Flag Archives - Bliss Photographics

Posted on August 29, 2020August 23, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Noisy Midnight Lightning Storm

IT was/is VERY dry out. It has been in the 90’s for an extended period. Precipitation has been low all year. In HUGE contrast to the previous year.

A long day ended and an instant after I closed my eyes it seemed. Out of the night I was awakened by the rumble in the distance through the walls of my homestead. Generally being pretty quiet up here but for the roosters in the morning, I sat up to take notice. My fire watch instinct kicked in… On went the fire resistant pants and wool socks. I get to the porch all dressed up…. It started to rain…. pretty well.😜

Lightning flashed every 5 or 10 seconds but most of it was not visible to me where I stood. My window under a metal roof this night was fairly limited by the wind. I hesitate to put expensive gear out where left unattended, it might get knocked over or soaked. So I keep it close. I do keep a properly built “ground ring about my homestead. In 2 decades of living here. I’ve never had a lightning strike come into the house. I learned to build “ground rings” after building several Ham Radio Shacks and a communications tower on hill tops. Burying copper wire or water pipe recycled is a good way to get a proper path to ground before ground currents get you. It’s always better to have the best ground outside your place.

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

Title: Noisy Midnight Lightning Storm

Posted on March 31, 2020March 25, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Reflections Driveway Twilight Show

Long Red, Orange and Yellow wavelengths survived the gauntlet of the atmospheric filters present. This lake looks HUGE but I assure you it’s a perspective trick of angle and light. It is a small melt water pond on my driveway probably 15 feet across but that is irrelevant to the illusion. If it were windy that night, this would have been a reflective mess. I know the bottom here 😜.

This low area is part of the drainage inside my compound however . I’ve seen 4 inches of water flowing through this spot before during the spring melt. It is the secondary water course through my property. When the primary water channel is full of ice, this part of my driveway is a run off channel. Plan B as it were. lolol. My buildings foundations are a foot above this. I did the surveying for many of the structures here. I taught surveying to collect seniors in the Horse Creek Area east of Dubois.

Reflections from calm water are always darker than the skies they are reflecting. Rippled water presents a smaller surface to reflect the available light so windy surfaces are even more dark. The dynamic range of these Sony Alpha 7 series never fail to amaze me and I’ve used them for 2 years now. I put a lot of clicks on camera bodies lol. Hard use up here in the backcountry. Lots of dust /environmental exposure plus wear and tear.

This location is directly on my gravel driveway. Sometimes I don’t have to go far to chase the light. . As this posts the sun is setting further to the north or straight west each night after the March 19 Equinox at 9:50 PM MST. It set at 270 degrees that day. The sun is setting/rising north of east/west roads as well. There are so many opportunities over the next week folks, pay attention to sunset and sunrise and where those “leading lines” lead to.

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

Title: Reflections Driveway Twilight Show

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 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

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.

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 January 2, 2020December 29, 2019 by Frank Bliss

B1B Lancer Circling Flags

Being under the US Air Forces Powder River Training Complex has it’s benefits. I could hear the roar from inside the house. The B!B is many things but it isn’t quiet. B1B’s can be faster than the sound (probably close to light speed) but I haven’t heard a sonic boom for the 20 years I’ve lived here. If nothing else the Air Force is polite. There is nothing like maybe 100,000 horse power flying overhead. I’ve had the fly 500 feet off the deck directly over head. It’s a real punch in the adrenal gland.

I’m thinking someone forgot their extra Skoal can in their locker then had to head back. In training, they are probably stacking spirals to gain altitude.. The sky was perfect to preserved the trail through the big strategic bomber moves pretty quickly. I’m thinking he pulled some “G’s” around that pretty tight loop at 450 knots. 🤔

Strategically these fellows have a low radar cross-section to make detection considerably more difficult. Their ability to fly lower and faster than the B52, while carrying a larger payload makes this a heck of a plane. Advanced electronic countermeasures to enhance survivability makes it a two way trip.

This guy is out of 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. They have a fairly large around of southeastern Montana and North Eastern Wyoming along with a Bunch of the Dakota’s as fly over. We unfortunately had one crash about 50 miles from here about 5 years back.

Using a WIDE angle fisheye lens I corrected significantly for lens distortion. There is still a little down angle on the log ranch lodge but it corrected fairly well.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: B1B Lancer Circling Flags

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.