When I first started in photography it was because I enjoyed exploring. To this day I still enjoy exploring and most of the time you don’t have to go to far away or be out for a long time. Thankfully we had a great storm come through over the weekend, because we need the water, and that storm produced some great clouds. After a morning of dealing with this and that I grabbed the camera and just took off exploring.
While it is true that if you want great shots of fields or rolling hills then you have to go where those places are but no matter where you live just going out driving, with a camera on the lap, is all it takes to get started. All these shots came from driving along the river and then over to another river. Now when I started I had the 70-200VR out with the D4 to isolate the spots of light that were contrasted against the grey skies. I quickly learned that was not wide enough and switched to the 24-70 AF-S. I like that switch.
Even though I’ve never been much of a flower person I love it when I find a set of rolling hills covered in flowers. Those great blankets of yellow, purple and red instantly just suck the eye in so no matter what is in the background or how bad the light is, there is still an option. With clouds not being as dramatic here I opted to show more of the foreground which had that vibrant yellow to it.
After passing the Gallatin River and the fields leading up to the Madison River, I went into a valley that I have always loved because it has just great landscape features in it. It’s amazing how different and how fast the clouds are moving between the thirty miles I drove. This entire exploration took only a couple of hours but the images speak volumes. That’s why it is important to not always be bogged down by projects and just go explore. You never know what you mind find. Best of all are the images that I didn’t put here and some of those will be coming later in the week.