Tag: photography

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My Snow Day

By Christian Begeman

Nov. 15 was a special day. The whole state was blanketed in snow from an early winter snowfall. I happened to book a stay at Custer State Park that weekend. As it turned out, the day was magical. A snow day with no wind in the southern Black Hills is a photographer’s paradise.

I got on the road in the morning twilight. The snow had begun falling the night before, and the pines already had a nice covering. Just a few miles west on Highway 16A I spotted a pair of white-tailed deer hunkered down in the snow, side by side. Either these deer were used to traffic or frozen in the frigid temperatures, because the pair allowed me to photograph them without much trouble.

One lane of Highway 87 heading south was plowed, so I took it. When I got to the southern boundary of Custer State Park, I realized that my favorite county road (Highland Ridge Road) that runs through northern Wind Cave National Park might be too full of snow for my crossover vehicle to handle. But just as I wondered if I should take a chance, a large four wheel drive drove out from the east. I decided to follow its tracks. Highland Ridge Road and the Red Valley Road are both great places to spy elk and bison. This snow day was no exception.

The north end of the Red Valley Road connects to the southeast corner of Custer State Park’s Wildlife Loop. After spotting sharp-tail grouse roosting in a roadside bush, I came across a large bison herd licking salt left by the plow along the curves of the Wildlife Loop Road. I also spied a small group of pronghorn males walking on the far side of a draw. I got out and hunkered down to take some photos. Luckily they walked right by me, which provided some interesting close-up opportunities.

My next destination was Iron Mountain Road in northeastern Custer State Park. From there you can loop back to Highway 16A using the Black Hills Playhouse Road. It’s blacktop, but on this particular morning it was not plowed. I was the only one making tracks. While shooting a really nice 5X5 white-tail as he courted a shy doe, I was serenaded by a small group of chickadees and white and red-breasted nuthatches. I had unknowingly hidden behind the tree that was their winter residence.

About an hour before sunset, the sky cleared and the first yellow light spilled across the Southern Hills. I glimpsed the new light from the lookout at Coolidge Ridge and around Stockade Lake. The lake had frozen over except for a small patch in the middle where a lone bald eagle held court, perched high on a ponderosa pine.

Finally I made it to the Sylvan Lake area using Highway 89 out of Custer to watch one of the more spectacular winter sunsets I had witnessed in quite some time. As I shot these last scenes, about a dozen deer made their way up the slope as if I was not there. It was a splendid end to a perfect day. It goes to show that school kids are still right — snow days are the best days!

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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The Golden Season

By Christian Begeman

With beauty that can be as brief as the next north wind, fall signals the end of the growing season and the coming cold of winter. I often hear people say autumn is their favorite time of year. I like it too, although I think its stay is too brief.

Finding the perfect fall foliage is not always easy. I have some favorite spots to check each year, and every once in awhile I find something unexpected. One constant is the cool overnights. This change in weather can leave heavy dew or even frost in the early morning. This has the potential to make photographic macro magic, so this year I tried more close-up detail than I ever have.

Early one September morning in Spearfish Canyon, I discovered the magic of frost on fallen leaves. Because my mind doesn’t always function to its fullest during the early hours of the day, I forgot one of my favorite lenses in my vehicle and didn’t realize it until I had walked all the way down to Spearfish Falls from the parking lot of the Latchstring Inn at Savoy. All I had was my macro lens. While getting ready to head back up the trail I noticed what looked like sugarcoated red leaves and grass in the chilly shadows by the creek. I spent the next half hour on my knees among those fallen leaves. It’s funny how things work out –as I tarried with the frosted leaves, I happened to be there when the first sunlight appeared over the canyon walls and bathed the falls in a unique display of color and light.

Have you ever noticed that fall foliage can look absolutely breathtaking from a distance, but among the trees that beauty can seem less than you expected? Maybe it’s just me, but I often run in to situations like that. So this year, I decided to shoot many of the autumn scenes I encountered with a long lens. A telephoto lens allows a photographer to better isolate the subject with its background. Since you”zoom in” from a distance, you can concentrate more color in your photo, whereas the full measure of that combined color may be lost when you’re close and shooting with a wide-angle lens. The high draws of the Sage Creek Wilderness in Badlands National Park are a great place to use this technique. I like to walk out on the hills above the little valleys and feature the color in the foreground while pulling in the distant and rugged badlands as the background. If I walked up to the start of the draw and shot with a normal lens, I would lose all that concentrated color and the drama of the distant badlands.

Whatever your style or favorite technique may be, autumn is a great time to get out and shoot. Even after the gold, red and orange disappears, there are still opportunities for colorful leaves on the forest floor or in your yard. But you better hurry. Soon the wind will leave the land bare with only a white cover for a blanket. That is, until the rhythm of the seasons starts all over again next spring.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Off the Beaten Path

By Christian Begeman

I’ve been told that my mom’s family often took Sunday afternoon drives together. Many times Grandpa would just pile them into the car and start driving with no particular destination in mind. One such trip led the family to eastern Wyoming with nothing but sagebrush and open sky. When nature called, as it is wont to do on family trips, the only privacy available was behind the largest sagebrush. Well, the story goes that my dear grandmother saw turkey vultures circling while searching for just the right sagebrush, and the ominous birds succeeded in scaring nature’s calling away. Now since that story came from my beloved uncle, who never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I’m not sure I can say this bit of family history is very accurate, but I do believe the part about just getting in the car and going for a drive. Why? Because I suffer from the same urgings — back roads and random drives are simply good medicine after working the day job all week long.

Lately I have taken particular affinity to the back roads — the graveled county roads that criss-cross most of our farm and ranch land. The roads that only the locals know. I’ve often been pleasantly surprised by the beauty I’ve stumbled upon by just turning down one of these roads less traveled. I’ve seen numerous scenic churches and countless abandoned farmsteads. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to enjoy unexpected wildlife encounters. My favorite thing to find is a lone prairie windmill standing out against the sky, especially around sunset.

In late August, I was heading north through Clark County and decided to take an off the beaten path road along the western edge of the Coteau des Prairie. A lone barn with two apple trees out front caught my attention down a lonesome gravel road. Along the other side of the same road was a long tree belt full of plum trees heavily laden with fruit. A light rain began to fall and I was the only one on the road so I stopped, got my long lens and began wondering what kind of wildlife like fresh plum. It wasn’t long until I saw an orange flash of feathers fly through the trees. I drove a bit closer and shut off the engine. About 10 minutes later two Baltimore oriole females and three males made an appearance and began feeding on the plums. I spent an hour watching them and attempting to photograph the scene. The whole time I was there, not another vehicle was seen or heard. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend.

You know that old saying that talks about taking the time to stop and smell the roses? I’ve found the same sentiment to be true for making interesting photographs. Give yourself time to explore unknown roads. Take the time to drive somewhere you’ve never been. Then find the patience to sit still and see what happens. When you do, the photographic gems you may find down South Dakota’s back roads will often surprise you. Happy trails, and watch out for those dang turkey vultures.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Beauty in the Storm

By Christian Begeman

I learned early that rain is a blessing in South Dakota. I remember well the dry years of the early 1980s. I was a just a kid on our farm on the border of Dewey and Ziebach counties. The heat was relentless, and the wind blew great congregations of grasshoppers from field to pasture. I remember the hungry’hoppers stripping even the kosher weeds to bare stems one particularly bad summer. Water gun fights and orange sherbet push-ups helped cool us. A few nights were so hot I remember filling my small squirt gun with water and shooting at the ceiling so the water would fall down as if it were raining on me while I lay in bed. I grew up thinking that hot, dry summers were the norm. Those experiences are probably rainstorms are blessings and things of beauty to me today.

Over the years South Dakota has proven that hot and dry summers really are not that normal. Despite reading the Old Farmer’s Almanac, you never know what the warm months will bring. This year has been wetter than most. Some areas got too much of a good thing, resulting in flash floods and washed out roads. Tornadoes, wind and hail have also caused damage. Yet photographing the colossal clouds, lightning and general impressiveness of a South Dakota storm never seems to go out of style. Whether you are a professional storm chaser or an average Joe with a smart phone, getting a decent shot of the drama in the sky is a thrilling accomplishment.

I think part of it is the inherent danger. Lightning strikes, high wind and hail are life threatening at worst and white-knuckle nerve wracking at least. Modern day radar technology makes watching storm development easy, which helps predict where a storm will be. Knowing the terrain — where to find a good structure like a barn or a church to include in the photo for perspective and framing — is important. As with most really good photography, patience is also key. I’ve learned the best shots often come after the storm. Some of the most beautiful light ever seen is the early evening summer sun shooting through the last clouds of a passing storm.

People often ask me how to shoot lighting, but I don’t have great answers. My first attempts involved resting a Minolta film camera on a barbwire fence behind our farm as an August dry lightning storm passed overhead. Not smart. What I know now is that you need a tripod. You need to know your camera well enough to keep the exposure open as long as possible (without overexposing). Also, use a remote trigger and be persistent. I once had two cameras shooting time lapses of an approaching afternoon storm with significant lightning over Bear Butte. Out of over 1,400 frames only two caught lightning strikes.

A storm’s beauty is more than lightning and impressive cloud structures, though. The rolling thunder, the smell of rain on the wind and the first cool gust of air on a hot summer’s day can’t be captured with a photograph, but because of pursuing the photograph these things are captured in my experience and held in my memory. A good rainstorm will always be a thing of beauty to this South Dakotan.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Custer’s Trail Today

Story by Katie Hunhoff

Photography by Paul Horsted

Landmark moments in American history include the arrival of the Mayflower, the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase. For the Dakotas, a definitive moment was the Custer Expedition of 1874. That brief exploration of the Black Hills was a final chapter in western expansion and forever changed life on the plains.

For nearly 15 years, photographer Paul Horsted has documented and photographed the Expedition route. In 2002, Horsted and co-author Ernie Grafe published Exploring with Custer: The 1874 Black Hills Expedition. The book focused on photo sites, the gold discovery and the Expedition trail within the Black Hills. Then in 2009, Horsted and Grafe, along with historian Jon Nelson, compiled Crossing the Plains with Custer, which follows the Expedition as it traveled from Fort Lincoln in North Dakota to the Black Hills, and the return trip just three weeks later.

That path across the plains has never been officially marked or explored since Custer’s journey. To find the correct passage, the authors started with a map drawn by the Expedition’s chief engineer, Col. William Ludlow. Horsted found the map, part of a rare copy of the official U.S. Government report of the 1874 Expedition, at a bookstore in Rapid City. After scanning the map, he used mapping software to make it transparent and placed it on top of a modern satellite image showing area landmarks. That made it possible to develop GPS coordinates for numerous places where modern roads and other public areas cross the trail used by Custer’s 110 wagons.

“We’ve found it to be remarkably accurate, considering the vast distances they covered,” Horsted says. The route to the Black Hills was 310 miles long, while a different return trail was 355 miles, according to Expedition documents. Both trails pass through the Cave Hills area of northwestern South Dakota.

The path, they discovered, is almost entirely on private land, so Horsted and Nelson knocked on over 50 doors to ask permission to investigate. One landowner was rancher and pilot Lex Burghduff, who has a 12,000-acre ranch near the Cave Hills. The authors deduced that the Expedition camped on his land July 11, 1874.

Burghduff was aware that his land holds rich history.”We’ve found pieces of old harnesses and some casings that were fired by the cavalry,” says Burghduff.”We find arrowheads on a daily basis.” A friend and local historian named Bob Kriege, who recently died, taught Burghduff much of the area’s history. Kriege said Native Americans would winter near the Cave Hills after summering in the Fort Pierre area. They were following game that spent winter months on the south and east side of the Hills.

Horsted is the first person to ask Burghduff for permission to explore his land because of the Expedition. Burghduff took him on a plane ride to look for ruts made by the Expedition’s wagons.

“What Paul is doing is preserving history. I think it’s just really something overlooked in schools. We weren’t taught local history,” Burghduff says.”I’ve got two boys, Hazer and Jake, and I show them pictures that Paul sends me and the artifacts we found. We hunt for arrowheads and beads and pottery. It could easily be forgotten.”

Once Horsted and his co-authors pinpointed where they thought a camp was, they were usually within about a mile’s range of the right spot. They used metal detectors to look for artifacts Custer’s men left behind to verify the accuracy of sites shown on the map.

“Metal detecting is a lot of work, but fun,” Horsted says.”We spent hundreds of hours in heat or snow trying to pursue this and you don’t just stop, you have to go until you have a breakthrough and find an artifact that you recognize from the era when the Expedition passed.

“There was a time when I thought it was fantastic to find a square nail,” he says,”but now I’ve found buttons, tin cans with lead seals that were used in that period of history, a nickel from 1867. The most exciting thing I found was a military type spur. But coins are great because they give us a solid date.”

Horsted, Nelson and Grafe are intrigued with the era.”I’m living in the Black Hills because of what happened at that point in history,” Horsted says.”I’m no big fan of Custer. We admire the way Custer led the expedition, because not anyone could have led it in a successful way, but that came at a cost to the Lakota and Cheyenne and other tribes.”

The official expedition photographer, William H. Illingworth, took abundant photos documenting the Black Hills. In his first book, Horsted re-photographed Illingworth’s photos. Some scenes looked identical, while others showed the dramatic development of the century — especially in the Rapid City area. Even within the last 10 years, Horsted has noticed changes.”There are entire places where homes have been built where there was an empty field just years before,” he notes.

Illingworth took only eight shots between the Hills and Fort Lincoln. Because Horsted didn’t have an abundance of photos to use for comparison, he relied heavily on journal entries, newspaper stories from the five journalists traveling with the group, and Ludlow’s official government report to guide him in photographing scenes Custer’s men encountered. Those first-hand accounts accompany Horsted’s photos in the book.”Day by day as they travel you can read what the newspapers say happened, then what an Army private said and he might have a completely different point of view from the officers who recorded the same event,” Horsted says.

Ernie Grafe’s role was to compile those accounts from all available sources. Originally from upstate New York, Grafe moved to the Black Hills 35 years ago. He immediately fell in love with the area and started learning the history. He researched Custer’s trail, started hiking it himself and met others with the same interest, including Horsted.

Despite Grafe’s extensive research for the first Custer book, he still ran into surprises while working on Crossing the Plains. One of the biggest, says Grafe, was finding that George Bird Grinnell, the Expedition’s paleontologist, uncovered a dinosaur bone just southwest of Buffalo. It was the first to be found in the Hell Creek formation, which since has produced several dinosaur discoveries, and perhaps the first dinosaur bone unearthed in Dakota Territory.

Written accounts of the trip are strikingly different on the way to the Black Hills compared to those written on the way home. As the Expedition travels to the Hills, the journals are full of anticipation and speculation about what will be found. On the way home, when the route crossed hundreds of square miles that had been burned off by prairie fire, there is less excitement and a real desire to reach their destination, especially when some of the soldiers are forced to start shooting their horses because of the lack of grazing available on the burned prairie.

“We get to tell the ‘rest of the story’ in Crossing the Plains,” says Horsted. “I’ve been really inspired photographing the places we know they passed through, standing on top of the same buttes they climbed, walking the same Badlands they crossed.”

By comparing Illingworth’s photos with Horsted’s, we can gauge both natural and manmade changes occurring in the last 135 years. Perhaps after another 100 years, Horsted’s photos will be used to gauge changes that lie ahead for the plains and the Black Hills.

Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the September/October 2009 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.

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Dirty Work

By Christian Begeman

I have to admit that my photography hobby could fool people at a casual glance. If you didn’t know me and happened to catch me when the photography muse strikes, I could forgive you for thinking that my elevator may not reach top floor. What other passion takes you out in the middle of clear, moonless nights for hours at a time miles from home … on a weeknight? What other hobby causes a grown man to sprawl spread eagle on the open prairie, awkwardly avoiding cactus and cowpies while brushing off bloodthirsty creepy crawlies just to get the best angle of light on a flower?

I’ve ripped countless jeans in far too many places from pesky barbed wire or simply awkward positioning in the heat of the photography moment. I single handedly keep insect repellent companies in business during the summer. I’ve gone to work looking like I was in a bar fight the night before because a gnat bit my eyelid and it nearly swelled shut. I got a satisfying kick out of saying,”you should have seen the other guy … squashed him like a bug,” to any co-worker who asked (and some who didn’t). Photography is probably proving that I’m a touch on the crazy side.

Lately, I’ve been obsessed by country churches and stormy skies. There is something, however, that can break me away even from those pursuits. Anytime I spot a patch of blooming wildflowers, I can’t help but grab a camera and start shooting. When I can get flowers with a country church, then it’s near photographic nirvana.

It’s been a late and wet spring. That means wildflowers have been going strong this year. I took a trip in late May to the western half of our state and found hillsides in bloom in Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park. On my way back east, I stopped at Sica Hollow State Park to find more woodland beauties. Most of the spring flowers are done now, but the sunflowers, coneflower and prairie roses of early summer are out just waiting for you take their photos. Here are a couple suggestions on shooting wildflowers to get you prepared:

  • If possible, buy or borrow a macro lens. These lenses are engineered to allow very close focusing, which allows small buds and petals to appear large and detailed in a photograph. The first time I put on one my camera, I didn’t want to take it off for days. It can transform how you see a flower or even a bug.
  • Make use of a wide angle lens. Shooting as wide as possible does two things: it makes your depth of field rather big so more of the scene will be in focus, and it allows you to show the general area where the flowers are found. So you can show the entire hillside of flowers instead of just a few.
  • Don’t be afraid to get dirty. Anybody can shoot a flower from a standing eye level looking down. Interesting angles and details not always seen can be found at or below the flower’s level.
  • Watch for distractions in the shot. I’ve been frustrated more times than I like to admit when I notice an odd piece of grass in the composition that I didn’t notice while shooting. It is easy to get so focused on the flower that the surrounding details don’t get noticed. This is a tough one for me, but it pays to pay attention to everything in the frame.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Sounds of Spring

By Christian Begeman

The greening of the countryside seemed to come a couple weeks late across South Dakota this year. I had planned on capturing flowers for this post. After all,”April showers bring May flowers,” right? Since the flowers of May didn’t really burst until Memorial Day weekend, I didn’t get a chance to photograph many during the course of the month. The good news is that the delayed spring growth allowed me to see one of the hidden natural storylines play out a bit more clearly this year.

Most of us who watch the South Dakota skies in early spring are very aware of when the spring migration begins. It is hard to miss the large flocks of geese and other waterfowl moving through our little corner of the great American flyway. The latter half of spring migration can be a lot harder to notice, mostly because the songbirds that bring up the rear are small, fast and unless you have a birdfeeder near your home, usually only heard and not seen.

This spring, however, has seen a very productive songbird migration. At least for me. I have seen and photographed more colorful balls of energy than any other year. I think part of the reason is that the tree canopies were slow growing and the other reason may be that I’m just learning how to notice things like this. As a photographer, I’m always interested in bold colors as well as the challenge of taking a photo of something in a way that is not usually seen.

My equipment this year has primarily been a 100-400 mm telephoto lens with a 1.4 extender. This kind of lens needs a lot of light so shooting while the sun is shining is helpful. The other key is being in the right place at the right time. I found that most of the parks along the Big Sioux River system in southeast South Dakota offer good opportunities to see, hear and photograph songbirds. To top it off, the newest state park, Good Earth Park at Blood Run southeast of Sioux Falls, has a feeder that is maintained by the Sioux Falls Bird Club. It is because of this feeder that I was able to observe many”firsts.”

One of my favorites has been the amazing little ruby-throated hummingbird. I actually saw my first hummingbird in the Grand Tetons last spring. I apparently had walked too close to something it treasured and it buzzed me several times. Ever since that encounter this fearless little humdinger has intrigued me, and I was determined to find a ruby-throated version in South Dakota. I figured that feeders at Good Earth would be a good place to start. The hunch paid off. I spent three early mornings before work observing two different males and a female. The males sparred a couple times and their aerial feats of speed, quickness and precise flying were breathtaking. Later this spring I observed three different rubies”in the wild” (away from feeders) at Sica Hollow State Park in northeast South Dakota. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

I’m not a professional birder by any means, but it’s growing on me. I’ve learned that simply taking the time to look hard can be a wonderful experience. Watching what goes on amongst the branches gives those hikes through our state park trail system a new level of enjoyment. If you are patient, persistent and a little bit lucky, a rare encounter with a little songster can and will happen. Those experiences remind me of the many-layered beauty that surrounds us in this great state if we just take the time to look.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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The Chicken Dance

By Christian Begeman

Typically early April is not a great time to trudge outside an hour before dawn in South Dakota’s great wide open. At least that’s what I might have told you before I started going to Fort Pierre National Grassland’s prairie chicken blinds. This is the second year I’ve visited the blinds with camera in hand. It was, however, the first time I sat in all three blinds in the same season. That also meant that I had three afternoons and evenings to wander the grasslands and surrounding area. Besides prairie chickens and grouse, the land is thick with pheasants on the ground and raptors in the air. The countryside along the Bad River is breathtaking. The drive from Fort Pierre to Lower Brule on Highway 1806 is also a favorite. From little churches on the prairie to owl and eagle nests among the tall trees, this time away from the hustle and bustle of big city life was good for the soul.

It’s ironic to think I would have missed all this area’s scenic goodness this time of year if it weren’t for the dance moves of some wild chickens. The mating dance of Greater Prairie Chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse is one of our state’s treasures, but you have to get up ultra early to watch these shows. The entertainment begins about a half hour before dawn and can last until mid-morning depending on the weather and absence of threats like coyotes, eagles and humans.

It is recommended to be inside the blind a full hour before sunrise. The designated areas to park are also at least a quarter mile away from the blinds, so a walk under the stars in complete darkness is part of the deal. I actually don’t mind that part. Once I get to the 5-by-8-foot heavy plywood blind, however, I get edgy. First, my mind always tells me a rabid skunk or something worse is waiting inside. After opening the door and seeing all is well, the next uneasy thing is going inside and closing out the world. It is completely dark with only the wind whispering.

I suppose this is why some folks bring friends along (which makes them wiser than me as usual). I have gone alone each time, and I will tell you that the half hour before you hear the first wing flaps of the chickens flying in and the first hum or”boom” of their routine is unique. Being quiet and alone in the dark is daunting. It is times like these that all the ghost stories you’ve ever heard try to push their way into your memory. Somewhere along the way I decided that I was too old to be scared of the dark and turned my attention to appreciating the quiet. But I still arm myself with at least two flashlights.

Since I’m being honest, I’m going to confess another thing about being alone in the dark while waiting for the world to wake. I’m thankful for what I’m about to witness. In this spirit of thankful prayer, my mind recounts my other blessings and thoughts linger over my family and friends. I guess sometimes God needs to get me out and away on the prairie to remind me of all the greatness that surrounds me. To think it took wild chickens for me to fully experience this quiet time. God does truly work in mysterious ways.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Searching for Spring

By Christian Begeman

The last two years I have chronicled my search for spring in South Dakota in this column. In 2012, it was a very mild winter and an early spring. Last year saw a nasty April ice storm and spring seemed to tarry until almost mid-May. This year it seems like winter and spring are in a tug of war. A handful of beautiful and warm days are followed by gusty, cold winds that chill to the bone. I’m hopeful the last cold spell is done by the time this column is posted, but who knows. This is South Dakota, where the weather does what it wants when it wants.

March 9

With temperatures in Sioux Falls nearing 60, I went for a Sunday afternoon drive. The snow along the back road ditches of Kingsbury and Lake counties was dirty, dusty and full of rooster pheasants staking out their territory for the coming spring. Southeast of Lake Thompson just before sunset, I witnessed three flocks of snow geese converge in a cornfield. These were the first snow geese of the year for me.

March 16

I happened to catch the full Worm Moon rising through the hazy evening air in rural Turner County. It’s called the Worm Moon because it’s the time of year that earthworms begin stirring in the rapidly warming soil.

March 19

Spring-like showers moved through the area even though the temperatures only topped out in the mid 40s. North of Humboldt I happened upon a rare scene of spring and winter clashing. A rainbow with accompanying snow geese hung in the sky above a small lake with ice fishermen still on it. It is also the time of the year when the sun sets due west, which can be problematic when driving east/west roads in the evening or early morning. However, it can make for an interesting picture as I found at Island Lake on the border of McCook and Minnehaha County.

March 20

The first official day of spring. A co-worker told me she saw over 30 bald eagles near her home north of Hartford the night before. After work I investigated, and found 18 still there. One was perched on a tree not far from a county road bridge over Skunk Creek. After a minute or two of him watching me take his photo from the bridge, he decided he didn’t like the looks of me after all and flew to a new perch.

March 22

Two days into spring and it certainly didn’t feel like it. The temps only got up to the mid-20s and the wind was bitter. The sunset in southwest Turner County, however, looked warm and inviting.

March 27

A heavy wet snow fell most of the day. The weather system began to clear just before sunset allowing me to get some interesting images of Zion Lutheran Church and the area northwest of Wall Lake.

March 29

On my way to Fort Pierre, I saw thousands of snow and white fronted geese flocking at Lehrman Slough near the Spencer exit on I-90. It is always impressive to see so many birds concentrated in one little area.

April 6

Spring is knocking on the door again. The high temp is just under 70 degrees and I spotted my first pasqueflower of the year at Lake Vermillion Recreation Area. Only three blooms were showing and each was probably just a day or two old.

April 9

The temperature hit 81 in Sioux Falls. After work, I drove down to Newton Hills State Park to search for snow trillium. I’ve never seen or photographed this wildflower before, but according to the March/April 2014 issue of South Dakota Magazine, they grow on northward facing slopes under the trees. Sure enough I found several little clumps of the white flowers pushing through the dead leaf carpet. Another sign that spring is winning the battle of the seasons!

April 10

After work there was very little wind and the temps were hanging in the mid-60s, so I drove to one of my favorite known pasque patches in Hanson County. Clouds came up from the west to obscure the late sun, but the soft evening light and no wind made for unique conditions to take a portrait of our state flower.

April 14-15

A bright full”Pink Moon” began to rise just before sunset. It is called a pink moon because this is the time of the year when the wild ground phlox usually starts to bloom. Ironically this full moon turned to a blood moon just after 2 a.m., as a full lunar eclipse took place. I tried to use Sioux Falls landmarks to frame the moon shots including the Old Courthouse Museum clock tower and St. Joseph Cathedral’s spires. The night air was brisk, but the calendar now shows that April is half over. Spring must be here for good, right? Only time will 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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.

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Silver Lake Wildlife

By Christian Begeman

In mid-March I saw a post on a local birding website that 50-plus bald eagles were observed at Silver Lake, along Highway 81 north of Freeman, so I took the camera and long lens out to see for myself.

I set off after work on Saint Patrick’s Day. The evening sky was heavy with low and fast rain clouds that spit a few drops now and then. As I approached the lake from the north, I discerned many large and dark shapes in the trees that surround the little lake. The eagles were still there.

When I pulled into the roadside park I was surprised and thrilled to see an eagle perched right above the outhouse. A few snaps later he decided he didn’t like the looks of me staring at him from my car window and flew off. Later in the evening as I rounded the east side of the lake on a county road, a red fox suddenly appeared on the ice. My vehicle’s engine must have startled him on his evening hunt. We raced alongside each other for half a mile before I was able to get ahead of him enough to stop and capture a shot of his flight across the ice. Later that evening, I drove to a lone barn a couple miles northwest. The low clouds had parted enough on the horizon to let the setting sun through. A bald eagle photo and a sunset shot all within an hour. It was a good day.

I returned the following Saturday to see if the eagles were still around. Sure enough, I saw about 25 in the trees ringing the lake again. I also encountered a hawk hiding in plain sight in a tree adjacent to the roadside park. The edges of the water had receded and a number of waterfowl were enjoying the open water. I couldn’t get close enough in the broad daylight to get any interesting shots so I decided to get up before the sun on Sunday morning and plant myself behind some tall grass near the water’s edge to get a better view. Bald eagles typically are most active in the early morning, so I was hoping to capture them in action as well.

Sunday morning’s temperature was in the mid-teens. When I arrived at Silver Lake, the shades of color were just starting to change in the east. Cold and bleary eyed, I made my way down to the spot I had picked the day before only to discover the water had refrozen. I relocated as best I could to the new edge of open water and waited. The eagles were already out on the ice and active. I watched a juvenile eagle catch a fish, fly up about 60 feet and then drop it. As he did this, another six or seven eagles flew from their perch to join the fun. Unfortunately for them (and for me) the fish broke through the thin ice and they could not retrieve it again.

Since most of the action took place when it was too dark to shoot, I didn’t get the photos I was looking for, but I did get to practice silhouette shots against an ever-changing colored sky. I also got to hear multiple duck species fly over and in front of me. The sound they made reminded me of bottle rockets whizzing past (don’t ask how I know what that sounds like). It was a glorious morning, and South Dakota at its finest.

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 South Dakota’s prettiest spots. Follow Begeman on his blog.