Where's the Ghosts?

I love Ghost Towns and have not been ghost town hunting in awhile. While I prefer the non-maintained ghost towns, like Comet or Elkhorn, I won't shy away from one that has a little help, because there's still old stuff there and it's still cool! The girls and I headed down to Bannack State Park today. We had a great time, Bella kept asking the whole way there, when we were going to see the ghosts and are they nice or mean ghosts. Not sure if she ever saw a real ghost or not, but it wouldn't surprise me if she did and had a whole conversation with one and didn't share with me!
Here are a few photos from today. I usually tend to turn to Black and White, especially with these types of shoots, but tonight I wasn't feeling the B&W as much. What do you think?

On Display!

My work is featured and for sale at the Side Saddle in Three Forks during the month of August! If you are local, please stop by and take a look. I've posted most of the photos available there! Let me know if you're interested in any prints and pricing!

Amazing

Yesterday I left Red Lodge, MT and drove the Beartooth Highway for the first time ever! It was amazing and so beautiful. I'm not sure I could do it with someone else driving because I'd be looking at the cliffs and drop offs way more and be freaked out. Bella and I would both have to be on dramamine as well! But it was gorgeous, so here are few pictures!
Pretty soon I'll be up there in the snow!

Some of the road I just came up, this picture doesn't begin to show what the switchbacks are really like!

View from the top!


Since I was headed to Cody, I then took another scenic highway the rest of the way, the Nez Pearce Highway. Again gorgeous and with all the rain and moisture it was incredibly green. I loved the contrast of the yellow flowers, green grass and the red rocks of Wyoming.

Owls

Last Monday we were out walking and spotted 3 owls in the trees at a park near by. I finally got back tonight with my camera.

I don't know what kind of an owl this is....anyone? But for some reason I like to think it's younger than the other two that hang there. It was quite intrigued with my girls and would watch their every move!

I also like to call this one a "she" even though I have no idea. But I liked how she was staring down at me and so in this one and the next was playing w/ focusing on her feet and different depths of field for her body!


Couldn't quite get the angle I wanted on these next two guys, but wanted to show the other two hanging out. This guy's left eye was never quite totally open.




Which one is your favorite?

Wine...why not?

I don't really have a lot to say right now....but here's some wine, in the middle of nowhere. Why not?

Depth of Field

I took a workshop last week with some amazing photographers. Val Westover and Stephanie Andriana. Check out www.valwestoverphotography.com. It was pretty much a refresher course for me, but re-learned a few things that are working! I've always loved to shoot dept of field and I really like playing with shallow depth of field. I just think you can do so many different and cool looking things with it. So here's some small depth of field shots I've taken over the last week. This weekend was the Horse Drive, I rented a 500 mm lens and shot over 600 pictures. Still going through them, but I promise I will share soon. This spring weather has got me in the photo spirit! I'll be posting a lot!

Can't decide which one of these two I like the best. Thoughts?





Finding beauty in the gray and brown of winter!


I just think this shot is cool. Even though it wasn't, I like to pretend the truck at the end was an ice cream truck!

Daydreaming

It's getting sunnier but I'm missing the warm. So a couple places I really wouldn't mind being right now!


Obviously it'd have to be June or July here...



Someplace with flowers and gardens like these...

Happy Birthday Lily!

I can't believe that 7 years ago tomorrow Lily was born! Where does time go? I wanted to do a blog of Lily through the years. It was fun and heart tugging to go through pictures looking for these to post! Time goes so quickly!

1st birthday and cake!

2nd Birthday at the beach!

2.5 years, and she became a very proud big sister!


3rd Birthday!

4th birthday!



5th birthday


6th Birthday

wow, already 7!


I had to throw this last one in here. this is from April of 2005, right after her 1st birthday. We took a spontaneous flight back to Ohio and got to spend time with my grandma, Alice. Lily's full name is Lillian Alice Jones. Her middle name is after my grandmother and Matt's grandmother who were both Alice Jones. I'm thankful for this picture and this weekend because it ended up being the last time we saw Grandma as she passed just a couple months later.