South Dakota trip pics

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Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Did you stop at Devil's Tower? Wall Drug?

Did not. I guess I need to make another trip.
smile.gif




I think he was joking. Devil's Tower is in Wyoming.

Well, it's about 1.5 hours drive from where I was, so definitely driveable if I had more time.


Yeah, we did it as a day trip from the Black Hills area...not too bad of a drive.
 
Originally Posted By: ChevyBadger
I saw Crazy Horse probably 15 years ago and it looks unchanged..


That's about the time frame of when I saw it last. Yep, it looks unchanged from my photo's. I was guessing at the time it might be another 200 years before it's done.

Of course the other thought is that it's huge. Mt. Rushmore would just about fit on Crazy Horse's forearm. I was also struck by how small Mt. Rushmore seemed when I saw it the first time.

OP, Devil's Tower is not far away, and is worth the drive.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: andyd
How close were the bison ? Great pictures. Thank you

Some of them were really close... within 10 feet of the car.

There were pastures full of them in some places.

The bears were also just as close, sleeping or walking by the side of the road, although they were on a much smaller enclosed private property that you could drive through. They had a bunch of cubs as well, but they were mostly sitting in a shed with poor lighting so my pics of them did not turn out too well.


We were at a camp ground outside of Yellowstone, it was early morning probably around 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. I went outside to go to the restroom facility and walked RIGHT BY a huge bison. It scared me for sure! Those things are huge.
 
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Did you stop at Devil's Tower? Wall Drug?

Did not. I guess I need to make another trip.
smile.gif




I think he was joking. Devil's Tower is in Wyoming.

Nope. I made the assumption he was maybe going cross crounty, but it is still close.
I have been cross crounty 6 times. From Washington to NY.
Have had the trailer to Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore and as far east as Wisconsin.
 
I'd been trying to go to the Black Hills area since 1998 and finally made it in 2011. One of my better vacations.

+1 on the trip to Devil's Tower. I don't remember how long the drive was, but 90 minutes sounds right. I actually got more out of that visit than I'd expected. I got lucky and visited Crazy Horse on a "blast-day". The South Dakota Air & Space Museum was also worth the stop.
 
Maybe it is because I'm from wyoming but I would never recommend someone go 1.5 hours completely out of their way to see Devil's Tower. It is neat to see it but it takes about 5 minutes to see it. If you drive by, sure, stop and check it out but in no way would I say it is worth its own trip.
 
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Maybe it is because I'm from wyoming but I would never recommend someone go 1.5 hours completely out of their way to see Devil's Tower. It is neat to see it but it takes about 5 minutes to see it. If you drive by, sure, stop and check it out but in no way would I say it is worth its own trip.


It is because you are from Wyoming... Plus Close Encounters.
 
Devil's Tower is totally worth it. Grew up in Gillette, so every relative that came to visit from FL got the full tour - Devils Tower, Black Hills, Custer & Rushmore. I lost count a long time ago of how many times I've been there. The walking path around it makes for a nice hour or so of nature walk.

Quattro, you're not doing the nature photography correctly. While you did take some amazing pictures, you're supposed to intrude on the buffalo's personal space (especially the mothers with calves), get them riled up and let them mow you down so you can be on the news. Big missed opportunity there.
 
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Maybe it is because I'm from wyoming but I would never recommend someone go 1.5 hours completely out of their way to see Devil's Tower. It is neat to see it but it takes about 5 minutes to see it. If you drive by, sure, stop and check it out but in no way would I say it is worth its own trip.
Well, I did the walk around the trail and all that so it took a bit longer.
grin.gif
And I like driving, especially on roads that have less traffic than I have to deal with around Chicago.

But I understand where you're coming from; I feel the same way about a lot of the touristy things in downtown Chicago.
 
Originally Posted By: ls1mike
Plus there is this.



Pioneer Auto Museum

Right off of I-90. It is worth stopping. I have stopped three times.

Lots of neat cars. They had a Tucker at one time. I have a picture of it...somewhere.
I have been a couple times also. I liked it also.
 
which lens?

I just took the plunge in to the mirror-less world for the upcoming A/UT trip. There is so much learning curve.
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
which lens?

All the landscape ones and the momma goat and baby goat one were taken with a Sigma 17-70. The animal ones - Nikon 55-300 AF-S.

I actually just picked up a Nikon 70-300 AF-P VR. It is quicker to focus and a bit sharper at max zoom, but still kind of soft. I suspect it's my camera at this point and not the lens. I've tried a bunch of 300mm lenses, and none of them deliver particularly sharp results at max zoom. I'm hoping to upgrade to a newer/better body this year.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Vikas
which lens?



I actually just picked up a Nikon 70-300 AF-P VR. It is quicker to focus and a bit sharper at max zoom, but still kind of soft. I suspect it's my camera at this point and not the lens.



Nothing wrong with your current camera body, many people think upgrading the camera body will improve picture quality, it's actually the exact opposite. You need a faster (2.8 or faster) better lens.
Think of it this way, ever buy a $10 pair of sunglasses and compare them to a real nice pair? That's what you're doing to your camera with your current lens. Since you're shooting Nikon I would look at the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6...ml/prm/alsVwDtl
Or if you're cheap maybe this Tamron Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 Lens for Nikon F https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1...ml/prm/alsVwDtl

Many places rent the above linked lens and that way you can try before you buy if you're unsure. People are blown away with photo's I have produced with a 10 year old, 8MP camera body with a current fast first rate lens. You could buy a $6000 Nikon D5, if you put a $200 lens in front of it you will get crummy results.
 
Originally Posted By: 1foxracing
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Vikas
which lens?



I actually just picked up a Nikon 70-300 AF-P VR. It is quicker to focus and a bit sharper at max zoom, but still kind of soft. I suspect it's my camera at this point and not the lens.



Nothing wrong with your current camera body, many people think upgrading the camera body will improve picture quality, it's actually the exact opposite.


Ive seen what this lens can do on other similar bodies. Yet on mine, it is soft at 300mm. That is why I think there may be something wrong with mine. Plus, I know I have a front focusing issue. On top of it, I want something with a bettering focusing system and larger buffer for shooting action scenes.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: 1foxracing
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Vikas
which lens?



I actually just picked up a Nikon 70-300 AF-P VR. It is quicker to focus and a bit sharper at max zoom, but still kind of soft. I suspect it's my camera at this point and not the lens.



Nothing wrong with your current camera body, many people think upgrading the camera body will improve picture quality, it's actually the exact opposite.


Ive seen what this lens can do on other similar bodies. Yet on mine, it is soft at 300mm. That is why I think there may be something wrong with mine. Plus, I know I have a front focusing issue. On top of it, I want something with a bettering focusing system and larger buffer for shooting action scenes.


You might try contacting Nikon to see if you can send your camera & lens to them to see if they can tune the lens to the body. I've done this with my 600mm Tamron. In my case I sent my camera with the lens and the Tamron folks tuned it to my particular camera body.
 
Yeah, i went through that with Nikon. Nikon claimed it's within spec and did nothing. Part of me wanted to move over to the Canon camp after that...
 
Originally Posted By: opus1
Originally Posted By: badtlc
Maybe it is because I'm from wyoming but I would never recommend someone go 1.5 hours completely out of their way to see Devil's Tower. It is neat to see it but it takes about 5 minutes to see it. If you drive by, sure, stop and check it out but in no way would I say it is worth its own trip.
Well, I did the walk around the trail and all that so it took a bit longer.
grin.gif
And I like driving, especially on roads that have less traffic than I have to deal with around Chicago.

But I understand where you're coming from; I feel the same way about a lot of the touristy things in downtown Chicago.


It just killed me when I was living in Hoffman or Elgin and read that the #1 tourist attraction in the Chicagoland Area was the Nike store downtown.
:^(
It wasn't even a particularly nice store, and I don't think many people actually bought things there.

For my family, Devil's Tower was well worth the modest drive. We walked around the perimeter and really enjoyed watching climbers making their way up the sides. This was also the first place my wife saw a real prairie dog town, an experience for which she had been waiting 40+ years.

But, the "attractions" near where one lives always are less impressive than they are to out of towners. Going to Sears Tower wasn't a big deal for me as a local, even to enjoy the Sky Deck or whatever it's called...I wanted to head to Cantigny and climb on the tanks, pub crawl around Wrigleyville, go to that hole in the wall burrito place that was just heavenly, etc.
 
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