Saturday, October 09, 2010

"Yer Crackin' Me Up! Montana Mule Photo" Fine Art Print by Donna Ridgway [5975112-1] - RedBubble


"Yer Crackin' Me Up! Montana Mule Photo" Fine Art Print by Donna Ridgway [5975112-1] - RedBubble

There are some mules on along the Rocky Mountain Front that we love.  When we stop to visit, they usually entertain us.  This time, when we saw them, I decided to entertain them, so I was telling them my jokes...This guy said I was crackin' him up!

This image can be ordered as a card, print or poster on the Donna Ridgway Gallery

Wishing you the joy that I find in these animals...
Donna

Saturday, July 24, 2010

"Talons, Osprey in Montana" Fine Art Print by Donna Ridgway [5605940-1] - RedBubble


"Talons, Osprey in Montana" Fine Art Print by Donna Ridgway [5605940-1] - RedBubble:

We visited the osprey nest near Freeze Out Lake last night (7/23/10). One parent is gone teaching the first baby who left the nest how to hunt and fly with skill. The other parent is watching over the nest with the remaining baby.
I caught this as she was settling in for the night, she came down above me, with her talons outstretched…an awesome sight. It was late evening, so the sky was darkening, the remaining light shone through her incredible feathers…

I hope you enjoy Montana photos by Donna Ridgway.

Photo taken between Fairfield, and Choteau, Montana with a Nikon D300, 70-300 Tamron lens.

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A great shift in creating....

I've been learning to use the manual settings on my camera.  This is a big breakthrough for me, as I've been scared to death in the past, to change my menus from automatic.  I just knew if I changed something, I'd never get the thing back to where it was, and I'd never be able to take another photo!  I'm psycho....:)

When Henry and Pedro left to go to new homes, I needed another, over riding passion in my life, so I turned to my camera.  And I learned how to do the things I wanted to make it do...

The above photo is one of the results of my learning to set shutter speed, ISO, and other important settings.

It's also the result of many hours of patience, and hundreds of photos.  When photogs say "nice capture", they truly mean, this is a "capture".  It's like baiting a trap and waiting and waiting for results....at the perfectly correct moment, you pull the string, and you catch something!

In this photo, the parent bird came down with a bug who had long, flowing, string like appendages, I'm not sure what the bug was!  The baby caught one of the antenna of this bug, before the parent could get the bug into the babies mouth.  The parent knew the baby would lose the bug, if something didn't change, so she began to fly backward, tugging her head downward, to pull the bug from the babies mouth.  You can see that happening in this photo!

When the bug came loose, the parent made another swooping pass, coming into the bird house and plopping the bug firmly down the little bird's throat!  It was such an awesome thing to see, and an even more awesome moment to capture!

So you see, my artistic focus has changed, from painting images, to capturing them!  I think it's the basic hunter in me, coming to the fore.

I hope you've enjoyed this "capture" of the swallow, feeding her baby bird!

Feel free to comment, I love hearing from you.

And look for more Montana photos!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Candy Striper, a Zebra carousel.


Here's my latest carousel animal painting  He's composed entirely from my imagination and it was sure fun painting this.  I used many thin glazes of color, creating the stripes with red and green layers.  When you look at this up close, you can see those colors in the zebra.

This painting is 20X24 inches, acrylic on hard board.
Donna

Friday, January 15, 2010

Conjure up a cowboy in 30 minutes!


Last night I went to the Great Falls Art Society meeting.  We had a pastel instructor there, with a live model. It was so interesting and fun to watch her work!  She had us do three gesture sketches, then she showed us how she would create a painting in 30 minutes from her cowboy model.  After that, we tried creating our own painting from the model.  He was a very good model, fun to look at with his hat, boots and coat.

The instructor told us what we were trying to do in this painting, is create something that screams cowboy in a leather jacket, in 30 minutes.

So here's my attempt.  I haven't had so much fun painting for a long time!  I realized the reason I haven't wanted to paint lately, is because I've been painting such tight, realistic looking work.  I'd much rather create something like this!  It was a revelation....
Donna Ridgway

Friday, January 08, 2010

Low Temps-High Spirits!



Here's a high flying Appaloosa for you!  He was feeling his cheerios, and showing off for us.  By the time he'd finished his antics, he had Robert and I laughing pretty hard!

He can be purchased as a framed print, a poster, or a giclee print or card on my red bubble site.  Shopping there is easy, I think you'll like the site!
Donna Ridgway

Friday, January 01, 2010

Appaloosa in the Snow


We spent Christmas Day with my cousin and her family, near Swift Dam, west of Dupuyer, Montana.  On the way to her house, we stopped to take photos of this beautiful horse.  I liked the way his colors contrasted with the snow and the blue of the mountains!

You can purchase this image here on my Red Bubble site, Appaloosa in the Snow


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Birthday party for a one year old.

One of our great grandsons had his first birthday party on Saturday. He's such a good little guy, and he's full of action, so it was...