longshadows Archives - Bliss Photographics

A Time Before Fences ART

(Satire)

I’ve mentioned several times in previous narratives, that I got lucky on an e-bay auction. I managed to acquire the original “Way Back Machine” from the 1959 cartoon of “Peabody’s Improbable History”. That nifty show was embedded within the larger “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. I enjoyed each and every episode after school each day. Any precocious child would thrive with all the imagining. We had 3 channels on the TV at that time… 🤔

So, I won the auction, 6 days later, unpacked, dusted off…. IT was functioning after an initial clean up. I had to replace some vacuum tubes and solder on some replacement electrolytic capacitors into it’s build. After all it’s a 70 year old time travel machine. Electronic components “dry out “over the years.

So every now and then I turn it on. When you see your lights dim, it’s probably me.

Here I picked April 1805as a time to travel to. Late in that afternoon when off in the distance over that far ridge, Lewis and Clark were canoeing up the Missouri into the Yellowstone River just north of here. A time before fences, telephone lines, electric wires and buildings. Landscape before European Man. I only allow myself a few moments to click a little bit and then I head back. Don’t want to take the chance of stepping on a cockroach and changing history into the future as a result. I figure a few photons captures then carried through time won’t effect the universes time line too much. Such things can have cascading consequences.

Owning such a machine is a great responsibility of course. Imagine going back into the Paleozoic and changing the course of things from then on because you swatted at a 6 foot dragon fly. 🙂

I did say it was satire: 😜😜

This if you like layered landscapes… Boy are those long shadows and remember green season? 📸

Location: Photo: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Title: A Time Before Fences ART

Backcountry Sunrise Long Shadows

This image was captured just as the horizon dropped exposing the relatively stationary sun. Everybody always says the sun rises but it’s really the horizon falling away. OK. It was a “sunrise” bone chilling cold sunrise. At -2F any wind amplifies the experience from a sweat shirt to full arctic gear. In dead calm air, -2 might as well be 50. I dress in layers.

Working in really cold conditions with cameras:

I’ve been up here in an open vehicle at -20 before so this was pretty comfortable relatively. Riding around with a box of 4 or 5 camera/lens in an open ATV in that temp is something I don’t like to do now.

For this capture, I was walking around from place to place for quite a while. Drove up there in my jeep. Usually my right had is my weak link. I wear “Red Head” Mitten/fingerless gloves. They are better than other gloves I’ve seen advertised for photographers and do a pretty good job. I always carry two pair. If they get wet, it’s time to change them. But you CAN work the delicate controls of a camera with them on.

I even had my Jeep to retreat to . I prefer not to let my cameras get so cold so having them in a heated car has it’s advantages.

Working out of a car window in the cold:

You have to watch shooting cameras out of a heated car into very cold air. You can get distortion similar to a mirage that I’ve actually seen live and watched it distorting the image on the cameras monitor. The warm air and the cold air mixing makes a little distorting lens just for your annoyance. With a long lens the distortion caused by this interface CAN be significant. Each situation is different. I try to keep air flowing into the drivers window versus warm air flowing out. It’s a huge difference with long lenses.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands

Title: Backcountry Sunrise Long Shadows