5/20/12 Solar Eclipse from Rapid City, SD

A partial solar eclipse occurred on Sunday and I went out and got photos of it with Dinosaur Hill in the foreground. I held a #11 welders lens in front of the camera's lens to get these pictures. I didn't look at the sun directly! Never look at it directly! Enjoy!

The sun the day before. Notice the three sunpots on it!

Light refractions with the welders lens being held in front of the camera lens.

Sun pillar! During the eclipse!

A prehistoric solar eclipse!

A reverse reflection by angling the glass!

Sunspot sneaking through the ending eclipse and the cloud cover.

And then the sun went behind the clouds...

And it set for the day...

What a cool experience! I haven't ever gotten photos of the sun before, let alone close ups and with an eclipse! I have to thank Pam's husband Don for giving me the welders glass to look at the sun. It made it enjoyable for all of us and proved to provide some cool effects when you turned it certain directions!

Visit again to see hopefully a good storm chase recap of tomorrows chase in SD/ND!

Chip

4/21/12 South Dakota Badlands/Lyrids

We took a trip out to the South Dakota Badlands to try to shoot the Lyrids. We were treated to some wildlife and a pretty sunset as well. Got to do a little light painting as well with a head lamp and the truck's headlights. Saw a good amount of Lyrids but they all seemed to sneak just out of sight of the camera.

The shadows gave a pretty cool effect on the landscape.

Had a close encounter with some big horn sheep!

 

The lone buffalo standing on a ridge at sunset! One of my favorite photos of all time!

Baby buffalo!

These two started fighting/playing for us. It was quite entertaining.

I walked up to the little ridge with a headlamp in my hand.

At the park entrance where we spent some time observing the Lyrids. A party bus drove by and lit up the frame.

We left around 2am and got back to Rapid around 330am. It was a long night but a blast! I had a ton of fun! Hoping to go out again soon, probably the next full moon as the landscape is just so stunning at night.

Chip