Montana Photos, My new website, wildlife, horses, scenery.

I love taking photos of dogs in pickups. They exhibit all kinds of doggie behaviour. This one has such wistful longing for his master to return. He hates sitting there, guarding the truck, feeling self conscious. This is a very "doggie" moment, captured forever with the camera.

The line these mule deer created on a hillside interested my creative mind. I liked their path in the snow, and the way their dark shapes followed it.

This little group of mule deer, trotting through the snow was cute. I liked their single minded determination and sense of purpose.

Echoes of the past...an abandoned grain drill.

Here we go again, another version of the dog in the pickup.
These crows almost got us killed. Robert spotted them and they were about to take off in flight. He slammed on the brakes so hard, while yelling, "Look, Look, Look!" We get so excited when we see some critters, we loose all sense of logic or thought of where we are. The guy behind us will agree with that.... Thank God he was an alert and defensive driver. We'll do much better next time.

I have been working away for days, creating a photo site from the thousands of photos we take. I realize in all sensibility, I can not paint them all. And for goodness sake, why should I? Some of these images stand alone, they don't need to be turned into paintings!

On the other hand, I also realize there are many artists out there who can not spend the time or don't have the camera it takes to get images for their paintings. So I've also created a photo reference site for artists' use. If you're an artist, check it out and see if there are photos there you can use.

Sales have been brisk and hopeful at this point and the site has only been live a little while. I also have a page, where I'm placing links to artist's sites-if the artist has used my reference photos, and if he/she wishes to be placed there. I do charge $5 one time fee to place the link as I need a little something for the time it takes me to do the work. But this will give you a good SEO link to your site.

I'll include an image of one of the paintings you created from a ref photo on the site if you wish.

The ordering system is basic. Email me with the jpg numbers you'd like to use for reference photos. I'll send you a paypal invoice for the amount. When I receive payment, I'll email you the images. The jpgs you receive will be aprox 3000X2000 pixels and 180 dpi so make certain your email can receive the images before I send them.

In our photo shoot yesterday, we got very close up to the meadowlarks, an owl, an eagle who flew over, swooped low, and took a good look at us (we have that on film!) cattle drinking from a river, some nice horse photos, many photos of mule deer, the dogs in the pickup, some cute spring calves and other things. We had a good snowstorm here, so the photos are all of the snow, so that was fun for us, as we've not had snow for quite a while.

I'll be uploading the photo shoot later on today, hope you enjoy our Montana photo site.
Donna and Robert Ridgway