A little color, nonetheless

While there have been some holidays, Friday was the first day I took off this year as far as I can recall.  Been a busy spring.  I headed out with my gear for a day of roaming, even though this is not a fantastic time for photography.  Everything is brown, no matter how nice the weather is outside.  But I did manage to find some color here and there.

The wind was ridiculous – there’s no way I was putting a drone in the air.  Of course, as soon as I rolled in to Bismarck the wind quit entirely.  I just had to laugh.  I didn’t come home empty-handed, even though I fought the wind at every turn.  Gradually I’ll roll out the pictures I brought home.

Hopefully the last snowy post of the season

On a very white, overcast day recently I decided to pay a visit to an old friend, a house that I’ve liked to check in on frequently that isn’t too far from my property.  I took the opportunity to explore a few new angles, as I had some drone batteries I needed to run down to 50%.

 

Since it’s already April, the bleak winter scenes are losing some of their appeal, but I was totally into it back when I flew to these shots.  Sometimes in the winter you get days where the air is just heavy – it’s like the entire outdoors is one giant soundproof room.  I love days like that.  They remind me of growing up in the Rockies where the mountains and their thick blanket of snow seem to absorb all the sound.  It’s so serene.

 

Of course, there was nothing serene about my propeller noise, but I did manage to enjoy the day anyway.  Coming home with some nice pictures to play with in Photoshop didn’t hurt, either!

Now I hope we can get to some green photos as quickly as possible.  With the snow gone, we’re left with brown grass and leafless trees.  This is why I prefer autumn in North Dakota to the spring; the weather is about the same, but in the fall we have green whereas in spring we’re stuck with brown.  Regardless, I look forward to the turning of the season.  It can’t happen quickly enough!

(Updated) This is about how bleak I feel right now

Well, actually this photo has more color than it should if I want it to convey my frustration with this continued wintery weather.  I should be riding motorcycles to work and doing all kinds of other fun Spring things, and I’m craving some green vegetation as well.  Now I hear there’s a chance for another winter storm next weekend…well, that’s just fantastic.

Well, you know what?  In that case, let’s make it a MONSTER.  I’m talking Spring 1997.  If we have to put up with this kind of meteorological nonsense, then let’s go all-in.  I want ten feet of snow, delivered sideways.  In fact, I dare Mother Nature (whom I don’t believe in) to hit me with your best shot.  Yeah, that’s right…a Pat Benatar reference.  Bring it.

(UPDATE): There will be no winter storm in the Bismarck-Mandan area.  How do I know?  Simple…I stretched the main belt in my snowblower last weekend, and had to spend a ridiculous amount to get new belts (one replacement, one spare) shipped here before the upcoming weekend and predicted storm.  As soon as I did that, the forecast models began nudging the area of heaviest snow southward.  If I just run out and by a sled we’ll be totally in the clear.  Maybe I should set up a GoFundMe…?

Old glory

I love when I spot something like this.  The Stars and Stripes.  Old Glory.  The colors.  I’m proud of my country, and I love seeing patriotism on display wherever I go.  I think it’s something we take for granted here in North Dakota.  Thankfully I don’t live in a place where people claim the flag stands for anything other than the greatest country on earth.

Blue cross (no blue shield found nearby)

Conditions were just right when I passed this old prairie church, giving me a cool (literally) look around the place.  While I didn’t catch any of that wonderful sunrise or sunset light that typically flatters an old abandoned prairie place, I did get color of a different sort.  One can arrange to go inside this old church, but I was just passing through and didn’t have the time.  Maybe on another journey…

I normally see things black & white, just not through my camera

When I sent a photographer friend of mine a color copy of this photo, he mentioned that it would look really cool as a black and white. I hadn’t thought about that, not only because the blue of the sky that day was unbelievably vivid, but also because I don’t normally go for black and white photography. I took his advice, and it really made the clouds stand out.

With that in the back of my mind I came across a couple of photos from last summer that I thought might lend themselves to black and white nicely. I’ve included them here. First is this abandoned church, which I believe is in Kief. It’s incredibly overgrown, and the black and white helps lessen its camouflage. My great uncle George, the ultimate outdoorsman, used his color blindness in similar fashion to spot deer when we were hunting in the mountains.

 

In the case of this abandoned school, it helps make things ominous on an otherwise sunny summer day.  Too bad this land was posted; it would have been cool to get past the gate.

Maybe down the road I’ll revisit a few of my shots and try to re-envision them as black and whites, and see if the technique reveals anything the full-color photos do not.

Love Shack and Elevation

I decided to title this post from a pair of song titles by two of my favorite 80s bands, although U2 didn’t do Elevation until 2000.  This little shack is nestled in the trees of Venturia, North Dakota.

 

It doesn’t have the tin roof (rusted) from the B-52’s song, but it’s still a wonderful looking little place.  I found this down the road from my next subject.

 

The sun was trying to punch a sunset through the clouds as I photographed this elevator, but it wasn’t having much success.  The overcast sky had just developed as I made my way into town.

 

I had a willing subject, though…this elevator stood tall and made for some nice shots.  A gloomy sky actually works pretty well on a wintery day.

After visiting these two spots and roaming around town for a couple of minutes, it was on to my next spot.  Eventually I ended up at the Berlin Baptist Church I wrote about earlier.

The big question is, why do these kids hate Jews?

Click the image for larger view

The mainstream media is talking about this brave uprising of kids who are fed up with violence in their schools, but nobody’s asking who is really pulling the strings on this deal.  The same is true for the Bismarck Tribune, who failed to ask the question: who’s behind all the walkouts?

 

The short answer is:a leftist activist group tied to a number of such events, part of that “community organizing” thing that our previous president was so active in doing.  One of the local students is even listed on that organization’s website, proving that this is no organic, spontaneous, local reaction to a Florida tragedy.  The Women’s March organization is the puppet master.

 

Click the image for larger view

So what do those people think about America?  Oh, it’s a litany of leftist screeds:

  • America is unfair to people of color;
  • The whole “militarized police” thing we heard during the NODAPL mess;
  • The USA is imperialist.

Yawn.  Name the event, name the issue, it’s like a broken record with these people.  But they’re the ones sending Bismarck High School students out to the sidewalk.  Did you read any of that in the Bismarck Tribune?

 

Click the image for larger view

So we know what the group behind the BHS students believes, but it gets worse: they’re spotted praising Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, who recently told Chicago that Jews are “satanic”.  Yet he’s the GOAT (“greatest of all time”) according to the co-chair of the Women’s March.  Even the liberal WNYC has to point out that “Half of the board of the Women’s March organization is facing criticism for its alleged alliances with Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who delivered a virulently anti-Semitic and bigoted speech in Chicago last month.”

Call me a cynic if you like, but if there was a bunch of pro-life kids that staged a walk-out to oppose the horrors of abortion killing way more children in the womb than guns ever will in the classroom, they’d be asked a lot of tough questions.  They’d be accused of being puppets of some right-wing organization.  If someone associated with someone associated with someone in a pro-life group made offensive or loony comments at a meeting somewhere, the entire group of kids and anyone near them would be associated with those comments.  If there was ANY way to call them Racist™ or connect them to anyone making Racist™ comments, there would be a blitzkrieg to do so. The last thing they’d be called is brave, and nobody would be clamoring for them to get the right to vote so they could overturn that sacred Roe v. Wade decision.

The fact of the matter is, these kids are voicing opinions with which the media agrees.  That makes everything OK, and pay no attention to the man (or in this case, women) behind the curtain. And whatever you do, don’t connect the dots to show the wicked ideologies at play here.

Which leads me back to my original question: why do these kids hate Jews?  If they don’t, maybe they should pick their allegiances more carefully.  If they didn’t know what kind of people they’re aligning with, perhaps they should get more informed before they march out into the streets.

(If you think it’s unfair to attach the anti-semitic comments of Farrakhan to these students, well…welcome to how conservatives are treated.  The media find some tinfoil-hat wacko out on the Internet somewhere, then call up prominent conservatives and demand that they respond to those comments as if they’re associated.  They try to always keep the people they oppose on the defensive.

But in this case, there’s a clear connection between the parties involved.  The kids organized with people who love a career bigot and hateful activist.  They need to be asked about this association.  If they don’t like it, they need to denounce it.  Publicly.)

Can’t pick my favorite angle

I’ll be up front about this: most of the angles of this old barn are similar. But I like them all, especially for their subtle differences.

 

And how about those clouds? What a fantastic sky on such a brilliant, sunny day. With a sky like this, it’s possible to get a good photo with just about anything.

 

Here’s a closer shot of the face of this fallen structure. I was actually here because of a prairie church right across the road, but once I was done photographing that building I had to dart over here. These turned out better than the church, actually, due to too many trees in the way of the church building.

 

I took the opportunity to “explore the space” a bit, trying a few different framing options. I couldn’t decide how near or far I wanted to be, how wide or tight I wanted the shot to be. So I went for all of ’em.

 

Do you have a favorite? I can’t pick one. I may have to down the road, but for now I find the entire batch satisfying.