Red's Place and Paradise Valley in Winter

Hi folks,
I bought a new camera this Friday and went out to break it in with some simple pictures of a buddy of mine's home in the Tom Miner Basin. This location rests on the Southern entrance of Paradise Valley and northern mountains of Yellowstone NP My buddy is name Red and he has worked up in Yellowstone since the early 70's and is a great guy.

Red spotted a major ice block on his road so instead of hitting it later, he broke it down then and there

This is Red explaining the facts of life to me in his foreign accent; He is from the Boston Area and sounds funny with some words

This is his garage and work space. Red build this and all the structures you will see here

This is his house through the woods A small stream runs right in front of the place

This is the house he built and I think it is a great job.

    

Front facing North

Facing North West

Facing South East

Facing South

Red is doing some ice sculpture and I expect big things when I return

His property is like a petting zoo with deer, elk, rabbits, bear, coyote, birds and the Great Horn Owls that are due to return shortly.(Hopefully, I will capture them in their nesting...look for future posts!)

                             

A Wood pecker 

The bambi herd leaving out the back

Now, these images are of the wonderful Paradise Valley at the base of the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountain Range. As you will see it is very very beautiful here and my new camera will fit in very well.

Looking South into the Paradise Valley along Highway 89

The bridge over the Yellowstone leading to Tom Miner Basin

The Yellowstone River along at the opening of Tom Miner Basin

Frozen Yellowstone with Absaroka-Bearthooth Mountains behind in the Paradise Valley

Looking East towards Bozeman Montana from the Paradise Valley

Frozen Yellowstone

 Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains in the Paradise Valley, Montana

Frozen Yellowstone River with Absaroka-Beartooth Mountain Range in the Background

Back to the Blacktail Basin Mid winter and The Frozen Undine Waterfall

We headed back to the Blacktail basin this past weekend and did a bit of cross country skiing into the area all the way to the cabin. Was very sticky snow but I did not break any bones so it was, 'all good'. Was tough skiing down to the creek for water and cutting the wood for the next people to use the cabin.
Here is some of the pictures from the trip.
Enjoy!

Upper Blacktail Basin Patrol Cabin Yellowstone NP

I invite all my friends and family to come to Montana and we shall book
the cabin for the long weekend and you can fetch the water. Is hard in the winter with deep
snow drifts, but scary in the summer with the big bad bears lurking around the bush.

Blacktail Basin

Lots of Buffalo and six and seven point bull elk hanging out around here.

Heard the wolves or coyotes yelping as well this weekend

The nice warm little cabin looking south into the park

Then we took a break to re photograph this wonderful waterfall right up the hill from Mammoth Hot Springs. I also took different exposures with opposite f stop settings. Please feel free to comment below
as to which you prefer; the deep depth of focus of f 32/45 or the shallow depth of focus at f 5.6/4.5 where I freeze the water in mid movement. I like both and need help deciding which people favor.
Thanks, comments below.

In the middle of the picture you can see a frozen waterfall; Undine 

Undine shot with f5.6/4/5

Undine Waterfall shot with f32/45

Here is the Undine Waterfall when I photographed it in mid summer

 

f 32/45

 

Here is some of the close-ups of the water shot at f5.6/4.5

f5.6/4.5

f32/45

Soft Water in Black & White and Cold Nights in Black & White

I had wanted to blog just a few more Pine Creek images as the lab is pretty slow at getting them

back to me and they are all the way over in Boseman so I can only get over there on weekends.

Pine Creek

Pine Creek

I also wanted to blog some more of my Neon freezer work in downtown Livingston

Crazies One More Time

This view is looking west towards the Crazy Mountains from Big Timber, Montana.

I realize that I have blogged a couple times with my pics of the Crazy Mountains but I waited a while for these to come back from the lab and they came out pretty good.

I plan on picking up a large format camera very soon and you guys are gonna love the high resolution imagery that I will produce this new year.  Gonna eventually set up my own darkroom and start to crank out some real nice photographer here in Montana.

...Until then, here is some more waterfalls in the Crazies.

This is the Big Timber Creek and one of the canyons that run the length of the gorge. There was plenty of snow and ice so believe me this was no easy task traversing this area; like walking on round rocks of ice.

This small mountain range is in southwest Montana and is supposed to have more
wolverines per square mile than any place on earth. I always keep my eye out for one of those little furry clawed critters.
Also, there is plenty of cougars, black bears, pronghorns, deer and large elk. Supposedly, there is no grizzlies this side of the highway but some guys I know that live nearby insist that there are the big bad bears up in thar woods.

Downtown Livingston; A Neon Freezer

Downtown Livingston, Montana
...it was 9 degrees when I was out doing this photography.

This hotel restraunt is pretty famous around here...

The local movie theater. Is inexpensive and you can always get a seat but most of the flicks
are aimed at kids or teens as you can see from the Harry Potter Advertisement. 

There is a nightlife here. Lots of glitz just like a big city.

This place has live music.

The little woman was a real sport hiking all the way downtown to help me out
and was rewarded with a picture for the effort.