HDR Highway - Highway 18 in southeastern SD

Thanks to Mitchell Camera Club member Betsy Petersen, we have our second Dakotagraph-designated "HDR Highway." This time we travel the southeastern corner of the state on Highway 18 east to west between Canton and Wagner.

This roughly-100-mile stretch passes many rustic farmsteads and small farming towns.

Betsy provided these images of the Highway 18 highlights -

 

The tiny town of Turkey Ridge almost seems untouched by the passing of time.

Just north of Highway 18 at the corner of gravel roads 444th St. and 284th St. is this scenic crumbling home.

Our "HDR Highway" section of Highway 18 is split almost exactly down the middle by Highway 81, which runs north and south. All of the photos above were taken east of Highway 81.

All the photos below were taken west of Highway 81. This one is at 43787 Highway 18.

Menno's Pioneer Acres is a recreation of a 1800s-era town. It hosts a tractor pull around the Fourth of July each year and the Menno Pioneer Power and Toy Show each September.

Highway 18 crosses the James River at Olivet.

Another rustic barn is located just east of the junction of Highway 18 and Highway 25 on the south side of the road.

Betsy mentions that these are just a few examples of the subject matter HDR photographers will find along Highway 18. She said most of them can be photographed from the roadside, but some may require permission from landowners to get the best angles on the properties. Use caution when stopping along the road as the shoulders are not as wide as we would like them to be.

I'm glad Betsy nominated Highway 18 and provided these photos because this happens to be the stretch of road I was driving when I first thought of designating "HDR Highways." I hope everyone enjoys the suggestions as much as I do.

Keep the coming! I'm happy to see some more "HDR Highways" highlighted across the state.

HDR Highway - Iron Mountain Road

For the first Dakotagraph-designated "HDR Highway" I have to thank Facebook reader Michaela Mader for suggesting Iron Mountain Road in the Black Hills.

The full length of Iron Mountain Road or US Route 16A is roughly 20 miles, but the chunk of most interest to high-dynamic range photographers begins at Mount Rushmore National Memorial and climbs southeasterly up and over Iron Mountain to the junction with Forest Service Road 330 where the ghost town of Spokane is located.

Shadows in early morning light are fun to play with at Mount Rushmore.

 

Traveling the Iron Mountain Road is not done at high speed, with several narrow one-lane tunnels that perfectly frame Mount Rushmore and spiraling "pigtail" bridges. Both the tunnels and the rustic wood construction of the bridges make for some interesting photos.

 

I've described exactly how to find the Spokane ghost town and it's many buildings scattered amongst a pine-covered valley at this earlier post on Dakotagraph. Spokane is HDR heaven, so if you like shooting crumbling wooden buildings and rusty old cars you will have a great time here.

Thanks to Governor Peter Norbeck for designing the incredible scenic route, architect C.C. Gideon for the pigtail bridges, and to Michaela Mader for nominating Iron Mountain Road as an "HDR Highway." The Iron Mountain Road is combined with the Needles Highway in Custer State Park as the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway.

If you enjoy Iron Mountain Road, you might be interested to know that Darrell & Christy Caldwell operate stores at each end of the route with a line of official Iron Mountain Road merchandise. You can find them at the Keystone Mall near Mount Rushmore and at the Spokane Creek Cabins and Campground on the southern end of the route.

 “We believe that Iron Mountain Road is one of the most beautiful and unique roads in America and we want to share our love and passion for this road with the world” says Christy Caldwell.  “We want to help folks experience the road the way Peter Norbeck and C.C. Gideon intended. We have designed storyboards that tell the story of the road and we have created an activity page about the road for kids.”

Travel & photography, a natural combo

Hey, it's National Travel and Tourism Week and also National Photo Month, so get out there and shoot something!

What better place to do it than in South Dakota?

Art and history combine for unique Pierre event

Preserve South Dakota is excited to announce an art and history event to be held in May and June in the Pierre area. The Art of Place will combine art and history in a unique effort to showcase the many historic resources in the Pierre/Ft. Pierre area through artwork.

Participants will attend a one-day kickoff event on May 18 and enjoy a variety of art- and history-related sessions, such as a cemetery tour, a sketching session at the Verendrye Monument, and a photography walking tour.

From May 18 to June 20, participants will work independently to create works of art that celebrate historic places in the area. Artwork will be shown at an exhibition at Pierre’s Oahe Days festival on June 22 and 23. 

The Central South Dakota Photography Club is hosting the walking tour of downtown Pierre from 11 am to 12 pm on May 18, taking a close look at and photographing the historic buildings and architectural details.

For more information and to register, check out Preserve South Dakota.

Photos and presidents on tour

Here's another pretty cool use of some of my photos. This bus will be touring through eight states in May and June.

Former South Dakota Tourism intern Jenna Klopfenstein took the rodeo shot and the rest are mine.

Here is the full information about the bus tour -

Mount Rushmore Presidents to Take Journey across Midwest

 PIERRE, S.D. –The presidents of Mount Rushmore National Memorial will embark on a 14-city tour across the Midwest, beginning May 23. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln will visit some of the most popular sites in the Midwest and personally invite residents to make a trip to South Dakota this summer.

The official tour by the presidential mascots and an accompanying street team from the Department of Tourism are part of the Department’s “Your American Journey” marketing campaign. The campaign encourages vacationers to visit places of great historic significance, unimagined beauty and patriotic inspiration within the borders of South Dakota. The group will ride in style in a bus wrapped with custom artwork depicting the variety that South Dakota offers travelers.

“All of the cities along this tour are filled with people who have a high propensity to travel to South Dakota,” says Jim Hagen, Secretary of the Department of Tourism. “The goal of the presidential mascots’ tour is to build awareness about South Dakota, create excitement among those who see them, and plant the seed of a South Dakota vacation with all of the potential visitors we have the opportunity to speak with one-on-one.”

Cities, in order of the tour schedule, include:

·        Rapid City, S.D.
·        Pierre, S.D.
·        Omaha, Neb.
·        Lincoln, Neb.
·        Kansas City, Mo.
·        Des Moines, Iowa
·        Chicago, Ill.
·        Milwaukee, Wis.
·        Madison, Wis.
·        Eau Claire, Wis.
·        Minneapolis, Minn.
·        Fargo, N.D.
·        Watertown, S.D.
·        Sioux Falls, S.D.

The presidential mascots and accompanying street team will also offer residents of these cities a chance to win one of four vacation giveaways. Contest details and registration can be found beginning May 15 on the Department of Tourism’s Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/SouthDakotaTourism. The contest runs through June 14, 2013.

The mascots, designed to depict the mountain carving in the Black Hills, have traveled across the country the past two years, including a stop in New York City to watch the “Mount Rushmore’s American Pride” float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The presidents’ journey can be followed online at www.Facebook.com/SouthDakotaTourism, or by using the hashtag, #SouthDakota, on Twitter (@SouthDakota).

 The South Dakota Department of Tourism is comprised of Tourism, the South Dakota Arts Council, and the South Dakota State Historical Society. The Department is led by Secretary James D. Hagen.

Nominate your favorite HDR Highway

For a while now I've been thinking that there should be one or more designated "HDR Highway" routes in South Dakota that had great subject matter for those of us who love high-dynamic range photography of old buildings, rusty cars and such.

So I'm asking for suggestions. Nominate your favorite stretch of road where fellow photographers can practice creating those texture-filled nostalgic images.

Here are a few guidelines to follow:

- At least a 20-mile route.
- The route can be straight, a loop, a winding scenic byway, whatever.
- At least four places to shoot some photos along the route. (A barn, a farmyard, a junkyard, an abandoned vehicle, a cemetery, etc.)
- Let's not have to trespass to get the photos. Either identify a place to shoot from a public roadway or have the property accessible to the public.
- It doesn't have to be a highway. Gravel roads are just fine as long as you don't need a huge jacked-up 4x4 to get there.

If we get enough good suggestions there may be multiple Dakotagraph-designated routes.

Now keep in mind this isn't anything officially sanctioned by the Department of Transportation, so you won't be seeing "HDR Highway" signs popping up in the road ditches. However, I think this could be a fun way for all of us to share our favorite spots with other photographers.

If you come up with a really good route you may also be asked to write up a description and post some photos as a guest blogger here at Dakotagraph.

Birding Festival a success

Around 70 chilly birdwatchers trekked the paths of the Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge this morning, cheerily pointing out minute differences in species and learning how migratory birds are banded for tracking.

I would declare the third annual South Dakota Birding Festival a rousing success and expect the word to spread, making next year's event even bigger. Fun stuff for a part of the state with no real large towns.