I’m admittedly not the best baseball shooter, but sometimes I create an image I like. With this one, I like the dust. To me, it helps make the photo. The ball being dropped by the third baseman doesn’t hurt either.

- Ryan

Shooting the PBR a couple of weeks ago was great. You can’t help but make a good action photo there. What else could you possibly want? You have bulls. You have crazy cowboys. It’s a great mixture.
- Ryan

By Seth A. McConnell

The one thing you have to love about this business is how random it is and how you can NEVER count on anything. You can’t make plans (well you can but don’t plan on keeping them) and even when you pull up to your destination thinking your plans are going to happen something changes in an instant. That was tonight.
So there I was two seconds from getting out of my car and hustling down to Memorial Park to meet up with a few friends to enjoy the fireworks. It is the Fourth of July after all and whats the Fourth without fireworks? I was gathering up my gear my phone rang, it was editor Pat Dobbs on the other end. There is a full on structure fire on E. Hwy 44 and everyone else is indisposed… So I get the luck of the draw and my plans are officially changed…

It was an intense fire. Burning hay bales at an ag supply store. I was able to get a lot closer that I thought I was going to be able to and I was able to make the above frame when they sent a fire fighter in with a hook to start spreading the hay bales around and hopefully get the thing to start burning itself out.
I have both incredibly tight shots and a few wider ones showing more of the structure.

I ended up using the tighter image as I love the wall of flames and the compression using my 70-200 created.
So my night didn’t go as planned but I can’t complain when I get the opportunity to make images like this.

And through my apparently very dirty windshield I got to see a few fireworks…
As is said often you do this job because you love it not because its glamorous.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

I spent the afternoon making images at the Old Time County Fair in Custer. It was slow start to the afternoon for me and I was struggling to make images until I stumbled across young Mercedes Elliott above who was manning a booth where kids threw wet nerf balls at her head. I made several dozen frames trying to get the ball bouncing off her head and water exploding everywhere, the above frame was the best that I could muster. I think the water level in the bucket were they kept the balls was getting a little low. I got some splash but not a lot. Ms. Elliott coaxed me into putting my face in the hole and having a kid toss a couple of balls, naturally they made contact with my cheek and I got a little wet. It was all in the name of fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

By Seth A. McConnell

This is hands down one of the most bizarre images I’ve ever made and one of the strangest scenes I’ve ever come across. The concrete bust of President Obama is making its way from Houston to its new home in Lead and made a stop in Rapid City tonight. It was supposed to be in front of the Alex Johnson but wound up in the parking lot kitty corner to the historic downtown hotel. I spent 45 minutes in the parking lot hoping someone would come along to take a view of the over sized concrete bust but to no avail. I made several frames as I waited, shooting every angle and lens I had in my bag. This is not the best image I’ve ever made, in fact I’m actually cringing to put my name on it but there was not a lot I can do with a static object in an ugly parking lot. I do have some tighter images of the bust but the AP photos we ran last week were tight shots and there is an element of humor in this. How often do you see the 8 foot bust of a president bolted to the back of a truck?

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

The Black Hills saw its first official wild fire of the season when a lightning strike sparked a half acre blaze just south of Rapid City near Falling Rock this afternoon. I almost blew the call off when I heard it as we’ve had a massive amount of moisture this Spring and there was no way this could be true. It was a tiny blaze in rugged country and I almost didn’t make it back in but a neighbor on an ATV with the only public easement for the forest service road leading to the blaze offered me a ride. I didn’t catch his name and I didn’t get an opportunity to really thank him as he took off while I was shooting but it was a kind gesture and greatly appreciated. I didn’t make the most interesting photos in the world as it was a small blaze with little to no visible flames and a lot of smoke.
It was well worth the several miles of hiking to get back out of the fire area though. We had no fire season at all last year, it will be interesting to see what happens this year as we head into Summer this weekend and what July and August have in store.

-S

Old cars always make me think of my dad and going with him to Goodguys in the summer back home in California. If I could one day own a 1964 Mustang, I’d be a very happy girl.

by Kristina Barker

As I left work on Saturday afternoon, I made it as far as the burrito shop and then had to turn around and head back to work. A storm had been brewing for most of the morning and early afternoon. But by about 4 o’clock, as streams of cars are still pouring in downtown for Cruiser Nights, the storm was dumping good amounts of rain in Rapid City. We had word on the scanner that there was quite a bit of hail up on Sheridan Lake Road, so that was where I headed. Here’s a slideshow of my drive around part of the hills on Saturday.

by Kristina Barker

Sometimes at an assignment, you have no choice but to try out whatever it is that you are there to shoot. I didn’t really have time to say no, because not 20 seconds after someone handed me a rod at Trout Haven, I caught a fish.

by Kristina Barker

Took a drive near Whitewood on Tuesday on the way back from an assignment in Belle Fourche that was canceled. It was rainy and gray.

by Kristina Barker