The Road Less Taken
Bighorn Canyon, Montana
2022

This disappearing highway in a desolate desert setting, is actually photograph of dried scum on the side of a floating dock that had been taken out of the water for the winter. I’m sure this will end up being the background for a new composite photo–as soon as I can figure out what goes with it. In the meantime, I thought the base scene itself was interesting enough to post.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last few years photographing these dock floats because of the interesting impressionistic scenic landscapes they form. The Fashion Queen has teased me about going to such a scenic place as Bighorn Canyon and spending so much time photographing the likes of these plastic floats. I’m sure it’s resulted in some double takes from people passing by as well.

Dry Dock
Bighorn Canyon, Montana
2022

A high and dry float line demarking a swimming area on the reservoir at Bighorn Canyon. While the water level is low, with water drawdowns for irrigation etc., it’s actually not bad for the end of another dry year. In fact, we’ve seen it worse in just the last year or two when even in the middle of the season there was so little water in the reservoir the dam pool did not even reach this far upstream. Montana’s own little version of what’s happening at Lake Power and Lake Mead on the Colorado.

Shocking Phone Calls
Gray Mountain, Arizona
2022

I don’t know if it was the intended effect or not, but the lightning bolt style arms and legs on the hot pink character next to this phone made me think picking up the receiver could be a shocking experience.

Camel’s Foot Leaf
Bozeman, Montana
2022

I was doing some much-needed sorting through of miscellany in my studio a few days ago and came across this leaf (not the photo, but the actual leaf) in a portfolio of photos I took with me on my last trip to China some five years ago but had not opened after bringing it home. I don’t even remember picking up this leaf and saving it while I was in China but I know why I did–because it has a unique (to me anyway) and satisfying shape. As best I can tell it is from a piliostigma thonningii tree. It’s shape has spawned the more easily pronounced common name of camel’s foot tree. The tree is native to Africa but can be, and obviously has been, grown in China and many other parts of the world.

Flying Feeder
Bozeman, Montana
2022

Originally I hung this peanut butter smeared pine cone in the tree to attract songbirds. Instead it became a big attraction to the local magpie population who spent a lot of time trying to discover the easiest way to score some peanut butter with the least amount of effort.

Passing in a No Passing Zone
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2022

Waiting for some dawdling bison to finally stroll of the road in front of us, I noticed these folks coming up fast behind us in the other lane to join them.

Resting Place
Bozeman, Montana
2022

Lazy Moons
Bozeman, Montana
2022

In late September I read an article in the news about the planet Jupiter. It was something about it being brighter in the night sky than it has been for many years–or something like that, I forget the exact issue. Anyway, that night I went out to see it and was amazed not only that it was in fact quite bright, but also that I could easily make out four moons with the moderately decent pair of binoculars that we have. So then, just for grins, I grabbed my camera with its 100-400mm telephoto lens, braced it against a porch post and took this handheld shot. I’m sure that not even bothering with a tripod puts me in the running for the world’s laziest astro-photographer and you certainly will never see my celestial photos in Sky and Telescope magazine, but the results are still oddly pleasing to this former childhood astronomy buff.

Little Landscape #54
Bozeman, Montana
2022

Getting to the point.

Mystery Creatures
Bozeman, Montana
2022

I’ve see these snail shells with some regularity on our land, so why is it I’ve never seen a live snail that I can recall in the 40 years we’ve owned the property?

Conversing with an acquaintance in a bar down in Alabama years ago we got to talking about opossums. He said “I think possums are the only animal that’s born dead” because the only time he’d ever seen one was squashed on a road somewhere. I think I may have found another species that possesses that same strange characteristic. Regardless, they do make for lovely photographic subjects.