Journey West

Here are some miscellaneous shots from the journey westward and my week in Missoula.

Testicle Festival

Not on the agenda at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, but unavoidably close to my cabin on Rock Creek: The Annual Testicle Festival.

I couldn't resist this extra credit self-assignment. I got some of the best pictures of the week at the Testy Fest, and I got to eat Rocky Mountain Oysters for the first time. I thought they were pretty good, but at $7.50 an order, they'll have to remain a delicacy.

The Testicle Festival happens every year at the Rock Creek Lodge about 20 miles east of Missoula. It's a biker free-for-all, but it attracts other, more mainstream folks as well. Including the dentist from Portland, Oregon, who won the Rocky Mtn. Oyster Eating Competition. He ate 49 slices in five minutes, or something like that, and then had to have a "ball off" with the man who tied him.

Fun Shots from the Western Montana Fair

We went to the fair at night just to play around with all of the lights and movement. These are some of my results.

Ashlyn

The day after the 4-H competition, we returned to the fair grounds to photograph the Western Montana Rodeo Princess competition. The princess and queen contestants were between about eight and sixteen years-old. Coincidentally, I ended up photographing Willy's sister Ashlyn.

Our assignment was to tell the story of the competition according the Life Magazine seven picture formula, which goes like this (roughly):

Opener: a wide or medium angle shot that establishes the scene, atmosphere.

Medium: a medium shot that moves in closer on the principal subject, explaining the subject's role in the story.

Close-up: a detail shot of some interesting aspect of the subject's personal effects or mannerisms.

Portrait: a tightly cropped head shot or environmental portrait.

Signature: I don't really know what this means, but I guess it's some kind of shot that shows the crux of the action, or something like that.

Sequence: for our purposes, we used one action shot instead of a series of shots that show a progression of events.

Clincher: a closing shot that signifies the end of the action, suggesting either unresolved or resolved status for the subject.

Here are the photos of Ashlyn that I used, and a few more.

Willy

For one of our most fun projects, we attended the 4-H competition at the Western Montana Fair. We had to find a kid who was participating in the contest and photograph him or her with their chosen animal. Again, we were supposed to tell a story in three pictures. I immediately saw a little boy with an ear to ear grin and a big cowboy hat trying to wrestle his Rhode Island Red hen out of its cage, and I knew he'd be my subject. Willy was about half the size and nearly half the age of the other competitors in the novice category. Willy's only eight, and stands only about four feet tall. He's my hero. Here are the best photos of Willy.

Portraits

We had a series of portrait assignments during the week. Some were in the studio, some were outdoors. The studio was a fun change because I'd never done anything like that before. I'm far from a fine arts photographer, so it was nice to pretend to be one for a day or two. Here are the winners from the various portrait sessions.

Homeless of Missoula

One of our assignments was to step out onto the streets of Missoula and photograph an interaction between two or more people, trying to tell a story again with only three photographs. I found a group of homeless people, several Native Americans from the Blackfeet tribe and one Caucasian male. The portrait I took of the latter—a broken face with a one way sign in the background—may be the best photograph, and the saddest, of the week. It was about 10 a.m. when I ran into these folks, and the men were already quite drunk. I bought them some food after taking some pictures, but they weren't interested. They thanked me and then asked me if I could buy them a few beers. I couldn't.

Stevensville Creamery Festival

Hello All,

It's been awhile since I've posted anything new, so I'm going to make up for it with an onslaught of postings from the last few weeks. I traveled to Missoula, MT, for a week-long workshop at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. I drove out West in my beloved Subaru, packed to the gills with camping, biking, fishing, rock climbing, and reading equipment. I've gotten to use some of it, but not all.

Our first assignment at the workshop took place at the Stevensville Creamery Festival just south of Missoula. We were given almost no instruction, just turned loose on the crowd and encouraged to capture the essence of the festival in three pictures. I took far more than three, of course, and had plenty to choose from for the first critique. Here are some of my favorites.

The two oldest members of the Bagdad Chapter of Shriners. The man on the left is a former Naval Aviator who earned his wings in 1943 and flew PDY missions in WWII.

These boys seemed to know only one word: "Aargh."

One of the women from the "Clowning Around" division of a female equivalent to the Shriners.

Bob Decker of Vietnam Veterans of America, working the hot dog stand.

Blue Ridge at Dusk

Alex and I went camping near Dripping Rock last night. We got rained on, again, but not until 11 PM. Slight cloud cover made the sunset a little less than spectacular, but the temperature was perfect, and there was enough sunlight to practice the silhouette technique I've been meaning to try for awhile.

It was a great getaway, but unfortunately we didn't see any bears this time.

Portraits from around town.

Here are a couple of images I took last week while trying to figure out low-light photography sans flash (which has to be easier than with flash, because I can't seem to make a single picture come out when I use the flash).

Mike Parisi in front of the Blue Moon Diner (couldn't get the sign and his backlit face to come out right)

Alex in front of a really cool painted brick wall.

This couple helped me avoid my shyness by asking me if they could be in the picture I was trying to get of the neon sign.

The most successful attempt at capturing the neon Lucky 7 sign. Will return later.

I went all the way to Richmond to check out the fireworks show and practice taking pictures, but the show was going to take place at The Diamond, the Richmond Braves' stadium, and the game went into the 14th or 15th inning. My mom and Alex got bored of waiting around, and so did I, so we packed it up and went home.

We'd parked in a dark alley in order to "pirate" the fireworks show without dealing with the traffic. We witnessed two screaming matches between socially incompatible individuals. Nobody fought. Don't think the cops arrested anyone, but I felt sorry for the kids and the parents who'd brought their kids out for a wholesome night of 4th of July fun.

Alex and I are going to Waynesboro on Friday night to catch their fireworks show. They always have their show the week after July 4 because they can't compete with Staunton and Charlottesville. Poor guys.