Jake Peterson’s Blog

The light hit this one thunder head over the Bridgers before falling and i just liked it.

Image captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S VR, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

The thunder storms keep rolling on in here in Bozeman and i am loving it. Every other day it seems it’s sunshine and thunder storms. O its glorious. Sun, rain, sun, rain, can’t complain; hey i rhymed and i wasn’t even trying to. A couple days ago there was one massive thunder head that came up from the south, the only thunder head in the sky and i had to go out. Unfortunately it dissipated before i could get anything good from it, but it produced a couple other good smaller clouds.

The light was rather interesting the whole night, especially when you’re in the middle of some small farm land on the middle of a dirt road being watched by a guy plowing his field. Yea it was kind of fun. It’s how it goes out here. It’s all good they’re all friendly. A few more clicks and then it’s back inside before a down pour and the light sunk below the clouds.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S VR, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

It must be April, i know this cause i find myself yet again traveling down I-90 towards a small but fun Prairie Dog town. It always amazed me that this town was saved. It’s scrunched between farm land and a highway, one of the smallest state parks one would think of and yet it persists. Wasn’t sure if it was even worth going to with the thunder storm in Bozeman. I know, why didn’t i stay and shoot the storm? No vantage point i could find, and the storm blew east. Well these little guys always crack me up. You step out of your car and they start squeaking. I starting working with one and noticed six kids over on another mound, i had to go try them out. Nope… They ducked down faster than i could blink. This one was the only curious little guy. Like the gopher from Caddyshack, what is it plotting? Where is Carl? Anyways, the clouds rolled in and the light left so i did likewise, another day i shall return.

Well as i said in my last post the snow melted so quickly i had to go up pretty high in order to find some snow that wasn’t. Of course as i write this post it is snowing, which is odd cause the five day forecast said for no snow, so much for Frisbee. I went to another of my nearby haunts, Hyalite Canyon, and was not surprised to find that the road was still closed to snow. I played around with the crick for a while but wasn’t thrilled with any of the water or snow mounds, the sky was by far more interesting.

The clouds with the falling sun caught my eye more so then anything in the depths of the canyon. There just wasn’t anything in the bottom that was more interesting. I followed the clouds along the ridge, the wisps kept making interesting patterns. Knowing that they were back lit immediately said B&W to me but i had no idea that it would turn out so well, at least in my mind. It was a fun day driving around the back roads and the hidden canyons.

Image captured with D3, 24-70 AF-S, 14-24 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the storms can change around here. One minute it’s a blizzard roaring down a foot of snow and the next its sunny and warm. Yesterday we had a great big snow storm come through which was great for shooting but wouldn’t you know it the sun came out and most of it’s gone already down in the lower areas. Guess that means i’ll have to climb up into some higher spots this evening. O well the fly fishing is supposedly getting better.

Image captured with D3, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

With no where else to go but the road in front of me, i looked out towards the sunset in search of an image. I knew not where i was going to find thus photograph but i continued regardless. For those that don’t know, Bozeman sits at the base of mountains, everywhere around is mountains and hills making sunset a hard task to achieve a good result on. I went from back road to back road in search for an ridge to climb higher, in order to look out and see more. Finally i found place that showed promise.

Oddly enough going back to landscapes has already gotten foreign to my hands. The feeling is odd. Too much rust from not enough practice. I watched the sun go down and pass over the small mounds of snow that covered the supposedly Spring grasses that were starting too come out in the nearby hills but had fallen to another of Winters delays. With the last light disappearing i left knowing that there was no great image, no great story, just a mere blip of another attempt, more practice in the end.

Images captured with D3, 70-300 AF-S VR, 24-70 AF-S, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film