This is not a buffalo, but an American bison (Bison bison – no, really,) and by saying that, I am perpetually reminded of a B.C. comic strip by Johnny Hart that dated from my early childhood. One of the caveman characters was perusing a dictionary and came across the entry, “Buffalo (noun) – See Bison.” He flips a few pages and
Category: Photography
Daily Jim pic 32
There are not a lot of reasons to visit South Dakota, and the previous Daily Jim pic was about a third of them. This will eventually be another, but it’s been in progress for a long time now (since 1948) so, you know, maybe not for next summer…
This is the Crazy Horse memorial, intended to depict one of the
On composition, part 26: Sunrise and sunset
It’s been a long time since my last ‘On composition’ post, even though I’ve done several that fall into the composition category. And as all avid readers of this blog will know (a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!) I’ve probably covered
Daily Jim pic 31
I don’t have to tell you where this is, and there’s only so much anyone can do with it – there’s largely one perspective that can be achieved, and I think this visit was as much for the benefit of Jim’s kid, while they were in the vicinity, than anything else. It’s admittedly pretty amazing how erosion can produce something that looks so much
Sunday slide 34
It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out why I decided on this one to feature this Sunday. This is not a solar eclipse, however – just a lunar one. The eclipse had started before the moon rose, so the sky still had some light in it while I was trying to capture a moon dimmed by atmospheric haze. Lunar eclipses always happen during the moon’s full phase, and at least
Daily Jim pic 30
I’m doing these in the order that I received them, so blame Jim, but we’re once again hanging out at Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. The wide shot with the light angle is dramatic enough, but the storm in the background adds a bit of atmosphere. This is the kind of composition where you need a dramatic lightning bolt, but that’s really hard in these conditions, since
Daily Jim pic 29
This… is why you don’t have pep rallies.
I told you we’d see more, as Jim moves into the interior of the schoolhouse that his grandfather-in-law attended. While I’d like to think it was in better shape then, I’m assuming nothing. To me, it looks like those buildings used in the first atomic tests, though it possibly predates those by fifty years or so.
Actually, I’m
Daily Jim pic 28
It appears that I inadvertently deleted the e-mail this was attached to, so I’m thin on details, but I believe this is the schoolhouse that Jim’s grandfather-in-law attended. We’ll see a little more of it shortly. We’re back in Montana, by the way.
Meanwhile, I’m jealous. I would love for any of the schools that I attended to be this decrepit obviously
Daily Jim pic 27
Quite a few people don’t know this, but black-tailed prairie dogs will whistle sharply and fiercely when they sense danger.
Even fewer people know this, but they do so with the old country-boy trick of placing a blade of grass in a small gap between thumbs pressed together and blowing strongly. It is one of those remarkably useful things that you learn in adolescence, like making fart noises
Daily Jim pic 26
And so we reveal the mystery of two days back, or at least it should be pretty obvious by now (and might have even been obvious then.) This is Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, definitely one of the more curious geological formations in the US, and a major part of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now you can finally place that little musical bar that I provided as a hint.
There are radical