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The Blue Mounds State Park, in all its frosty glory, was featured on national television last weekend with video images on CBS Sunday Morning’s weekly segment, “Do Nothing for Two Minutes.”
Titled “Nature: Winter in Minnesota,” the video caption says, “Sunday Morning takes us out into the cold at Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota.”
Videographer Kevin Kjergaard captures park images that include frosty vegetation, a blue jay, social deer, young bison playing with each other and some healthy pheasant roosters trotting in a gray mist.
One of the short scenes captures an endearing moment between two white tail deer that lick each other’s faces when they meet in the brush.
“Some were in the park, others were heading into the park,” Kjergaard said. “I knew if I was quiet and didn’t scare them that they would find each other.”
He said he spent time in and around the park late afternoon Friday, Jan. 9, and he returned Sunday morning, Jan. 10, because of the frost.
“Some of the roads around the park held some amazing shots,” Kjergaard said. “Most were in the park. I really just stop and shoot when something stops me to shoot.”
While he’s no stranger to the Blue Mounds, Kjergaard said this was his first time shooting the area in winter.
“There’s so much in and around the park,” he said. “Looking out from the high points and just the area leading to the park holds little gems.”
He said he enjoys the Blue Mounds for the diversity it offers a photographer and for its historical significance to the area.
“So much of the past exists with the present,” he said. “And that can be found anywhere in the park.”
Kjergaard, chief photographer at KELOLAND, Sioux Falls, recently had other work featured on CBS Sunday Morning, including Spearfish Canyon last fall and geese migration in December at Lake Byron near Huron, South Dakota.