ellis-photo.com Blog

Ok so I’ve been a bad blogger this year. It’s been a busy time and we’ve had a lot going on. From the passing of my father-in-law, my 6 year old getting diabetes, a two week vacation back west, the wedding season, and now the holiday season is fast approaching on us. My twins start preschool this week for the first time. I keep waiting for the pause when things settle down but I feel it won’t be later until I retire that I have that feeling again.



I last left you when I was in Montana/Idaho. We had a good time. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen my family. I really miss the northwest. I love the scenery out there and come to appreciate it more living out here. The back roads in Montana have so much character and it’s such a different way of life. I can’t wait to go back. The following photo is a gate I saw across the street from a gas station in Montana off a non major exit.

I will be posting a few more posts to update what I have been meaning to get to but haven’t had a moment to spare.

Something strange is going on with my wedding website. My apologies. The site is not coming up in my area but is in the area that my web designer is. We are working on the problem to try and fix it.

Thanks

I took this shot yesterday at the Bison Range just north of Missoula near St Ignatius (http://www.fws.gov/bisonrange/nbr/.) The bison were too far away for me to get any good shots of them. Even with my zoom they were specs. I did end up with this shot of the St Ignatius mtns on the road there at the range:







We hit up the Bison Range on our way to Glacier National Park (http://www.glacierparkinc.com/.) Which we found out since it snowed pretty good a few weeks ago, the Going to the Sun mountain road was closed. Of course this was the point of going there, to drive on the most gorgeous road I’ve ever been on. We got about a quarter up the road to where the Trail of the Cedars is the rest of the way was gated up. Here are a few shots from today:



The most exciting part was on the way out we saw a pair of moose. Here is the male.




The girl moose:




Trail of the Cedars is a beautiful hike in an old growth forest. I first hiked it in grade school. We didn’t get to hike it today since we didn’t have enough time but we took the kids up part way to stretch their legs. I took this picture of the trees at the start of the trail.




Here are two more pieces I attempted the vintage style with.




This one is actually the backdrop of where the moose were and there is actually a moose in this shot though you can’t really see her well. She looks like a rock in the water. Her butt was facing me.




Tomorrow morning I’m supposed to go up the mountains with my Uncle. I may get some good shots though I won’t be able to get up early enough for the good lighting. I’m hoping to sneak out at sunset time after the family BBQ to get some mountain shots then as well. I don’t get to come here often so might as well make the most of it when I can.



Some people have requested prints of some of these shots I’ve taken here in Montana. I’m hoping to get a gallery up in the event section for folks to view and purchase prints in the future. I’m hoping to get this up and running after my wedding season slows down a bit. I will make a post when I have it available to the public.

Hello everyone! As some of you may know I’m off in Montana for a family vacation. We flew to Bozeman this past Saturday with no hitches. The kids were great on the plane. I found dealing with diabetes for the first time on a road trip not so horrible–my six year old was diagnosed just two weeks ago. From Bozeman we headed right on over to Butte to visit my parents. We have had lots of fun. Today we went to Gem Mountain (http://www.gemmtn.com/) to search for real sapphires from a mine. We found a few. The kids got so hungry, it took way longer than we thought it would, so we couldn’t stay to have them appraised so I can’t tell you how successful we were. I also got sun burned not realizing how fast the time flew. The kids had fun and were thrilled to see some snow on the mountains.

Tomorrow we head north to the Bison Range and Glacier Park north of Missoula. If I can get on wireless somewhere between now and when we get home I’ll try and post some more of our adventure. I don’t have the point and shoot downloaded yet to upload family shots.

Here are some shots I’ve taken the past few days. Montana is called Big Sky Country mostly I think because the sky is always so beautiful and the mountains give it a reference to how huge it is.



This is Butte. I took this with my little point and shoot.




One of my Dad’s friends took me out to go shooting on Monday. His name is Chuck and he also loves to shoot as well. It was nice shooting with someone who has patience and understands the photographers mind. Most non shooters don’t like to stand around while you geek out over some silly fence line and some sunshine or whatever it is we photographers get an inclination to shoot.



Here is a heard of Elk I saw on the way to a mountain top:

These next few shots I’m experimenting with recreating vintage style photographs. I really love the old photographs you come across in antique stores and such and would like to create some of my own vintage works.

Here are some sky shots I took with Chuck:




















This one is probably my favorite from the whole night:




Special thanks to Chuck for being kind enough to drive me up the mountain to get these wonderful shots!

More to come later about our vacation story….