This photo from Butte, Montana, was much harder to take than it might seem!

First of all, these sunflowers are tall – and I mean tall! They must be between 6 and 7 feet in the air. I was on the ground with them, so, of course, I was looking UP at them. No one wants to see a shot like that…!

So, I put the camera on the tripod, set the timer to 5 seconds, extended the legs, set the manual settings correct, then jacked the whole thing in the air, holding it rock steady while it took the exposure. Getting a steady horizon while holding the camera 12 feet in the air is not easy… and after a number of takes, my shoulders were just about spent for the rest of the night.

As for the little announcement there, I am working on a short film. It’s from Patagonia and somewhat experimental. I expect the debut to be right here on www.stuckincustoms.com on Friday, April 17, so stay tuned!

Filed under the categories: Bozeman, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

The Rockies are the source of a few rivers, and here is one of them. I can’t remember the name of it for sure (although I am sure some of my smart readers can), but I am pretty sure this is the Yellowstone (or maybe the Madison?) river, flowing westward out of the park. This part of the river is impossible to see from the road. I had to pull over and then walk over a tiny little hill/mountain to get there. I stayed at the top, listening to my ipod, waiting for the sun to set… It was all quite serene, as you can see!

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D3X, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

You know, I was just realizing that I spent a nice part of last summer digging up dinosaurs with Jack Horner in the badlands of Montana, and I’ve hardly posted any photos!

Well, now we are starting to get a “bit” closer to the dinosaurs… Here we are, descending down through the sandstones of time into the belly of the beast. Just a few more feet down, and we are getting into the cretaceous. Getting from the top to the bottom is a little treacherous, but I find it helps to follow a smart paleontologist when trying to figure out the best way to traverse the mudstones.

Not too far from here, I picked up a hadrosaur vertebrae, which I now keep here on my desk at home, among a panoply of other 90 million year old dinosaur fossils that I was lucky enough to find.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Rudyard, Travel

These old tractors are always interesting to photograph. I don’t know why! I really have no penchant for tractors one way or another, but they have a nice feeling about them for some reason, especially with a pastoral scene in the background… like a cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney. And just in case that chimney runs out of firewood, there seems to be a bit extra right around here somewhere…. now where did I put that extra bolt of wood?

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

This was a pretty cool area of Glacier National Park – the continental divide. For those of you that have never been there, this is the line that runs through the Rocky Mountains and separates the flow of water from one side of the continent to the other. We put Ethan up there and he did his own little part for erosion while I snapped away!

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

I’m embarrassed that I can’t remember the name of that little island out there.  I think it’s called Bird Island… but I am not totally sure!   If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d open up Google Earth to figure it out for sure.  But then I know I have a lot of clever readers who can probably tell me for sure!

This was taken in Glacier National Park.  I woke up around 5 AM to drive out to this lake to capture the little island in the soft morning light.  I really like this area of the Rockies.  They seem very old and ancient to me.  I spent the rest of the morning tromping through the forest, trying to find more interesting vantage points while making enough noise to scare away any grizzlies that might have been looking to get me in an interesting vantage point.

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel

Wow I have a lot of reading for you today! I hope you have a coffee, a stiff drink, and/or some good music to accompany you!

First, my new photo today is entitled “The Verdant Bough”. The photo was shot at this really cool place in Wyoming I found while running around Yellowstone with my rig. I’m glad I didn’t fall down that cliff while shooting, but I guess that goes without saying.

Second, I had an article posted today in Smashing Magazine. It was originally titled 10 Principles of Beautiful Photography. That links here to my website, or you can visit the Smashing Magazine as well, although it’s filled with a negative nancies down at the bottom with their own flavor of commentary. No worries… I have a thick skin and I enjoy all kinds of feedback. Both articles are the same, but I like the one here on the site a little since I think the photos are best appreciated in their larger size. The eye needs to surf across them to accept all the light levels and not let your brain reject them. It’s a longer diatribe… but part of the reason this blog is soooo wide… 900 pixels across for each shot.

Oh, also, you can DIGG the article here!

And here are a few photos from the article that you may never have seen if you are new to the blog!

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Outside of Rudyard, Montana, I found this old grain silo that was still standing tall against the elements. There was a newer silo just down the tracks, but I thought this one had a bit more personality. The newer one was kind of predictable and boring, so where’s the fun in that? I walked around it a few times and looked at the clouds until I feel like I found a pretty good vantage for capturing the silo in its element.

Filed under the categories: LucisArt, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Rudyard, Travel

My shoes have never been the same since I started tromping through this muck. That part didn’t bother me so much, but I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to make a hasty escape if something started running after me. I didn’t see anything that would start a chase… there was a herd of about 14 elk about 300 meters away. I had never seen them stampede randomly in the direction of a photographer, so I felt kinda good about that. Remember, all of these were just half-fleeting thoughts that were only half-baked… I was mostly just peacefully staring at the sunset and listening to my iPod alone in the wilderness.

Filed under the categories: Montana, Nikon D2XS, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone

See that tiny storm on the left? See those tipis there on the right? That’s where I slept all night through the storm!

So, a word of warning… you may not want to travel with me. I come up with good ideas like sleeping in a tipi in the middle of the stormy season in Montana like this. There are a lot more good ideas where that one came from. At least I can promise it will always be an adventure… and you won’t get much sleep!

By the way, this is not a traditional HDR photo… I used LucisArt 6.0… working on a new tutorial for it!

Filed under the categories: LucisArt, Montana, Nikon D2XS, Rudyard, Travel

I hope you have a great 2009! Here is a nice little one to get the new year started in fit and proper form!

I took this when I unexpectedly ended up spending a sunset alone. I was supposed to take an ATV over to another bluff to meet a bunch of paleontologists with whom I had spent the day unearthing a Hadrosaur from some Cretaceous mudstone formation. My forearms had never been so tired in my life after holding that hammer and pick for what seemed like endless hours of nerve-wracking excavation! After getting hopelessly lost on my ATV and having some mechanical troubles, I ended up near the border of Canada. Luckily, I had my camera equipment, so I slipped on my iPod and set up for the right moment.

Yesterday I updated my HDR Tutorial, and you might have noticed a shot from Lightroom with the five originals from this below the New York Times Square photo (which is a good one for the New Year!). Anyway, I thought I would share it because sometimes the other photographers that come here like to see the originals before they have been run through my algorithms… [edit: actually, looking at it closer, it is a "slightly" different perspective...taken about 20 seconds earlier... but, well, you get the idea... just picture it shifted over about 3 feet!]

Filed under the categories: Montana, Rudyard, Travel

If my mom or wife or daughters were to see me out in the middle of this thing, they would not have been happy. It’s for these reasons that I do many things while alone against my better judgment, because I have very few filters of reason when I am off in the wild. This was one of those occasions…

I scuttled like a landcrab with 6-legs (including tripod and one hand) out to the top of this waterfall that is fed by glacial runoff. If you think the water is cold sounds cold, just try it around 5:35 AM. It’s the kind of cold that shocks you into feeling like the idiot you are.

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, Montana, Travel