Monthly Archives: September 2020
Colorful Butte
I know that Colorado has claimed “colorful” as their nickname, but don’t you think Butte is offering some pretty strong competition?
Butte, Montana
photographed 8.29.2020
You have been warned
Prior to becoming a photographer, I thought my artistic calling was in poetry. Yes! Poetry! I fell into this aspiration through attending the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, several times, a trip that’s not as off the wall as it sounds. Trust me. Anyway, as I got more knowledgeable about cowboy poets, I was able to take workshops with a couple of the very best writers in that field (or any writing field, if you want to know my opinion). And, while I did not pursue writing poetry to the extent I’d anticipated, I am eternally grateful to those poets, Linda M. Hasselstrom and Paul Zarzkyski; both of them took a strong interest in my work and were very encouraging. I am certain that the artistic confidence I began to feel during my work with both of them influences my photography.
Anyway, that somehow (believe it or not!) brings me to Butte, Montana. The only reason I planned a stop in Butte on our road trip was because I had many lines of Paul’s poem “Why I Like Butte!” in my head and felt that was enough to warrant a stop.
So, the only reason I know that laundromats in downtown Butte have very stern warnings taped to their windows is because of cowboy poetry.
Butte, Montana
photographed 8.29.2020
Virtual Meeting
This is the thing that’s true about schools of architecture: the doors are almost never locked because students are at the architecture building all the time. We took advantage of knowing this and took a walkabout through the college of architecture at Montana State one Saturday morning.
And remember that broken-lens story from yesterday? I started learning the new lens right here…
Bozeman, Montana
photographed 8.29.2020
Three Feet and Two Chairs
It was a calm morning in Bozeman – the pool became a mirror.
(Fun story: it was soon to be less calm, as my other camera took a bit of a lens-first dive onto a concrete floor. The floor won. But Bozeman Camera and Repair saved the day – and the vacation – and we were soon on the road with a brand new lens.)
RSVP Hotel
Bozeman, Montana
photographed 8.29.2020
Visitor center without visitors
Travel in the summer of the pandemic meant a road trip instead of flying to our destination, a lot of picnics, learning new rules every time we got to a new state, and visitor centers that weren’t accepting visitors.
Little Bighorn National Battleground, Montana
photographed 8.28.2020
One Day | One Image 