Picture It I See photography

Picture It I See photography I am a freelance photojournalist based in Rapid City, South Dakota. I use sunlight and shadows to brig to life the imagines I see, Vast landscapes feel intimate.

I love wildlife, landscape, and street photography; my photographs tell stories about the world around me. In Joel Schwader’s photographs, light comes out of the earth as much as it does the sky. Animals look at us as we look at them. Tans and browns turn into radiance, natural shapes into abstract art, and abandoned buildings are full of the lives they once contained. Joel Schwader’s photographs

re-acquaint us with quietness. They are conversational and mysterious, revealing the world as both intimate and very large

Kent Meyers

My alarm went off early in the morning. I laid there in bed, not wanting to get up. It was still dark outside. Yet somet...
11/11/2025

My alarm went off early in the morning. I laid there in bed, not wanting to get up. It was still dark outside. Yet something inside drove my tired aching body up from bed.
45 minutes later, found me driving the gravel roads of the prairies of western South Dakota. I watched the sun creep across the fields of crops, bob wire fences and trees  bringing a soft gentle light into the world. Not really sure what I was looking for, but once I found it, I knew I would know it.
I had just driven by a stack of hay bales when up ahead I saw the sun shining bring to life, the sleepy figure of a red tail hawk. I really didn’t pay much attention to it. I figured by the time I got up to it it would fly away. Sitting along the fence line so close to the road usually turn these creatures into early flyers. They never stayed around for anyone or anything to get close. On this particular morning this Hawk continued to sit still as I got closer and closer and closer. I finally stopped my vehicle when he was even with me and I was looking at him face-to-face, maybe 12 feet away.
I stopped my van and picked up the camera on my lap. I paused, and I looked not just at his eyes, but its whole body. Its feathers seemed so soft everything about it caught my eye. It looked as tired as I felt. I did not want to disturb him anymore than need be. At least one of us should be getting more sleep. I snapped a few pictures then down the road I drove away quietly as I could. Watching in my rearview mirror he did not fly away it sat there.
On the road back into town, my mind kept drifting back to that hawk and the vision I saw. Where it was sleeping and living in a place he was born to be wild and free. 

To be honest, I can’t be anybody but me. I’m a loner. I can count my friends on one hand. My soul is older than I am phy...
11/11/2025

To be honest, I can’t be anybody but me. I’m a loner. I can count my friends on one hand. My soul is older than I am physically. I am a keeper of the past. My photographs speak of emotions and feelings, not with words, but with sunlight and shadows.
I miss talking to old people with old souls and old memories to share. My tomorrows are full of worries and my dreams are easily shattered. I’ve never felt good enough to fit in anywhere. I’m different. I see things and feel things differently than most people. I can’t change that. I won’t change that. My home is the prairie, and I cry out loud.

They say the eyes are but a window to the soul. If that is true, and I believe it is. This fox must have a beautiful sou...
11/08/2025

They say the eyes are but a window to the soul. If that is true, and I believe it is. This fox must have a beautiful soul. I saw this fox on and off during the summer, but never really got close enough to get a good picture. About a week ago, I went out with my predator call. I wanted to see if I could call this fox in close enough to get a good picture. In the sound of falling leaves, I sat with my back against an old cottonwood tree. Before me laid acres of wild Prairie grass. I started blowing on the call, imitating a dying rabbit.
I saw from a distance coming in at a fast trot, weaving through the Prairie grass. I had my camera on a tripod perched in front of me just waiting for him to get close enough. From time to time he would stop, he would listen, his ears would perk up and then he would continue. He kept coming closer and closer and I should’ve stopped calling and concentrated on taking pictures. However I was curious to see how close I could get this fox to come in. The fox finally stopped about 50 feet in front of me. It was then I started snapping pictures. When I did something strange happened. The fox sat down for a few minutes looking at me with a puzzled face. His eyes were fixed on me. It was as if they were piercing through my soul. I started feeling a connection. 
Gazing into his eyes through my lens. I stopped taking pictures and started thinking. In every moment that fox lives, his life runs free. He was telling me his story through his eyes, and I was reading his story as fast as I could. Then suddenly he turned and walked away and disappeared into the tall grass from which it came. My eyes were tearing up. I was thinking about my rusty van sitting on the road almost a mile away. I was thinking about all the bills that I struggle to try and pay. I thought to myself life shouldn’t be this hard at my age. The last few months I’ve really been feeling sorry for myself. However, this morning, after reading the soul of a fox through his eyes, I suddenly felt like the richest man on the face of the Earth. In life, we find our joy and we find our grace. I was just spending too much time thinking about myself, and I lost sight of all that. That morning, things changed. My life changed. I changed. All thanks to the soulful eyes of a kind old fox.

The culture, the people they are as real as the sunrise or a cold north wind blowing across the prairies. For centuries ...
11/06/2025

The culture, the people they are as real as the sunrise or a cold north wind blowing across the prairies. For centuries they have followed the tradition of their ancestors. A proud people who remember the old ways with song and dance. Please take the time to share this album on your page.

Coming down the back way from Sylvan Lake Road, off to your right halfway down. There is an area called the lost cabins....
11/06/2025

Coming down the back way from Sylvan Lake Road, off to your right halfway down. There is an area called the lost cabins. The road to get there is rocky and rough and you almost need a pick up. I get down there in my van. It’s a road I should not be on but I am. You drive down into a deep dark valley and there are a handful of cabins owned by the forest service. I do believe they have 100 year leases on these cabins that people rent. I drive down here and I parked my van and I walk. I walk up this deep hillsides and sit on ridges. These are places I should not be for a man who suffers from balance issues. I always tell myself if I ever fall. Hit my head or tumble off the ridge at least I’ll die happy lol. Most of the time there are no people especially in the fall. The wild creatures that inhabit this country are mountain lions, red fox, gray fox, raccoons there are hawks and Eagles. They are free in what I like to consider my own little wilderness. I come here to think about life. I come here for solitude. This place takes away my worries. It was here where I shot my first ruff grouse, I trapped my first gray fox. i’ve seen mountain lions here. I’ve taken pictures of them. Today I came up here with my camera looking to clear my mind. My soul is troubled with worries that I will soon be homeless and living on the streets. So I came up here today to clear my mind of all those worries. Just sit somewhere and relax and forget about life. I was climbing up the side of the hill when I reached the ridge, I was out of breath. I’m too old and I still have way to much weight too lose to be doing such ventures, especially with my Balance issues. Today as I sat, and I caught my breath, I looked around and there on the opposite ridge. I saw him sleeping. He looked to be a gray fox. Still trying to catch my breath, I rest my arm on a boulder for steadiness and snapped this picture. When I pulled the picture up on my camera, I could tell the fox was sound asleep. At first I was kind of upset to think someone else found my spot, that I had to share this beautiful place with someone else. Then again, I thought to myself, it wasn’t with just somebody else. A wild creature of the night who I am sure struggles to survive just like I am, but under much worse adverse conditions I would think. I sat there, wondering to myself why do I try so hard to be a photographer to sell things to make money? I guess I really can’t do anything else with my Balance issues. I have a severe tremor in my left hand which prevents me from writing, holding things. The more I looked at the fox the more I wish I was like him. I wish I was free. I wish my spirit was as wild as his. After I took his picture I got up and left. He was here first, this was his spot, not mine anymore. I walked back down off the ridge clining to the trees, sitting on big boulders, one rock at a time. I made it back down to my van got in and left. It was a short respite from the battle I was fighting up above in the real world. I said my goodbyes to the trees to the birds to the solitude and headed back up the road to the real world, to the real struggles, to real life.

I didn’t see him at first. All I saw was the building in the background and I was wondering how I was gonna get closer t...
11/04/2025

I didn’t see him at first. All I saw was the building in the background and I was wondering how I was gonna get closer to get a better shot of the building. It wasn’t until I walked down into the ditch and I looked over at the house that I saw this robust bandit of the prairie sleeping sound as a baby. I wondered to myself why he wasn’t sleeping in the house to protect it self from the weather? The creatures of the wild their survival instincts are beyond incredible. They were born to face the elements of nature and everything it has to throw at it. after I snapped a few pictures and before I left, I decided to call my newfound friend “The Keeper” maybe he was a groundskeeper or maybe he was the keeper of the house. Whatever kind of keeper he was I do know this much today. He was sleeping on the job. 

his name is Theodore. He is 86 years old. He grew up on a ranch on the prairie of western South Dakota. He has spent his...
11/03/2025

his name is Theodore. He is 86 years old. He grew up on a ranch on the prairie of western South Dakota. He has spent his entire life living here. His looks these days or as wild as the South Dakota winds that blow across the prairie. His body is old and so is his mind. He can only remember things for maybe about an hour and then he forgets. He likes to visit the old Homestead. Although he can’t remember living here, his son said at times his body feels as though he knows this place. He places his hand along the wooden walls, as if he’s trying to remember and pull back memories from the splinters. He walks up to the windows and stares out to the prairie beyond the porch. He smiles from time to time. When he does his son said. I do believe his memory comes back in bits and pieces. I would like to think he feels young again when he walks these floors and touches the walls. I do believe he would spend all day here if he could. When I have free time, I walk him back out here. Somehow it brings a sense of peace and comfort to me knowing he can go somewhere and in bits and pieces feel the comforts of a house called home. 

it’s that time of year again, where the bucks neck swell up and they have one thing on their mind finding a doe to breed...
11/03/2025

it’s that time of year again, where the bucks neck swell up and they have one thing on their mind finding a doe to breed with. They throw all caution to the wind and it’s this time of year if you’re gonna get a good shot of a good buck Whitetail deer now is the time.

It sits there in the middle of the prairie. A forgotten piece of history. The years come and go, the paint peels, the ru...
11/01/2025

It sits there in the middle of the prairie. A forgotten piece of history. The years come and go, the paint peels, the rust covers and little by little it changes every day. I find treasurers like this, exploring the back roads of America one gravel road at a time.

10/30/2025

What a great day to be on the prairies of South Dakota

I took this picture more because of what I felt than what I saw. This eagle in the picture looks to be the epitome of fr...
10/29/2025

I took this picture more because of what I felt than what I saw. This eagle in the picture looks to be the epitome of free. He is soaring. he is flying to new Heights the places I can only dream about. These days it’s tough to make a living as a photographer unless you have business capital to get it started. Ive never been that lucky in all my ventures I ever did. I have been poor. I am poor and most likely I will die poor. People these days believe if they leave a comment on a picture you took will help buy you a gallon of milk or put tires on your vehicle let you buy clothes more than one year. All the comments all the well wishes they give me the strength to fly like this eagle. however, that don’t put food on the table. I have work lined up with different hospitals in different states. However, I sit here waiting for them to be finished being built before they can purchase the prints to hang in them up. It’s not easy being free like that eagle. Being self-employed means nobody is writing you a paycheck . Nobody is paying for your insurance or throwing you a Christmas party. It means every penny you make it all depends on you no one else. You cannot have a bad day and sit down and say oh my balance is too bad today. There’s no way I can do this. You have to get up and get things done because when you’re free like that eagle there’s no one else to depend on except for one person. I think you all know who that one person is. I would never have made it this far with my photography without the help of God. Everywhere I go, everything I do, I feel his presence. I know he is there. I guess you could say he’s my copilot when I’m soaring like that eagle to placees Unknown up beyond the heavens. Christmas time is coming people will go to Walmart. They’ll buy things on Amazon and say they found the perfect gift. Small businesses like mine we don’t have the prestige to go with the name to help sell our product not quite yet. So next time you sit down to order a gift, or run into a store to buy something and pull out that debit card remember us the little people the people who need your Sales a lot more than Amazon or Walmart. We could use the help to keep us up there soaring with the Eagles.

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Rapid City, SD
57701

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