Category: columns-photo

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Working the Sun in Your Shots

By Chad Coppess

Probably from the time we were kids having to pose for family snapshots, we’ve been taught that a photographer should have the sun behind him shining on the subject of his photos. While that’s a good rule of thumb to begin with, it’s not always the way to make the best image of a particular scene.

So how do you break that rule and use the result to your advantage?

First, having the sun behind you will result in some fairly flat lighting in most cases. Shooting at an angle to the sun, where it is to the left or right of the camera position will let shadows will form and give a more rounded”3-D” feel to your subject matter. This works for photos of people, your car, rock formations, wildlife, whatever.

Time of day affects that angle as well. The lower the sun is to the horizon the more dimensional shadows it will provide and also change color very early or very late. Sunrises and sunsets can be spectacular with oranges and yellows streaking across the landscape. Many photos at that time of day are taken with the camera pointed directly at the sun. Don’t forget to turn around and see what that beautiful light is hitting. (Which is good photographic advice all the time — take a look behind you.)

Placing the sun within your photo is very fun when appropriate. Realize the camera is going to see that huge bright spot and want to darken the scene or underexpose it. The camera meter will most likely create darkened silhouettes against a bright sun. Quite often that’s okay and exactly what makes a great photo, but if that’s not what you want you will have to adjust for it.

A fun tip is that smaller apertures like f/16 or f/22 will create starbursts from bright points of light. Whether it’s the sun, street lamps or Christmas lights it can add”sparkle” to your photos. It can also be overpowering if there are too many points of light in your image.

When you want that starburst from the sun, placing the sun partially behind something helps make it a smaller point of light and creates a larger star shape. A tree branch, rock or building works well for this.

With a little thought and creativity applied, working the sun around and into your photos can improve a lot of scenes. Just be careful not to look directly at the sun, especially through a camera lens that’s focusing it into an even narrower beam of light into your eye. Also using a lens hood or shading the lens with your hand will help control reflections or”lens flare.”

Chad Coppess is the senior photographer at the South Dakota Department of Tourism. He lives in Pierre with his wife, Lisa. To view more of his work, visit www.dakotagraph.com.

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Fast Football

By Christian Begeman


I have always been fascinated by time-lapse films. I remember watching PBS NOVA episodes in science class that showed flowers blooming in a matter of seconds or a perfectly blue sky being filled with storm clouds in mere moments. This technique of looking at a scene or scientific process from a different perspective was a great learning tool. I also remember the first time I really noticed the technique used in popular film with great effectiveness. One of my favorite movies of all time is the Academy Award winning film”Gladiator.” Director Ridley Scott used time-lapse scenes to bring the hero in and out of consciousness when he was injured as well as moving the viewer along in the storyline. I still love watching those scenes.

A few years ago, I discovered via the internet how to create fairly high-end time-lapse scenes using my Canon DSLR camera. In a nutshell, all you need to do is set your camera on a tripod and take multiple images of the location in a sequence. Then, using a computer, turn those individual photos into frames of video. I use the fairly inexpensive QuickTime Pro from Apple to convert the image sequences into video, but Adobe’s After Effects will also do the trick.

A typical second of finished video runs about 30 frames per second. If you shoot a photo of a particular scene once every second then convert each photo into a video frame you can then”speed up” time and play back 30 seconds of time in one second of video. It takes some brushing up on math skills but the possibilities are endless.

This fall, I had an idea to do a time-lapse of the Dakota Marker football game between NDSU and SDSU. The game would be played in Brookings in late October during the day, so I figured I’d have a good chance at good weather and a great chance at a full crowd during the game. The good folks at SDSU also granted me full access to the stadium just before sunrise as well as letting me place a camera on top of the scoreboard throughout the day. I also shot some video clips with my Canon 7D and slowed them down in editing to really juxtapose the high speed of time-lapse photography with super slow motion video. The result is this two-minute video piece, all shot with modern”photo” cameras with the exception of two scenes captured with the GoPro Hero Cam. Pretty amazing what modern technology can accomplish as well as the amount of fun a simple photographer can have with the”relatively” inexpensive new cameras available today! Enjoy:


Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Bad River Road: a Hidden Photographic Gem

By Chad Coppess

Some of South Dakota’s backroads offer not much to a photographer and some offer great rewards. The Bad River Road in central South Dakota between Fort Pierre and Midland provides more than most.

In roughly 45 miles of gravel road, you can find rolling prairie landscapes, winding waterways, a huge herd of buffalo, abundant other wildlife and a great ghost town. No matter what the season or weather, there’s bound to be something interesting to photograph here.

The start/finish lines for this photographic journey are just outside of Midland at the top of the hill near the city cemetery or just southeast of Fort Pierre off Highway 83. Depending on your vehicle, road conditions, amount of time you’ve got to spend, lighting conditions, etc., you might want to tackle this road from each end on separate trips.

From the Fort Pierre end you’ll come to the beginning of Ted Turner’s Bad River Ranches within roughly 10 miles. The large herd of bison here has an immense expanse of territory to roam, so there’s no guarantee that you will see them at all. When they are near the road however, they are spectacular. Even if you don’t find the herd, you’ll see some beautiful prairie and river scenery.

From the Midland end of the road, it’s approximately nine miles to the ghost town of Capa. Never a hugely populated place, Capa now boasts one resident, hundreds of prairie dogs and a few cows. Please don’t trespass on Phil’s yard without his permission, but do stop and say hi. He appreciates the company and doesn’t mind photographers. GPS coordinates for Capa are N44.96.641, W100.58.862.

Fourteen buildings are standing in Capa if you count three outhouses. Photographers (and painters) could spend a lot of time here capturing various subject matter. I love using High Dynamic Range techniques with this type of shooting. That involves shooting three or more different exposures of the same scene without moving the camera and then blending them together in the computer later. HDR gives you the ability to brighten shadows, darken highlights and emphasize texture. It also tends to give a vintage feel to a lot of photos.

There are many more hidden photographic treasures out there on South Dakota’s backroads. If you’ve got favorites you’re willing to share, let’s hear about them!

Chad Coppess is the senior photographer at the South Dakota Department of Tourism. He lives in Pierre with his wife, Lisa. To view more of his work, visit www.dakotagraph.com.

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Visions of the Past

By Christian Begeman

Abandoned farmhouses and barns intrigue me. I realize that a lot of folks see them as eyesores or maybe even negative signs of the times. I see them as pieces of history. I imagine stories of the joys of living the country life as well as stories of hard times on the prairie all wrapped into those weathered walls. When I look at an old, abandoned house I can almost see gathering friends and family chatting on the front step or sitting around the dining room table for a high holiday. I guess part of it is reliving my childhood on the farm. My boyhood home is still being lived in, but my grandparents’ house that stood just a mile away is now gone. I stopped there this summer and walked the old yard I used to mow. I marked the old foundation and where the garage was. It was a bittersweet thing to remember the good times there with my grandparents and family.

The old barns, on the other hand, have much different stories to tell. Stories of daily chores, stories of somehow both loving and hating the farm animals that used the barns. I know our barn would have a lot of stories to tell. I can think of many incriminating instances concerning my brothers and I that demonstrate the old saying;”boys will be boys.” Some of the tamer shenanigans would be goofing off with the newborn kittens in the hayloft while our oldest brother milked the last of the cows, hollering at us every couple minutes to get down and help. There were also epic fights in that barn. Mostly between my older brothers, but I was in my share as well. In fact, the only time I ever remember bloodying anybody’s nose in a fight was in that barn — it was a blind swing over my shoulder in a fit of lost temper. It quickly ended the skirmish, but I think my brother was more surprised than hurt.

I cleaned that barn floor more times than I can count. The worst was in the winter. The western side of barn got so cold that the hot water would freeze on the cement almost as soon as we poured it out of the bucket. I had to be quick in order to sweep it down the drain or it would create an ice rink, which was fun to play on, but created havoc for 40 milk cows to cross over. One winter our drain froze solid and we had to sump pump out the water until June.

It is funny how living those memories didn’t seem like all that much fun at the time. I realize now how important it was to learn how to work and work hard. My brothers and I can now laugh at the old barn stories. Which is a good thing.

All that to say, that when I have time and the light is right, I can’t help but stop and take some photos of old, abandoned buildings found along South Dakota’s country roads and wonder about the stories they could tell.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Black and White Magic

By Christian Begeman

Our visual reality is in living color. Vivid tones are everywhere and are used to attract our attention, warn us and even sell us things we do not need. Knowing this, a good photograph needs to have rich, true colors to catch one’s eye to make the image work… or does it? Do you remember the first time you really noticed one of Ansel Adams’ iconic black and white images? Maybe it was a shot of Yosemite or the Grand Tetons and the monochromatic image took you right into the scene and held you in awe. There is definitely magic in a well composed black and white photo. A sense of timelessness somehow accompanies all those shades of gray. Seeing the scene in a simpler, more basic way also appeals to our mind’s eye — it is almost as if a black and white photo magically renders an everyday scene into a piece of abstract art. Whatever it is, I’ve always enjoyed good black and white photography. In fact, that is how I first learned to really admire photography in general, by learning how to process black and white images in a dark room.

The good news is that modern day technology seems to have brought creating good black and white images back in vogue. In fact, I’ve noticed a resurgence of stunning black and white photography recently online and in photography magazines. I think it is due to all the new types of plug-ins and software available that gives a photographer the ability to edit images on a computer as if they were doing old school black and white photography. I’m all in. So what to photograph?

In early August, my hometown of Isabel celebrated its centennial. As part of the festivities, a three day wagon train commemorating the days of the pioneers took place. I was asked to be the photographer. Because the wagon train hearkens back to a historical time, I wanted to produce some of the images in black and white, images that look like they could be from the days of 1911. The images you see accompanying this article are some of my best results.

One of my favorite images of the whole wagon train experience is of an outrider who rode up a hill behind me to view the wagons stretched out on the prairie. His horse stood statue still facing the early morning sun as the cowboy surveyed the scene and clicked away with his disposable camera. The grass was tall and the sky was blue with wispy clouds that added a dramatic backdrop. A scene from 100 years ago? Sure, except that I’m fairly certain cowboys didn’t carry disposable cameras back in those days. If you are interested in seeing more images of the wagon train experience in color, feel free to visit my photo blog at cbegeman.blogspot.com.

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Chasing Fall Color

By Christian Begeman

Fall in South Dakota is one of my favorite times of year. The grass turns golden, the trees begin to blush and air is crisp and clean. As much as I like the season, I find it one of the most challenging things to photograph well. First of all, fall is fleeting. There are some years that the mighty South Dakota winds remove the bulk of the leaves before their peak color, and even when the stiff breezes do not threaten, you can only really count on fall color peak for around a week at the most. It is also a very busy time of year with school and other fall activities in full swing so getting out to shoot can be difficult. Lastly, I’ve found that my camera rarely captures the essence of what I am seeing and experiencing around me without some real thought and effort. As much as I’d like it to be, chasing and capturing fall color simply is not as easy as pointing and clicking.

Let me try to explain what I mean. Have you ever looked out on a golden evening in fall in awe and were inspired to start taking photos to capture the beauty? It often feels like no matter where you point your camera, the image you create will be an award winner, only to find out later that the pictures you took are not very spectacular at all and some of them are downright bad. This happens to me a lot. I’m still learning that I have to be careful not to let the euphoria of a seeing an amazing scene take away from the fundamentals of taking a good photo. Here are some tips that help me go about it.

  1. Shoot at the golden hour. The hour or so before sunset and after sunrise will give you nice”golden” light that accentuates the fall color of the trees.
  2. Watch for and eliminate visual distractions. A lovely tree belt can be ruined if there is a cell phone tower two miles off jutting out behind it. I know because it has happened to me.
  3. Capture the detail. Wide, sweeping landscapes are wonderful if you can find them, but some of my favorite shots are of simple things like leaf veins or thistle seedlings.
  4. Try sidelight. I’ve found that direct sunlight on fall foliage can sometimes look harsh and unpleasing to the eye. Try the same scene at a different angle and the sunlight will do some amazing things with the color.
  5. Use a polarizer. I’ve had good luck with circular polarizers warming the fall colors and bringing the blue out in the sky which causes the yellows and oranges to pop.
  6. Green is good. A fall scene doesn’t have to be all yellow, orange or red. Some green mixed in can really set off the other colors and add zing to your photo.

There is still a lot of fall left in the air this year so hopefully you get out and capture some amazing fall photos before it is gone. Feel free to comment with your own tips as I’d love to hear what has worked for you.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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The Stars Above

By Christian Begeman

King David of the ancient Hebrews wrote that the heavens declare God’s glory and is proof the Creator exists (Psalm 19). Just over a century ago, Vincent Van Gogh painted his magnum opus”The Starry Night” which is now one of the most recognized images in the world. I can easily sing along to Skeets McDonald’s”Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes” from hearing it so often in our 1988 Oldsmobile car that featured a new-fangled car stereo cassette player. (Great Country Hits of the 50’s, The Statler Brothers and The Mamas and the Papas are all burned in my memory from those days. We only had a few cassettes at the time.)

All these thoughts and memories run through my mind when I’m out trying to capture photos of the stars. Just over a year ago, I happened to view some amazing timelapse videos of night scenes in Arizona and instantly made a decision that I needed to learn how to do that. Before I could start, I needed to learn how to take photos of the night sky.

The essentials include a tripod, flashlight, remote cable and a camera that allows you to set long exposures. Vampire sleeping habits are helpful too. My first attempts took place at Palisades State Park near Garretson, SD in mid-November of last year. One of my favorite images from that night is an example of what I call”flashlight graffiti.” I set a long exposure on my camera and proceeded to paint the rocks with light from my flashlight. I did my initials in one image and one of my favorite bands, U2, in another. I figure I now have something to send Bono and the boys if they need some unique artwork for their next album.

I went out to the Palisades again on a crisp, clear night in February. I brought two cameras and spent roughly two hours scrambling over the rocks in the dark getting scenes of the stars passing overhead. Once I got over scaring myself with horror movie scenes that kept popping into my head, the night turned into a magical time of just being in awe of our vast universe and God’s creation.

This spring and summer I have been trying to capture the Milky Way in the night sky. To do this you need to be well away from the light pollution of larger cities (I would suggest at least 20 miles) on a moonless night. It is also helpful to have a fast lens (f2.8 or less) and a sturdy tripod. I typically shoot around 30 second exposures at 1600 or 3200 ISO. It takes time and patience, but the rewards of capturing the starry hosts and being humbled by them are worth every minute of lost sleep. Just don’t watch any “Friday the 13th” movies before you go.

Christian Begeman grew up in Isabel and now lives in Sioux Falls. When he’s not working at Midcontinent Communications he is often on the road photographing our prettiest spots around the state. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Shooting in the Dark

By Chad Coppess

Photographing in caves is literally shooting in the dark. Any and all light found in the depths of a cave is man-made and artificial. Why nature forms spectacular crystals and intriguing passageways in places that normally couldn’t be seen is a mystery to me.

Taking photos that show the underground beauty can be a challenge. One of the photos accompanying my last column sparked a reader question about how I took it.

I was shooting inside Black Hills Caverns near Rapid City, but it happened to be a slow day without many visitors. With no people in the shot, the cave looked a little stale. So I positioned my camera on a tripod, attached a flash with a cord on a second tripod off to the left of the camera.

Exposure time was set for around 30 seconds and the self-timer for the same, which gave me time to move down the passageway to a starting point for the photo. Carrying a small flashlight, as soon as I heard the shutter open I walked toward the camera wiggling my hand enough to make an interesting light trail. The tricky part was timing my walk so that I reached the spot just in front of the camera at the end of the exposure when the flash would go off and illuminate me.

I tried this around 25 times and was successful on two of them, but I got the shot. It’s been used in several publications promoting cave tours in the Black Hills.

Most of the natural caves in South Dakota have a gate, doorway or building built over the entrance so a photo from inside the cave looking out isn’t possible. Abandoned mines however quite often have openings that let some sunlight in and allow for fun silhouettes of people. Adding a person to many shots gives some idea of the scale of the landscape, whether it’s a vast prairie or a huge hole in the earth.

All three of the people in the mine photos accompanying this column are me. With a self timer and a little sprinting, you can add an explorer for scale to just about anything. That grizzled old prospector’s beard was added in later.

When looking for old mines and/or caves to photograph, make sure you aren’t trespassing and be very careful. Wandering into a dark tunnel can lead to falling down an unseen hole, twisting an ankle on uneven floors or waking up some critter that may not be happy about your intrusion.

Chad Coppess is the senior photographer at the South Dakota Department of Tourism. He lives in Pierre with his wife, Lisa. To view more of his work, visit www.dakotagraph.com.

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Our State Photographer

By Chad Coppess

Welcome to the new photography column at SouthDakotaMagazine.com. Feels like I should introduce myself, so here goes.

I stepped into photography seriously around 1979 after my dad borrowed a camera from his office and shot some drag racing cars. I originally thought I wanted to work for Hot Rod Magazine, but soon began shooting for the Custer High School newspaper and yearbook.

A four-year degree in photography from Black Hills State University and an internship with the South Dakota Department of Tourism led me to jobs at newspapers in Spearfish, Sturgis and Princeton, Indiana. In 1993 I landed the fulltime position shooting for South Dakota Tourism and I’ve been here ever since.

If you’ve seen any promotional materials produced by the State of South Dakota or the other tourism organizations in the state you’ve probably seen my photography. I travel year-round attending fairs, festivals, rodeos, etc. and photographing attractions, historic sites, landscapes and wildlife. I also shoot for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

In 2007 I began publishing a photography blog at www.dakotagraph.com. It contains tips on when and where to shoot photos in South Dakota, best times of the year for certain locations, and examples of my work.

A few years ago co-worker Scott Howard and I noticed that digital photography had created a resurgence in picture taking, which lead us to co-found the Black Hills Photo Shootout in 2010. With a weekend of workshops taught by knowledgeable local photographers and some nationally-known shooters, the event drew 120 participants from 18 states. This year’s Shootout is Sept. 30-Oct. 2 and will feature a keynote presentation by cowboy photographer David Stoecklein. Check out the details at www.blackhillsphotoshootout.com.

I am constantly brainstorming ways to use my photography to promote South Dakota and the great opportunities here for travelers and photographers. You’ll find my photos in video games, connected to the hobby of geocaching, and in blogs about movies and music concerts.

So what we hope to accomplish with this column is to help you find what all there is to shoot in South Dakota, some tips on how to improve on your photo skills, and most importantly, get you out there shooting. It should complement what you’ll find at www.dakotagraph.com. If you’ve got questions along the way or topic ideas you’d like to see covered, send them this way. I’ll do my best to help everyone get photos they are proud of.

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On the Road

Christian Begeman’s photos are regularly featured in our magazine and on our website. They are also a fan favorite on our Facebook page. He is now one of our photo columnists and will be discussing his favorite South Dakota shooting locations and techniques. The slideshow on this page gives a glimpse into his photographic style. See more of his photos on his blog www.cbegeman.blogspot.com.

Begeman’s first column is an introduction to his South Dakota upbringing and his passion for photography.

By Christian Begeman

Hello, my name is Christian Begeman. I live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and grew up south of a small West River town called Isabel. If you live (or have lived) in South Dakota for any length of time you know well that amazing scenes can suddenly appear before you at any given time while traveling through the state. Whether a poetic sunset, a massive thunderstorm or the simple beauty of the rolling plains, South Dakota has a lot to offer a photographer of any skill level.

My interest in photography began when I was in high school. My dad had an Argus film camera with one lens. I remember taking it out to shoot some fall color photos in a creek near the Moreau River to fill out a roll of film. The results drew high praise from my mom, aunt and grandma, plus it was fun, so I was pretty much hooked after that. While in college, my folks helped me buy a used Minolta film camera with a couple lenses and flash and the following year I got a tripod for Christmas. Over the years, this hobby turned into more of a passion and lately I’ve found myself more out on the road than home when not working at my day job with Midcontinent Communications.

I can’t claim to be a professional photographer as I’ve only had a couple classes in college. Most of what I learned has been trial and error, or finding images I like from other photographers and then using tutorials on the internet or magazines to learn how the images were created. The digital camera revolution has made this kind of learning much easier (as well as less expensive). Now one can see and correct errors immediately after taking a photo rather than spending money to process a roll of film and forget how or why you took the picture in the first place. Needless to say, my digital camera has accelerated my learning and passion for photography by leaps and bounds.

Landscape and wildlife photography has always been my first and foremost love. Often you’ll find me driving the back roads of South Dakota with my camera”at the ready” in the passenger seat. Lately I have begun to learn and love night photography as well as macro photography. I hope to post more on those two topics in some of the future columns. Until then, enjoy the South Dakota scenery!