The Daily Photograph™

I don’t know the real name

Of that ranch, but there it is, preparing to sleep as the sun drops below the mountains far to the West.

To give you an idea of the scale, see that what longish white thing just to the left of the grove of trees at the low-center? That mess of trees is the ranch headquarters, along with several outbuildings and vehicles. The longish white thing is a metal barn I’d guess at 30 feet wide and 70 or 80 feet long. A little ways to the left of that is another white speck, one you can just barely see in the web-sized image we have here. That white speck is what looks to be a big ol’ mid-70s Cadillac, or maybe a Lincoln. And you can hardly see it in the gathering gloom.

Here are ice, water and vapor clouds

Together in one portrait. My main interest was the three-layer ice crystal cloud below center, just above the land. It reminded me of a blues record company logo — latter day Stax, perhaps? — and I wished at the time that I’d had a longer lens. As it happened, this was made with the 150mm lens and I’m glad of it. The arabesque of the vapor cloud makes everything happen. The images made with the 250mm lens lacked the sweep and energy we find here, and so I will probably never show them to you.

I’d still like to have a longer lens. If you have one to fit, let me know.

Hunters were everywhere

Driving their four-wheelers, in their camo outfits. I guess it’s legal to go camo with a bow. And there I was, with my camera and tripod, in a t-shirt and shorts. They kept stopping and asking if I’d seen any elk. No, I hadn’t. Saw a hawk, who refused to come back for a portrait, once I had the camera set, but no elk.

Hunter’s full moon is actually tonight, and I had been hoping to get some good out of it, but the clouds are here in earnest. Maybe next year.

Autumn is a fascinating time of year

When the plants prepare to go into hiding but not before telling us to look out for next year. In their party clothes they dance in the wind and sunlight. Soon, the dancing will end and this vine and the tree across the way will be skeletal and stiff. Even the clouds will hold themselves differently. But let’s not think of that right now. Let’s party and celebrate the life we have.

Sunset comes earlier

And the nighttime is chilly. Frost is not far away.

Looking For the Sunset

And finding not much. At least in this direction. This is facing East, toward Omaha. You can see why I chose this spot: A nicely delineated skyline, comprised of ancient white stones deposited when this was all seabottom, full of quirky trees and a deep but unobtrusive foreground. And the sky is quite nice.

A few minutes afterward, these clouds were dark and thoroughly uninteresting. The culprit was the thunderstorms building behind me, that blocked the sunlight as evening fell. I showed you those the last two days,

I also made a photograph facing West, just to complete the sweep of the four winds, but it is so lacking it will never see the light of day.

Looking the Other Way

Is something any photographer needs to do. You see a good photograph in front of you, but something even better may wait behind. I made this just a few minutes before the photograph I posted yesterday, by pointing my camera south, toward Casper Mountain. Yesterday’s photograph was made by pointing the camera just about 180 degrees the other way, toward Montana. My tripod never budged.

Funny thing is, I originally went to this spot to point the camera Eastward, toward Omaha. I had planned to get a fine portrait of an August sunset, above a slab of primordial seabottom. That never happened. I’ll show you what did, tomorrow.

The rain is pretty useless

This time of the year. And there isn’t really that much of it; what the weather service calls ‘a trace’ is about all any one spot sees. And, this is falling mostly on grazing land, and there the grasses and tumbleweeds have already stopped growing, so the water doesn’t have much to nourish.

¤ ¤ ¤
For those who want some specs: 50mm, 1/8s, f11 (EV10). They are far off, but just to the left of the hillside are a couple of wind generators. Their slowly turning blades blurred in the slow shutter speed. Three years ago, there were no buildings in this view.

This sky made no noise

Even though it looked fierce. And only a few drops of rain fell.

The sky has been kind

The last few days, after a week of not much. The temperature has been very high, and that means more clouds as the moisture is ripped from the soil. Very few thunderstorms have erupted, but lots of grand sunset action.