Robert had his right shoulder replaced August 11th. It's healing nicely and we were tired of sitting in the house so we took a drive up the Teton Canyon. We'd barely entered the canyon  when we spotted this bear in a huge chokecherry bush.  When we drove forward to see him, he backed up, when we backed up-he went forward.  So we were laughing and playing peek a boo with a bear. It was pretty fun after a couple weeks of staying tight to the house.

When you drive by the ski run and continue on down the pass, you enter the burned area and find an elephant!

Thousands of Montana forests look like this now. It would be a much needed miracle if we could return to the days of well managed forests and prevent this needless waste.

Trees that are this warm color really stand out in the burns. As a photographer, I like the interplay of the warm and cool colors.

This little guy was zooming around in the rocks at the edge of the road. I think they're so cute. We don't find many of them anymore for some reason or another so we're always tickled when one comes out where we can see it.

Ear Mountain, pretty well obscured by smoke in the air from forest fires.

Skinny legged hawk flying off a post. I almost missed a shot at him. :) All in all, it was a good day along the Rocky Mountain Front and we enjoyed it a lot.

 

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

Photos of Rocky Mountain Front by Donna Ridgway

I grew up looking at these mountains every day. They're part of me. There have been times during my life, when I lived where I couldn't see them. I never stopped longing for another glimpse of these mountains.

Now I live my life in such a way, I can go to the mountains when I choose. It's the most wonderful freedom. I hope you like seeing these mountains that mean so much to me.
Donna Ridgway
Any photo can be ordered- Email Meif you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.
Other Montana photos on my photo site.