Hanging Around Custer and Hill City, May 2011

While visiting the Custer area in 2011 we stayed in Custer at the Big Pine Campground.  This was our second stay there, and we're pretty satisfied with the place.  We like to stay at the very back of the campground for the privacy, and we saw deer in the pines through our rear window every morning and evening.  I'd rather stay at the Bismark Lake Campground which is part of the Black Hills National Forest and right outside Custer State Park, but at 37 feet we're just too big to be getting around in there, plus I think $19 a night is a bit steep for no facilities, you have to use a private outside waste station nearby for a fee, no electric, no showers or flush toilets, nothing! Beautiful little campground though, and so convenient to CSP.  It would be an excellent place to workamp and when we trade down to a 30 footer and go full time it's going on my wish list!

Besides being engrossed with the wildlife at Custer State Park we took the time to go into Hill City and walk around this time.  If you're into shops, they've got them! I'm not much of a shopper on vacation, but I did enjoy this sculpture of "Iron Star"  by John Lopez on the sidewalk. Apparently Hill City has a Sculpture in the Hills show and sale and this piece was such a hit in 2009 that the Arts Council purchased it and installed it downtown probably not long before we saw it. Now I'm thinking if we go back this way again we should time it for the sculpture show...

Even the guys like art like this

Rare sighting of me in background!

Great details hidden in this sculpture.

To see a gallery of John's work go here, it's worth the visit. I know I'm making a list of places to see more of his work, just like I did for Peter Toth.

Hill City is also where you can hop aboard the 1880 Train and take a ride to Keystone and back. My mom and dad took the trip while we got ahead of them in our truck and waited down the track to see them pass by.  It was pretty neat listening to the whistle coming down the track and we heard it long before we saw it.

I'm betting there's more to discover in Hill City.  Anybody have any tips they want to share?

And while we're talking about tips, how about photo editing tips?  I bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 a year ago, also bought the manual online, and find the manual and the online tutorials so overwhelmingly complicated that I have yet to edit a single photo.  I tried to edit the one with the face hidden in the sculpture due to a large sun flare spot in the image and after MORE THAN AN HOUR going back and forth between the internet and the manual I gave up and just cropped it in closer.  The program is so needlessly complicated that I couldn't even figure out how to save or dump any changes I made, much less remove the sun spot.  I got a layer open, but couldn't figure out how to adjust the color of the sunspot even with directions.  Anyone willing to give me an in-person workshop? I'm willing to drive...up to a point!  So frustrating to spend all the money on software and not be able to figure out how to use it!  So, as usual, all my photos are straight-out-of-the-camera except for basic cropping or light exposure adjustment.  Not too shabby, I know, but I've been shooting in RAW for the last 3 years and would love to be able to rework some images someday - Grrrr!!

On top of all that I have an annoying spot popping up toward the top of all my recent photos no matter which lens I use...thinking I have to send the camera in for a cleaning of its interior workings, seeing as how it was dropped in the creek, the sand, off boulders, etc.  Also thinking maybe it's time for a better camera, which will probably make for some better images but still won't fix my Photoshop problem! Why haven't I been to a Kenosha Photography Club meeting yet?  I'm thinking maybe it's time to network and get some guidance, don't you?