I’m back home in Montana again. I got back here Friday afternoon, and thought to post a few brief impressions of what I saw over the past couple of weeks.

The Oregon coast is magnificent. The power of the ocean is overwhelming at first, as is the beauty of it’s meeting with the land. It’s a place I could explore further. Maybe I will.

San Francisco isn’t bad, for a town. Actually I really like it — I just don’t ever want to try to park a car there again. It’s a fascinating city and there’s so much there to get to know. Besides, my stepson lives there. I’ll go again, but next time I’ll leave my car behind and parachute in or something.

To those of you who live around LA I’ll just say, with all due respect, you can have it. I enjoyed being able to see the world my daughter lives in now, but hey — I’m from Montana. Those freeways and traffic are a little much. LA County alone has about ten times the population of the whole state of Montana, and they’re all in their damn cars. We drive here too, but we’re not all driving in the same place at the same time. My hair is a lot grayer than it was just a couple of weeks ago. Once I got through it all and hit I-15 heading north I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Until I hit the desert.

I’ve never been in such brutal heat as that around Barstow and Baker. I was almost afraid to get out of the car because I thought I might sink right through the pavement. The desert is a harsh, starkly beautiful place, no doubt about it. It’s also a good reminder that nature isn’t necessarily gentle and forgiving. Places like that can kill you.

I pulled over in Las Vegas for the night hoping for a little respite, but it wasn’t much different. Just busier. I got a room, went over to New York, New York for a couple of hours, had a good meal, blew about ten bucks on the machines, and called it good. I have one piece of short simple advice to anyone contemplating driving through the Mojave Desert in the summertime. Don’t do it. Go around. Not only can you avoid the worst of the heat that way, you can also avoid Vegas.

In typical pj fashion, I hit the Salt Lake City area just in time for the afternoon commute. Miles and miles of cars, many lanes of them crammed almost bumper to bumper, from Provo to Ogden. It took over two hours to get through it. I eventually escaped out the north end of it, and am firmly convinced that you couldn’t drag me to a big city with a tractor right about now.

Finally, yesterday morning, I climbed up out of Idaho over Monida Pass and saw the big, beautiful Welcome to Montana sign. I almost pulled over and got out to kiss the ground. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but due to time and a limited budget I wasn’t able to explore as much as I would have liked.  Being able to finish my daughter’s visit with a road trip, and to be able to spend some time in both of my kid’s worlds was great. But, like I said, I’m from Montana and I’m glad to be back here. This is my place. This is my home.

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Sand and Shell -- Driftwood Beach State Park, Oregon

I’m writing this from my stepson’s studio apartment in San Francisco. This is the first time I’ve been in this city since 1987, and then it was only for a few hours. I almost feel like I’ve gone blind — I can see the hustle and bustle all around me, but I can’t see the photographs in it yet other than the obvious San Francisco shots that you take home as memories. I’ll be here for a couple of days yet, so we’ll see what comes of it.

My daughter and I spent a day along the Oregon coast Friday, and it was much the same there. We were right on the beach with our feet in the ocean, and I felt about as big as a gnat. The open ocean pounding in right at our feet was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen, but my mind couldn’t wrap itself around the sheer size and power and scale of what was right in front of me. I found myself looking right down by my feet for photographs that I could get a handle on. To my notion this one worked, but I need to take a closer look at the rest. That may have to wait until I get back home.

More later.

pj

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Blodgett Canyon -- Bitterroot Mountains, Montana

This was done in Blodgett Canyon in the Bitterroot Mountains around midday on a hot summer day years ago, a great time of day to be out photographing.

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the river's edge

Along the banks of the Bitterroot River this afternoon shortly before a thunderstorm.

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One question I’ve been sitting here pondering this morning is if photography galleries, particularly small individual or group galleries, are still a real option in today’s world.

I’m not referring to economic conditions and downturns here, I’m more interested in the impact of the internet. These days anyone with an internet connection and a collection of photographs can set up an online gallery with very little effort and send their work out to the world at light speed. Are traditional galleries doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs, much like the big video outlets have with the advent of Netflix? Is trying to move your work through a gallery simply pissing in the wind?

I’m not saying this to be a smart-ass. Many photographers still work through galleries. Guy Tal recently opened his gallery in Utah, and David Leland Hyde is doing heroic work bringing the work of his late father, Philip Hyde, to gallery walls, to name just two. I applaud their efforts, and sincerely hope they meet with the greatest of success. I’d be interested in hearing their thoughts.

My own feeling is that galleries play an important role and always will. Meeting an artist in person, seeing the work in the flesh, and the social connections made in a gallery setting are things that can never be experienced over an internet connection and have always been important reasons many people visit galleries. On the other hand, being able to purchase damn near anything we want with a few clicks of a mouse and not have to leave home to do it appeals to more and more of us all the time.

Will traditional galleries remain a viable avenue for photographers? I would certainly hope so.  I’ll leave you with this question.  Are galleries going to fade away into irrelevance, or are they an important part of an artist’s presence that can and will work side by side with the internet? What do you think?

pj

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A number of changes are happening here at photomontana.net, and my other photo sites, as I work on making the most of my limited abilities to try to turn my photographic interests into some kind of workable gig. Here are a few of them in a nutshell:

• I’ve mentioned it earlier, but I started a sister site to this one. It’s called adventures with a two dollar camera, and it’s an ongoing project of work I do with a camera I got at a yard sale years ago for two bucks. The point of it, besides simply being a fun way to work, is that much can be done with minimal equipment. Your vision is what counts, not so much the camera you use. Stop on by and check it out.
• I’ve put up another website, finn photography, as a place to offer prints for sale.  So far it features two galleries, each with a small but growing selection of available prints.  One is for small prints from the negatives I shoot with the two dollar Silette, the other is for larger prints, some from my past but mostly new stuff I’ll be doing. The film negs will be drum scanned, and both film and digital files will be printed on high end printers. I’ve also created an email mailing list to keep those who sign up informed on latest print releases.

I’m going on a road trip to California in about two weeks. My daughter has been staying with me since the end of May, and rather than fly her back to Burbank, I’m going to drive her there myself.  We’ll spend a few days driving down the coast, a few days in San Francisco visiting with my son, and then on to Burbank where I’ll spend a few days letting my daughter show me around where she lives now.  Then I can poke around the West on my way back to Montana working on building up my photo files. I’ll take a laptop and a couple of cameras, and call it a working trip. I’m looking forward to it.

Last, but not least, I’m changing the look of this blog. I’m giving it a new theme and a new paint job, something more open and spacious. If things look weird around here for awhile, fret not — it’s just me tinkering.

On that note, I’ll get back to it. Keep those cards and letters coming.

pj

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It seems to me that I’ve been running into more and more stories like this one lately.

Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was detained by police and BP security guards yesterday after taking photos near a BP refinery outside of Texas City, Texas.  Police reviewed his photos and took down his personal information and then gave it to the BP security guards, after threatening to take him in if he didn’t comply. There was nothing to hold him on, and they gave the photos back and sent Rosenfield on his way.

It sounds to me like plain old intimidation tactics.  Rosenfield is a seasoned freelancer and handled it well, but what if it had been a more timid soul?  I’m not a photojournalist, but I find these types of incidents troubling.  Are the authorities and the big corporations getting more aggressive with their scare tactics designed to keep citizens and journalists from photographing and reporting on things they don’t want the public to see? Will cases like this discourage others from covering stories that the public has every right, and need, to know?  Troubling…

Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth.

pj

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It’s a busy time for me. I have a lot of avenues to explore, much to learn about, and about a gazillion things to try. Luckily for me, now that I’m free of the 8 to 5 routine again, I have the time and energy to do that.

One thing I did right off the bat was to start a companion blog to this one. Actually it’s the old domain I had over at Blogger. I simply re-activated it and made some changes. Yes, it’s a photography blog, and a sibling to this one, but it takes a little different approach. Rather than tell you about it, I’ll let you go over there and see for yourself. See how thoughtful I am?

You can find it here. Let me know your thoughts and ideas.

Thanks,
pj

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