About the Image(s)

On June 29, 2025, my friend, Karen, and I headed up to the fire lookout tower at Cement Ridge, on the South Dakota/Wyoming border. The fire tower was constructed in 1940-41 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), replacing the original one built in 1911. The CCC was a U.S. Government relief program instituted after the Great Depression to provide jobs for young, unmarried men between the ages of 18-25 and labor for parks, forests, and historic sites. There were at least 50 CCC camps located in South Dakota, with a high concentration of them in the Black Hills National Forest. Some of the most beautiful bridges and dams in the area were built by the CCC.

While the fire tower itself is impressive, our photography interest was in the wildflowers that favor the climate and terrain at that higher elevation of 6,600 ft. This location is specifically known for lupine, wild roses, yarrow, aster, harebells and arrowleaf balsamroot.
One of my favorite shots of the day is this ladybug on an arrowleaf balsamroot plant. I took it with my Nikon D850 and Tokina 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens. Settings were f/22; ISO 1250; shutter 1/800 sec.; handheld. I did not focus-stack. Processing on my original image included Topaz denoise/sharpen, Adobe ACR, and Topaz Basic preset. After applying the preset, I reduced the yellow saturation and increased the red to showcase the ladybug. The lens provided the nice bokeh, which shows some of the colors in the wildflowers behind the balsamroot.

I have a specific interest in making creative composites. For some of them, I use my original photographs and backgrounds/textures I license through an artist in Tennessee. She distributes her work through her business, The Daily Texture. I am also including the composite I created using one of her backgrounds and several textures in various blending modes and masking in PS. She is a true artist and paints her backgrounds, either physically or digitally with paint programs. It is important to me that she does not generate her backgrounds with artificial intelligence. I am learning to paint using Photoshop and Kyle T. Webster's brushes available free through Adobe. I have been working at this for about 6 years, and am finally making some progress, but it has been painstakingly slow. It takes hours for me to make these composites, but it is very relaxing. The elements must all blend for a successful composite, including saturation, lighting, color hues/tones and paint styles.