This year’s family vacation was a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We drove out on Saturday and on Sunday started by visiting The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. This was an interesting museum with dozens of mammoth fossils. After lunch we drove up to Wind Cave National Park. This isn’t the summer to visit this particular park; the elevator is broken and no cave tours are taking place. Nevertheless, Wind Cave is just as impressive above-ground, with ponderosa forests mixed with stretches of open prairie. We took a hike on the Wind Cave Canyon trail, and this shot on the walk became my favorite image of the week.
Prairie Track
Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at 18mm, f/8 at 1/250, ISO 200.
Digital Darkroom. This image needed work. Shot in late afternoon, the sky was bright, and the meadow was lost in shadows. I started by fixing the foreground. I boosted exposure by +1.5 stops and gave contrast and textures nudges up as well. This left the meadow in good shape, but the sky was blown out. I used a brush to lower the exposure by over two stops to bring it back into balance.
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 