December 2023

Bare Tree #123
American Prairie, Montana
2023

Bare Tree #122
American Prairie, Montana
2023

Just Visiting
American, Prairie
2023

A bison that avoided the gathering for testing, stands outside one of the holding pens. Was he just visiting his temporarily incarcerated friends out of sympathy, or was he just enviously ogling all the hay those inside the pen had been fed?

How to Calm a Buffalo
American Prairie, Montana
2023

In November we went to watch American Prairie’s annual bison “handling” (a.k.a. roundup in more cowboy terms), which to my understanding is primarily necessitated because of agreements they have with the State of Montana and the local counties to do testing on a certain percentage of their nearly 1,000 strong bison herd every year. So they round up a certain number (~300) as gently as possible, run them through a series of corrals and chutes where they eventually end up gently confined into this squeeze chute where their blood is drawn, ear tags are attached (when necessary) and hair samples for genetic testing are obtained; all the while trying to keep them as calm as possible even to the point of minimizing the sight of humans. Understandably though, if you put a wild bison into a squeeze chute, they won’t be very calm at all. Surprisingly, one way to help calm them is to put your hands over their eyes, as this guy is doing. It usually settles them right down. Who knew.

Bare Tree #121 (The Cetacean)
Bozeman, Montana
2023

One of my favorite downed trees at our mountain house. I’ve photographed this whale-like tree various times over the years.

Full Circle
Bozeman, Montana
2023

…almost anyway.

Why Santa Needed Rudolf Last Night
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2023

“Then one foggy Christmas Eve…”

Bare Tree #120
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

Much like the nearby sandstone formations, this piece of driftwood mimics, in it’s own way, the effects of ocean waves and water on it’s shape. In this case even to the point of also mimicking the shapes of the crashing waves themselves.

Shore Acres #6
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

Shore Acres #5
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

Having recently spent time in and amongst the sandstone formations of southern Utah, it had me thinking again of the section of the Oregon coast we visited earlier this year that surprisingly (to us) had some similar and in its own way unique formations. So I’ve gone back to do a bit of comparison.