Belated Sunday Stills ~ The Elements

I missed this past week's "Sunday Stills" challenge. We were to photograph "the elements". I started the project. I thought I had some greats shots of Ritz drinking from the hose for my representation of "water", but they weren't as crisp as I'd hoped. And the overnight rain washed out what I planned to use for my "earth" picture. I took pictures of our jeans blowing on the clothesline for "air", but never did get any photos of fire. In a nutshell, I flunked the challenge and ended up posting nothing. But it continued to haunt me. I still wanted to play.


Today I was looking through the pictures from last year’s Black Hills vacation and it occurred to me I may be able to redeem myself in the challenge yet. I think I found all of the elements from our ride to Harney Peak.

In all the years we have been trail riding, the trail to Harney Peak – and the ride itself - ranks among my favorites. It was an all day ride. On our flatlander horses, we rode about 13 miles and climbed over 2,000 feet that day, to the highest point on this side of the Rockies. The pictures couldn’t capture the real beauty, but I’ll never forget it.

" Air"

I can still smell the freshness

"Water"

This was found just below the look-out at the top of Harney Peak

"Fire"

Might be stretching it a bit, but John is having a smoke...

"Earth"

Ginger resting once we reached the peak.