A little Smashing Pumpkins lyric reference for y’all there. The song “1979” is a dreamy little tune that’s been on my mind lately, and 1979 is the year that I first returned to North Dakota. Today a few photography buddies and I piled into a vehicle and pointed our headlights at the dawn for real, exploring some of the Prairie Pothole Region northeast of Bismarck-Mandan. The photo above is a wide shot of the sky that greeted us.

We stopped many times and took photos of many different objects, but I’ll stick with this stop for now. The rest will be in future posts. This windmill happened to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy a blazing sunrise, and we were able to capture the moment from a dirt road adjacent to the land upon which it stood. Four guys, all with Canon gear but a variety of lenses, each digitized the scene through their eyes.

In a closer look at the top of this windmill, you can see that we weren’t the only ones appreciating it on this bright and early morning. The early birds, perhaps already done getting the proverbial worm, were present as well. On the wide open prairie there are few places to perch, so this was likely a frequent haunt for local feathered friends.

The crew on this trip include my friend Mike, the walking Encyclopedia Photographica, who’s on the mend from major back surgery. You can’t keep a good man down, and he’s the glue that holds this ragtag bunch together. He and I were able to dash down some gravel roads on Tuesday night in my truck, and hopped out a couple of times for some photos. It was the first time he’d walked uneven ground since his surgery, and it marks the new beginning of some awesome pictures! It’ll also mark the resumption of my photographic education. After all, I’m just a newbie at this…and learning is half the fun!