Friday Postcard: Custer State Park

My first photo safari with a digital SLR

Custer State Park, South Dakota (2005) | ©Jason P. Odell

I’ve mentioned before that although I’ve been shooting exclusively digital for almost 20 years now, I wasn’t what you’d consider an “early adopter.” DSLRs started showing up in the early 2000s, but I was content shooting low-speed slide film until the camera technology caught up to what I was using then, a Nikon F5. By 2004, Nikon had released the 4 megapixel D2s, a pro-level camera designed for sports photographers. As someone more interested in landscape and general outdoor photography, I waited until the Nikon D2x was released before getting a real DSLR.

The Nikon D2x was a 12 megapixel camera with an APS-C sensor. Nikon would not release a 35mm “full-frame” DSLR until the D3 arrived in 2008 (it was announced in August of 2007). Despite its limitations by today’s standards (limited resolution and dynamic range, poor high-ISO performance above ISO 400), it was exactly what I wanted. A pro SLR body with a digital sensor. I quickly adapted to the D2x as it wasn’t all that different from shooting slide film. I still employed ND grad filters at the time, which came in handy with landscapes.

My first “real” experience with the D2x came in October 2005, when I joined a photo safari hosted by Nikonians.org. I’d been with this group a year earlier when I was still shooting slide film with my Nikon F5. We went to South Dakota for a week, and we shot in the Black Hills (Custer State Park), and in Badlands National Park. This photo is from that trip, in Custer State Park.

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