Seems as though my job is taking me to western North Dakota more and more these days but few things other than the drive are getting old to me.  As many of you know I love it out there, it will always be home to me.  Last weekend as I was trying to force myself to get up and start the day (in my defense I had spent nearly 13 hours driving 325 miles shooting wells the day before!), I decided my incentive would be to take in the sunrise.  Peeking out the window was all it took for me to grab my camera and head for my car.  It was a beautiful frosty (yes frosty!) morning with low lying fog along the Little Muddy River which runs right by my dad’s house.

It used to be that I would be the only one out and about at that time of day but with all the oilfield traffic those days are over!  So my morning wasn’t quite as peaceful as I would have liked it but it was still glorious!  I drove to the Little Muddy bridge and started shooting these wonderful images of Rick’s cows walking through the fog.  It didn’t take them more than a few minutes to realize I was standing there so here they all came in search of a morning snack….or so they were hoping!  Sorry to disappoint you guys but thanks for posing for me!  🙂

After mingling with the water trucks, oilfield trucks and the cows I headed back up the hill to take it all in.  “Dad’s road” has been one of my favorite images to shoot for years now.  I love the curves in the road and the depth of field with the lone tree by the river.  And of course it wouldn’t be a shooting session without something oil related.  The flame from the well at the end of the road looked extremely fascinating with the fog in the background.

It’s hard to believe that it ended up being over 70degrees that day but that’s North Dakota for you in April!  I couldn’t have asked for a better day on the Bakken!