"Take Only Photos" hats now available

By popular request, we now offer our stylish Dakotagraph hats with the "Take Only Photographs, Leave Only Footprints" slogan.

Get yours now at the Dakotagraph CafePress Store.

Thanks for the idea Keith!

Last week for early-bird prices on Black Hills Photo Shootout

If you want to get the early-bird $125 price for the Black Hills Photo Shootout, this week is your last chance. Registration cost goes up to $150 on August 1.

Check out all the details at www.blackhillsphotoshootout.com.

It's going to be a ton of fun and there are some great instructional workshops being offered, so you won't want to miss it.

Ingalls Homestead photo walk August 7

My fifth photo walk of 2010 will be held at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, South Dakota on Saturday, August 7 from 9-11 am. If you enjoy shooting with other like-minded photographers, this should be a fun one.

Rustic buildings, prairie grass, covered wagons, windmills, and the actual cottonwood trees that "Pa" Ingalls planted will all be available for photographing. This is one of the actual childhood homes of pioneer author Laura Ingalls Wilder.


I can't promise that there will be girls in bonnets on our walk, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised. It seems to be a fairly common occurrence.

I've written more about the Ingalls Homestead at this link.

The Ingalls Homestead also has a website with lots of great information here. Mapquest directions to the homestead are here. It's just over a mile from the town of DeSmet and fairly easy to find. Further directions are at the Homestead web site.

**UPDATE** Just got confirmation that all Photo Walkers on July 7 will receive free admission to the Ingalls Homestead. Just let them know at the gate that you are there for the Photo Walk and be sure to say THANKS!

This will most likely be the last photo walk I will be holding before the Black Hills Photo Shootout, so hope to see a lot of you there.

Worldwide Photo Walk goes floral, too

This year's Worldwide Photo Walk has come and gone, but participants are now editing their photos to find the best shot to enter in the contest portion of the event.

For those of us who participated at the capitol grounds in Pierre, there was a whole lot of flower shooting going on. With beautiful weather and wonderfully-blooming flower beds all around the capitol it seemed like everyone on the walk took at least a few flower photos.


It was easy to forget that there was a magnificent historical building looming over us as we concentrated on the floral patterns, but I did manage to shoot the capitol at least once.


I've seen a few of the shots taken by other walkers so far and I'm impressed with the images. Everyone seemed to be having fun, so I think we will all be looking forward to next year's Worldwide Photo Walk. Walkers' photos will be available for viewing at www.worldwidephotowalk.com after July 31.

It's a floral year

A wet spring and summer have really made the wildflowers pop in the Black Hills area this year. Last week I took a short hike off the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park and was having a hard time not stepping on a flower.


I've also seen some pictures from the very northern edges of the Black Hills and there are many, many flowers there as well. It's just a great year for those of us who like color in our landscapes!

Another capitol sunset

On the eve of the Worldwide Photo Walk at the South Dakota State Capitol, a spectacular sunset closed out the day.

Mount Rushmore time lapses

I liked the time lapse idea so much I tried it again, this time at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.


The individual frames are shot 5 seconds apart again and compressed with video software. (Except for the car coming through the tunnel - that was 1/2000 shutter speed on continuous high burst.)

I struggled for three days to get the software to produce a smoother movie with nice transitions and a fade to black at the end, but lost the battle. I decided to be happy with what I've got.

Time lapses are interesting and I think with some more perfecting could be really fun.