1806_1432 Prairie Rose in broken shale
I liked the way the two ancient, exposed roots of Creeping Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) led my eye to a scattering of Prairie Rose (Rosa arkansana). Nothing on the ground in front of me cried out for an obvious photo op; there's no calendar shot here or anything to make a casual observer go "Wow!" And yet... and yet... somehow, the elements fell together for me in a way I really like, and at this point in my photography career that's all I really care about. A simple composition. No frills.
This is the prairie turf I traverse at all times of year, with variations. Sometimes I find myself slipping and sliding on bentonite clay. In places I find sandstone, mudstone, ironstone. I love the textures of cracked soil or mud along the river valley in the heat of summer, and I even love the snowdrifts of winter. More or less. (I would say that after four months of winter, I enjoy them less than more...) This entire area once lay beneath a shallow inland sea, and the badlands that have been exposed via water erosion (mostly via glacial meltoff at the end of the last Ice Age) are late Cretaceous deposits known as the Bearpaw Shale, or Bearpaw Formation.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
1806_1432 Prairie Rose in broken shale
I liked the way the two ancient, exposed roots of Creeping Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) led my eye to a scattering of Prairie Rose (Rosa arkansana). Nothing on the ground in front of me cried out for an obvious photo op; there's no calendar shot here or anything to make a casual observer go "Wow!" And yet... and yet... somehow, the elements fell together for me in a way I really like, and at this point in my photography career that's all I really care about. A simple composition. No frills.
This is the prairie turf I traverse at all times of year, with variations. Sometimes I find myself slipping and sliding on bentonite clay. In places I find sandstone, mudstone, ironstone. I love the textures of cracked soil or mud along the river valley in the heat of summer, and I even love the snowdrifts of winter. More or less. (I would say that after four months of winter, I enjoy them less than more...) This entire area once lay beneath a shallow inland sea, and the badlands that have been exposed via water erosion (mostly via glacial meltoff at the end of the last Ice Age) are late Cretaceous deposits known as the Bearpaw Shale, or Bearpaw Formation.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2018 James R. Page - all rights reserved.