The Badlands at sunrise

ebwest

Frog Lady

I 1st looked at this and thought "wow, he's having issues w/ his camera" re the banding pattern - it's just so d*mn regular. Upon 2nd glance, I noticed the banding pattern was inherent to the rocks themselves. Pretty cool and neat pic.

Colleen

ebwest

Frog Lady wrote:

I 1st looked at this and thought "wow, he's having issues w/ his camera" re the banding pattern - it's just so d*mn regular. Upon 2nd glance, I noticed the banding pattern was inherent to the rocks themselves. Pretty cool and neat pic.

Colleen

I guess there is some geological explanation for the bands, but I don't know what it is and probably wouldn't understand if I did

Thanks for your comment.

jdfaith

Beautiful photo. If you don't mind my asking, where were you located and what kind of set-up did you use?

ziggy53

Now that's "Bad", in a wonderful, beautiful, splendid kind of way.

ziggy53

ebwest

jdfaith wrote:

Beautiful photo. If you don't mind my asking, where were you located and what kind of set-up did you use?

Thanks. I took it about a year and half ago, the best I can remember by looking back at the map is that it's on Rt 240 off of I90 in southwestern South Dakota.

I used a Canon 300D with a Sigma 70-300mm APO lens.

Frost

I grew up South of there in NW Nebraska. You are right about the location. The badlands of SD are about due East from Mount Rushmore, and kind of SE of Rapid City South Dakota. There are many fossils found in that area, as there is another outcropping of the "Brule Clay" just to the north west of Crawford, NE (where I grew up). The banding is different layers of silt and ash that formed a long time ago in this substrata, and then over time the erosion of rain and other weather eroded it to it's present state. If you go out in there and look real close you will find a layer of grayish clay layer that contains a large amount of Irridium. Below that layer is the Creataceous period with dinosaurs. Above it, no dinosaurs. It was left when a giant asteroid slamed into the earth aroudn the Yuchatan Peninsula, Gulf of Mexico. It snuffed out 90 % of all live, plant and animal on the earth at that time.

Also if you ever watch movies there is one with Val Kilmer in it as a star along with Graham Green called "Thunderheart" you saw parts of the baldlands. more info here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105585/

Also if you saw a movie called "Dances With Wolves" you saw an area just like where I grew up literally, and most of it was filmed within about 25 miles of the badlands of SD. That buffallo herd is owned by the 777 ranch, South of Rapid City also. Plenty of rattlesnakes in the area as well.

ebwest

Thanks Ziggy53, it's even more awesome being there.

Vern, thanks for the information, I think I actually understand what you said. I see by your signature you have a 4x5. I used to have one and, even though I probably wouldn't use it, I'm sorry I got rid of it a few years ago. When we moved into the motor home, digital was the only way to go.

evil eggplant

I also thought (at first glance) that your camera had a sensor problem
The bands of color are so perfectly straight. Great picture, I really like the way the sun is hitting the rocks.

Cheers

ebwest wrote:

marlof

I can only agree with the previous comments: I really like the light and the pattern in this picture.

ebwest

Thanks again for the comments.