Hitting the Road
Bozeman, Montana
2011
As soon as I post this, I’m on the road to Wichita. I’m hoping to see nothing but dry pavement on the way there. It won’t be as photogenic as this, but it makes for more relaxed driving.
Arrested Development
Livingston, Montana
2011
I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, take a run-down defunct hotel on the corner of the two busiest streets in town and convert it into an upscale condominium complex. Then the real estate bubble burst. Now there is an empty defunct condominium complex on the corner of the two busiest streets in town.
In the Morning When I Rise
Bozeman, Montana
2011
I took this photo of the sun trying to burn through the fog as it came up over the ridge behind our house a couple of days ago as we were on the way out our front door headed to a cafe over in Livingston for our usual Sunday morning breakfast. The title is from a Kenny Loggins song. It’s an appropriate title, but not my favorite song so I won’t post a video of it or anything. Too bad we weren’t going out the back door instead of the front door. Then I could have posted this just as happy but less sappy song from roughly the same era:
Spring Blossoms
Bozeman, Montana
2011
Quite a ways south of here, I hear Bradford Pear trees are inundating neighborhoods with springtime boughs heavy with white blossoms and covering the ground with windblown drifts of petals. Here in the Rockies, we’re still getting the same old white blossoms and drifts we’ve been seeing all winter. At least ours don’t smell (although it really stinks to wake up in the morning to see yet another snowstorm in progress).
My cousin sent me this video. It has nothing to do with photography but it so made my day I had to post it just in case it might do the same for someone else. If this is (as Lawrence Welk calls it) a modern spiritual, I want to join that church!
Window Abstract #2
Wilsall, Montana
2011
Here’s another image from the little series on thegrain elevator in Wilsall that I had going before all that hospital business interrupted my photographic train of thought.
There’s a lot of really bad art-speak out there and I usually just ignore it, not wanting to make light of someone’s serious effort to, well, sound serious. But it’s 3:00 a.m. and I can’t sleep and it’s put me in an ornery mood so I’m posting this description of an upcoming photography exhibit at a well-known venue that will remain nameless. I’ve also changed the name of the photographer because I don’t want to denigrate any specific person, just this strange genre of writing that is far too common. Otherwise though, it is a direct quote:
Most of this come across as nonsense to me, a randomly arranged sequence of buzz words and catch phrases tenuously strung together with questionable grammar. Here’s the sum total of what I learned from reading this exhibit description: this photographer takes photos. If you are more versed in art-speak than I am, perhaps you can provide a more detailed translation into common English.
Patriot’s Dream #15
Pony, Montana
2011
Maybe this is stretch for the flag series I’m working on, but those posts in front of the hitching rail are painted in a red, white, and blue flag motif.
Last Year’s Harvest
Bozeman, Montana
2011
I haven’t gone the pictorialist route with any photos in a while. This shot of wheat stumble from last year’s harvest has kind of an Andrew Wyeth look to it.
Let It Be #5
Bozeman, Montana
2011
One last shot from the hospital, and I hope I don’t get any more opportunities to shoot there for a long time–let it be, indeed.