photography

Musical Instruments At Least

1 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

If the title doesn’t have you wondering what this blog post is about, there’s no helping you.

Since I’ve had my new camera it’s been bitterly cold for the most part, which hasn’t led to me wanting to go outside to take photos of much of anything. I did sneak a few this weekend of some jewelry, which I’ll post later, but in the meantime, I decided that maybe this was a good time to work on my indoor photography skills, using only the light available to me, and to see if I could capture otherwise ordinary things in a unique way to make them ~~less ordinary~~ interesting. My camera has some pretty cool color settings and I got to play with them as well.

I hope you weren’t bored to tears with the above photographs!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: art, photography

Postcards From South Dakota and a Contest

7 Feb posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I decided it was time to run another contest.

Late last week I designed some Post Cards. I don’t really need but one for a project I signed up to do, but I ordered 50. I’m going to give some to my mother, but I figured I might as well share the wealth with y’all.

Here’s the front:

And the back:

I’m going to give away 30 of these.

One winner will receive 20 and the other will get 10.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Leave a comment here, on my Facebook Page, or send me a tweet with #sdcpostcards in it, and tell me one of two things:

What you’d like to see/hear/read about for my upcoming book, or why you love my blog, or both, because

2. the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win.

3. Refer a friend to my Facebook Page and make sure the friend lets me know who sent them. The friend will get an entry, as will you.

4. And because I’m feeling generous if you Re-Tweet posts with hash-tags, I suppose I’ll count those too!

The contest will close on Tuesday at noon and the winner will randomly be drawn from a hat. In fact, we might even do a v-log showing the drawing. I will do my very best to announce the winners on Wednesday before I head to Texas for a few days of warmth.

Sadly, we’ll all have to wait on the postcards, as they won’t be here until next week, but I couldn’t wait to to run the contest. The suspense would have killed me.

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: contests, photography

Friday Morning’s Sunrise

4 Feb posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

There’s not much I can say about it that you won’t see in the photographs. I’m just thankful that I was awake to capture it.

Enjoy!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: photography

Sunrise and Sunset

25 Jan posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Yesterday evening, as I was out doing chores I caught the saddle horses goofing off. The sun was just shining out of some clouds and it dusk was upon us. I didn’t have the big camera with me, so the cell phone photos will have to suffice. They turned out pretty good for being taken with a point and shoot camera.

And then this morning, I awoke to this:

To me a sunset is more than just a beautiful sky. It’s the end of a day. It’s a chance to reflect on what you did that day. Were you were the best person you could have been? Did you accomplish what you wanted to do? Can you rest knowing you did all you could do to be your best that day?

The sun rising, well it’s more of the same. It may be beautiful, with its pinks and purples, but if you really think about what it symbolizes- the awakening of the earth and the animals from their slumber, it’s a chance to start over. No two sunrises and sunsets are ever the same, just like our days shouldn’t be either. We should always strive to be better and more beautiful.

I will now leave you with some of my favorite lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof.

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: horses, life, photography

Winter Photos

24 Jan posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

A couple weeks ago Old Man Winter decided to smile on us, and rewarded us with some much ~~loved~~ needed warmer temperatures and sunny skies. I couldn’t help but take advantage of them, so after chores were done that afternoon I drove down our gravel road a few miles to see what I could see. Admittedly I was on the hunt for some deer, but you know, I didn’t find any. I think I was out too early for them. Had I waited until 4:30 or 5, right as the sun is about to go down, I might have had more success. But that is neither here nor there. What is important is that I got some super cool shots! Cool might even be an understatement- as it has been cold here!

We have a lot of snow- and there’s even more now than when these photos were taken. You’ll see. Ima show you later this week!

Mother Nature and Old Man Winter have conspired to have us fixing lots of fence this spring!

If you look closely you can see two porcupines in this tree. This is where they live most of the time. If I’d have had the time and energy, I’d have hiked the 1/4 mile through 2-3 foot snow drifts to get better photos but I didn’t have the time or the energy!

This tree isn’t on our place- it’s in the creek bottom on the adjacent spread but it’s so cute all by its lonesome in the snow, don’t you think?

This scrubby little bush is on our place and I like it!

And here’s some horses, kickin’ it in the snow. This is some of our 2 and 3 year old fillies with a couple random geldings thrown in for laughs:

Be sure you come back later this week, because I promise something special is coming!

Happy Trails!

Your South Dakota Cowgirl,
Jenn

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Filed Under: horses, photography, winter weather

Coming Home

21 Jan posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

In the Fall of 2009 it seemed that doing fall shots was a day-long ordeal. I don’t remember exactly what it was that had it taking so long- and it could be that it didn’t take any longer than usual. I know that I stayed behind when the went to put the cattle back to pasture and I decided that I’d take the stock trailer to the pasture to pick up Zach so he didn’t have to ride all the way home. I captured some good shots along the way, but I have to say the photograph below is one of my ALL TIME favorites. He was riding to the trailer and the lighting was just that perfect, golden glow, what every photographer- ok, at least this photographer dreams about.

I love the light, the subject matter, and the warmth of it all. And frankly, after a week of sub-zero temperatures I could use a bit of warmth right now.

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: photography

Winter Wonderland

18 Jan posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

This week’s contest theme at “I Heart Faces” is Winter Wonderland, and I felt like this picture captured the real action and the life of a rancher in the winter. Chopping ice is something that has to be done whether you winter your calves on the river or with a tank. Isn’t this kid cute? He’s seriously got concentration written all over his face as he chops a hole in the ice.

Too cute!

For more photos, be sure to visit I Heart Faces!

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Filed Under: photography

i heart faces

11 Jan posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Here’s my smile post for this week’s photo challenge. Jordyn was an awesome model this year as I was lucky enough to be the photographer chosen to do her senior pictures. She’s such a beautiful girl.

For more smiles- be sure to visit iheartfaces!

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Filed Under: photography

It’s a Motley Crew

28 Dec posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Blue skies, sunshine and warm temps (for you Texas folks, that means it was about 35 here- and maybe 42 in the sun), called me out into the great outdoors for some photography on Sunday. I could not have asked for a better day. In fact, I have been kind of half-way waiting to take pictures of the snow covered ground (Devon!) until the lighting was good and it wasn’t a mass of gray outside- which it has been for what seems like forever.

With nary a breeze it made for a nice walk down the hill to Granny’s house, where I knew a piece of apple pie awaited me. It’s still the Holidays for us through the 9th this year, so don’t judge me for eating pie at breakfast!

Here’s some of the shots I took on the way down.

Sparkly

Looking across the dam at the saddle horses who seem to be just kickin’ it.

The dam- you can see the dried up reeds.

And as I got closer to Granny’s house, I was greeted by our misfit crew of barking dogs, that weren’t sure exactly what someone was doing walking around outside.

From left to right: Higgins, Crystal and MJ.

Jake, Higgins, Crystal and MJ.

MJ is so cute!

Here’s what I found as I walked around down by the corrals and the hay stacks:

Windbreak fence:

More snowy sparkles:

A chisel:

Jake being a handsome dog:

Hay bales:

Windbreak fence casting a shadow:

WDX Nukem, one of the studs:

Nuke loves attention, so as soon as he sees someone he usually makes a point to come see you so you can rub on him!

I hope you enjoyed the tour around the corrals, through the snow! I certainly enjoyed the weather! And there’s more photos of my ride to come! So stay tuned!

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Filed Under: holidays, life, pets, photography, ranching, winter weather

Winter

23 Dec posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Winter is certainly here.

And he’s making no bones about it.

There’s several inches of snow on the ground, more to come, and the wind. Oh the wind. It is to be expected when you live on the prairie, but it sure serves to make things colder than usual.

But y’all will be glad to know that I braved the cold the other day to take some photos of the snow and part of a dilapidated fence. I hope to get some photos of some deer in the coming days- so long as I can find some. I saw some yesterday while I was driving through the pasture to chop ice for the cows, but driving and photo taking aren’t exactly compatible activities.