The Story Behind the Images: Blue Bells Sunrise (2001)

This is a continuation of my series - The Story Behind the Images - the stories about my favorite photographs as I remember them. I hope you enjoy and please share.

After finishing graduate school, I started my career in environmental consulting.  One of the first projects I worked on was at a refinery in Mandan, North Dakota.  During an extended field event in 2001, I spent a weekend in Theodore Roosevelt National Park to photograph the badlands, prairies, and wild horses. The wild horses were very difficult to photograph and required much more of a telephoto than my 80-200mm.  On one occasion after approaching a little too close, a stallion made it clear he was not happy with me so I decided to return to photographing the landscape.  

On the second morning, I was on the trail before sunrise.  I found these blue bells and knew the sun was going to rise over the ridge in the distance, so I set up the camera and waited.   Most of landscape photography is waiting.  This sunrise definitely did not disappoint.  I would have like to have gotten a little more of the trail that almost extends off the left of the photograph, but was happy with the sun burst that points directly at the blue bells - got lucky on that one.  This photograph really shows off the beauty of Fuji Velvia with all the saturation of the sky and green prairie.  

Photo Details - Nikon N90s and a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens on Fuji Velvia 50-35mm transparency film. It was scanned by West Coast Imaging using a Heidelberg Tango Drum Scanner. If you enjoyed this post please share and visit me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Flickr (links on the left). Thanks again. Jason C. Ruf

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