A Blogger Returns

This is for those of you who have asked what has happened to the blog once diligently updated every week.
Well, I must admit, not much eventful has happened in the past couple months. I spent most the winter at the Montana cabin shoveling snow, walking the dog and burning firewood. Started work on a little home remodel to include a new bedroom, with a sliding glass door facing the lake, an 8x24 deck as an entry and a 1,000 gallon pond. By start I mean, theoretical architecture, lots of looking and measuring, drawing plans and making estimates. I got as far as putting up the walls, but cold weather and frozen ground kept me from the next step, excavation, which will be done by hand to prevent damage to the landscape.
Also worked on a music project tentatively named, “Scenes from the Invisible”, an atmospheric collection very heavy on the electronic effects. Hope to work out some bugs for an early summer release.
A few weeks ago I was called back to work in Gillette, WY, the “City of Lights” or “Paris on the Prairie”, and Wright, WY, aka “the Ivory City”, named for the dozens of FEMA mobile homes gracing the landscape. The work has been routine and most uneventful, for I merely am overseeing a sale and auction of a dozen FEMA mobile homes. As of yesterday all had been sold, so once the new owners take possession, I can return home to the awaiting projects.
There was one thing out of the ordinary last week, a storm now being called “The Blizzard of ‘07”. On Wednesday morning the 40 mile drive from Gillette to Wright was in a cold rain. I was listening to the Buffalo radio on the AM where they were telling tales of white-out conditions and road closures. Not long after my arrival in Wright the rain turned to snow and then to 40 mph blowing snow and soon they began to close the roads. My partner at work chose to return home to Gillette after hearing of the first road closing; it took him 3 ½ hours to drive the 40 miles, part of the slowdown was due to an 8 car wreck outside of town. My choice to remain may have been prudent, but the stay was less than comfortable. Two nights sleeping on the floor with a piece of cardboard for a mattress and a borrowed mattress pad for a blanket with no shower nor change of clothes made the return to the motel in Gillette of Friday afternoon feel like a trip to the Ritz. I like the sound of that, “Like living at the Ritz in the City of Lights, Paris on the Prairie.”

Alzada, Montana

To those of you who have not had the pleasure of traveling from Broadas, Montana to Belle, South Dakota on highway 212, here is a photo from Alzada, one of the only towns on the route. They say there is not much left of the town, but by appearences, there never was much there

Spring's First Flower

Here is a Forsythia flower I picked from Mom’s yard over the Christmas holiday and brought inside, thus forcing it to bloom and revealing the promise of spring.

5mm Dendrite Snowflake

This little jewel was captured on a piece of blue foam board at -11 degrees celsius.

Honeysuckle Leaf Venations

How many times have we passed a winter leaf without seeing its intrinsic beauty

Where I live

This is the view from across the lake. Note the abandoned cabin on the south shore.

Stinkbug

This lovely creature came in with the firewood. We should be glad they are only about 1.5 cm.

Macro photography

Here is a shot of some lichen growing on a stump; it is probably Cladonia deformis, common name: “lesser sulphur cup”. It was shot using a 1x to 5x Canon macro lens. Note the spores that are undetectable to the unaided eye. The lichen pictured are about 1cm in length.

Back to the Kick Back Ranch

After a year on the prairies of northwestern Wyoming, I am back home in western Montana. Any comparison would be an understatement, so I will let the photo speak for itself.

The Krappy Kamera Contest

Every year Soho Photo Gallery in New York City hosts the Krappy Kamera Contest. The only criterion for submission is that the camera be plastic or toys. Most people choose to use a Holga, a $17.00 Chinese Toy Camera known for its unpredictable results. Other cameras are old Brownies and pinhole cameras made from an oatmeal carton. The judges consider the Instamatic to be too technologically advanced. Here is a link to an article from the 2005 contest: http://www.cameraarts.com/2005_web_extras/CA46-NewKrappy.pdf
As you can see, amazing art can be accomplished by these simple optical devices.
I must admit I am both too lazy and too cheap to expand my art into the world of Holga and return to the world of film. Therefore I have taken a 12.8 megabyte photo taken with a Canon 5d and a 17-40 mm “L” lens and processed it to look like it was taken with a $17.00 Camera. This was done in Photoshop Elements with the 55mm plug-in. First step was to crop it square like the Holga 6X6, then to use software to warm mist, making it look like sepia. The next step was to vignette to simulate the light fall off from a plastic lens, then finally soften it to simulate light leaks which are common in the cheapest of cameras. Although this photo will not win any contest, I think it does capture the art of being cheap.

My New Website

Last weekend was cold and snowy which prevented me from the hiking, camping and fishing that usually occupies my weekends. Being motel bound, I decided to investigate making a website. I had an idea of what I wanted, but no idea on how to make it happen. After some surfing, I found a program called Shutterbug that assembles photographs into a website. It took a couple hours to assemble and a couple more to tweak, but by Sunday noon, I had what I had envisioned. The next step was to find a web host, for that, host monster was chosen for their low price of $4.99 a month and their no charge domain registration. After a frustrating time trying to load the site, I found a transfer program was necessary. Cyberduck was a free download.
By Monday evening the site was up, not exactly how it looked in the program, but close enough for the first time. I’ve made the necessary changes and will attempt another download when I have a few more photos to add.
So here it is, for your review: www.haischphoto.com
Hope you like it.

Trout Outwitted

The first snows of the season have arrived here in the Powder River Basin. I’m afraid this may spell the end of the camping season, or at least the “camping in comfort” season. Last weekend I made what may be the last camping trip of the summer and thought it best to stay out of the mountains and keep to the lower elevations of Sand Creek.
Those who have followed this blog will note my persistence in trying to catch the big brown trout that inhabit the stream. I have tried many times throughout the spring, summer and now fall to catch them on the fly rod.
In this time I have offered them every type of fly in my arsenal, from #22 nymphs and drys, fished both on the surface and bottom and everywhere in-between, to every attractor pattern including the usually successful adams and royal coachman, as well as many types of mayflies, pale morning dun and caddis flies. I even resorted to the terrestrials, ant and bug-like things called letort hoppers and atomic ants. In desperation I even once tied a live grasshopper on a hook and offering that to the tranquil trout.
Humpfh!
They ignored it all.
All the more frustrating because I can see the fish through the gin-clear water with their expressions of arrogance and indifference.
This time of year there is more night than day and after dinner while sitting around the campfire, I decided to do something I’d not done before. Fly fish at night.
Ahaa! Boom! Splash!
Obviously what the fish were waiting for. I caught three fat trout in about a half hour. In the moonless night they could not see me, nor could I see them until they splashed to take the fly.
Although challenging and especially tough to be aware of where the line and fly is in the darkness, I have finally found the secret of successful trout fishing on Sand Creek.

Rock Skippers

Sometimes even the sky cooperates for a fine photo.

Harvest Moon Over Wyoming

This is where a 500mm lens and a tripod come in handy.

Buffalo Bull

This handsome guy is from the Durham Ranch just a few miles from the office in Wright, WY.

Wine Time

This is the time of year to make homemade wine. All you need is fruit, water, sugar and yeast. Put it all in a bucket, let it ferment then bottle it. Next year at this time, invite some friends over drink this year’s wine and make more.
What could be easier?

Bighorn Aspens

Had planed another camping trip to the Middle Fork of Clear Creek in the mountains west of Buffalo, but snow was falling as I left Gillette on Saturday. Being prudent and not wishing to spend an uncomfortable night in the woods, I turned back.
Sunday morning was cool, the precipitation had abated and the sky began to clear from the west, perfect for photographing the mountain aspens. Generally about 40 miles from Buffalo one can see the Bighorns to the west, although the clouds remained thick over the peaks, I remained optimistic the sky would clear. Despite the green in the valley, several miles up highway 16, the snow covered the ground, and the aspens were at their golden peak. I spent the next couple hours hiking and taking photos, and whenever I got to a high vista I waited for the clouds to clear and reveal the snow-covered peaks. Eventually the sun came out, briefly, but the peaks remained obscured. At a particularly fine vista I waited and drank my thermos of hot tea, but instead of clearing, a foggy mist moved in on a bitter wind and snow began to fall, lightly at first, then it quickly changed to a furious squall. Since it was getting late, I decided to drive back and try again next weekend.
I can only hope the weather cooperates for my return and the trees maintain their brilliant autumn colors.

Return to Sand Creek

Now that the summer heat has abated and the colors of autumn are beginning to grace the creek side foliage, it is the perfect time to fish Sand Creek again. After arriving and setting up camp Saturday night, I walked and fished the shoreline upstream; this is an area I had not fished before, and I found it to be generously endowed with ample trout habitat, deep runs and waterfalls, and holes where fish are easily seen.
Despite all that, and investing several hours fishing the area north and south of camp that evening and another hour Sunday morning fishing north of Ranch A, no fish were caught by me.
After trying my luck at various other spots downstream, I accepted defeat and headed to the town of Sundance. Being early morning as I came into town, and remembering a 30 acre pond on Sundance Creek between the golf course and the fairgrounds, I decided to give it a try. Good thing, for there I found several playful ten-inch rainbow trout that prevented me from getting skunked.

The Key to Seeing

The key to seeing the world’s soul, and in the process wakening one’s own, is to get over the confusion by which we think that fact is real and imagination an illusion. It is the other way around.

Thomas Moore, “Original Self”

Art in Ordinary Things