Back from a rather crazy camping trip. Crazy in ways both good and bad. Decided to spend a weekend in the Black Hills since Chris (INTOtheRFD) had been through a couple long rough weeks of work and wanted some down time. There were also storm chances every day/night, which were very enticing. And ever since Chris and I visited there for the first time in late 2012, we started thinking about moving there. Since Sarah (JupiterLily) is here now, we figured what better opportunity to show her what could possibly be our future home?Left Friday morning to meet up with Chris, and headed west on I-90 through South Dakota towards Rapid City. Looked like an okay chase day, and stuff was finally starting to fire west of the Black Hills as we reached Kadoka. Headed west and south into the Black Hills, only to watch our storm die before it got to us. This would soon become the theme of the trip 
Called it a day and shot the sunset at Sylvan Lake.
Called it a day and shot the sunset at Sylvan Lake.
Also stopped for a quick shot of Cathedral Spires on our way back to the campground, because some eerie low clouds were hanging over the peaks.
Set up camp for the night only to be woken up by a nocturnal supercell. Yikes! Had a solid 60dbz core roll over our campground, bringing small hail, heavy rain, and nearly constant lightning flashes. That was a fun first night. Luckily our tents were relatively sheltered by trees, so it wasn't a major issue.
On our second day, we decided to hike Cathedral Spires. Took a shot of Sarah hiking since she didn't think she could handle the terrain. She could 
We then made the mistake of going to Deadwood, a town that we had all looked into moving to. Deadwood is usually a charming little mountain town, but during a couple weeks of the year... not so much. Loud, busy, and full of people. More specifically, men compensating for the size of their genitals with loud motorcycles. During the couple weeks that the Black Hills are home to the Sturgis motorcycle rally, it's not exactly a fun place to be for those who enjoy peace and quiet. Sort of ruined Sarah's image of Deadwood by taking her there during the worst time of year... but maybe some ground can be made up by showing her the beauty of the hills in the fall
Called it a day and headed to Hill City to pick up some groceries. Hot dogs, bacon, and popcorn roasted over a campfire were on the menu for this evening. Props to Chris' fire-building ingenuity (used steel wool, a battery, and accelerant to start it) and cooking skills. I later provided entertainment for the evening, by collecting pine needles and feeding them into the fire. They burnt up ridiculously fast, and I think we both gained a new appreciation of the hard work crews do fighting fires in the pine-beetle-infested Black Hills.
Day 3, went to see Mount Rushmore. Also decided to extend our trip by another day since the SPC issued a slight risk of severe storms for the next two days.
Drove into Wyoming and discovered a cool little canyon area.
Eventually got on a storm, whose left split provided some decent photo ops for a short while, but the storm soon died after leading us on some very sketchy oil field roads.
And then... got a flat tire! Awesome! The thing was corroded on so hard that even double-team kicking it with the assistance of highway patrol couldn't get it off. Eventually though, I got resourceful and started banging away at it with my tripod, at opposite ends in rapid succession. Took a lot of work but finally got it off! And here I thought my old heavy tripod was just a burden.
Put on the doughnut tire and headed back into the Black Hills, but not before shooting the sunset in Wyoming.
Got a short but sweet view of the Milky Way that evening...
...Before a crazy outflow boundary overtook us in the hills! Had to composite two images for this, one of the lightning-lit shelf and another where lighting behind us illuminated the foreground. Coolest scene of the trip, and wait to process this one up to print quality!
Called it a night and got our tire changed in Rapid City in the morning.
Day 4 didn't have much to offer in the way of storms either, other than this brief supercell-ish structure viewed from Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD.
Another cell fired to our west as we hopped back on I-90 towards home, but again, it slowly shriveled and died. Storms simply didn't want to sustain themselves for whatever reason. Chris and I simply couldn't figure it out, and left us feeling confused. Hopefully the next time we go back, storms will be a bit more consistent
That's all the highlights! Certainly have more shots than that to share, but naturally, it will take a while to get through them all. As always, I'll update whenever I post a new image account over on FramedByNature.NET 
Keep shooting! 
