Ghost Town

    

    During my trip to Montana I was able to visit Nevada City, the site of a gold rush town from the 1860s. This was not the corny tourist attraction I feared. Rather it was a serious attempt by the Montana Heritage Commission to preserve buildings and history from that era.
    The town lent itself well to high dynamic range photography. HDR, in a nutshell, allows us to use software to bring out tones that we can't capture with "normal" photography. If the HDR software is used more aggressively it produces surreal photos like the top one.
    Photos that are "color-ie" or "textur-ie" work well in HDR, according to Ben Long. He teaches (on Lynda.com) that with HDR we make photos "crunchy." I can't think of any better way to describe it, so I am not going to argue with Mr. Long about his choice of words.
    These train cars are about as color-ie and textur-ie as it gets. I feel as if I could get a nice reddish-orange splinter just from looking at the photos.

    This house was built in 1873 by a rancher, gold miner and legislator named Stedman. Like many buildings in the town, it was moved to Nevada City from its original location by the state of Montana as part of the historical preservation effort.
    The trees are Cottonwood and have the most beautiful bark.

    One interesting story from Nevada City's history comes from a newspaper called the Montana Post. In 1864 the Post reported that three sisters with the last name of Canary were begging in the streets while their father gambled in the dance hall. The oldest sister was probably Martha Canary who grew up to be Calamity Jane.
    Calamity Jane was a fascinating person according to an article in Montana Outlaw by Hunter Rothwell. She could easily have an entire blog devoted to her story. Jane could ride, shoot, and drink whiskey by the age of thirteen. Three years after the newspaper reported her father's gambling escapades she was an orphan. With no one to care for her she tried her hand at a variety of jobs including stints as a dance-hall girl, ox team driver, army scout, and as a Pony Express rider.
    She also had many run-ins with the law. Drunk and disorderly conduct, shoplifting, and running through the streets naked while drunk were a few of her offenses.
    To be fair, Calamity Jane was also known for her kind heart. She helped many people and even volunteered to nurse small pox victims.
    Calamity Jane was so unique, even her boyfriend had a unique name, Arkansas Tom.

    Most of you probably already know this, but if you are viewing my blog on-line you can click on any of these photos to see them at full size.

Jammers

    This weekend I went to the Roller Derby. It was like going to another world. I have struggled all week to find the words to describe the experience.
     The names the players choose for themselves are puns and word plays often based on pop culture. Tattoos were common and the helmets were well decorated. Some wore elaborate makeup. And there were costumes. My best guess is that in the photo below the girl on the left is a slab of bacon, but that could just be me.
    After throwing away the photos that were out of focus or just plain no good I still had 571 that were keepers. So I decided to make a link to a slide show so that you could see what it was like.
    I am totally psyched about this experience and I hope you enjoy my photos. Feel free to leave comments.

   

Do Dogs Laugh?

     The results of Kira's DNA testing are in. She is part Labrador Retriever and part Bloodhound. Also part Boston Terrier.
    The Lab heritage didn't surprise me. Nor did the Bloodhound DNA. The Boston Terrier did astonish me.
    "The Boston Terrier can trace its history back to 1865 in Boston, Massachusetts. Early in the breed's history, coachmen for the wealthy residents of Boston cross-bred many of their employers' dogs for pit fighting purposes." This is from the company who did the blood test, Mars Veterinary.
    So I'll bet that there is a lot of Boston Terrier DNA out there in the population and that many mixed breed dogs will have a Boston in their family.
    One neat thing about photography is that it allows us to freeze motion and see things that we can't see with the naked eye. This photo was taken at 1/2000 second and was one of a group of 6 photos that were all taken within a single second.
    All of this technology just to prove that Kira laughs when she runs.