Bucket list: Cave Hills Church at sunset

There’s a photo I’ve wanted to get for years. My subject is the Cave Hills Church, situated at the base of an incredible ridge of rocks, at just the right time and from just the right place.

I’d been here before, and found myself totally enamored of it, but I’d never really caught the photo of it I wanted. I discovered this church after seeing someone else’s photo of it and painstakingly dialing in its location. Once I visited the first time – and it’s a long trip to get back there – I knew what I wanted. But how to get it?

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Hey! In Maddock

One of my favorite road trip activities is to exclaim, “Hay!” whenever we encounter a bunch of hay. Of course, as a city kid I’m not very astute at distinguishing hay from straw, so I had better be careful if I have a farm kid with me. Thankfully I was safe when I saw this beauty while rolling through Maddock a while back.

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Morning sunset

I thought I’d start my morning – and my week – with a post taken in the evening. This is the elevator at Arena, ND. I hadn’t been there in a while, despite its proximity to Bismarck-Mandan, but I had a dear friend in town from Florida and we wanted to get out with our cameras. I had a bunch of cool places marked – that house in Robinson I featured earlier, for instance – and this was the last major spot we had planned on the way home. The evening didn’t disappoint: lots of color abounded, and even a really cool set of clouds posed in the background for us!

She’s a brick…house

I’ve wanted to visit this house, located along the state’s border, for quite some time. I’d seen a winter photo of it somewhere, put my photogrammetry and detective skills to work to locate it, then sat and craved a road trip for months. I did finally throw my gear on my motorcycle earlier this year and venture down to the spot, and it did not disappoint.

I’m glad I was able to capture such incredible skies behind it! I was actually dodging thunderstorm cells on the way down there and back. I have ridden and even raced motorcycles in the rain, but I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed it. I’d definitely rather avoid it when I have my camera gear on board!

Another cool barn find

This barn was another which caught my eye on the way to another location. I couldn’t help but stop for a quick shot. This looks like many other barns except for that prominent feature in the middle. Pretty cool! It seems like all of these barns have their own unique character in one way or another, and this one didn’t disappoint. It was really eye-catching, perched atop a hill and facing that late afternoon sun with a solid, stately look which definitely merited a moment of admiration from this photo hobbyist.

Time for a windmill

Aside from a cameo in my last post, windmills haven’t made nearly as frequent an appearance on the old Blog as they have in times past. Heck, nothing has made frequent appearance here lately. The last two and a half years have been incredibly busy, to say the least. It’s time to get back into the swing of things. I actually have months worth of photos I’ve captured but haven’t had time to edit or post. Hopefully I can start getting caught up, but so far August has been the busiest month of all this year! Stay tuned.

Standing tall

Barn? Private elevator? I don’t claim to know, but whatever this old building is, it’s magnificent. I’d taken a wrong turn (don’t *ever* trust Apple Maps) on my way back to the highway, and while I turned around in what appeared to have been a driveway at one time I saw this. I snapped a quick photo from the window of my truck and went back to Google.

For my photography and route planning I use a hiking model GPS – two, actually – with an incredible amount of information on it, including section lines and rural roads. But they have no idea how to navigate them. That’s not their purpose. Besides, the phone apps are so darn good (Google, not Apple) and are continuously updated. So I have GPS for very specific uses, and let the mobile app(s) do the navigating.