Welcome to my blog, in which I post photos from recent travels and photography ideas.
These are posted irregularly, so log in at your leisure to catch my latest ramblings.
June 4 - Billings to Yellowstone
This post is covering our Sunday travel. I apologize for missing yesterday's posting. I won't bore you with my excuses, but I hope to get caught up tomorrow, after another long day of photographing in Yellowstone today.
On Sunday morning we left Billings and headed to Yellowstone via the north east entrance over the Beartooth Pass. This photo I made in Boyd, Montana, just before Red Lodge. We stopped to photograph an interesting exterior of a shop along the highway.
This is the owner, Ralph, with Oreo.
After breakfast in Red Lodge, we headed for the pass, which climbs to an altitude of almost 11000 feet at its summit. Here are just two of the photos I made on this drive. The first shows the road in Montana. The second one illustrates why this pass is not open in the winter. This photo of Ward on the road was made in the Wyoming side.
We entered Yellowstone just after the town of Cooke City, and drove through the Lamar Valley and eventually to Gardiner, Montana, where we had booked rooms for the next two nights. That evening we spent photographing at Mammoth Hot Springs.
This is one image that I made of selected details of Orange Spring Mound. There numerous others, so this is just one example.
Our last stop was to photograph some of the terraces of the springs area.
June 2 - Badlands National Park to Billings
We were out very early this morning in Badlands National Park. Today was still windy, though the winds were not as fierce as those of last evening. But we had to hang on at times when wind gusts suddenly threatened to blow our tripods over. Hanging on to our hats was another issue.
As we approached the park, the sun disappeared behind heavy clouds, but lucky for us, the sun soon began to filter through.
This image shows the first rays of the sun lighting the landscape.
This photo is in full sunshine, with some nice clouds still in the sky. These clouds eventually dissipated, leaving us with harsh bright light. But by then we'd had a good three hours of photographing.
After this we came upon these two Bighorn rams.
We then returned to Wall for breakfast, checked out of our room, and hit the road, I-90 to Rapid City (coffee and lunch at Panera, a stop Veda and I are familiar with). Then the drive took us north west through Wyoming, into Montana, and the night in Billings.
Somewhere in Wyoming, along I-90.
Tomorrow we plan to cross the Beartooth Pass into Yellowstone. That could be an interesting drive!
June 1 - Wall, South Dakota
We drove south this morning through Minnesota. The day was bright and sunny, but we did stop for the occasional photo op. This image of wind turbines was near Marshall, Minnesota.
We next stopped in Luverne, Minnesota, at the Brandenburg Gallery. Jim Brandenburg, a long-time National Geographic photographer, was born in Luverne, though he now lives in northern Minnesota. After spending some time in the gallery, we connected with Interstate 90, and headed west into South Dakota. The temperature at one point reached 35C. Our destination was Wall, where we would get a room and then venture into Badlands National Park. Though it had been windy all afternoon, after our arrival at a motel, the winds became fierce, blowing sand around and making standing outside tricky. The temperature dropped rapidly to 20C. Even with the nastiness of the weather, we were not deterred, and headed into the park. Immediately after the park entrance, we saw Bighorn ewes with eight kids. It was entertaining watching them romp around playfully, but it was difficult trying to photograph them.
These images I made in Badlands National Park. We plan on returning tomorrow morning before resuming our trek west.
May 31 - Day 2 of Westward Journey
This morning in Marquette, Michigan, was cloudy with threats of rain. These conditions were the norm through the Upper Peninsula. This area revealed a plethora of abandoned decrepate buildings. These are probably attractive only to photographers.
Here is Ward photographing one of a group of cabins in Ely Township. He likes to announce that these were our reasonably priced rooms for the night. We think that neither Sharron nor Veda would choose to stay here.
These barns of a past era are located in Covington, Michigan, the neglected remains of an old Finnish farm.
As we entered Wisconsin, the skies began to clear. Sunny conditions are disdained by us photographers. We carried on through Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota, and headed in a south westerly direction, through St. Cloud to Willmar for the night at a Day's Inn. We "dined" in our room, with wine (me) and rum (Ward) with cheese, pate, and Miss Vickies chips - an elegant dining experience.
We'll begin June, with a target destination of Wall, South Dakota, from where we'll have access to Badlands National Park.
May 30 - First Day on the Road
This is a photo of the photoers as we are leaving my house this morning, with the SUV packed for the road.
Ward flew into Sudbury from Nova Scotia yesterday evening. At the airport we encountered our former colleague Bob Little.
We had a dinner last night of ginger-crusted pork tenderloin with maple mustard sauce and the requisite bottle of Cotes du Rhone wine, and chocolate mousse dessert. After some catching up on news and some story telling, we hit the sack so that we could get a decent start in the morning.
We did not get very far before the trigger fingers began itching. After all, that's what this trip is about. This is our first photo stop - near Webbwood. Old and derelict cars often make for interesting images.
We did make a couple other photo stops, but the most important stop was for butter tarts in Blind River. And we waited long into our drive to sample these - until Munising, Michigan. We are driving Highway 28 westward toward Duluth, but have stopped for the night in Marquette, Michigan, just as it began to rain. This is quite a change from the 30 degrees near Newberry.
We plan to get an early start tomorrow, even though rain is in the forecast. Here's hoping for some interesting photography.