We spent a day up at Buchanan Lake near Tow, TX, trying to get one shot … first there’s a vid of the early part of our setup:

This is a test shot of the scale-model skeleton …

This is the first burn test …

This is me attaching the fuse to the skeleton …

This is the first long exposure test with the front lighting…

Sometime around now, matt’s box flash took a spill in the drink (a pretty scummy pond), followed by his Nikon D700 taking a nasty fall in the mud.

This was the unintended result, a bit overexposed, eh? Well, we were outta time, outta patience and just a li’l bit frustrated. Oh well.

Vegas, helloooo again!

Zoo and I are on a little R&R and hopped over to Fremont for some photo ops and she-nan-i-gans.

Reminds me of my head.

Rub it…

Zoo spotted this bar, had a hunch and made a run for it.

Music wasn’t impressive, but I felt like we were transported to Portland, OR. It was so NOT-VEGAS, chill, firelit and filled with younger, somewhat less-skanky people.

And some beautiful people…

And fun people, some with sequin pants and mismatched shoes. Good times. Will come back, for sure.

Looked good in B/W, too.

Then the clouds rolled in and I tapped the brake lights a bit for local lighting. Hey, whatever it takes!

(apologies for the bad re-compression by Wordpress… the images are not icky like these show up…)

Stitching a pano from river sometime soon.

It was only fitting since I’ve already covered LODO, it was more important to meet some of the people that work and party here.

TONS – I mean LOTS of nightlife photos after the break.

First off, meet Danielle. She likes mining.

And when not mining, is a stunning woman. (OK, she’s still sexy when mining.)

She invited Zoo to mine.

And it was like a magical elixir:
 

So he started other prospecting:

Which was taken so favorably that he was rewarded with some dances on the bar:

Meet Beth – her husband works here (he’s on the left, and a damn cool guy). It took about two hours, but the gal with the best hair in Denver, a self-proclaimed pacifist, finally let one loose on him.

And it wasn’t the last.

During a smoke break, we met two incredibly intelligent and sexy women:

And Zoo just doesn’t know when to accept only a kiss…

Again demonstrated here:

All in all, this bar is downright fun.

Just watch out when they bring you the check…

Here is where we had our steak dinner:

Lots of shots after the break:
Here is Shadows – our bar.

Wish I had visited while they were open to get a cowboy hat and boots :(

These people are smart. Love it.

…and funny.

The capitol building is in the distance.

Here is the bar we decided NOT to go to…

Here is our hotel – The Plains

Mosaic in the sidewalk outside

Lobby

A real player piano…

Many thanks to the folks behind the counter for allowing me to snap some shots.

Can you See Zoo Broker’s profile in this one?

And drove down the mountain to find that industry never stops.

First off, we ate at the Firehouse Brewing Company and Michelle served up delicious Chicked Fried Steak for Zoo and a beef chimichanga for me. Spicy, good. I had the Beaver Brown Ale, which was soooooo good after a day on the road.

So, after some serious processing of the GPS data and time-lapse movie stuff, we split up.

Zoo went to the bar for “just one drink” and I headed out for some night photography around Rapid City.

Right off the bat, I met a friendly group of guys who wondered aloud why I was taking a photograph of an alley. Nice guys, except for the one who constantly was trying to get me to take pictures of his ass. Anyhoo, I got this awesome shot with Cowboy Jesus Christ in Art Alley.

So, I took a stroll around the block. Really, this was only one loop around the block. I totally enjoyed myself shooting at night in Rapid City. Interesting people, and a great variety of business, art and small-town emptiness. It was Sunday night, after all.

I believe there were three bridal shops in one block. Hmmm. That matches that we met two engaged gals in less than 24 hours, and were not in large crowds. But 3 bridal shops in one square block? Wow. The mannequins were awesome, though. Thanks for not moving.

There was an alley running behind the hotel, cutting the block in half that had a sign at each end labeled, “Art Alley”. There were so many tags and street art on the walls and dumpsters. Some amazing work, too. You can see the sign atop this image that was on top of our hotel.

And then there was the Brass Rail – open 2nd latest on a Sunday night. A gal came out as I was shooting, curious as to what I was doing. “Just on a road trip, taking pictures.” “OK – was just curious.” Maybe she thought I was a tweaker. In fact, there was one sleeping in the alcove just to the right (or I assume so – it seems like meth would be easy to find in Rapid City).

So, around the corner and back to the hotel for this HDR-combined shot of our hotel. That’s another story… A couple go tout of their car and asked if I was taking pictures of ghosts. LOLz.

Apparently, this hotel is famous for many things, including having presidents stay over. In fact, John McCain just rented out the whole place during Sturgis and pissed off a lot of people. I think we stayed in his room (and it smelled like dead bodies).

There is also the matter of apparently, this hotel is haunted. Alfred HItchcock stayed in one of the haunted rooms, and the Betsy, Sara and Darwin at the hotel were so helpful and fun. Sara let me into the AJ Ballroom on the second floor:

And here is what the main reception area looks like: