A very active thunderstorm glows in the light of the setting sun. I was very happy that this particular storm did not head my way, as the weather report stated it had produced golf ball sized hail and at nightfall there was virtually non-stop lightning. It was neat to see the structure on the back side, captured here at 400mm from a safe distance in Badlands National Park. The storm was moving pretty rapidly southeast, viewed from almost due south.
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A female bighorn sheep steps up on the slopes of "the wall" in Badlands National Park and peers at a surprised photographer. The ability of these interesting animals to walk along the steep slopes was impressive, and they seemed to be little concerned with the wanderings of people nearby.
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The winding edge of the Wall, a 100 mile long stretch of cliffs partially in Badlands National Park, shows of its stripes in the light of a South Dakota sunrise. This scene is one of my personal favorites from my trip to the Badlands due to the tricks the horizontal lines play on my mind. It seems almost like the whole scene is split into scanlines. The Wall is a formidable obstacle rising up out of the seemingly endless expanses of South Dakota.
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The first light of the day is sweeping across the edge of the Wall in Badlands National Park. At the head of a tributary valley a lone tree rises up above the grass while the Moon above drifts toward setting. I spotted this scene just down the road from a viewpoint where I had been shooting the sun rise. The alignment of the Moon over the tree compelled me to stop and take a shot in the warm morning light. The soft golden grass obscures the 230 foot cliff just beyond the tree, part of the Wall which stretches on for hundreds of miles across the dry grasslands of South Dakota.
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A bighorn sheep has just stamped out a bed on the slopes of The Wall in Badlands National Park. Here he will spend the night from this high point with a view over the park's expanse of wilderness. Behind him is the rest of his small herd which have also laid down for the night. The next morning when I returned to this place the sheep were all still here.
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