Landscapes

"Moon Mars Saturn Jupiter"

At dusk on 24 July 2018, Jupiter (top right) and Saturn (just below the moon) emerged from the deepening blue, and Saturn (the Greek god of agriculture) accompanied a 94% gibbous moon through the night. After all three had crossed towards the west (left to right), reddish Mars rose above the southeastern horizon, clipping the Blasdel Barn on its westward journey. While Mars was hiding behind the barn, I used my headlamp to make a quick light painting of the faded red walls. Then — after a few hours' sleep — I added the layers together. Moon images 3:00 minutes apart, planet images 1:30 minutes apart. Frank W. Porter built the barn in 1908, and the Blasdel family purchased it in 1945. They sold it to the Fish & Wildlife Service in 1987, and today it is part of the Blasdel Waterfowl Production Area. But really it excels at producing mosquitoes.

"Mt. Reynolds Moonset"

April’s full “Pink Moon” sets behind Mt. Reynolds before dawn, painting thin clouds an appropriate pink.

"Numa Fire Lookout," Glacier National Park

The summer Milky Way fades into a sea of smoke surrounding the Numa fire lookout and Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park.

"Bighorn Canyon Aurora"

The midnight aurora reflects off the water’s surface at Bighorn Canyon, in southeastern Montana.

"Mount Reynolds Eclipse"

The sun laps the moon above Mount Reynolds during an 85% solar eclipse over Logan Pass in Glacier National Park on August 21st, 2017. I knew there would be an abundance of excellent totality photographs, so I decided to look instead for some recognizable scene in Montana. I searched the state for a mountain with a slope that matched that of the sunrise and partial eclipse, settling on one of the best-known locations in Glacier. I picked this location during my scouting trip when I realized that the thin snow field would mirror the eclipse path, complete with a round "eclipse" of rocks. To make the image, I arrived before dawn to set up my cameras/tripods and capture dawn's first light on the mountain top, sans solar filter. Then I programmed the solar-filter protected camera to record images of the sun every 20 seconds, selecting those 2:20 minutes apart for this composite image.

"Montana 2017 Solar Eclipse Panoramic"

The solar eclipse in August 2017 varied from total (in Montana's southern tip) to 85% obscured over Glacier National Park (along Montana's northern boundary). This composite photo shows the 85% moment (15% sun visible) along with the eclipse transit at a 2:20 minute interval.

"Flathead Lake Aurora"

Northern lights pulse and sway over Flathead Lake and the sleepy little town of Polson, in northwestern Montana.

"Blueberry Moon"

Blue dusk meets smoky gauze as Sunday evening's full moon rises beyond Great Northern Mountain (right) and Mt. Grant (left). As these mountains belong to the Great Bear Wilderness, I prefer the Ojibwe name for this one, the "Blueberry Moon."

Saint Nicholas Full Moon

The full moon drapes over the shoulders of Mount Saint Nicholas while rising into a dusky-pink sky over Glacier National Park. The moonrise was photographed every 2:11 minutes to make this montage.

"Glacier Park Aurora"

While the Pleiades star cluster rises in the east (top right), northern lights shimmer green in reflection upon Lake McDonald, in Montana's Glacier National Park. Meanwhile, the headlights from passing cars outline the park's winding roadways. If you know where to look, you can even see a car climbing up towards Logan Pass.

"Fire and Rain"

Perseid meteors burn up in the night sky over Lake McDonald after an evening rainstorm left clouds draped over the mountains of Glacier National Park.

"Hidden Lake Shooting Star"

A midnight meteor flashes green in the Milky Way's dust lanes above Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain, in Montana's Glacier National Park.

"Gold Butte Meteor"

A bright meteor overpowers the full moon's light on Gold Butte, in Montana's Sweetgrass Hills. This is a nighttime photograph (5:42 a.m.) but the moonlight makes it look like daytime.

"Going-to-the-Sun Road Aurora" (3:1 pano)

Headlights and taillights outline Glacier's historic Going-to-the-Sun Road at night while the Big Dipper rises over the northern lights. This 180-degree, east to west panorama includes (left to right) McDonald Creek, the Loop, Oberlin Bend, and the Logan Pass Visitors' Center. It's a 18-frame stitch (three rows of seven images) made between midnight and 1 a.m.

"Going-to-the-Sun Road Aurora" (2:1 pano metal print)

Headlights and taillights outline Glacier's historic Going-to-the-Sun Road at night while the Big Dipper rises over the northern lights. This 180-degree, east to west panorama includes (left to right) McDonald Creek, the Loop, Oberlin Bend, and the Logan Pass Visitors' Center. It's a 18-frame stitch (three rows of seven images) made between midnight and 1 a.m.

"Elevator Meteor"

A bright meteor lights up the sky beyond an abandoned grain elevator near Cut Bank, Montana. The crescent moon peeks around from behind the elevator.

"Evening Prayers"

The chiseled​ face of an ancient elder silently chants an evening prayer that becomes the Milky Way.

"Hidden Lake Milky Way"

The Milky Way rises over Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain on a summer night in Montana's Glacier National Park.

"Palisade Falls"

The Big Dipper pours stars into the midnight sky while Palisade Falls pours down 80' of basalt columns, leftover from a prehistoric volcano. The lights of nearby Bozeman paint the thin clouds orange.

"Square Butte Aurora"

A rusting McCormick-Deering tractor watches the northern lights dance on the prairie winds at dawn near Square Butte.

McCormick-Deering 10/20 Tractor

This old tractor is a McCormick-Deering 10/20, said to be one of the most popular tractors of its time. More than 215,000 were produced and sold during its 1929-1939 run. It weighed just a few bolts over 5,000 pounds, and it could pull almost 3,000 pounds in low gear. It featured a 4-cylinder engine that produced 10.9 drawbar and 20.46 belt horsepower. That hole in the front is where the hand crank used to be. This rusty model had steel wheels, but rubber tires became a popular option in the mid-1930's.

Vision Quest

A pictograph panel of seven shield-bearing warriors stands guard over the rising Milky Way. The various Native American rock art drawings in this central Montana location date from 1,000 B.C. to 1850 A.D., with this panel dating between 1400 and 1700 A.D. Large shields such as these pre-date the arrival of horses to Montana, when all of the horse-owning tribes switched to smaller shields that were more manageable at a full gallop.