July 2021

Selections From My Windowsill #1
Bozeman, Montana
2021

On a recent very hot summer day (we’ve been getting a lot of those this year) I retreated to the coolness of my studio and photographed various items that I’ve collected over the years and placed on the windowsills around the room. A lot of the items I collected just because I thought they were interesting but also thinking that perhaps someday I’d use them in a still life photograph or something. I guess that someday has arrived. I did not do any creative arrangement of combined objects, rather I just did mostly individual “portraits.” Most are objects from nature, but I also have some man-made objects as well.

I don’t remember where I acquired these desiccated strawberries or why I thought they were special enough to keep, but they do have some photogenic appeal I think.

Sheep Moth
Bozeman, Montana
2021

There is a sloping hillside area of our land that, originally covered in grass and sagebrush, has been gradually encroached upon by spreading snowberry bushes. Snowberry is a native plant in our area and there is nothing wrong with it in general, but in this case I did not like the fact that it was choking out the sagebrush and flowers so a few years ago I started mowing part of it. That has resulted in at least the grass and wildflowers returning each year and it perhaps is giving the sagebrush a chance as well. Recently in walking the area, I came across this striking sheep moth on one of the wildflower stalks. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one before, or if I have, it was a long time ago. When I looked them up on the internet, one source I read indicated that the sheep moth caterpillars liked to pupate on snowberry bushes (among other plant varieties) so I was feeling bad for whacking away at its habitat. But then another source said they are found in sagebrush areas, so I felt better about my attempts to defend our sagebrush from snowberry incursion.

Little Landscapes #50
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Fog moves across ocean swells.

Little Landscapes #49
Bozeman, Montana
2021

The moon over a tumultuous sea.

Little Landscapes #48
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Rust colored clouds at sunset above a sandy cove.

Little Landscapes #47
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Cumulus clouds hang above a calm ocean in this mussel shell landscape.

Little Landscapes #46
Bozeman, Montana
2021

I’ve worked on some more little landscapes from mussel shells. Most of them look like seascapes to me, probably because blue is the dominant color and of course because the mussel shells came from the ocean. In this one I see a big, curling wave forming on the left with clouds in the upper right.

Faux Fireworks
Bozeman, Montana
2021

This is not a photo of fireworks at all, but on Independence Day it is perhaps easy to pretend it is. It’s actually an example of what you get when you set the camera shutter speed to 30 seconds and then accidentally trip the shutter while you are moving the camera around while setting it up to photograph a full moon. This method of photographing fireworks has it’s advantages as it comes with no increased fire risk, something everyone in the drought-stricken west is hopefully thinking about today.

Mountains Above the Mountains Below
Bozeman, Montana
2021

A late day thundercloud forms above the Bridger Mountains.

Bare Tree #76
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Cloud-filtered sunlight lighting up the silver patina of downed trees is a hard photo-op for me to pass up.