Category: Halloween

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Moon Owl Composite ART

Moon Owl Composite ART
Moon Owl Composite ART

Moon Owl Composite ART

Art then Science:

The chill of the upcoming winter was in the air. I captured an old soldier of a wildlife tree. Heavily used by Wood Peckers and Flickers to hunt in for grubs. It oversees/overllows all on it’s high backcountry ridge redoubt. A safe nest for a dozen creatures. Within is a rest from the relentless high ground wind. A rest here for this Great Horned Owl while the rising moon lights up the scene. While dark to our eyes, the extraordinary night vision of the hunting raptor (and my Sony Alpha 7RIV) pierce the darkness. 😜 📸

Did I mention the above is art. The moon just by itself is a 16 image composite. I own the owl silhouette and the snag/twilight photo. Took me a bit to do this well. 🤔👀 (Landscape up to 3×2 feet)

Now the Science:

The owls perception of the night world and need to detect the smallest movement a trait of the species. This would be a real world nocturnal and uncommon encounter. I’m ignoring the limitations of physics and gear to get an image like this require it’s construction in the digital dark room. This scene has happened millions of times however. They would be REALLY hard to catch in the real world. It’d take a heck of a lens to do this at maybe 500 yards out. Having said that, if this ever unveiled in front me in the real world, I could certainly capture the image. That is, if I were given about 5 minutes to get into position/set up lolol.

While active during the day at times, they habituate the darkness and are totally apex predators in this environment. Just to stress the point, none of this would be happening without the moon. (Morning citizen scientist assignment, please google “moon formation”).

The moon is our planets protector. It’s mass around the earth keeps the earths rotation stable. Research reveals that less than 10 percent of terrestrial planets may have a satellite large enough to provide the stability life needs to develop. (This is a big deal and where some genuine magic occurs)

The Mass and resultant gravity is necessary for stabilizing the Tilt of our planet like a huge slow motion gyroscope. Scientists say Earth’s “obliquity”, as this tilt is known, is important to remain stable. Changes in Obliquity have huge repercussions from the resultant environmental reactions. Should Earth’s obliquity wander over hundreds of thousands of years, it would cause environmental chaos by creating a climate too variable for complex life to develop in relative peace. Imagine obliquity such that the South Pole is all daylight 100 percent of the time and the North Pole in 100 percent night sky. Our lunar neighbor has literally made it possible for you to read this as a sequence of events set up in the flow of Space and Time. 🤔📸

Title: Moon Owl Composite ART

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Sun Pillar Spirits in the Sky

Sun Pillar Spirits in the Sky
Sun Pillar Spirits in the Sky

Sun Pillar Spirits in the Sky (A good one of Halloween or just a Wednesday….).

Let me say right off, I did NOTHING to this image but crop it size it and put my signature on it. It is as it came out of the camera. It definitely matches the scene I was watching 40 miles out from my position on Rattlesnake Ridge. I have at least another 1/2 dozen images pulled back of this with the images “face ” slowly morphing into a not as good a happy face.

I’m always looking for figures in the sky but this one gave me goose bumps. I didn’t know whether this character was carrying a sickle or not lolol. Reminds me of a Nickolas Cage character that did a lot of flaming up on his bike in “Ghost Rider”. (Classical Reference). It even has a bandana. It’s probably just me.

Ok, It’s a scientific/atmospheric. phenomena. Falling ice platelets, reflective surfaces of same, resulting in a strong reflection with a pillar. The clouds on top prevented almost any other light from coming through. It was VERY dark where I was but for this spot light at the foot of the Red Hills 40 miles out.

One more redeeming characteristic in this image. It forms a very nice natural Letter T for my Collection of images of nature forming letters. A colorful letter T to boot. This was truly an extreme / unique sunset event as I’ve never seen such a display before.

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

Title: Sun Pillar Spirits in the Sky

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Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree

Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree
Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree

Silhouettes: Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree

The Middle Tree,…..A silhouette of a Dancing Medusa Mythological Figure instantly stood out. This capture is a result of course of my somewhat overworked imagination 😜 A favorite tree of mine, it is handy to photograph in the late fall and early spring. During those times, where the sunsets changes as the sun migrates south. This gives it an angle that is hard to refute aligned with this location. It’s about 200 yards to those trees from my camera. Filed under imaginary creatures in the trees up here in the backcountry of the Wyoming/Montana borderlands. Title: Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree

Mythology Medusa:

Medusa was a normal but beautiful Mortal. She was unlucky enough for the Goddess Athena to punish her. Athenas punishment was giving her wings and snake like locks/hair. This along with her annoying ability to turn anybody that looked/gazed at any of her head even for a moment into stone. She is one of the monster figures called Gorgons by the ancient Greeks.

The Medusa was however the Only Gorgon that wasn’t immortal. You might remember Perseus in a legendary journey across the Greece to Medusa’s lair. So much for immortality lolol. That trip culminated with the head of Medusa being severed. It’s head later wielded by Perseus to save Argos from the “Kraken”. This encounter it turned the monster to stone. Perseus was rumored to have buried the head in the marketplace of Argos. I suspect it still lies there🤔

Classic Greek Mythology is certainly from the heads of those also with an active imagination. Hat’s off to those old boys 😀

On “Wyoming Backroads” (where I tend to work when the backcountry is blocked to me by snow.).. The roads are USUALLY open lol.

Location: Northern Campbell County Wy 4 miles from Montana, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: Dancing Medusa Cottonwood Tree

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Crystal Ball Back Country Sunset

Floating Crystal Ball Back Country Sunset with Magic Glass Sphere Halloween
Floating Sphere and a Lone Tree Sunset

Halloween Satire: Crystal Ball Back Country Sunset…… I found this _other Worldly Muli-Dimensional Portal (wormhole)” floating in the backcountry after the snows. I considered driving into it and popping up somewhere on the other side of the universe but decided to stick it out here instead. After all, I had images to finish in the camera and can’t miss tax time….😜 After all, during Halloween strange magical things happen up here in the remote backcountry of Montana/Wyoming. (both states in this image). (Nobody ever watch “StarGate SG-1 before lolol).

I’m amazed “Sneaky Pete” the Windmill didn’t try to get in on this but I think the 0 degree temps probably kept him from moving very fast. Fortunately the wind was fairly calm up on that high ridge. This was me driving places I’ve been a few times but most wouldn’t drive there in this kind of snow. I had to plow about a mile of two track road with my Skid Steer Loader to get close to this spot where I walked up the ridge to get this shot. I get to use the roads I build up on the ridges between blowy storms in this country. It takes several hours of pushing snow to get up here and once a week it shuts me down. By late to mid winter, I’m about done pushing snow. I get locked out of the backcountry and stuck on backcountry County Roads where I also get some amazing images…. more on that later this winter 😎

Actual photo short the support for the spherical optical quality lens ball removed in the digital Darkroom but don’t tell the kids that 🎃. So this is ART not a pure photo. I removed a small support under the sphere in Full Disclosure. This is VERY wide angle and a 2:1 aspect. 10mm lens.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

BlissPhotographics.com

Crystal Ball Back Country Sunset

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Black Widow on Tiger Chert

Black Widow on Tiger Chert
Black Widow Hunting on Tiger Chert

Black Widow for Halloween

I had turned over this big boulder of Tiger Chert (kinda rare) out by a building leading to this little Black Widow Hunting (me about then) . The boulder of Tiger Chert about 90 pounds (I carried it down a pretty good mountain in a frame pack…. I know lol). So you reach under it to tip it over right?…… Up here you reach under it with gloves on and here is one (just one) of the reason why. Working bare handed turning anything over in Wyoming/Montana is not necessarily the right thing to do lolol.

This Black Widow hunting on Tiger Chert had another agenda than I did. I wonder if it’s like the ground hog and we’re in for an early winter if it see’s it’s shadow? I’m pretty sure it saw that shadow…. Well I know for a fact this gal now resides in an escape proof glass terrarium down in my green house now where she is going to be in a few photosessions I hope. She gets fed a cricket or so a week from the green houses endless supply of crickets lolol. Ultra macro work on her might just be an interesting time spent with a camera dead winter .

Tiger Chert for Rockhounders

As you might expect, the rock is exotic. Oil Chert or Tiger Chert is a fairly rare variety of Silicate mineral.. Named for the alternating bands of light and darker browns or tans, the banding reflects the yearly deposition of sediment into the bottom of prehistoric Lake Gosiute. Outcrops of the material usually occur south and west of Rock Springs as well as a few other places in the Green River Basin. I found this WAY north and east of Dubois Wyoming so this one is an outlier. It was up high when I found it too. Big effort to retrieve it and it still follows me around.

The concoidal fracture and homogenous nature of Tiger Chert made it a favorite of flint nappers throughout the period of human habitation in North America. It occurs in archaeological sites of all ages. It’s beautifully banded, reminds me of tree rings but those were yearly mudstone lake sediments that were literally “replaced” by silicious chert in the diagenetic history of the rock deep in the Wind River Ranges. Many mis-identify it as petrified wood. It’s very similar in composition with most petrified wood but it didn’t used to be wood 🤔

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

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Coyote Hunting for Trick or Treaters

Coyote Hunting for Trick or Treaters
Coyote Hunting for Trick or Treaters

We don’t get a lot of Trick or Treaters up here and I believe this Coyote isn’t interested in treats… I’m thinking more trickster here.🎃😄 I think we have gotten 2 small groups of “trick or treaters” in about the last 8 years. They were lost I think and saw just the yard light lolol. Pretty remote up here…. 🙁

At any rate, this Game Trail Camera footage of this fellow is actually showing it squatting marking the spot with the number 2 I think I stepped in tending the cameras… Sniff Sniff… This is one of those Caught in the Act moments around 1AM that moonless night. Pitch black Infra Red flash, no visible light but maybe a slight reddish glow at the camera. Click!

Game trail Camera images all have various problems for me to fix. But to a one, are candid and of course, they are working when I’m not so I’m all for them lol. It takes a couple of trips to collect all the chips about once a week. Some will go all winter without me being able to access them so spring thaw can be helpful in my photo output :).

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

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“Ents” Catch and Release Policy

Headline: Moon Catch and Release Policy by the "Ents"
Headline: Moon Catch and Release Policy by the "Ents"

Satire: In Tolkien’s masterwork, the Living Trees are known as “Ents”. They walk and talk and generally care for the trees in the forest as their shepherds. Here the “Ents” Catch and Release Policy is demonstrated by a young cousin of “Treebeard” . (Classical Reference)

Halloween:

Halloween brings out Ents, many of which roam the Wyoming/Montana borderlands). While he was reaching up practicing the newly negotiated “Catch and Release” program. The Moon indeed did get away from the touchy feely young “Ent”. “Sneaky Pete” the windmill was responsible for the negotiations I understand but that is just local gossip and I wouldn’t be one to spread a rumor 🎃 .

Just think, if that “Ent” didn’t let the moon go, how many things would become haywire….. The oceans would become sloshy and off it’s time base for tides. It would be a BIG disruption of lunar charts etc….. “Sneaky Pete” the windmill apparently prevented all that. We own him much but we will see how long the Ents “hold” to this policy😂

Photographic Musings:

There was just enough light left over from the setting sun to drag some detail out of the rocks grass and trees in the foreground. This actually takes some light to do. Because the moon is so bright, cameras have trouble looking into the darkenss around them. Silhouettes are easy. Getting details in this kind of light is an entirely difficult thing to do unless the sun is actually up. It wasnt here and this is using twilight light to capture the shadow details. Under the category of photographic challenges. Also I’d love to see a cellphone image of something like this. I’m thinking they shouldn’t operate in this kind of environment but I love being proven wrong. They make some amazing cameras on the little lenses these days. .

Happy Halloween, share freely.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

“Ents” Catch and Release Policy

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Black Cat Considering Halloween

Black Cat Considering Halloween
Black Cat Considering Halloween

This particular Black Cat Considering Halloween is a scary thing.

In Old Britian and Europe, a black cat walking across your path was considered good fortune. Always setting up arguments with the pagan past, churches thought the cats were associated with witches. This “familiarity with witches comes from Pre-Christian/Pagan Europe when witches weren’t looked down upon. . It was the church, who apparently thought the witches were contemptuously evil and changed their reputation through sermons to the populace.

Aloof to the fuss, black cats were still seen as good luck, until the witch hunts of the 16 and 1700’s in the US and Europe caused them to be affiliated with bad luck. It probably was not a good time to be a witch I’m thinking…. So starting in the Middle Ages because it was thought that a witch could transform herself into a black cat and back again at will which leads to why black cats are still associated with the harvest festival such as Halloween. In some places still today, black cats are considered good luck. Others…. not so much lolol🤣

Factoids: Black Cats almost all have golden eyes and they tend to be healthier than other color cats. Black fur has a survival benefit in camo and not being seen particularly on an inky night. Black cats are more difficult to “Re-home” according to rescue agencies which know such things. More black cats are male than female but the Black fur turns brown in the sun for extended periods so if you want your cat black, keep it out of the sun. 🤔

The end of October is a time here in the winter(ish) borderlands when the fur starts growing quickly into a thick blanket on the barn cats in order to accommodate the coming polar vortexes that sweep over our humble abode each winter. We have seen30 below for a week one year but 20 below every year is common. Keeping everybody fed everyday is the chore here…. Water also needs to keep running to stay open. No room for mistakes in winter here.

Before you notice he (neutered) isn’t wearing a tag, none of my “Barn Cats” wear collars as they 1: don’t leave the compound much as it is way too far to the nearest neighbor across wild country and another domestic cat encounter. 2: would instantly get caught in a fence, a hole or otherwise hang themselves on all the wire surrounding a remote Wyoming/Montana ranch. 3: we have all shots and tags current neutered cats. I’ve had the same 6 cats for 8 years roughly now. We’ve only lost one cat mysteriously in 20 years….. The BobCat’s don’t like our electric wire. 😲

Needless to say, these guys are bad a** tough fellows. They survive Wyoming winters outdoor unheated with access of course to a large barn (no wind inside). They have picked some warm places and sleep together a lot. Someone saw 4 of them in an automobile tire one day. Coiled up inside happy and warm… I wan’t there or I’d be posting that photo lolol…

I do feed them freely but their sole purpose here is to hunt mice which without them, would build up to plague populations with the grain that moves through here. Well fed cats mouse better than hungry cats interestingly enough. They are well acclimated to this environment and know where all the hiding places are. Each is friendly to a cat to humans vaccinated and vet checked…. My nephew who is living on ranch, is spoiling them badly as they show up to his porch now at a designated feeding time every day now lolol.

Happy Halloween. Share freely.

Location: At the ranch Homestead, Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Black Cat Considering Halloween

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Halloween Sky: Who Do you See?

Halloween Sky: Who Do you See?
Halloween Sky: Who Do you See?

“Halloween Sky: Who Do You See” …… was done off a pretty impressive sky to start with (still have the original still in the raw timeline somewhere. But I instantly saw the possibilities in the image. Lore from our Pagan (pre-christian) past works it’s way into the present with this holiday mixing with christian practice in the middle ages through out Europe. Much of Halloween Lore is handed down over countless generations from parents to their children along with the handed down/cut out witches on brooms and cardboard pumpkins from many childhoods ago 😀🎃🎃

So in the pursuit of this image result…. all attempts at being photorealistic went out the window and this turned very quickly into an ART/Photo Hybrid project lolol… . Did I mention this is ART for Halloween?? (Pssst, Don’t tell the kids”. ) I will always tell you when I totally mess with an image lol.

Personally I imagine the Cartoon Character “Tigger™” in this capture (its about 95 percent real and 5 percent art, just a tweek here and there really ….a little mirroring selectively. Certainly not the whole image). I would bet some dragons and devils come out of this “Rorschach Test”.

Geeky Musings:
So what is the tendency to see faces in clouds (random data) called? Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, which is a more generalized term for seeing patterns in random data. I am horribly Apophenic and anthropomorphize virtually every scene I see more or less automatically.

This tendency to “see things in clouds” was once considered a symptom of psychosis…. (Let that sink in for a second and go figure lololol) but now is considered absolutely normal. (probably not by some 😜). Humans have even taught computers how to see faces from random data. (Facial recognition and all that). There are also those poor folks that have no ability or interest in such folly but I consider it a sign of artistic talent perhaps hidden away in the rooms of your mind just looking for the door. :).

At any rate: HAPPY HALLOWEEN !
Share freely to a few special ones that just don’t look but actually see. 🙂

Location, overhead plus in my workstation, Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

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Great Pumpkin Rising

Great Pumpkin Rising
Halloween Eyes from a Setting Sun

These Evil Halloween Eyes from a rising sun I took a week ago as this posts. I’m always on the lookout for the Great Pumpkin Rising.🎃 I caught him here just sticking his nose over the hill top. Particularly at this time of year when all the supernatural creatures are out and about roaming the backcountry just waiting for an unsuspecting photographer to wander by… As if all the photobombing windmills were not enough for me to deal with……😜

The Sun was down below the horizon, this is a night sky, the spot lights from the sun’s down angle illuminating and lighting up the atmospheric ice suspended in the air…. It gave me this effect and several others interesting images as the clouds changed over the timeline. This is a ridge 40 miles out so a pretty small part of the sky which was pretty dark. These sky shows each have their own personality, sometimes several bi-polar sunset/sunrises hit me in a row lol. . I try and like to think I can read a sky like the actor Bill Paxton’s character in the movie “Twister” except I try to predict good or bad sunrise/sunset ahead of time to figure out what to do instead of where to chase the tornado as in that B movie lolol. More likely one of my many Delusions… yup 😄

Share freely with the season. It’s a natural photo not a digital concoction I swear. This stuff really happens… I just set my gear and click …..📸

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

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Great Pumpkin in the Sky #3

Great Pumpkin in the Sky #3
Great Pumpkin in the Sky #3

It’s getting close to Halloween. I better get this published. Don’t tell the kids it’s ART done by using an original image and mirroring it left and right. ITs a real image seamless with it’s mirror from a few minutes in the digital darkroom. Did I mention this is ART? 😂


It’s scary but I actually imagine and evaluate stuff like this live when I’m looking at a scene and consider it or not for this kind of manipulation art. I take the photo appropriately for the desired face I see. I usually dismiss it but this one was so cool I had to finish it. I’m fascinated by the “totem Pole” creatures that usually appear up the middle of works like this… The human eye tends to pick up bilateral symmetry and assigns it to creatures instantly. You have to zoom in though to see a lot of it and some people have more “imagination” than others. Sort of a high tech ink blot test lolol.

Enjoy and share freely for Halloween.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch in my workstation. Montana/Wyoming borderlands.

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Great Pumpkin in the Sky #2

Great Pumpkin in the Sky #2
Great Pumpkin in the Sky #2

This really is the Great Pumpkin in the Sky as it is totally unmolested in the digital darkroom as to the face and color. (It is natural and really happened like this) IT was very bright of course which is when everything else is silhouette.

This is called spotlighting and somewhere there was sunlight illuminating the landscape like a beam from above. Everywhere else was getting dark fast from the overcast and setting sun.

This is a telephoto shot so your actually looking at a ridge about a mile away and the sun is a bit bigger that the face… The bottom of the sun is in fact the bottom outline of the “mouth” at the top at the tree top where it sat down for a micro-second resting after it’s climb to it’s zenith. It’s been all down hill for about 6 hours but think of all that effort ! Must be tired 🤣

Happy Halloween and share freely if you wish.

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

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Cowboys and Dinosaurs

Cowboys and Dinosaurs
Cowboys and Dinosaurs

(Satire): For me to get the image of Cowboys and Dinosaurs. I bought the old original 1950’s “Way Back Machine on Ebay. (Classical Reference to “Mr Peabody and Sherman” but the 1950’s original). It’s a time travel device, took some tinkering… So we here at the Bliss Dinosaur Ranch sent some cowboys back to the Cretaceous to collect some samples. Here’s a quick snap of some of the action 65 million years ago here in the soon to be borderlands of Wyoming/Montana. We have many such stories here on the ranch (and lots of fossils). One of my boys lost his right spur while ropin’ on that t-rex… I hoping to dig it up some day…🤣 Halloween Madness lololololol (laughing maniacally)

ART, pure and simple…

Location: In my workstation, Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

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Old Man Ent (Onodrim to the Elves) in the Backcountry

Old Man Ent (Onodrim to the Elves) in the Backcountry
Old Man Ent (Onodrim to the Elves) in the Backcountry

This old man “Ent” (Onodrim to the Elves) in the Backcountry. There are many strange things lurking in the hills up here. I saw this “Ent” immediately even through he froze still so as to fool me. Only from this angle is the face so convincing. … Click..

Happy Halloween (real photo)

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana

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The Great Pumpkin in the Sky (ART)

The Great Pumpkin in the Sky (ART)
The Great Pumpkin in the Sky (ART)

The Halloweens Season is upon us and here is a contribution called the “Great Pumpkin in the Sky” (ART). shhh. Don’t tell the kids…
Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

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Sunrise Through the Knot Hole Mask (ART)

Sunrise Through the Knot Hole Mask (ART)
Sunrise Through the Knot Hole Mask (ART)

Good Sunday Morning from the Bliss DInosaur Ranch,
“Sunrise through the Knot Hole Mask” is indeed ART…. I captured the actual left 1/2 of the image as an image through a piece of driftwood with a very sensitive wide angle lens/camera combo. Then I started working on it in the digital darkroom. No additional light but what came through the knot hole was used. :). Then I mirrored it left to right and carefully merged the two images.

Best Full Screen for sure lolol.

It’s Halloween Art so feel free to share as you wish. Enjoy.

Took this down at our wetlands a few mornings ago. The Alpenglow was magnificent the whole morning and the sky was totally clear. THe effect on this remote lake was spectacular. I have at least three images from that lake that morning that I consider worthy. :).

At any rate, I’m expecting about another month of relatively easy access to this location…after that…. anyones guess but I’m predicting a long hard winter…. 🙁 This is a 60 x 30 inch image at high resolution :). 2:1 aspect.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyotana borderlands, north of Gillette Wyoming

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Snagging the Sun

Snagging the Sun
Snagging the Sun

This Snag was Snagging the Sun for sure lolol. I see things and then have to figure out how to capture them. There is nothing like pointing a camera right into the sun to mess up the landscape settings you were just using lolol.

For a Holloween image, it’s kinda creepy eh?? Share away if you wish.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

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Magical Halloween Night in the Back Country

Magical Halloween Night in the Back Country
Magical Halloween Night in the Back Country

A Magical Halloween Night in the Back Country is obviously ART and a composite of various photos I own. Made just for Halloween, there is indeed a little magic out here in the backcountry. Share freely as the season is rife.
I’ll post more Halloween “stuff” as I go this month. I’m peddling as fast as I can lol.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

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