For possibly my last update to this project I went back and did some reedits of a few pictures I had taken just before this class started.

I would like to thank Cory for putting together this great class. I would also like to say how much I liked checking out all of the photos you all posted. It was a great opportunity to get involved in such a talented community of people.

Here is the link to my Instagram.

http://instagram.com/masonstevens

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 1 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 2 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 3 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 4 - student project

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Today I was invited to climb the rock spire that was in my Horse Thief Lake pictures I recently posted. I have a fear of heights that just will not go away no matter how hard I try but I was not about to say no to an adventure. Before I nearly had a mental breakdown because I was scared to repel down, I took a few pictures from the top.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 5 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 6 - student project

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I looked out the front doors while I was at work today and noticed the hill across the street was completely covered with fog. I see so many amazing fog pictures on instagram and get jealous because we rarely get fog here so I got pretty excited. I snuck out of work 20 minutes early, raced home, changed into warm clothes, and headed to a nearby spot called M Hill. I hiked to the top as fast as I could to try and get up to the fog. By the time I had gotten there it had moved on though. I was still able to get some pictures of the fog creeping out of town.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 7 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 8 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 9 - student project ___________________________________________________________________________

I feel most people really miss out on a lot when they visit Mount Rushmore. The surrounding area is beautiful and most people don't take the time to check it out. One of my favorite places in the Black Hills, about 2 miles behind Mount Rushmore, is Horse Thief Lake. I took a walk around there today and these are some of the pictures I took.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 10 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 11 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 12 - student project

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Today a friend and I took a trip to The Badlands. It is an amazing place to hike around at but turned out to be a little difficult to photograph. If the lighting wasnt just right you would end up with a flat, tan landscape almost every time. Another problem came in editing. None of the filters in Afterlight nor VSCO cam worked with the scenery of the Badlands. I like to think I handled those two small challenges pretty well, and I like the photos I came out with.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 13 - student project

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 14 - student project

Some levitation occurred.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 15 - student project

Some cloning occurred also.

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Rapid City, South Dakota isn't exactly the hub of iphone photography or photography in general and that is exactly why I love it here. Though there is a lack of community as far as iphone photography exploring buddies, the amount of known and unknown spots in the area make up for that. The Black Hills has The Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, and Mount Rushmore all within 30 minutes of my home.

For this project I chose to adventure around Custer State Park. So this morning I talked my girlfriend into coming along and we headed to Custer, South Dakota on this cold, 20 degree day. Custer has been one of my favorite spots to explore for the last couple of years and I haven't even come close to seeing it all. Today we only ventured about 1/4 mile from the car before deciding to stay close as we did not want to freeze out there. I still had plenty of things to shoot, including my favorite model. I was drawn to this cabin resort that is shut down for the season.

Black Hills, With Hearts - image 16 - student project

Mason Stevens

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