A stone's throw (or two, or probably three) from home sits the Matheson Wetlands Preserve. I don't go there often, but I do go there. Inevitably, the only thing I shoot there is what I've come to call 'Dark Mansion.' True, there are birds and deer and skunks and everything else you'd expect to find in a wetlands (though in truth, the place is seldom wet), but its only Dark Mansion that draws me in. Even though its neither a mansion nor it it overly dark.

Until you go inside.

Two multi-image panos and a six image focus stack. Altogether, the only images I shot today.

The following photos were taken at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota. The shots were taken this past summer in very bright sun and temperatures near 100 F. The museum is mostly outside and consists of many well maintained aircraft and rockets going back more than 75 years. The main attraction is the B-1 Lancer Bomber which is currently housed and operated out of Ellsworth Air Force Base. While we were there, we got to see 2 bombers fly overhead and eventually land at the base - a very exciting sight and very loud too. The museum is free and is approximately 5 miles east of Rapid City; Mt. Rushmore is approximately 40 minutes away. The displays are well maintained with paved walkways; excellent for individuals with mobility issues.

All shots made with a Nikon D5200 and a Nikon DX AF-S 18 to 149 mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED lens. Some minor post production processing performed to remove some haze, minor blemishes, and minor cropping. The windshields in the aircraft are either painted or covered with a plastic material Therefore, the windows are in their natural state and don't necessarily look the best. Still interesting to be able to walk right up to these historic aircraft and actually touch them.

We took our first trip since being locked down March 2020. Since it was planned and taken in a couple of weeks we tried desperately but could not get passes to drive into the park on the West side. So we drove around to the East side from Kalispell to get into the park. We were there June 23-26th.

Our first stop was at the Goat Lick on the Southern end of the Park.

It was so interesting to see these goats climbing all over a cliff face to lick minerals from the rocky crags. We ended up stopping there three times during our stay. Here are a few of the photos for your entertainment.

Steve

My wife and I volunteer at our local shelter to work with the kitties. Since I have been shooting photos for over 60 years, I thought that maybe I could help the kitties get adopted by making pictures of them and post them on facebook. "Shooting kitties" has been great fun and bloody for me(at times). There have been some very interesting shots over the past 7 years. This one, this week, really caught my attention. I surprised this fellow and he wasn't ready for his portrait. Thus he tried to inform me to go way. I didn't take him seriously but I still wanted to show his surprise. These two shots are of the same fellow 2 minutes apart with a few calming words between them. These were shot with Nikon Z6 II and kit lens.