“And becoming mindful is an art. Before you can make good photographs with natural and available light, you have to know what’s there. It means noticing the small details of color and qualities of light. Every location has beautiful light, colors, and context, but not everyone sees them.” Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig
Iris
Water droplets like jewels on an Iris petal
Despite the Snowy Owls being elusive, Saturday was a good day. We were able to get out of town and into nature AND take a few pictures. Our day started about 8:45 AM and we got back to town around 5 PM and drove nearly 200 miles looking for these spectacular birds. Our turn-around point was the National Bison Range where I go several times a year, however this time there were few animals to shoot, but the scenery was spectacular!
Mission Mountains
Taking a break
Winter Tree stands next to the Pablo Irrigation ditch.
Pablo Tree stands next to the empty irrigation ditch.
One of the curses of professional photographers is the continual need to update and try to keep up with the quickly changing technological landscape. This goes for blogs as well as equipment, software and social networking. It has gotten to be quite insane with all the choices a photographer NEEDS to be successful or to just keep up. The treadmill we are on never stops. With that said I would like to say to stay tuned for upcoming changes…both here and on my website. We (my technical adviser: Christian Dorr) and I have updated our hosting service and in the future hope to install a storefront for selling Digitalmontana Photography art and images.
In just a few short weeks I will be attending another MPPA convention in Billings and am in the process of selecting images for this year’s competition. The selection process is always a PITA, but I have excellent mentors advising me. Onward, through the fog!!
Seven Silent Sentinals
I don’t usually post in my blog without putting up at least one image, but today is different.
In 2009 I attended a MPPA convention in Helena and met a gentleman from Texas, Larry Lourcey, who is a Master Photographer. He spoke on running a home-based studio, but that’s not what impacted me the most. It was his ART which appealed to me. One of his loan images was of a ballerina and I knew I had to try and do something with ballerinas…anything. On my way home the Ballerina Project was born.
Larry and I have stayed in touch since then and I’ve followed his projects and have found inspiration in them. He also has a YouTube channel where he posts tips and tutorials on Photoshop, creativity and other topics. He’s a busy man. One of his most recent blog posts was about Steve Jobs and Seven Life Lessons and what we are able to learn from him. Take the time to visit Larry’s blog and his YouTube Channel. Find out why he’s a MASTER. Good Stuff!
I have neglected one of the great natural resources of our area. For too long I have not visited what was once one of my favorite haunts: the National Bison Range at Moiese, MT. It takes only 90 minutes to drive there and if it’s done early in the morning, as I did yesterday, there is little traffic to contend with along the west shore of Flathead Lake, although I did run into school traffic at Pablo and Ronan.
As I approached the main gate from the East I found low-lying fog hugging the potholes and river bottoms around the Ninepipes area, although by the time I arrived at the entrance most evidence of the ethereal wisps were gone except for the shroud above the Flathead River.
The road which runs as a loop (open from May-October) is called the Red Sleep Mountain Drive is a 20 mile stretch of gravel road and takes one to such places as: Headquarters Ridge, Pauline Creek, Elk Park, Bitterroot Trail and Antelope Flats.
Yesterday was a perfect day! I drove the loop twice and was transported to a place I rarely find: solitude in the moment.
“Today’s photographer can survive without yellow page advertising & only needs twitter, facebook, linkedin, flickr, personal blog and a personal website plus a skill set of understanding html, wordpress, social media, social networking and social marketing.” Rolando Gomez
In early November I attended a MPPA M&M session in Bozeman, featuring Mark Bryant from Missoula. I broke the drive into two parts and spent the night in Helena with my niece and her husband (thanks Angie and Brooks!). Always one to take the ‘slow roads’ to where ever it is I’m going, if possible, I took a road called the Boulder cutoff road…because it goes through Boulder, MT (interesting eh?). I stopped in Boulder for a short bit and strolled a street market where local Hutterite’s were selling their produce. Just south of town is a resort called Boulder Hot Springs (amazing imagination went into the name, don’t you think?) which has a beautiful old building of Spanish/California style architecture. I stopped and photographed for a while, intrigued by the interesting lines of this old building.
Once back on the road I saw this old church, the St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. It was built in 1880-1881 by pioneers of the Boulder Valley area.
Once in Bozeman I had contacted a model for a shoot. Gabrielle answered my message and we shot in several locations and out fits. These are some of the shots we got from that session.
On the way home my mind was swirling with ideas spawned by the seminar and my weekly assignment: Unexpected Beauty.
Blessings,
D.
”Richly robed in gorgeous finery, and richer still her beauty; such the beauty of the Naides and Dryades, as we used to hear, walking the woodland ways.” – Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.453
On November 2nd I met with Ema and her sister outside of Kalispell on a friend’s ranchland for a shoot that Ema had been putting together in her mind for quite some time. She had explained it to me more than once but I couldn’t put it together in my head. We were racing the weather and earlier in the day it had been quite frosty, but there was some heat left in the sun rays later in the afternoon.
I hope that Ema and I can revisit this theme.
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Session two of Project 1:18 took place at Dawn’s home, a beautiful tract of ground just outside of town, nestled in the mountains and meadows. We are racing against the elements…and the cold is winning!
