Rocky mountain big horn sheep were introduced into Badlands National Park in 1964. Here are several images captured during my recent visit there.  You’ll notice several have radio collars. The flock seems to be doing quite well as they were easily and frequently spotted in the craggy terrain along the Sage Creek Rim Road in the western portion of the park. They were fairly tolerant of humans so it was easy to get close when they were not perched on the edge of cliff a 1,000 feet above or below where we humans hang out.

My timing was not very good so the light was pretty harsh when I took most of these. I’d like to have another chance with better light. Also, later in the year I presume they would be a little more photogenic after they completely lose their shaggy winter coats – they look a bit tattered now.

These images were captured with the Pentax K7 and either the Pentax DA*300mm f/4 or the Pentax A*600mm f/5.6 mounted on a Feisol Tournament Class tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head.

Badlands National Park at sunrise (click to enlarge):

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Pentax K7 w/ Pentax DA 15mm F4 ED AL Limited

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Pentax K7 w/ Pentax DA*50-135 @ 135mm

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Pentax K7 w/ Pentax A*600mm

Who would think such a beautiful water fall exists in Nebraska?  This is Smith Falls at Smith Falls State Park near Valentine, NE.  The falls is located on a spring-fed creek thats feeds into the Niobrara River.  It’s a beautiful park.  This was a 1 second exposure at f/11 iso100 shot with the K7 and Pentax smc DA12-25mm @ 12mm with the Fader ND set to at about ND 4.

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Smith Falls - Smith Falls State Park, NE

In preparation for a summer trip to Yosemite and a fall trip to Maine, I’ve been studying images of waterfalls. There is no shortage of fantastic waterfall images all over the web. IMO, the best ones combine high dynamic range with perfect exposure, depth of field with the image tack-sharp front to back, as well as falling water that has just enough “motion” in it to make it smooth and creamy yet it retains some detail.

In addition to a polarizing filter, the best waterfall photogs seem to universally use an assortment of neutral density (ND) filters to reduce light in order to shoot at a slow shutter speed to blur the water. Lightcraft Workshop makes an adjustable ND filter (Fader ND) that lets you get by with carrying just one ND filter. It’s adjustable from 2 to 8 stops and looks and works a lot like a polarizing filter. As you turn the outer ring, the amount of light coming through varies. I ordered one a few weeks ago and it finally arrived this past week. I bought it from a Hong Kong eBay seller – apparently the only source. Singh-Ray also makes one, but it is about twice the price of the Fader ND.

There aren’t a lot of waterfalls in my neck of the woods so practice with the Fader ND filter prior to my trips will be difficult. However, there is a very small one at a state park about 30 minutes from my home. I went there this morning for a test run. One thing is certain, more practice is necessary. These shots were taken with Pentax K7 and Pentax smc DA12-24mm lens at f/16.0 with a shutter speed of 6 or 8 seconds. Although I am not certain on the amount of light reduction I set on the Fader, I believe it varied from 4 stops to 6 stops depending on the image.

I welcome C&C and any advice on technique:

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K10D & DA15mm 1/180s @ f/8 iso400 w/ flash

My friend Mike was gracious enough to get up before sunrise for a photo shoot from his boat on the Missouri River his morning. Although we didn’t see much wildlife, it was a beautiful morning to be on the river. The air temperature was cold so the day started off with some fog over the water but it dissipated shortly after sunrise.

I worked the image below pretty hard in post-processing. It was captured with a Pentax K7 dslr with Pentax smc FA43mm at 1/250s at f/8 iso200.  To deal with the dynamic range of this shot, I started by processing two versions of the RAW image; one with the exposure adjusted extremely dark to maintain some detail in the sky and star burst at the sun. The second one was adjusted with a better exposure for the trees, fog, and water. I layered the darker image on top of the lighter one and used a layer mask to selectively reveal some of the lighter areas from the first image.

After the two images were combined I used curves to increase contrast, applied shadow/highlight adjustment to the trees, and finally, pushed saturation with NIK Viveza 2 (plug-in for Photoshop). I saved it for the web by resizing to 72 dpi, sharpened the trees and river bank with NIK sharpener, and changed the color space from aRGB to sRGB. Comments welcome.

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K7 w/ FA43mm - 1/250s at f/8 iso200