Forth of July fireworks start a little later here in Montana than most locals, last night it was 22:35. Thunderstorms had been floating by all day lighting up the skies and soaking the plants. Then around 16:00 they started to move on towards the east. Sharon & I decided to have dinner at home and then head to Hamilton for their 4th of July fireworks. We arrived three hours early so we had some time to kill. What to do? Well like any good wildlife photographer, I headed to the homemade ice cream shop and got a double scoop of Huckleberry Fudge (yes, I shared some with Maggie of course). With some time to kill still we cruised around and then drove to the pulloff on the Eastside to wait for the show. In front of us to the west were The Bitterroots with clear skies starting to appear behind them as the last clouds floated by. Then I looked in the sideview mirror at The Sapphires behind us!

While the storm in front of us was for the most part gone, behind us it was still in the process of fading. The winds, moisture and light, Mother Nature was working her magic putting on a spectacular show. The Sapphire Mtns where we make our home were lit up with drama and it was real simple to make the clicks. Both photos are right from the camera, my simply standing up out of the truck and shooting. Maggie was still working on the ice cream as I was shooting. With the setting sun at 21:31 so went the drama. But more was to follow. mtc

It’s pouring raining, I mean giant Alaska raindrop rain. The wind could pick you up and set you down not so gently. It’s perfect wx to be out shooting, if, if you can find that one element the eye wants to latch on to in its journey to make sense of a scene. That’s when the power of white and bright comes into play. In a scene like you see above, the amount, percentage of total image the white inhabits is a really small percentage. Yet it’s enough to grab the eye first and then the rest of the image moves the eye around the frame taking in the storm until moving back to white & bright. Light & Bright at the top of the frame is the mind’s eye happy place but you can place it anywhere in the frame to grab the viewer’s attention. The question is, do the rest of the elements in the frame support that arrangement of elements to delight the eye and tell a story. Keep in mind that while light & bright can be an positive, it can also be a negative pulling the eye away from the subject. It’s totally up to you to control the power of white & bright!

It’s totally abstract, not just the image but the concept that the snow and ice in the photograph could be thousands of years old. Now being exposed for the first time and the glacier melts away, time is literally being exposed to light for the first time. The patterns of how the snow was laid down, then slide around and finally carved by the winds of time so intrigued me. Shooting with the Z 9 in B&W, I went from shooting the Z24-120 to the Z70-200, back to the Z24-120 then to the Z70-200 with the Z1.4x. I couldn’t get enough of all the ice carvings glaring in the bright noon sun. It was a great hour just exploring the mountains with my camera looking for patterns the matched up with my vivid imagination. I have the feeling it’s one of those “you had to be there” kind of photos since there is no reference to place. But it was a place where I loved just staring at the ice of the ages.