I figured just about the worst place to stand in a lightning storm was a gigantic old tree. So, of course, I doubled those odds by erecting a metallic tripod at the base to capture the moment… sorry mom…

While I was at this conference deep in the mountains of Montana on the Wyoming border, we took a break one day to hike up into the mountains for several hours. We hiked up with a varied assortment of people, including a world class opera singer named Laura Loge. After we reached the summit (where there was still snow) and shared a lunch, we began the journey back home. Halfway down the trek, we stopped in this beautiful little valley and we implored her to sing some opportune opera while in the green amphitheater.

She sang perfectly and it was an utterly surreal experience. I flipped on the wide angle to get both Laura and her enraptured audience to the right, a bit further down the trail.

Laura told me afterwards that it was actually called an "art song", as opposed to the opera she had been singing nightly by the fireside in the cabin to all of us.

If you want to find out more about Laura, visit her homepage at www.lauraloge.com/ !

I was alone in Yellowstone, and I found this other guy standing alone too… so we spent a short moment together.

I had an incredible time at the ranch for the week. We took the horses for a few hours until we got to the junction in Yellowstone, where I then took Gerry’s car out for an adventure around the park. I drove all over the place until I was able to find this area to hole up, listen to music, and wait for the sunset.

I’ve spent my 4th in the wilds of Montana, out exploring the periphery of the ranch. I had a long photohike in mind, but I ended up getting distracted and never made it too far during the long walk. I also took a break to do some sketching… which is not good because it is really cutting into my photography time!

Hope you all have a good fourth!

I walked with this neuroscientist from Houston and a bunch of other smarty pants on a 5 hour hike around Yellowstone and over a mountain range. We didn’t bring enough water, so we would stop at snow runoff areas like this.

On the way to the ranch, we stopped at Artist’s Point for a little artistic fun… I didn’t have long to spend there, so I grabbed some quick shots and moved on!

This was shot at the entrance to a ranch on the edge of Montana.

This was shot on a warm afternoon on a lovely ranch in Montana, just inside the border of Yellowstone.

I was in a remote ranch in Montana for a week last year. Almost every day we would head out to ride horses, find a distant fishing hole, or just randomly explore. Everything was great until I decided to test the bear spray into the wind.