July 2020

Sky View #1
American Prairie Reserve, Montana
2020

We spent four days camping on the American Prairie Reserve. While the nearby Missouri Breaks contained a lot of topographic variety. The prairie campground we stayed in was in what Tom Petty would call “The Great Wide Open.” While there was lots of interest to look at up close on the prairie (plants, flowers, prairie dogs, etc.) , the far view could look pretty uniform. So we looked to the sky for our entertainment and it was more than accommodating while we were there.

Prairie Firewood
American Prairie Preserve, Montana
2020

Trees can be found in some abundance in many the coulees in the Missouri Breaks, but it can be far from a homesteader’s cabin or a modern campground for that matter. That makes generations old fenceposts that are no longer suitable or necessary for holding barbed wire worth collecting for firewood. Besides the convenience of using what’s at hand, these posts–being mostly pine and juniper–smell a lot better in a fire than cow chips or buffalo chips do.

Summer Camp
American Prairie Reserve, Montana
2020

The homesteaders who built this cabin on the edge of the Missouri Breaks used it in the summer to monitor their herd of 80 cattle. I believe it’s the first log cabin I’ve ever seen from such an early time in Montana’s history that had been stuccoed on the outside.

Getting the Evil Eye
Camp Creek, Montana
2020

Enjoying a nice lunch under a pavilion at a picnic area along Camp Creek, it felt like we were being watched. Looking up, I saw this wasp nest staring down at me.

Polar Opposites
Malta, Montana
2020

Words of Warning
Malta, Montana
2020

Sticky Geranium #3
Bozeman, Montana
2020

As I searched back among my older flower photos, I noticed that while the prevalence of various varieties has changed over the years, my photographs of them show remarkable similarity over time. Other than it makes these posts look kind of like reruns, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Dandelion Explosion
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Given the explosive mindset July 4th always brings around, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine this dandelion as a bursting fireworks shell. Happy Independence Day.

False Solomon’s Seal #3
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Like yesterday’s forget-me-nots, false Solomon’s seal is another variety of flower that I think yields some quite dramatic results when rendered in monochrome. I usually think it’s best to choose either color or black and white for a photo and not to present both to the public because it makes you look indecisive as a photographer. But I’ll make an exception for this photo because, while the monochrome version is striking, the color version is, well, strikingly green.

Forget-Me-Nots #3
Bozeman, Montana
2020

I mostly post color photos of wildflowers, but it’s fun to work on them in black and white as well sometimes.