn’t an all-time light show, I felt it was worth it.