Wild about Montana

We spent the 4th of July weekend in the Bear Paw Mountains of west central Montana.  The weather was outstanding and a beautiful morning beckoned me out to shoot the many varieties of wild flowers around our campground.  These are just a couple of my favorites from that morning.

Yellow!

A beautiful summer day and a trip to find wild flowers.  I did find a few including an elusive Ladies Slipper (in fact this is a first for me in this area).  The two photos may me also realize that I had a yellow theme going.  The two shots were also a chance to practice with my 60mm macro lens.

A Goldenrod Crab spider hangs out on a wild iris.

A yellow lady slipper along side the trail to Spearfish Falls.

May clouds aged

May clouds aged, originally uploaded by Sue Gannaway.

Storm clouds started rolling into Spearfish Yesterday. Here is a shot of Spearfish Canyon from Rosehill Cemetery. Again playing with some texture and aging effect on this particular photo.

Via Flickr:
Today's rain was predicated by rolling fog and clouds yesterday morning. Several shots overlooking the Black Hills from Spearfish.

Glorious Spring!

A great combination, a beautiful spring morning and blooming daffodils in one of our Spearfish Parks!
Here are a couple from this morning.  You can find more at my flickr feed.  

Butter cream daffodils shine in the sunrise

Bloom on black for drama!

Wyoming

Yesterday I made a side trip to Devils Tower through Hewlet.  As the storm clouds gathered I captured a couple of shots from around the area.

A Wyoming homestead under the gathering clouds.

Devils Tower from the north side of Hewlet, Wy

Spring?

We are starting to see some warmer temps between rain and wind here in Spearfish.  Today I traveled north of town to shoot a patch of purple crocus.  As you will see the one oddball was a 

yellow colored one on the edge of the small patch.  The garden also had a couple of cute little features that I incorporated into the photos.  Just a fun afternoon in the sun!

Snow and fog Bismarck, North Dakota

Last week I spent a couple of days in Bismarck, North Dakota.  While we were there the weather changed from sun to fog overnight.  Even though the weather was a bit colder than I am now used to, I decided to venture out and shoot some of the fog and ice at the Missouri River and the state Capitol complex.  Below are a couple of those shots and more are posted at flickr.com

Playing around

Finally getting around to working on some photos I took a couple of weeks ago on a quick trip to Pierre.  The weather was cooperative along Hwy 34 between Sturgis and Pierre except for the wind.  This group of photos are part of my learning curve with Photoshop, textures and blending modes.  My goal this winter is to get as comfortable as I can with Photoshop and experiment along the way.   Hope you think these are a fun result. 

Abondoned ranch house with a grunge texture over layed and a hard light blending mode.

The old schoolhouse near the Cheyenne River.  Sun was getting pretty low. Over layed with a blue texture.

A group of horses in a pasture dig for grass.  A black and white, tinted layer with a vintage texture over layed.

Arizona dreaming

With the cold moving in today I finished up some of my photos from our trip a week ago to Arizona.  Missing the 70+ weather already!   One of the fun moments there was while visiting friends in Green Valley.  Their backyard opens on the edge of a deep desert ravine and so the wild life comes right up into the backyard.  Of course I love birds and so got an opportunity to fire off some shots of several different types from what we see here in South Dakota.

Playing with photoshop

One of my goals this year is to get better with processing of my images in Photoshop.  So today with the snow coming down and too cold a weather to venture out, I played with two images from a recent stop.  The images were taken last week while returning from Pierre to Spearfish.  Because I had to make a stop in Rapid City, I took the cut off on Highway 34 through the little town of Cottonwood.  Not much remains, but its been a few years since I have been by there and the dwindling afternoon light drew me to try and capture a couple of the buildings left in town.  These included the church and the elevators.  Because the original images didn't seem as dramatic as I would like, I thought these would be fun to play with.  Here are the results.

Here are the elevators with a light brown paper texture.  I also used the orton processing technique to slightly blur the image and give it more pop.

Here is a texturized version of the church as well as using a crosshatch brush

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Christmas wishes!

 This will probably be my last post before Christmas.  This is just to thank everyone that follows my little wanderings and wish you all a wonderful and safe and beautiful Christmas season!  Today's photo's were taken this morning at my church here in Spearfish.  Everything is ready for the services this week. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Going Home, part 2

I finally finished up the best photos from my couple of hours at the old farm in North Dakota.  I have included the link to the flicker set that you can see them all.  For my interested family and friends, let me know if you want any print copies or a soft cover booklet that will contain all of the pictures.  Here is the link to see them at flickr,  The farm.

Here is one of my favorites of the old grain bins.  As a girl, these were my secret hideaway because it was far enough from the house no one could find me except the cats.  Sitting in the shade with a book or just picking flowers around them was one of my escapes (and when you have a family of 8 kids you want all the peace and quiet you can find).

Winter in the Canyon

With our snow fast leaving us in Spearfish, I headed into the hills and Spearfish Canyon to enjoy our warmer day today.  One of my favorite spots is the small dam just south east of Savoy.  Today's calm weather added to the serenity of the location.  The downside is that the days turn dark a little earlier in the depth of the canyon.

The water is so calm a ripple shows up on the open water

A close up below the dam face

Wild horses

I am trying to get caught up on images from the summer and fall.  Here are a couple of the wild horses from T. Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, taken in August during our family reunion.  While they don't appear to "wild", they are one of the several small bands of wild horses that run in the park.
The green grass is nice reminder of warmer days (hard to image how green it still was in August in the Badlands too).

It's Christmas!

One of my favorite times of the year and we have snow!  Tonight the DC Historic Fish Hatchery kicked off the season with luminaries, holiday lights and an open house.  Here are a couple of the shots I took to help you get in the Christmas mood too!

The managers residence

Looking toward the museum

November storm

Today marked our first "real" winter storm just in time to usher November out.  Reports of 8-24 inches in the Spearfish area and lots of wind kept me inside today.  But as the wind died and the sun poked out around 3:30 I couldn't resist and bundled up to take a couple of shots from outside my doorway and front garage area.  These shots may seem redundant but the beauty of living on this hillside and the changing seasons is a wonderful draw for me.  Wish I could get rid of a few of the high line wires and buildings that block my view of Lookout Mt. but can't have everything.

As I ventured around the front of the garage, a lone doe was making her way down from the hill into the little opening on the side of the town house.  These first two are of her.

She catch's me taking her photo

The click startled her and she was a little more wary

The remaining two shots are of Lookout and the twilight sun at 4:15. 

Lookout Mt from my driveway

Setting sun from my front walk

Catching up

With our snow coming today, I thought it would be a good day to catch up some editing.  So from a September jaunt to Bear Butte, here are a couple of my favorites from that afternoon.  In each of these I did some fun editing techniques.  The first, an old tractor and hay bales I used the Orton technique to soften the edges and bring out more color.  The shoot of Bear Butte itself was a little dull so I added some canvas texture to give it a painterly look.

November

A bed of leaves in Spearfish Canyon and some final color with a touch of texture.

On black with a bit of a paintbrush technique

Fall is here and the leaves are almost gone in the Spearfish area.  Before the winter comes in full I thought I would play with the leaves that are left.  Here are a couple of interpretations from the last week.  

I would love your feedback as always.

A natural shot of a dry leaf on black

Going Home

Early in September, I took a road trip to North Dakota, my home state.  One of the destinations was my original farm home near Northgate.  This was my first visit to the old farm in nearly 10 years.  Today I wanted to share just a couple of the images I captured in that visit. 

 Above is a look at the house and the old "smokehouse" that was one of the first buildings on the farmstead.  

 From the west side driveway, looking into the yard and north to the Saskatchewan, Canada border. The yard looked quite different as many of the trees have been lost over the years, including a huge evergreen that would have hidden the house in this view.

 The old pump is still there.  My best memory is the taste of the water from this well. It was the best tasting water I have ever had.   I helped carry a lot of pails of water to the house from this pump.

Still standing as sentry's over the prairie and just a mile east of the farm is the two elevators at Northgate.  The village is almost gone and the elevators are slowly crumbling. 

October in Spearfish Canyon

Spf Canyon Fall 1 orton-4416, originally uploaded by Sue Gannaway.

A brisk October day adds drama to Spearfish Canyon. The sun managed to break through for a few minutes and lighted the Canyon walls. I processed this with a technique called orton to soften and brighten the colors.