I still take pictures!

 I know the photo posts have been far and few between lately. Here's an update on what I've been snapping pictures of the last several weeks.

Emmie Lou and Miss Weenie are always available to help feed, sit on my camera bag, roll in dead things, and have their photo taken.

It has snowed a couple times. Here are our yearling heifers and coming three's heading in to feed one morning.

 

 

And, here is my sister's heifer on the same day after I fed her.

 I've done some cattle photography work for other people (yay!) including taking pictures of these heifers for a sale.

 My fiancee's marker cow.

 Feeding cows, SD style.

 Lots of wildlife out and about on this mild winter.

 

Scenes of Fall

 It is finally cooling off around here. The trees are chaning, wildlife moving, and cattle work is picking up. Here are a few images from the last week, taken everywhere from central South Dakota to eastern Wyoming.

Oh Deer

Hope you're all having a fantastic week so far!

P.S., I'm linking this up with Farm Photo Friday : )

Driving over the Big Horns

I get to make the drive over the Big Horn Mountains more often than ever before in my life these days. It's one of two ways to get from my house to Adam's, and it also happens to be one of my favorite drives, so I take it whenever possible.
Here are a few pictures from my latest trip, which happened to be the day after their first big snow of the year.

Opening Weekend

Mule Deer hunting season started with bang, litereally, yesterday in Eastern Wyoming. Here's a glimpse into what our hunters see on a given year...



Rough terrain without many trees, except in the creek bottoms, is the norm around here. To hunt this country you need to walk it, and we always recommend hunters come with some good shoes. Weather is also very unpredictable. It's over 80 degrees here today, but it could just as easily be snowing this time of year.
We manage the number of hunters we take based on the year, and how our deer population is doing on that year. We aren't one of those outfits that takes 20-30 hunters every year. Rather, we take a smaller number of people, and that number changes based on the wildlife populations. Our goal is provide a high-end hunt, while also maintaining our wildlife populations for years on end.
The big deal with hunting is always the game. Here's what the deer around here are like.

Our weekend will be spend getting hunters set up to hopefully shoot a big deer like some of these are. Hope you're enjoying fall, and whatever fall activites you enjoy most!

Horns

Wordless Wednesday: Horns

Misc. Photos

If you come here for the photos, I apologize for the lack of them in recent weeks. Hopefully my Internet issues are permanently fixed. Here are a few random shots I've taken in the last few weeks for you to enjoy!

Work camera

I recently decided that rather than constantly pack around thousands of dollars of my personal photo equipment for work, I should just use my work camera. That's what it's for, and I need my personal equipment to be in working order when I use it for weddings, seniors, etc.. I also recently scratched a lens I use a lot while at the NWSS for work, and I can't afford to replace it until I book another photography job, so I sat myself down (figuratively) and told myself that I have a work camera for a reason, and to use it.
I was hesitant. My work camera is a Canon Rebel (of which I have owned one, and really liked it), but this one was purchased at Walmart, and has been sent back to Canon once to be re-furbished since I've been with the Roundup.
Prior to this weekend's trial run, I have used it exactly once, and was so unimpressed I stuck it in my old camera bag and left it there. I did use one of my personal, "ranch work" Sigma lenses this weekend, and just used it as I would my 40D (which will now be upgraded after the above mentioned lens, hopefully).

I had lots of blurry photos, which I'm not including in this run. I'm not sure if that was user error, or the camera. Another issue was that a lot of the backgrounds were completely blown out.


Like this one. But, it is in focus.



I'm going to dig up the manual, and see about re-adjusting the white balance, and whatever else it recommends for some of the things I noticed.



Out of just over 200 pictures, these were the only ones I even thought about Photoshoping. Again, maybe it was just adjusting to the camera, and I will be doing more shooting with it for work in the future to see.



This is one that I was really excited about, and really disappointed in. I'm not one of those photographers who likes to spend 20 minutes editing a picture in Photoshop to make it look "right." I'm more of a quick levels, curves, color balance, and unsharp mask as needed, then on to the next one. So when the cattle are properly exposed and the hay is really blown out, I almost always pass on it, unless I have an afternoon without much to do.
I did Photoshop all of these pictures, just as I would those taken with my personal camera. But nothing was done to any of them beyond what's mentioned in the above paragraph.



We will see how the next trial goes. I should have some comparisons between the work and personal equipment to show you in the future. Hopefully with a little tweaking and time I will be more impressed with the overall quality. Either way, this puppy is in the game for work related photography from now on.

Weekend Wildlife

While home this weekend I felt the need to go on a photo circle. I jumped on a 4-wheeler and made a big loop around our place, snapping photos of baby calves, sheep, flowers and the like.

Then, when I'm almost ready to hit the road for home I see what looks like a miniature grizzly bear loping across the pasture. I realize it's a badger, and start snapping pictures since I assume he will go down his hole and I won't get anything better than this...

But I drive closer and he just sits there, watching me. I am across a rough draw from him at this point and decided to go around and see if he is still there.


And he was!! Just sitting there with his head poking out. I approached slowly on my 4-wheeler. Badgers are notoriously grumpy and tough and I didn't want to make him mad, or cause him to go down his hole at this point.


But as I sat there he started sniffing around and slowly emerging from his house.


He wasn't making that weird noise they do when they get mad or stomping his feet, just seemed curious.


But I still got a little nervous as he became more daring, and as I realized that I was tangled up in my camera gear, ipod headphones with my gloves and random other stuff sitting on my lap and only a rubber boot and target sock to protect my left foot if he did get mad. I silently wondered just how fast off the line a mad badger is...I still need to look that up for future reference.


So I moved, just a little, and he immediately scurried down his hole. I sat there for a few minutes silently calling myself a wimp for being concerned about my foot at a time like this! But before he disappeared I was able to snap these and several other great photos.

For more information on the American badger, click here