Land of Windmills
The Sandhills are easily one of my favorite locations to visit. They’re incredibly scenic, while feeling exclusive at the same time. They aren’t a popular destination for normal vacation goers, and so they feel like a well-kept secret. Every year we choose this location for an annual deer hunting trip. This year the final location was Halsey National Forrest near Thedford, Nebraska. I happened to also be shooting these photos for my final project in Photography 161, so it was really a very productive weekend for me.
Wide Open Expanse
One of the best parts of the Sandhills is how open and expansive the landscape feels. You can stand on the top of a hill and see everything around, with little to no obstructions to your perception. This opened up a grand opportunity for photography, especially with my favorite lens, the wide angle.
This image is really successful at showing the sense of scale that standing in the Sandhills affords you.
The most effective landscape shots have a meaningful and interesting foreground, and I really think my hunting gun leaning on a Yucca plant accomplishes that task well.
No trip to the Sandhills would be complete without a photo of a windmill. This year, I chose to attempt an HDR sunrise photo. I think it turned out alright, if not a tad fake feeling.
Vehicles
Another important aspect of the hunting tradition are the vehicles taken along. The roads out here are rough, and it takes a certain type of vehicle to make it through.
This is one my favorite photos of the group. There’s a real sense of something happening here!
I really like this one as well.
Thoughts
I’m really happy with the photos I got from this trip. My only regret is that I didn’t take more! Next year I’ll be sure to learn from this lesson and take as many as I possibly can, because you can’t always recreate the moment after the fact, as I learned with a couple of shots.