Needles Highway is one of my favorite drives through the Black Hills , especially the area surrounding Cathedral Spires . On this particular day , I had been setting up my art show booth at the Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival , the end of September . I wanted to venture out to Cathedral Spires in the evening in order to capture the eastern sky that would be lit by the reflection of sunset . I arrived just in time to set up and explore the area a little before taking this photo as the sun continued it ' s decent and the colors deepened , as well as highlighting the golden tones in the rock and trees of coming fall . Photo by Cristen Roghair
Cristen started her actual business as a photographer after marrying her husband-rancher , Marty , and returning to South Dakota . She loves what Marty does and helps where she can , but ranching was his business and not hers . So she decided to jump in with both feet and make a go of photography .
Also in the art world , there is an underlying expectation that one who pursues photography as a career will become a portrait photographer . So , not knowing anything else , that is where Cristen started out .
She did weddings , senior photos and more , but she was still shooting film at the time and said “ there was a lot of stress , especially with only so many exposures on a roll of film and not being able to see any of the shots until after they were developed .”
Cristen , a self-described introvert , said the stress of large gatherings of people and the joy she found in photographing while alone led her to drop the idea of portrait photography altogether and focus solely on landscapes .
“ I love going out hiking alone and appreciating God ’ s creativity ,” she said . “ It took me years to narrow down what I wanted to photograph , but I do think it ’ s an important decision .”
After the birth of Marty and Cristen ’ s daughter , Shiloh ( they have an older son , Jacob ), she began to “ settle ,” she said .
She has a story on her website of a mare that constantly wandered off , always unsettled , until she has a foal to ground her and keep her at home . That ’ s how it was with Shiloh , she said , and her birth marked a turning point in her life .
“ I started seeing the prairie differently ,” she said . “ And suddenly I felt as though I belonged here . Sometimes I think God made the prairie just for me . The sounds , the smells , the light patterns , the quiet ... I felt like I could finally rest .”
Focusing on landscapes has allowed Cristen to simultaneously appreciate God ’ s creation while creating her own photographs that tell their own stories .
“ There ’ s this time of day where the hills to the west are dark and the hills to the east are highlighted by the sunshine ... it ’ s moments like those ,” she said she loves to capture .
Cristen ’ s father had given her all his darkroom equipment and there was a less-than-ideal place to set it all up in their home on the ranch , so ultimately , Cristen stopped shooting film and now shoots digital .
But all those years spent with film and only 24 exposures to a roll taught her to be very intentional with her shots . So now she does a lot of her work before even taking a shot , whereas many photographers do the bulk of their processing after shooting . Because of her learning on film , she leans toward creating more in-camera than relying on heavy postproduction , although that is also part of her creative process .
“ There ’ s this idea in photography that in order to be authentic you either have to do zero processing to a photograph or process in extreme , but I fall somewhere in the middle ,” she said . “ I ’ m not editing in different skies into my photos . I ’ m working with the actual sky when I took the photo . All photography is artwork regardless of the amount of editing that goes into a photograph .”
The first time Cristen sold a photo was at the annual Vets Day Murdo Christmas Fair . She sold some cards , she said , and thought it was great .
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