Hay Archives - Bliss Photographics

Posted on July 14, 2020July 6, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Buck Moon Cloud Silhouette

Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this full Moon the Buck Moon. Also called the Thunder Moon because of early summer’s frequent thunderstorms. It lived up to the latter name as several thundershowers moved through the area during it’s time full this month. The Europeans call the July Moon the “Hay Moon” for the activities this time of year in the fields. Also coined the “Mead Moon” for the honey gathered in it’s making.

The Silhouette here is a result of a setting Moon settling behind a thick cloud back at the horizon. (Actually the earth is spinning, the horizon rising with the moon relatively stationary but don’t worry about the way things really are 😜 ). All occurring during early morning twilight with it’s dark western sky. Little light was available for the camera to see the cloud. Only a silhouette offered it presence to be known.

The moon being close to the horizon, the atmospheric lens effectively distorting it’s normally sharp edges. This was the color of the moon during this particular encounter with it. The moons color is all about the color of the light making it through the atmosphere to my lens. This weekend provided me 4 weather windows to the moon rise. A different color of disk appeared for each timeline. I have more files to download from this months limited opportunities to catch the full moon low to the horizon. I worked it every opportunity I was given.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming / Montana borderlands

Title: Buck Moon Cloud Silhouette

Posted on April 20, 2020April 13, 2020 by Frank Bliss

RoadRunner Just Off Frame

I’ve pretty fast with a long lens but keeping ahead of these canids is a job best left to the Road Runners. Occasionally I catch them with great lenses/cameras, other times I catch them with a game trail camera. The best game trail cameras I use are in the 200 dollar range. The best Sony Mirrorless with a 28 inch long 1200 mm lens is in the 6000 dollar range. Both cameras take images of what is in front of them if the operator knows how to set them up, quickly I point out, and get the shot. One might get this either way. Humm, I wonder which system took this image? Under the right conditions, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference.

Quality of game trail cameras is not the subject of this post as much as this hunting coyote is. I know he is hunting because he is awake. Generally they wake up with a “Coyote Breakfast”. Such menu is widely understood as a Coyote relieving himself next to a tree. No actual food for breakfast involved usually for such a creature. They are always chasing road runners fictionally but it real life, it’s all about the next meal. They do chase the original fast food….. Mostly mice and small mammals but they do get into trouble with ranchers and growers of any livestock. Baby livestock is a favorite snack for a pack of these guys.

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

Title: RoadRunner Just Off Frame

Posted on April 12, 2020April 7, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Coyote Hunting the Shoreline

Coyote Hunting the Shoreline .(Game Trail Camera Capture)

There are 8 species in the Genus Canis. The Canis we know best is Canus familiaris (common house dog). This Coyote is Canis latrans. This is a female by the looks of it on other photos.. It’s about 4/5ths the size of a full size male. Males can weigh up to 45 pounds. From what I’ve seen, they can bite you about 30 times per second per second.😀.

I’ve known a human raised Coyote and they are a force to be reckoned with if they focus on you.That ice was 1/2 inch thick at most. If she keeps this up, it’s going to mean a cold bath if not me finding a floating clump of fur in the spring thaw.

I tend to 29 Game Trail Cameras currently and plan to expand that network considerably over time. They take very little work but a lot of AA batteries over the network lol. I endorse no particular Game camera as they ALL have issues with photo quality. The way they save .jpgs drive me nuts as I have to fix each and every one I publish. The only thing you can really adjust besides 3 levels of exposure/flash/distance, is placement. Set them on a post or tree and wait. I will have cameras working all winter concentrated where wildlings actually go. Natural funnels and water holes are the easy picks. 2×3 aspect up to 36 inches wide.

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

Title: Coyote Hunting the Shoreline

Posted on March 17, 2020March 10, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Corral with a View

Corral with a View (Moon Setting from my side yard. )

Back in the cold January of 2020, we had a little more snow on the ground that we do now in Mid-March 2020 as this posts. This is a corner of our corral system from just inside the fence of our front yard. Looking west this small part of the corral system. This enclosure was being used to keep some 1200 pound hay bales. Safety from the small herd of Corriente’ Longhorns we keep about. Corriente’ cattle are seriously able to take care of themselves in the winter. Like Bison they paw at the snow to expose the grass under the blanket. Angus and most purebred domestic breeds lack enough instinct to perform this task.

The mountains in the distance, known as the Red Hills reach 40 miles out from the camera. The Little Powder River Basin between myself and the Red Hills. Part of the right side of that ridge is in Montana while I’m standing in and looking at 1/2 a Wyoming ridge.

This Waning Gibbous Moon captured here in the process of setting. Remember it’s not the moon that’s moving. It’s the horizon/you. This was a full moon a few short days ago. I chase the moon from time to time. Here such that it is in the same image as the Pink Blush from the “Belt of Venus”. A variety of Alpenglow . Sunrise over my shoulder with a pink back show. If your going to be “Stuck” in a corral as stock, it might as well have a great view. 😜📸

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

Title: Corral with a View

Posted on March 7, 2020March 2, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Wetland Sunset Summer Green

Boy I miss summer. I will say that there were some mosquitos out at this shooting. Some crimson to purple to blue gradients pop up each year but not many. I got a good one here though. The alpenglow ice that gives you summer crimson blends in like an acrylic paint into blue higher in the sky forging purple out of the mix. It’s a natural rare gradient that I see a few times a year. Real purple is much rarer in the world than you would think looking at forums. Beware of the electric blue images you see but this is a real color mix showing purple.

The grass was high, the hay bales in the distance attest to an expenditure of diesel fuel to gather each 1 ton bale. The big tree just across the inlet has a landing below it that I have several game trail cameras. They have taken hundreds of creatures from coyotes to Herons walking right in front of that wonderful cotton wood. This lake is literally miles from the nearest gravel county maintained road. I can’t tell you how many little places of zen like this exist in and around my ranch. I’m pretty sure infinity comes to mind for the time I have to spend here in my short human existence. Cowboys 100 years ago built the dam across this spring. It watered generations of cattle walking the Miles City Montana to Newcastle Wyoming Trail on the way to Texas.

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

Title: Wetland Sunset Summer Green

Posted on January 20, 2020January 14, 2020 by Frank Bliss

Pronghorn Pulling Some G’s

The North American Pronghorn:

Pronghorn are the Fasted Land Animal in North America. Nothing else even comes close. They developed these skills/anatomy as a result of learning to avoid predation. It seems there used to be some pretty fast Lions, tigers and other cats living in these hills. Those predators were obviously prolific during the last Ice Ace and before here in the Wyoming/Montana borderlands. The most most recent continental Ice sheet (5 glaciations in the last 500,000 years) stopped it’s advance about 20 miles up into Montana from my perspective here on the Bliss DInosaur Ranch. There were LOTS of critters hanging out below the glaciers.

This was captured back in late August when there was some tussling within the local herd. (see how green in August !)

Currently in Mid-winter, Pronghorn have all migrated 20 miles to the south. The Thunderbasin National Grasslands consists of a huge area of unpopulated ground. Thousands of Pronghorn head there in the winter. I drove through there about a week before this posts. I do have some good Pronghorn BIG herd photos from in the grasslands to finish. . My turn around time from taking a photo, then getting it posted is slightly over a week. That is unless I push one into the “line” ahead of others. It’s all telephoto work down in the grasslands. Nothing is close usually and there is only one road through the area that I’ve ever traveled. Vehicular traffic is limited to the main road. Forbidden on the grasslands, big fines for going off road. . The national reserve has hundreds of square miles incorporated.

Pretty much the only large creatures to winter over up here on the remote borderland ridges, are cattle and mule deer. The WhiteTail move down to more reliable water even though we supply it. They tend to be in the valleys for the season not up here.

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

Title: Pronghorn Pulling Some G’s

Posted on December 21, 2019December 14, 2019 by Frank Bliss

Pronghorn Rut Training Dojo

These younger bucks got caught working out for the Bliss Dinosaur Ranch Fall Pronghorn Rut. It’s a single elimination tournament with winner take all. These bucks get along most of the year. They may even hang out “down on the corner” together. But this is as close to a full blown organized

So on an overcast Monday afternoon “Down Yonder by the fence line” was a small dojo formed for the purpose of working out and getting “tuned” for the battles to come. These guys were not not yet playing for keeps. The bigger bucks usually take it easy on the smaller males training/ramping up to the rut .It can really be violent when Pronghorn Bucks go at it. This appears more casual for the camera I suspect. This of course is a game trail camera capture from late in the fall (Fall was on a Tuesday this year). From this location in the past, dozens of various wonderful candid captures of both deer and Pronghorn occurred.

All the Pronghorn are off ranch at the moment. They all migrated about 30 miles south to the THunderbasin National Grassland. Pronghorn herds numbering in the hundreds. I had a Old Pronghorn Buck I named “Grunt” that stayed over winter several years but he’s not here this year. He either migrated with the others or in in much higher and greener pastures by his passing. I miss him as I could get very close to him as he was tolerant of me as an antelope can be tolerant.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title Pronghorn Rut Training Dojo

Posted on December 1, 2019December 1, 2019 by Frank Bliss

Coyote Prowling on Thin Ice

Coyote Prowling on Thin Ice is an unexpected Game Trail Camera Capture. I have 4 good shots of this guy walking by here on 4 different days. (so far).

There are 8 species in the Genus Canis. The Canis we know best is Canus familiaris (common house dog). This Coyote is Canis latrans.

This is a female by the looks of it on other photos.. It’s about 4/5ths the size of a full size male. Males can weigh up to 45 pounds. From what I’ve seen, they can bite you about 30 times per second per second.😀. I’ve known a human raised Coyote and they are a force to be reckoned with if they focus on you.

I’ve always thought that Coyotes were “Wiley”. Hunting on thin Ice isn’t the brightest things I’ve ever seen.. This particular lake isn’t frozen at all at the moment as I type this…. That ice was 1/2 inch thick at most. If she keeps this up, it’s going to mean a cold bath if not me finding a floating clump of fur in the spring thaw.

2×3 aspect up to 36 inches wide.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

Title: Coyote Prowling on Thin Ice

Posted on October 30, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

North America’s “Serengeti”

Here in the borderlands we are part of North America’s “Serengeti” with herds of wild beasties mixed with our domestic stock.

The symmetry of this image totally grabbed my OCD by the short hairs. The jaw hit the floor and I maneuvered around it to ‘get the shot’ lol. There is so much geometry to this composition. Lines, squares arrows, crosses are everywhere. Holy composition Batman…! There so many things lining up in this image. Things don’t normally line up so well for me lolol.

I’d seen the hay bale alignment weeks ago but Imagine my surprise to see three different species in the same photo lined up like soldiers marching across this borderland hay ground (both Montana and Wyoming in this image). Click 🙂 Now if I had elk living here not just passing through lol. Deer to the right, Pronghorn to the left, Angus standing on both sides of the border. Maybe a few eagles on the haybales (I actually photographed a couple of American Eagles fighting high in the sky out in this field a few days ago. Composite in the works for that. Pretty far away though. This is a wonderful area for wildlife.

This field is several miles back away and “over the hill” of the nearest country road. Lots o critters there usually.. There is a 365 days a year running water tank in this pasture which help all the non-migrating critters cope with the winter out there. The next closest water is miles away. I actually have a section of water pipeline running all the way out here from my homestead to provide water to who ever in this pasture. I put in that water line for stock/cattle but available all year for who ever needs it. That was a lot of trenching and a lot of 2 inch PVC pipe over 2 miles at 16 foot a pipe section to assemble (glue) then bury 6 feet down to avoid the freeze… Ranching has a variety of job descriptions lololol.

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

North America’s “Serengeti”

Posted on October 26, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

Pronghorn Bucks Rutting in the Backcountry

“Pronghorn Bucks Rutting in the Backcountry” is a wonderful capture from a quality Game Trail Camera. I maintain a network of 26 cameras over about 5.5 square miles of both Montana and Wyoming backcountry as our ranch spans the border.

The Pronghorn were rutting in early October and this is just after the Oct 1 snow melted. Freezing nights already many times. Apparently the Pronghorn like it cool :).

Getting this close to fighting pronghorn would be difficult to do even with long telephotos. This particular game trail camera has performed well but each photo has it’s issues and takes me maybe 1/2 an hour every time I finish one just to get rid of the cheap camera problems in the digital darkroom.

2×3 landscape aspect to 3 feet.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on October 24, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

Perspective: Hay Bales on Mitten Butte’s Apron

These one ton round hay bales give a perspective for the 3 miles to this Monadnock center frame named “Mitten Butte” showing a wet years hay production for this pasture. (There are others too). Still have to pick those up and stack em lol. We can’t let cattle loose in those fields until that is done lolol. They would tear the bales to bits just for fun. Some diesel fuel might have to become involved to complete this chore of picking them up and stacking them all 🤔

We are a dry land ranch and as such usually just have one cutting. There are places we might have had a second if we tried. 14 inches of precipitation per year is our normal yearly allotment for water. We got that much this summer lol.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

Posted on October 24, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

I Call to Order This Meeting in the Snow

He called to Order This Meeting in the Snow because it’s time to migrate the 20 miles to the south. These antelope will winter down in the Thunder Basin National Grasslands (it’s on the map) between Gillette and our Ranch. It’s a huge area of no vehicular traffic (but for a few gravel roads). Large herds of hundreds of Pronghorn winter down there. But they have to get from here to there and it’s not an easy trip over hill, dale and gulley. There are a lot of places that only four feet can travel.

We are in and out of winter weather up on the high ridges our ranch is located on. It was 70 today as I type this about a week ago but it will be below freezing again very soon. Indian summer is all too short.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on October 22, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

Mooning a Windmill Hiding Behind Hay Bales

Seen north of Gillette Wyoming, a mooning of an antique windmill hiding behind hay bales. That is a big stack of hay bales with that platform being at least 20 feet high. The old wooden tower windmills are becoming rarer and harder to find. I’m trying to figure out how that sail got damaged but it must have been a very big bird involved…..

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on October 22, 2019November 16, 2019 by Bliss

Pronghorn Buck Enjoying a Dusting of Snow

The NICE pronghorn Buck was wet, frosted and generally enjoying this early Dusting of Snow. This game trail camera capture from a very well placed location. I got about 300 quite good images of antelope and deer from this camera last month. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them all but I’ve got them lol.

The problem with game trail camera captures is they all have major problems I have to fix in the digital darkroom. They are so candid that I am happy to put the work into the image. But they are still a pain to deal with.

2×3 aspect (landscape).

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana

Posted on October 14, 2019October 6, 2019 by Bliss

Pink “Belt of Venus” Alpenglow Crack of Dawn on the “Red Hills”

In taking this image Pink “Belt of Venus” Alpenglow Crack of Dawn on the “Red Hills”, I was at around the same elevation as the saddle to the left of the peak off in the “Red Hills” 40 miles away from the camera.

I wonder why they call them the “Red Hills”? hummm.🤔

The Science of this.

The Light Stuff: The Pink Alpenglow known as “The Belt of Venus” is literally the back show of a sunrise over my shoulder that was s a stunning clear sky yellow Alpenglow scene saturated by an orange and yellow gradient sunrise THROUGH the atmospheric ice present. You’ve seen other photos of that in the wetlands around here just recently posted this morning perhaps elsewhere. This is the back show where only the longer more penetrative red/pink rays of light make it through to the relatively light grey atmospheric ice present and reflects even more red. The red rocks on the hills are also adding to the effect of just the tip of the Mountain is exposed to the sun over the shadow of the horizon behind me. Technically the sun has risen for some places and not for others.

Geology: That is the Little Powder River Valley with the Montana/Wyoming border somewhere in there. That little 6 foot wide river removed all the sediment between here and those mountains all by itself. No kidding. I wonder how long that took a spring flood and yearly freeze thaw cycles to break up the bedrock so the river can haul sand/silt/clay most of the time? 🤔 Cobbles only move during floods. Quartz cobbles are common down in the river valley where they eventually make their way. Being harder they resist erosion, being heavy, they don’t travel very fast and tend to concentrate in the river down there. Quartzite cobbles up here in pure fine grained sandstone country are rare. When I find them, they are affiliated with Dinosaur Bone Deposits and are probably “gastroliths” or stomach stones (like chickens swallowing gravel). Dinosaurs moved literally small boulders around in their stomachs and left them here mixed in randomly where you find dinosaur bones. the same river concentrated both just like it does gold.

This has been an alpenglow day……3 posts in a row anyway… Change up is in order I think📸

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

Posted on October 13, 2019October 6, 2019 by Bliss

Getting Ready to Bail for the Winter

“Getting Ready to Bail for the Winter” is a contrast of size and the nature we shape to our needs.

This LITTLE sparrow (I’m terrible with bird ID’s…. a Fox sparrow?? but he’s probably too small) is tiny compared to the Huge Blue Biodegradable binding wrapped hay bale which is roughly a ton in weight and 6 foot diameter 6 foot long cylinder (bale).

This tiny decendent of the avian dinosaurs was the T-rex (in his mind of this “mountain” for a while.😀I was trying like heck to catch him flying away. Got one blurry at 1/1000th…..fast wings! Shoulda kicked up the ISO and gone 1/4000th…Loose some f-stop too 🙁 From 50 yards out.

The “Bokeh” (google it) is wonderful in this image, looks like wood grain. 😎.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on October 8, 2019October 8, 2019 by Bliss

Autumn Landscape in the Borderlands of Wyoming:Montana

An Autumn Landscape in the Borderlands of Wyoming/Montana.

I’m standing on a hill top in Montana about 4 miles north of the Ranch on the right side of the image. I’m shooting south into Wyoming across some of our place 40 miles out to the cloud decked “Red Hills”.

This is without a doubt, the greenest I’ve ever seen this landscape and I’ve been watching it cycle between white green and brown season for 20 years.

I’ve yet to really see brown season and I NEVER even had to fill up my fire truck this year :). Snow tomomorrow…. A big storm is moving through and through thursday we’re getting dumpted on. I still have a few chores to winterize totally but I’ll get another chance. Pretty much done with the important stuff…

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on October 4, 2019September 27, 2019 by Bliss

Prairie Dog Hills Across the Wyoming/Montana Border

10 miles out are the “Prairie Dog Hills” and looking across the Wyoming/Montana border are the Red Hills off in the distance. The border is where the line of trees in the center past the haybales. The grassy /hay baled area is part of our place. Past it is as I say, another state. I own land in Montana but not that direction. More over my right shoulder lol.

Most of my photos have both state landscape or sky in them somewhere.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Posted on September 27, 2019September 24, 2019 by Bliss

Where Trail Creek and Little Powder River Valleys Meet

This is a shot over the Little Powder River valley at the intersection of Trail Creek about 1 mile south of Montana. The mountains in the distance are in Montana, I’m standing in Wyoming.
There was a LOT of grass this year. It’s still very green for late September.

Location: Trail Creek Road looking north west.

Posted on September 10, 2019September 9, 2019 by Bliss

Antique Farm Rake With a View

This Antique Rake in reality has NO view…. It presented me with a problem of that it was in front of a painted brown wooden plywood wall with no background. zzzzzzzz
So this is ART, I put the pretty sunset you see behind this actually in the real world front lit rake for a pretty interesting shadow/lighting illusion. In other words, I replaced a multitextured/colored wooden wall with a sunset behind the rake. This is a tedious thing for me to do from a graphic artist standpoint. . THere are so many clicks and mouse movements that it might as well be a painting done on the computer. ART by any other name.😎
I’m actually posting this on monday to show up all across social media on tuesday.. Scheduling and spreading out my posts so they aren’t all at 6AM then lost by noon by FB.
I just posted 4 posts all by myself and I’m still going. Scheduling out into the future a bit I hope.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.