Photos within 15 miles of my home.

Robert and I were here at home, sitting in our chairs, watching the news. I keep an eye on the sky as we do this because as far as I'm concerned the news is nothing but depressing and worrisome. I'd rather find something uplifting and fun. So when the sky began to change and a sunset began to happen, I grabbed the camera and headed for Largent Bend.

Night before last, the sunset was absolutely amazing, but we were in town, and my camera was home. So that didn't work so well. :)

I took these photos looking east, and looking west, the sky was beautiful in both directions.

Largent Bend is a blessing in my life, it's only a few miles from the house, so I have almost instant access to a tiny slice of nature. I don't see many animals there, but I see tracks of raccoon, deer, bear, mice, voles, and others. During nesting season, the Canada geese are there, along with other birds that come in spring. Osprey nest not far far from there, and come fishing in the ponds in summer.

There are hiking trails which I like way better than the treadmill in the back room! It's a simple cottonwood type forest, along the Sun River, not as exciting as hiking in the mountains but it's still a good place to go.

There's an eagle hanging out down there right now, I've got distant shots of it but it takes off before I get within half a mile of it. One of these days it might get used to me being there and I'll be able to show a photo of it.


As always, we have photos for sale on our website, along with Robert's poems. Come on over there and see what you can find. There are prints and gift items of all and sizes.

Wishing you all the best in 2019.
Donna

Time for some Montana scenery.

Robert was busy working in the yard,so I went to take photos by myself. There are times when it's good to go alone for it's so much easier to think of camera settings and what you are trying to do with each photo you take. When we're together, we're so busy visiting sometimes it's hard to think about what I want my camera to capture.

I had planned in the begining to stay kind of close to home and didn't think I'd roam further than Freezout Lake. I didn't find many birds, or animals there so I took the road that goes behind Priest Butte, hoping I'd see a coyote, maybe a bear, hopefully some deer or at the very least a raven or a gopher! Nothing. So I concentrated on scenery.

Got back to Choteau, had hardly any photos so I headed toward Pishkin because the mountains were calling to me. I ended up on the Peebles Cut Across Road and took photos of Ear Mountain as I went along.

The landscape was totally bare of animals. I didn't even see birds. I came back toward Choteau and when I got to Eureka lake, I ate my lunch and hoped some birds would fly into or around the trees. Sometimes I see Pelicans on the water there.  No such luck so I enjoyed my cheese and ham, and came home!

Do you love to roam about the countryside? What do you see when you're "out there"?
Donna Ridgway

Nature photography

You might say that nature photography equals patience. I can not tell you the hours I've spent, sitting without moving, just watching and waiting for something to happen. It also requires a knowledge of when and how things might happen in nature.

 I give credit to my patience for watching to the hours I spent on a tractor or swather in the wheat fields, or hay fields when I was a kid. From when I was young we went to the fields early in the morning and outside of a lunch break we were there all day. The more you went round and round the more bored you became and the more you learned to notice each and every thing that happened around you.

You saw when a fox crossed the field, you saw when a sea gull caught a mouse, you noticed if a fly landed on the tractor and watched how tight he could hang on in spite of the vibrations of the engine. You noticed things, and you learned to sit still, because you can't really drive machinery any other way! And you would have died of boredom if you hadn't had nature and it's wonders to view.

You also learned how to deal with the weather, screaming hot in the summer, windy and cold in the fall, it didn't matter, you learned how to take care of yourself and have what gear you might need to be at least a little bit comfortable, or if nothing else, you kept from freezing.

So when I saw the clouds in the photo above, heading toward the top of the mountain, I sat and waited. I watched and waited for quite a while. I kept thinking, if this happens like I think it might, there will be twin towers of sunset clouds over Sawtooth Ridge and won't that be wonderful?

Finally it happened! It doesn't always turn out this way, but this time it did.
I was happy!
Donna Ridgway