The blogger who uses the pseudonym Stupidity Hole is our guest host for this week’s challenge. The quote I pulled from the challenge is, “What are quiet hours? Among many things, this can mean an empty space. It can be a sense of stillness; a lack of action; an absence of presence within a frame. Quiet hours are often associated with the time before people are waking up and getting about, but it doesn’t have to be an area framed by darkness.” You can read the entire challenge post here.

I’ve attempted to accomplish each of the points made in the challenge, starting with a day-to-night conversion that I shared on my blog, which was edited using Lightroom on an iPad. The shot was captured in the afternoon, and two cyclists were performing some maintenance on a bike. Given that they were the only people around at the time I took the photo, I thought I might change the backstory to a broken bike, early in the morning, and they are waiting for the bicycle shop at the former Great Northern Train Depot to open. My true purpose was to learn enough about Lightroom on the iPad so that I could take a month-long trip without my laptop computer and still be able to save and edit photos. The photo is best viewed on my Flickr site, as it has a black surround. You can click on the image to view it more easily, or you can visit my gallery of photos for this challenge here.

We spent a long weekend in northern Minnesota in the spring of 2017, partly for a business meeting and partly for a weekend break. Early Saturday morning, I was up with the early birds, scouting locations that would offer a good sunrise view. As I walked the boardwalk behind one of the resort units, I noticed the still waters and took the shot above. In all the time we walked around the resort that early morning, we saw no one else. I’d have expected to see a fisherman or two, but it was definitely quiet hour that morning. I hoped the incessant click of my camera’s shutter didn’t wake anyone up. >grin<

Wandering about western North Dakota around sunset, I happened to see a cowboy riding the fences high on a ridge, or maybe he was just on his way back to the ranch house after a hard day’s work. I exposed the image for a silhouette and then converted it to black and white with a sepia tone in Silver Efex 3. I cropped the image to a square format, leaving a large area of sky to enhance the minimalist nature of the image.

Back in Fargo, only a few days before the Autumn Equinox, I was up before dawn and spent some time at the gym. That’s unusual for me to be so early, but we had a busy day ahead of us. When I left the gym, I noticed the blue hour was about to give way to the dawn, and I was just a short distance from the Red River. I headed straight east to park along the street and walked down to the river level. This quiet hour shot is one of my favorites from the project. I spotted the sun peeking through the leaves of that large tree and framed the river, the trees, and the prairie grasses in the early morning light.

In 2018, we were in Bismarck, North Dakota, and we found ourselves high on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River as it flows between Bismarck and Mandan. The park is Chief Looking’s Village, a historical site and natural retreat. It holds deep historical significance as a former Mandan Native American village, dating back to around 1500 CE. The site is named after Chief Looking Glass, a respected Mandan leader from the late 1800s.

The photo was taken at Sonali’s Garden, a beautiful and peaceful memory garden situated adjacent to Chief Looking’s Village. The garden was created by Sonali Seth’s parents in her memory. It was there that Lynn and I met Dr. Vinod Seth and his wife, Aruna. They shared the story of their daughter Sonali, who passed away as a young woman of 32 years. We shared Chai Tea with them as we spent a quiet hour honoring Sonali’s memory.

Finally, to round out my response to SH’s challenge, I had to feature a library. “Shhhh. Quiet voices, please.” This photo is a view from above the reading room at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

That’s all of my images in response to SH’s Quiet Hours Challenge. Thanks to SH for hosting and providing the team with a worthy challenge to share with all the lens artists who follow our weekly challenges. Before our Independence Day break, Ann-Christine hosted her “Looking Back” post, which will become a regular series. Next week, Egidio hosts as we return to our regular rotation. Be sure to follow Egidio here so you don’t miss his challenge, which goes live on Saturday at noon Eastern time in the United States. If you’re unsure of how to get started with your own challenge responses, you can find out more information here.

John Steiner