Flag Archives - Bliss Photographics

Posted on May 30, 2020May 22, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Flying Flag in Alpenglow

Rarely do I have architectural elements in my images. Under Alpenglow saturated refractive ice filled sky, the football field sized roof sets the stage for this three part drama. We need a little patriotism these days….

Muddled has been the origin of the starts and stripes.. Accounts handed down orally over several generations. Mostly from the descendants of Betsy Ross. Congress onJune 14, 1777 took time from it’s busy schedule. It passed a resolution stating : “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white”. That “the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Still to this day, no one knows who designed the flag. No one know why that particular color combination and pattern were chosen. Rumor is Betsy Ross made the first American flag in 1776.

George Washington personally requested her design the flag. Again, this is hearsay. Obviously nothing is hunting it was it never varies its routine. (bad plan generally) Coming home from a long night out working the light with a box of cameras is always full of adventure. I never know what to expect. Wyoming winds are unpredictable so there is a variable you can’t control. Luckily this was/is not much of a problem that night. It’s generally fairly windy in this country. An 80 dollar 5×8 flag usually last me about 4 months before it get’s “Worn out”. 3×2 aspect to 3 feet.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Flying Flag in Alpenglow

Posted on March 11, 2020March 4, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Homestead Reflections Melt Water

Veiled Sun begun, the waters of life in it’s various forms all in this capture. Vapor, Liquid and Solid all co-exist under the moderating winter up here on the high ridges. Phase change occurring live real time in this “Action” photo lolol.

Currently we are loosing snow pack and the ponds are filling. Not all melts as much snow directly sublimates (google this) in this dry climate. Melting of course accounts for much snow pack depletion in the spring.

Here it undergoes a temporary pause on a long trek to the sea. Melt water ponded up in our front yard along it’s normal course through our homestead’s compound. The snow pack preventing normal contours from flowing water to the water ways on the ranch. Remaining still is about a foot of snow covering the ground. This after a long period of 50 degree days in Late February / Early March 2020. We are low on snow this year locally. I’d like to see a few more feet till early May but at 4 inches at a time from 30 degree windless storms. I’m sure I’ll get that wish…. 😜😜👀

Living up on a high ridge mean we often have snow when at lower elevations there is no coverage currently. Drop 500 feet off our plateau to the adjacent lower drainage is instructive to the paucity of accumulated frozen precipitation this year. This situation is what I call mud / ice season, sort of a sub category of white season. Green Season is 2 months away yet. Last freeze is mid-may. The mud effectively keeps me out of the backcountry 😔📷

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming / Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Homestead Reflections Melt Water

Posted on March 4, 2020March 2, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Twilight Patriotic Windmill

From the Summer of 2018 which had a variety of smoke effects that I observed. This Red, White and Blue themed July Sky was appropriate for Wayback Wednesday as well as Windmill Wednesday…. Oh wait:

Windmill Wednesday: Windmill Junkies Unite : 🤘🤘🤘😜📷 Don’t let your mother know you look at “stuff” like this 👀👀

I’m trying hard to mix up what I’m posting daily OR going thematic like Moon Monday. As I am finishing my portfolio, working on images, I sometimes do a search of my files for a particular Subject) say “windmill”. I get several 1000 images across my entire computer but on my “to finish” drives, I have narrowed that field a bit. Only several hundred to go there lolol. Of course I have to deal with all the currently taken images daily too lol. I ultimately posses pretty a “set job” security just finishing images I already have taken. Literally there are years of work just finishing images.

Getting a digital camera capture/file ready to print means it has to be “Clean” with no sensor dirt allowed so to speak. Ideally I don’t have any “artifacts or false gradients/colors/hues and or any other thing that detracts from photorealism of the scene. This image is so close to the right colors of Old Glory. . It killed me that the orange wasn’t crimson but hey, I try to leave colors as I saw them. Close enough for “government work lolol.

Taken mid-civil twilight.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Twilight Patriotic Windmill

Posted on February 10, 2020February 3, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Old Glory Mooning for You

Old Glory speaks for its self in this borderlands windy twilight evening. The moon had is own plans and decided

Still to this day, no one knows who designed the flag. No one know why that particular color combination and pattern were chosen. Rumor is Betsy Ross made the first American flag in 1776. George Washington personally requested her design the flag. Again, this is hearsay.

Now the moon has it’s own agenda but has a bad habit of being predictable in it’s movement. Obviously nothing is hunting it was it never varies its routine. (bad plan generally) Knowing when the moon is low and full is of course a paramount to taking a shot like this so timing is an issue. Wyoming winds are unpredictable so there is a variable you can’t control. Luckily this was/is not much of a problem. It’s generally fairly windy in this country. A flag usually last me about 4 months before it get’s “Worn out”.

3×2 aspect to 3 feet.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Old Glory Mooning for You.

Posted on January 10, 2020January 5, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Stars and Stripes Perspective

The top flag speaks for its self in this borderlands windy day. The origin of the starts and stripes has been muddled. Accounts handed down orally over several generations. Mostly from the descendants of Betsy Ross. Congress onJune 14, 1777 took time from it’s busy schedule. It passed a resolution stating : “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white”. That “the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

What the yellow flag that is hiding below is the flag I’ll talk about. I was kicked out of a 50,000 member forum for this flag in a photo. It happened to be part of a wonderful photo with a bunch of geese flying over head at night, lit flags, lit geese…. Me refusing to remove it because it has a “political bias”. Somehow the “Tea Party has tainted that flag after less than a decade . But I guess the 100 years plus of the KKK carrying around the stars and strips hasn’t rubbed off on her yet. Some people have no perspective. 12 other forums had no problems with it. Humm.

Toward that end of providing perspective:

In the fall of 1775, then commander in Chief George Washington Appointed Esik Hopkins as secretary of the newly forms U.S. Navy. Their job was to harass and capture English shipping supply lines. The first Commander used the coiled snake Gadsden flag on the mast of his flagship under the stars and stripes. Colonel Christopher Gadsden from North Carolina was one of 7 members of the “Marine Committee”. He presented the first yellow Gadsden flag to Commodore Hopkins . The first marine flag folks.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)

Title: Stars and Stripes Perspective

Posted on October 10, 2019October 2, 2019 by Bliss

Slack Flags in Wyoming (Rare) but Snow Not So Much!

I saw an extremely rare event the other morning about 6AM, Slack flags in Wyoming are Rare but snow….not so much lolol. It’s going to be a long winter……(I’m predicting about a decade but it could be 100 years). :).

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on September 23, 2019September 30, 2019 by Bliss

Old Glory Flying at Night in a Downpour

Old Glory Flying at night, in a heavy drenching downpour about as heavy as it gets (not much lightning in this storm though) There was enough wind to inflate even the totally soaked flags. I often saw water whipping in sheets off the flags but catching that on film under these conditions will wait for another day (and lens). This was from about 100 yards away with the flags back lit (365 days a year ) dusk to dawn by a 400 watt LED stadium lamp. I was in our huge metal barn (about the size of a regulation foot ball field/indoor) arena type building. It was absolutely deafening under all that heavy rain in there with all that metal roof.
Catching rain drops moving like this occurs at a very particular setting point with shutter speed being the key. Mostly your options are: Freeze the flags, go fast shutter or see the rain, go slow shutter so you have to play with your settings on this kind of opportunity.

Have a great day all, I’m actually posting this on sunday for your enjoyment today. I think my autoposting system is working.

I try hard to read and respond to all comments live real time though. 😀
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana.