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Pine Cone Still Life
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2022

It must have been the evening light that somehow made this not-so-special group of pine cones on a branch look quite attractive.

Golden Six Pack
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2022

Another magic hour photo from Yellowstone.

Bison Magic Hour
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2022

The POTD postings have been a bit out of whack for the last few days, partly because of operator error but mostly because we’ve been down in Yellowstone camping out of cell range, so notices couldn’t be emailed until today even though the blog entries themselves were scheduled for automatic posting each day. Everything should be up to date now. The silver lining in this posting irregularity is that now I have a few nice Yellowstone photos to share over the next few days, including this one of a bison enjoying the evening “magic hour” that photographers are always talking about.

Jupiter Closeup
Lincoln, Montana
2022

Actually corrosion and rust patterns, again on the teepee burner at Blackfoot Pathways Sculpture Park, the title of this image was a result of having recently viewed stunning closeup shots of the planet courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Neatness Counts
Lincoln, Montana
2022

This is a detail of one of the large outdoor sculptures at Blackfoot Pathways Sculpture Park. (I am remiss at not writing down or remembering the artist’s name as I should, so my apologies to them for that.) It’s made of stacks and stacks of old newspapers.  Besides appreciating it’s grand scale and regular repetition of design elements, I was very impressed with the neatness of the stacks. I can honestly say that in all my years of stacking old newspapers for recycling (back before I switched to digital versions), I never even came close to getting them stacked so evenly.

Meteor Storm
Lincoln, Montana
2022

Whatever imaginary planet these meteors are headed toward is in line for a whole world of hurt. (This is actually rust spots and corrosion on an old metal teepee burner at Blackfoot Pathways Sculpture Park.

Fledgling Confusion
Bozeman, Montana
2022

These two fledgling magpies seem to be struggling a bit with the transition from being fed to fending for themselves. They’re so used to another bird just sticking food in their beaks for them I can imagine it’s quite a shock to suddenly not have that happen anymore and how that might spawn some frustrated acting out of previously very familiar moves. Or maybe that’s not what’s going on at all. My inherent tendency to anthropomorphize may be biasing my interpretation the scene.

The Red Shutter
Dubois, Wyoming
2021

Given yesterday’s focus on the color red, I thought this photo would be a good followup. The dominant feature of this image is of course the bright, bright red color of the window shutter, but I need to also acknowledge the dominance of red’s complementary color green for it’s supporting roll in ensuring the shutter color really stands out.

The Shape of Things
Bozeman, Montana
2022

This is another rather random assortment of objects that resided on our kitchen counter (for too long the Fashion Queen might say) before I got around to taking them to my studio. My main interest in these objects for this photograph were the two dried flower blossoms. I was intrigued by their shape, form, texture and color altogether though the title of the image suggests it might be just the one thing. Something regarding their color might actually have been a better choice on which to base the title as it is of particular note given they are dried blossoms from a yellow primrose plant. When in full bloom, the blossoms are a lovely shade of yellow (not a surprising fact given the name), but for whatever reason when they start to wilt and die, they immediately start turning this striking red color.

Early Birds
Bozeman, Montana
2022

Fall color season is nicely underway here now, but I picked these three leaves up out of the yard several weeks ago while I was talking to our neighbor. I thought it was odd to see three brightly colored leaves very near each other when everything on the trees around us was still green. I thought it was strange to find these leaves then and the neighbor probably thought it was strange I was picking up a few leaves lying in the grass, but to his credit he didn’t say anything about it, probably because it didn’t rank particularly high on the list of strange things he’s seen me do before in the pursuit of good photographs. The leaves were not nearly so curled up when I found them but they sat on the kitchen counter for quite some time before I got around to photographing them.