21st July 2010

19th July 2010

Sunrise at Clear Creek

Flickr,Montana,Photography

Sunrise at Clear Creek

The sun rises in the east over the Great Plains somewhere outside of Chinook, Montana.

There’s a reason why they call this Big Sky Country.

East of the Rockies the land is often so flat and so featureless that the sky almost seems to envelope you. The sunrise and sunset are frequent occurrences when the skies are not cloudy, and like fingerprints, no two are alike.

Many photographers, it seems, prefer a sunset to a sunrise. They would rather not deal with sunrises, especially in the summer when they occur in the very wee hours of the morning. Another reason is because light tends to be warmer at sunset than at sunrise. I guess that’s cool if that’s their thing. Personally, I would rather capture the myriad of different colors overhead at sunrise. And unlike the illuminance of a sunset in the west, morning light is much more fleeting…which makes chasing it that much more fun.

7th July 2010

Trailing the Herd

Flickr,Montana,Photography

Trailing the Herd

A rancher trailing a herd of cattle on his horse near Lloyd, Montana.

They moved often then,
From warm winter grounds by the river’s mouth;
Where mothers gave birth,
On rocky hillsides facing the sunny south.

Up steep trails, they moved,
Over low saddles bathed in late spring showers;
Through canyons with pine,
To mountain meadows with purple flowers.

By green ponds, they moved,
Past huckleberries on the summit high;
Down old Indian trails,
Across barren land with an endless sky.

Through dry hills, they moved,
Down dusty lanes under hot August sun;
To pasture with room,
For mother cows to rest and calves to run.

Behind fences, they moved,
There they fatten with ample time to graze;
No more winter grounds,
It is modern times with different ways.

They moved often then,
Past sumac gullies and high mountain streams;
Before trailing the herd,
Became part of our memories and dreams.

–Smoke Wade

2nd July 2010

Wheat Rows

Flickr,Montana,Photography

Wheat Rows

Rows and rows of young wheat plants are warmed by the sun near Kremlin, Montana.

From wheat comes life. It is more important to the human diet (and their prosperity) than any other plant. How important? One-sixth of all arable land on our planet is used to grow wheat…more than any other crop. And as important as wheat is to the rest of the world, it is especially important to the people of Montana. The success (or failure) of the this state’s economy hingest largely on the results of the annual wheat crop. It is one of two pistons driving the engine of Montana’s economy. The other is ranching.

For as far as your eyes can see, all acrosss northern Montana, long strips of winter wheat are now rising from the earth. Planted in September so they can sprout before Old Man Winter arrives, Montana’s winter wheat lies dormant under the harsh winter snow until spring arrives when the soil warms again.

The blades of wheat are now an electric green, one of the most vibrant colors on Montana’s landscape. Not too long from now it heads will emerge on the plants, and shortly after that rows combines will harvest it from the fields. It is then stored in large grain elevators somewhere on Montana’s plain where it is later loaded onto trains and ultimately delivered to hungry people all over the world.

And then the life of wheat, here in the Montana farm fields, will begin anew.

1st July 2010

Lazy Eye

Flickr,Montana,Photography

Lazy Eye

A young girl mugs for the camera near Cleveland, Montana.

The people of Montana are a hardy lot. They live in a vast, wide-open place that many people east of the Mississippi would consider lonely. It is the epitome of “fly over country.” The climate is hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter (emphasis on the word “bitterly”) and extremely arid all year round. But the locals here would say it is all a small price to pay to exist in such a beautiful place.

Learning to become a Montanan, it seems, begins for most at a young age. Children learn to ride a horse shortly after learning to walk. And even fewer are aware of a world beyond the borders of their county, let alone their state.

The young girl in this photograph (sadly, I forget her name) isn’t even in kindergarten, yet she is already riding horseback across Montana’s plain like a pro. She practiced her roping skills while her mother branded cattle on a ranch somewhere between the unincorporated towns of Cleveland and Lloyd, Montana. She smiled as she twirled a lasso and talked to her overgrown pony like it was an extended member of the family…all this while sporting a bum eye. “The doctor says I have a lazy eye,” she told me, which was about the only thing lazy about her.

There’s a popular nursery rhyme that says girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice” and boys are made of “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.” This very special girl, though, is fortunate enough to have been graced with all of the above.