CHARLOTTE'S WEB

Most late afternoons Koty and I take a walk around the property. With the return to standard time late is suddenly getting early. The walks are mostly just for our enjoyment but it's also when I look for work that needs to be done or finished.

This is burn season, a time when one can burn the slash accumulated since spring without starting the whole forest on fire. Fuel reduction is one of my obsessions. Pine beetles have been at work in this forest and they have killed a lot of trees. Many of those trees stand like giant torches just waiting to be lit. If a fire were to start this place would go up like a torch. The practical reason for the walk this afternoon was to check on a fire to make sure it was burning down as planned.

After tending to fire duties I decided to walk along Koty Bear Creek. I love to listen to the sound of the water cascading down the mountain. Whilst walking along the creek I came across this spider web spread over an old wound in a spruce trunk. It was so perfect in it's design and construction. The first thing that popped into my head was Charlotte's web. I didn't see Charlotte but she had built one fine web.

I have walked this property thousands of times and always marvel at the new and interesting things I see. I am constantly amazed by the industry and the artistry of nature.

©Kinsey Barnard

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Spring is in the air! We are experiencing typical Rocky Mountain weather, one day cold and rainy, the next warm and wonderful.

All creatures great and small are in the mood for love. Well, I doubt love has anything to do with it but they are ready to procreate.

I found these two procreators on the outside of my kitchen window this morning. I feel a little guilty photographing them in this intimate moment but that's what you get when you do it on a photographers window! :)

Notice the delicate design created by there spindly, intertwined legs. Designs and patterns in nature are my catnip!

I'm afraid I don't know what variety of insect these are.

Insect Sex

©Kinsey Barnard

BABY HEDGEHOG

This is an incredible photo of a bay hedgehog. I just love these little creatures. This little charmer seems to be giving the high-ten. I am currently using one as the center piece on my dining room table.

Wiki-pedia "A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand (by introduction). There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas. Hedgehogs share distant ancestry with shrews (order Soricidae), with gymnures possibly being the intermediate link, and have changed little over the last 15 million years.^[2] Like many of the first mammals they have adapted to a nocturnal, insectivorous way of life. Hedgehogs' spiny protection resembles that of the unrelated rodent porcupines and monotreme echidnas."

Hedgehogs

Hedgehog Centerpiece

CRANBROOK, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Yesterday Koty and I were filled with the urge to travel so we decided to go to Cranbrook. We hadn't been over that way in quite some time. I knew we were a little early but I just had it in my head to go.

Our first stop was at Lake Elizabeth which is just west of town. There is a visitor center at the lake which, unfortunately, was closed as were the restrooms. I was really hoping to use that restroom. The weather was cold and blustery and I lacked proper concentration. We walked the pathways for not too long a time. There were a few Canadian Honkers nesting, some mallards paddling and a ton of coots bobbing on the rough water.  A little further into spring this is a lovely place to wander and bird watch.

From Lake Elizabeth we crossed over BC 3 and drove up to Jim Smith Lake. This small lake was still in a frozen state. Jim Smith is a nice little paddle your canoe and have a picnic kind of place. But, again, a little later in the year.

I used to come to Cranbrook to shop but not so much anymore since the CAD has strengthened so much against the dollar. We just kind of drove through.

On the way home we stopped at our favorite local park, Kikomun. It was closed as are all of the Provincial parks around here until around May 15th. But, you can walk in. I thought we would be the only ones there but apparently there was some kind of canoe class or something going on as I was very surprised to see Surveyor Lake with more canoes on it than I had ever seen before.

Spring is in the air and there are subtle signs everywhere but it will be awhile yet before it really gets into to full form.

Lake Elizabeth

Female mallard paddling along

Out spout at Jim Smith Lake

Jim Smith Lake

Canoers at Surveyor Lake

Osprey coming in for a landing

As always we are never disappointed with our little sorties into B.C.


©Kinsey Barnard

PERSONAL USE PHOTO DOWNLOADS

Since writing my last blog post Who Am I I've been giving the matter a great deal of thought with respect to marketing my photography.

I realize now that I have lacked focus. Part of the problem is probably ADD but I accept full responsibility. I've been all over the place with my marketing  efforts.  Like most artists I am far better at my art than I am at marketing.

As the song says I can see clearly now. And what I see is that I want and need to focus totally on my fine art photography.

My epiphany could be good news for fans and followers. Henceforth, the only print images I will be offering  for sale will be my fine art giclee prints.

What I'm going to do with the thousands of pretty pictures that I have taken, whilst searching for my art,  is make them available to the public as personal downloads. This means you can download an actual jpeg file and, depending on the size file you buy, you can do whatever you wish with it as long it's strictly for your personal use. You can make prints, note cards and screen savers just to name a few.

I'm just getting started with this project so you may want to bookmark the gallery and check back from time to time. I think you'll find some very cool images and I sincerely hope that you can make good use of them.

Just go to PERSONAL USE DOWNLOADS and browse away.

©Kinsey Barnard

KOOCANUSA ICEFALLS

Saturday I made a junket off the mountain and in to town. It was clean out the mailbox day. Where I live the Post Office fears to go so I must make a weekly pilgrimage to town to pickup the mail.

When I have to come down off the mountain I always try to work in some photo scouting. My thought was ice falls along the Koocanusa. Usually at this time of year there are some extraordinary icefalls to be found. Last year the icefalls were everywhere and some were too beautiful for words. The image below is one such Koocanusa icefall.



This year was certainly nothing like last year. I was barely able to even find any ice. And here it is the middle of January for pity sakes! I was kind of thinking about trying to get into Little Norfork Falls if all else failed.

Whilst I was creeping along I did find some ice falls right along the road that looked like they had some potential. As is always the case when I see something I would like to photograph there was no shoulder to pull over. But, the road on the west side of the Koocanusa is a forest service road and gets next to no traffic in winter. That is unless I have parked in the road and set up my tripod at the edge of the pavement. About the time I got myself setup two axe men (read logging trucks) came barreling down on me. Let me tell you those boys stop for no one and nothing. They flew by me, using the oncoming lane, like I wasn't even there. I wish I could have gotten a shot of them coming at me. It would have been impressive.

I never saw any other vehicles in the time I was there, probably three hours. I did make my way down to the Little Northfork Falls turn off but guess what? That's exactly where those logging truck were working. No way this girl is going down an icy single track road with logging trucks on it. No freaking way!

At that very spot where I saw my life pass before my eyes I was able to get one photograph I thought was nice. I was darned grateful for even the one. It's totally different from last years catch but I think beautiful in it's earthy contrast.



Weather here in Montana can change on a dime. It's still just the middle of January so maybe there will be more opportunities ahead. Will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has to say about that.

©Kinsey Barnard

My Week in Pictures

Believe it or not, I've run out of hot air so I thought I just show my week in photos.

Mother Nature is certainly a big tease. One minute it's 50 degrees and we're thinkin' yippee and the next it's 20 below!

It was colder than a well diggers butt early in the week and folks down in the valley really got socked to -20 and below. I never got below -2 but that's because I live in an awesome micro climate on the side of a mountain, warm in winter, cool in summer. I had no idea about that when I bought the place. Just another thing that makes it my heaven on earth.

When it gets really cold beautiful ice crystals form on the surface of my house pond. To me they look like ice flowers.

Ice Cyrstals on the Pond

Ice Crystals

Poor Clementine, she has to stand out in it all winter.

Clementine

Down in the meadow this little squirrel popped out of his hidey hole to take a look around. It always touches me when I think how tiny these creatures are compared to the world that surrounds them.

Squirrel

The best thing about the week, if there was a best thing, it was all good, were the sunsets. Below are a few of them. Just awesome.

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

We took a hike over to the Canadian Border and the Canadian Rockies were awesome to see. Lucky me, all I have to do is hike a couple of miles through the forest to see them in all their glory.

Canadian Rockies as Seen From Montana

This is just a little snowscape. I love the eerie feeling. It looks like a black and white photo but it's not.

Snowscape

This would be me sitting on my patookie resting my carcass and drinking in all the beauty that surrounds me.

My Left Foot

Hope you all had a great week too!

©Kinsey Barnard

Abstract Art in River Boulders

As I wander the vast western outdoors I have discovered whole worlds existing in places I once never thought to look. In nature there are literally layers of life, whole galaxies existing right under our noses if we just but look.

I have an on going love affair with water. I always seem to find interesting things to photograph when I am in the proximity of water. I suppose this is because water draws all living things in their quest for survival.

What I have discovered scrambling over boulders in rivers and creeks is that the boulders themselves have worlds etched in their skins. Centuries of water from above and below have chiseled fine designs that can only be seen by a magnified look.

Below are a few images I have taken of the surfaces of boulders. I think they are quite beautiful in an abstract kind of way.

RIVER ROCK

RIVER BOULDER

 BOULDER ART

BOULDER DESIGN

BOULDER WITH LICHEN

Nature plies Her artistry just about anywhere we care to cast our gaze. It's just that sometimes we don't realize what we are seeing until it is captured by a camera. More examples can be seen at DESIGNS AND PATTERNS IN NATURE

Observing nature holds never ending fascination for this viewer.

©Kinsey Barnard

Arches National Park, Utah

“Arches National Park contains the world's largest concentration of natural stone arches. This National Park is a red, arid desert, punctuated with oddly eroded sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks, and arches. The 73,000-acre region has over 2,000 of these "miracles of nature."   Utah.com

As I’ve mentioned, frequently, US national parks are not my favorite. Not because they aren’t beautiful and incredibly photogenic but because my dog Lakota isn’t able to hike with me. Lakota is my best and most devoted friend and I refuse to put other priorities ahead of him.

Many of the most famous photo op locations are down trails where Lakota isn’t allowed. I don’t mind really because there are plenty of landscapes and other interesting things close to the roads to photograph so I focus (pardon the pun) on those.  Some might consider this a handicap but frankly, some really interesting stuff gets overlooked because it doesn’t have a name or found on a tour map. And, let’s be honest, the famous stuff has been photographed ad nauseum. Oddly enough, this situation has proved to be a blessing in disguise.

What follow a few of my favorite photos of Arches National Park in Utah.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

 

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

You can see the entire gallery at my website:  ARCHES NATIONAL PARK



©Kinsey Barnard Outdoor Photograpy

Cinco de Mayo Snow - Name That Bud

Well, imagine my surprise when I awoke to three inches of snow on the ground! That's as good as some of our winter storms. My history here is short, eight years, but it is the first time that has happened in May. It was none too warm either, in the thirties.

Cinco de Mayo Snow

But, as is normal, the snow had disappeared by mid afternoon. Koty was whirling around trying to get me out for a walk. He's still making good use of that squawk box toy I bot him. What was I thinking?

Koty is like an exercise junkie. His addiction must be fed so off we went. The first thing that caught my eye was this bud. Buds are finally starting to pop out all over and the trees are getting there leaves. I'll give the first person to accurately identify this bud five dollars. I know five dollars isn't much but I still bend over to pick up a penny!

Mystery Bud

Next we stopped off at a pond and found a couple of goldeneye chasing each other. The little girl came in just close enough so that I could get a shot, she having tired of the game. Goldeneye are really beautiful little ducks. But, as is true in most of nature the males get all the looks. :) goldeneye male

I'm beginning to think I'm stuck in a rut as I continue to be fascinated with designs and patterns in nature. I found this knot on a tree stump.

Boulders continue to provide me with endless designs. I think there must be as many designs as there are boulders and that's a lot of design work.  I have an entire gallery of natural designs.

Piedra Oro

This last photo will have to stand as my favorite of the day. Again, it's just a natural design provided absolutely without cost by Mother Nature. Gads she is a generous lady. This is a photograph of pebbles beneath a running creek. It looks like a mosaic to me.

Chica Creek

So, I give thanks for another wonderful day in this wonderful place. Remember always, dreams do come true. I am living proof.

©Kinsey Barnard Photography