So My Co-Worker Brad and I were sent up to Williston ND for a commercial Photo/Video shoot and it ended up being a lot more time-effective (even though the first flight was delayed by an hour) than driving 3 1/2 hours there and 3 1/2 hours back. While I couldn't take any personal fun photos during the shoot (too busy doing work) I took plenty during our flights there and back! We were flying on a King Air C90 there and something slightly larger but still probably King Air on the way back. Really fun flying in the little plane with 3 other people and the pilot! There were 4 of us total for the shoot, Brad shooting stills, I was doing Video, and we had Mike and Ed from Shutter Pilots here in Bismarck ND doing drone footage as well! But enough with that, lets get to some super artsy photos! 

All taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 + 10-24 f/4 OIS lens or 16-55 f/2.8. That 10-24 was pretty much perfect for this since it was stabilized which helped a TON when it got super dark.

So I photographed a wedding at Lake Metigoshe, North Dakota this past Saturday. However, I went up there the day before to do some location scouting and just familiarize myself with the area a bit more in the summer, since the only other time I had been there was in the winter with my brother. Check out that post here! Quite a bit different in the summer, I have to say, but really really really nice, especially since it was a bit cooler out and some of the leaves are even starting to change. I was also shooting around very near to sunset, so the light was pretty spectacular!

I'll start off with one of my favorite shots though as the header photo, a curious deer wondering what on earth I was doing on his trail! Also, this is going to be a fairly long post, but I LOVE these photos!

All these photos were taken with my Fujifilm X-Pro2 and 50-140 f/2.8, 23 f/1.4, or 16-55 f/2.8. 

Flying from Minneapolis to Detroit we managed to get some pretty nice light out the window. Of course then the whole flight I was taking photos instead of doing something productive like playing my 3DS. 

All these photos were taken with my Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite and 14mm f/2.8 lens. 

I even managed to get a photo of a lightning strike from the plane!

Thanks for looking! I'll have some Chicago, Detroit, and Bird photos up at some point... IT took me like 2 months with my Indianapolis photos, so hopefully it isn't that long...

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios

So my friend Steve (who has had a cameo in a few of my blog posts here) decided that he would come see my wife and I on Sunday. He works for an Airline, so he can pretty much do what he wants, which is awesome! Anyways, since he was here we wanted to go somewhere outdoors that would be a good representation of North Dakota. So we decided to head to a park by the river, decided that was lame because it was super windy and didn't work for frisbee, then headed to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, on the other side of the river. So all in all a good day!

I'll start off with frisbee!

(All of the photos in this post were taken with my Fujifilm X-T1 and either the 23mm or 14mm lenses.)

But since it was super windy we decided to head across the river to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, just south of Mandan, ND. Totally wasn't expecting such a historic site, I was more expecting a couple buildings with some boards with some history on them. So I was pleasantly surprised. Also there were old train tracks, which are always nice. 

After said train tracks (which the path that went through them went nowhere), we decided to check out the rebuilt native american village just below the hill that the fort had been built on. 

And then we headed up to the fort. Or rather "forts."

Super small forts, more built as watchposts. Then we headed down to where the actual barracks and stables and such has been, as this fort had housed a cavalry division for several years.

That's all for now! These Fujifilm Cameras make awesome black and white images, too, which is why I was a bit... heavy-handed with it this time. Oh well!

Thanks,

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios

And Teddy Roosevelt National Park is pretty much looking exactly the same as it did in my last post (and the first one ever on my blog here!) That being said, though, we (my wife and I) did see a ton more Bison than we did last time, so this is like to be a bison-heavy post. It'll also be a very photo-heavy post, so be prepared for that...

This is going to end up being a 5-camera post, so plenty to look at! 5 cameras: Nikon D4, Nikon D3s, Nikon D7000, Fujifilm X-T1 Graphite, Fujifilm X-T1 with 8 different lenses. Way too much going on, but they do their jobs very very well. 

So many bison herds chilling everywhere. Lots to look at and take photos of. 

Unfortunately they close the long road loop in the park during the winter, so we weren't really able to get out here to get any pictures in the snow, but it still looks very nice in the spring and fall, and even better in the summer. We bought a year-long pass, which I am sure we will use when we come back this summer. It'll be nice to see the park green again, as it has been a couple years since we were there in the summer. 

There was a good amount of younger bison, probably around a year old or so. So not newborn tiny, but still fairly small compared to the adult ones around. While the light wasn't the best (especially compared to the last time we were here) it was still all right. Fairly soft light which leads to a nice lack of hard shadows. 

This guy has magnificent facial hair. Look at that finely groomed beard! 

Of course we couldn't get away without taking some regular landscape photos, as well. 

There is just something awesome about the Nikon D3s sensor. I don't know what it is, but it just gives great colors and a super nice overall look to the photos, something that my D4 doesn't really do. My Fuji cameras are definitely closer in quality to the D3s in that regard. 

There is definitely a distinct difference in the colors between my Fuji cameras and the Nikon ones. The Nikon cameras tend to give a more clinical image, whereas the Fuji ones give a more artistic one, if that makes sense. 

Anyways, as usual it was taking forever to drive around the loop in the park, since we were stopping to get out and take photos so much. But that was the whole point! Also carrying WAY too much stuff. 

We also were on the lookout for some of the wild horses that live in the park as well. While we didn't see as many as we did Bison, we still saw a few. They are way prettier looking than the Bison, as well. There was one brown one near the highest point in the park that was super photogenic with his mane and tail blowing in the wind. 

After moving on a ways we found more wild horses! We were getting pretty close to sunset, so this was going to be our last stop. This next one is another one of my favorites. 

This spot is generally the one that we tend to end up at around sunset, with a nice bend in the river that makes for very nice landscape photos. 

And of course you have to have a massive panorama! Click through the image to get to the full-sized image over on flickr.

And I did manage to get a good shot of a deer. 

That about wraps it up. I'll leave you with one more photo, though. 

Bison are weird. 

Thanks for reading, and thanks for making it all the way to the bottom, this post is a bit ridiculously long.

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios