Dualities #12
Beartrap Canyon, Montana
2015

I’ve been using the Dualities title to label paired photos of somehow similar subjects. But this photo made me realize that the concept can sometimes be fully expressed in a single image. (Compare the jagged ridgeline to the cloud above.)

The Woods Have Eyes
Bozeman, Montana
2015

If you stare at this log long enough, it’s not hard to imagine a sentient being lies within.

The Ragged Edge
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Another shot, this one in black and white, of the last light of day managing to breakthrough the overcast just as the sun was setting. Here a sliver of the Story Hills on the east edge of Bozeman is illuminated as well as the turbulent clouds on the edge of an advancing rain/snow squall.

Split Sun
Bozeman, Montana
2015

Lately we’ve had a number of cloudy days where, just at sunset, the clouds break up to let a few rays of sun shine through for a few minutes before it turns dark and provide some rather spectacular lighting on the mountains.

Red Aura
Bozeman, Montana
2015

It’s not often that I find a scene with subtle color that I am really attracted to that also doesn’t work, albeit differently, in black and white. I tried converting this one to black and white and it just didn’t do anything for me at all.

I realized that this image reminded me of, and perhaps was heavily influenced by, some of Elliot Porter’s more subtle photos of tangled woodlands that I was really drawn to in the late 60s and 70s. Here are two examples:

Redbud Tree in Bottomland
Eliot Porter Photo
1968

Red Osier
Eliot Porter photo
1957

Mirror Bridge
OTO Ranch, Montana
2015

Put Upon
OTO Ranch, Montana
2015

On the upside, that big branch is probably helping keep the roof from blowing away in a high wind.

The Back Door
OTO Ranch, Montana
2015

The OTO Ranch was the first dude ranch in the state of Montana. The name comes from the owner’s involvement in Ordo Templi Orientalis,. or O.T.O a religious group out of, not surprisingly, California.

Exposed
Cedar Creek, Montana
2015

For a plant to take root and attempt to thrive in the middle of a road is a dicey proposition at best, but death by erosion is not high on the list of expected survival threats.

If you are a serious photographer, especially of an older vintage, then the Zone System and step wedges are familiar concepts to you. It turns out that having a light bar of eight separate bulbs above the sink in your bathroom and a well-placed door can provide a real-life, albeit slightly imperfect and incomplete, illustration of a step wedge.