I had no real plan.
I’ve been finding a bit of joy with photography recently. Not in a sense of “I’m good at this”, but as a way to look around for the opportunity for:
finding compositions in nature
look at lighting and shadow in a unique moment in time
practice more with filmmaking without needing a whole team to do it
I also enjoy traveling. So with an extra Friday off, I took to a weekend to explore South Dakota (and a part of Wyoming) completely by myself. Well, myself and a camera. And my pink cooler I got the day before the trip at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I typically will travel with a small 50mm prime on my camera but I did want to challenge myself. Since this trip would lend itself to landscaping I locked on a modified Contax Zeiss 28mm f2.8 and that was the only lens I brought.
I had a list of places I wanted to see, but no itinerary. I made it up as I went. It makes me a terrible travel partner but hey I was by myself on this one!
Did I learn anything from this experience? I’m not sure. The 28mm focal length is considered by some “weird” or awkwardly wide compared to normal vision. I quite like relation of background compression to the field of view. I also found myself wishing I could get closer to the monuments.
I also think the biggest challenge was to make sure what the subject was in the photo. Some of my photos would seemingly be about nothing. Also contrasting shadow and light is much easier to me on the 50mm focal length.
But I sure did come back home with experiences. I saw some views, I prayed for my car to continue keeping on, and I forced myself with a shooting style that isn’t typical for me. Hope you enjoy some of these captured moments.
