View allAll Photos Tagged FeatureFriday
Berna loves to sleep on her days off, joking "sleep is my 2nd job". What she likes most about her position at Massage Envy is "meeting new people and getting to know them. I also love seeing the difference massages make on them."
On this gloriously sunny Friday you should check out the amazing work of Miyuki Cosplay, she is a wildly talented local cosplayer and friend! #FollowFriday #FF #FeatureFriday Photography by Vancouver Cosplay
Diane's best vacation was to Zaire South Africa and the Congo when it was open. What she likes most about her position at Massage Envy is "that I get to help others have a better day, enjoy life with less stress."
Joy loves to go to the beach with her dogs and family on her days off. Her favorite part about working for Massage Envy is "it's so rewarding to be able to help people feel great or much better when leaving Massage Envy."
Corriente Longhorn Playing Hathor is a capture from earlier this winter. The orange/peach colored alpenglow accented by the cloud blush off the snow in the foreground.. This was a very good year for snow early but not so much now. This was a standoff. Me versus her. I just look brave as there as a cattle gate between us as I got down on my knees looking for the reincarnation of the Egyptian God Hathor.
The orange Alpenglow is the result of atmospheric ice refracting light. All with lots of help from the the red light that make it through that hundreds of miles thick filter. I very carefully expose in the camera that sky to match what I saw at the time. The cow here is 100 yards out for my telephoto to get both the cow and the sky in the same focal field.
This Cow is NOT a Bull, just having horns does not a Bull Make. This is a mother I’ve had 5 years on ranch. … Nothing is certain up here but Winter and brown season lol. This picture hopefully will take you back to that early winter day.
If you don’t have a 100-400mm lens in your weapons chest, you need to consider it. You guy lenses for generations while fancy camera backs last a few years. I’m still using regularly a lens I bought in 1995.
Tip of the day:
You need to use a pretty high f-stop to get this deep a focus. Distance from the closest object is your friend in this kind of image. Deep focal fields come at the expense of loosing light. Your already in a low light environment in twilight.
Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands
Corriente Longhorn Playing Hathor
James likes to spend time with his wife at the beach on his days off. What he likes most about working for Massage Envy is "helping people free themselves of pain and discomfort."
From Pearl & Marmalade on Etsy, I really like these cards. The color combo is so smart, and I love the flowers and brocade elements!
Kristen loves to surf, boogie board, and practice yoga on her days off. Her favorite part about being a Massage Therapist is "most rewarding part of my career is seeing significant improvement from my clients when in turn tells me what I'm doing my part in their journey to feeling their best."
Ice Blue Windmill Morning
What a beautiful morning this was. A little chilly on the drive back there.
Aermotor windmills account for the bulk of windmills out there. The company started way back in the 1888 with 24 sold the first year. Over 20000 of the beasties sold in 1892. The company still exists. They also sold a LOT of steel fire “look out towers” for fire watch and being a lightning target lololol.
Reconstructing past lives and events grabs your minds eye coming upon and old homestea. The comings and goings of old homesteads spark my imagination. There was a homestead about 1/4 mile from this location. They had their own hand dug well 35 feet deep and 4 feet wide about 200 feet from their house down in a deep gully.. I filled it in when I moved here. It was an “attractive nuisance”.
Most settlers had to use the water at their windmill. I suspect an outhouse long since gone somewhere nearby downward of the prevailing wind. This land has had cattle or sheep on it for 100 years and slightly more. That’s 5 generations of cowboys that stayed the night or the summer in this treeless pasture. Being the only source of water for several miles around, the cowboys drank here too.
This is very big country open back country. It’s remote and just plain challenging to get to in the winter. This is a steel windmill which is more expensive than building the wood towers was. Wells were positioned centered in the pasture. This made it accessible to the entire area. A lot depended on the ground water geology to make the shallow wells work long term. (luck mostly early on).
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.
Title: Ice Blue Windmill Morning
Meadowlark Singing in the Grass
These little birds are difficult to get close to and never pose long for you to take your time setting your camera up. Now catching on at ground level is a tricky stunt to say the least. I won’t give away my secrets on this one but it’s a good story. You really can’t move much once it knows your there. These guys cue on movement and react usually with an escape maneuver. Once they sense danger, there is no stopping them.
Generally Meadowlarks are singing fools. If they aren’t actively hunting insects (slim picking this spring so far), they are yelling at the top of their lungs. I’ve pursued them for years. I’m pretty sure I’ve worn out a set of brake pads slowing down / stopping to try to capture their images. I have literally hundreds of attempts to photograph them where all I accomplished was to stop my forward momentum to the next photo location lolol.. Off they fly if you give them ANY reason to.
I will continue to hit the brakes when I sense their presence. Driving backroads often will give you long sections of fences to hunt meadowlarks. Having said that, places to perch are rare in the backcountry. Preferred locations with a view in mid prairie are well populated with these guys. Deep spring snows will place a premium on those perch locations. I find the morning after a good snow the best time to find them competing for places to alight.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Meadowlark Singing in the Grass
Courtney loves to sleep, hike, and read on her days off. What she likes most about her position at Massage Envy, "My Clients."
I LOVE this fabric I got from Etsy seller EmilyMe. It's limited to 20 yds, and I bought 3! Yeay! Isn't it so pretty? I really enjoy buying handmade supplies, and I haven't had that much opportunity to buy hand printed fabric. So, I adore this stuff!
Yucca Ridge Sunny Sunset
(Crimson Alpenglow Close far Perspective)
Working the shadow line of parallel ridges with telephoto lenses has it’s rewards. I find that it’s the simple compositions that carry the most interest as complex misleads the viewer. Detail yes, but the time and space moment should place you in that continuum in your mind. The human eye might be able to resolve this but only for the briefest of moments. The reflexive look away followed by the ghost of the bright scene on your retina. A quick though of eye damage, you blink and a minute later your vision is back. .
Yucca make for big speed bumps in the backcountry. Some of the clumps can get 2 feet high. In the winter they catch a snow drift behind the clumps big time. It looks like a sand dune field after a good snow and blow in the backcountry where Yucca is about.
I look at a lot of sunsets but seldom do I do much looking at the sun. Without the benefit of a mirrorless camera set up I’d be blind by now. I watch scenes like this develop live on video. The setting changes I make to the camera show up in real time as I spin the adjustment dials. With a mirrorless camera in my hands, I know what the image is going to look like before I click the shutter. Compare to a standard DSLR where you click and then see what you did on the back LCD. Just my 2 cents on that debate.
Location : Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Yucca Ridge Sunny Sunset
Kui is from Makiki and "loves surfing and making shell jewelry." Kui helps her clients and "I always pray before the massage, it establishes a spiritual connection."
Ice Blue Windmill Morning
What a beautiful morning this was. A little chilly on the drive back there.
Aermotor windmills account for the bulk of windmills out there. The company started way back in the 1888 with 24 sold the first year. Over 20000 of the beasties sold in 1892. The company still exists. They also sold a LOT of steel fire “look out towers” for fire watch and being a lightning target lololol.
Reconstructing past lives and events grabs your minds eye coming upon and old homestea. The comings and goings of old homesteads spark my imagination. There was a homestead about 1/4 mile from this location. They had their own hand dug well 35 feet deep and 4 feet wide about 200 feet from their house down in a deep gully.. I filled it in when I moved here. It was an “attractive nuisance”.
Most settlers had to use the water at their windmill. I suspect an outhouse long since gone somewhere nearby downward of the prevailing wind. This land has had cattle or sheep on it for 100 years and slightly more. That’s 5 generations of cowboys that stayed the night or the summer in this treeless pasture. Being the only source of water for several miles around, the cowboys drank here too.
This is very big country open back country. It’s remote and just plain challenging to get to in the winter. This is a steel windmill which is more expensive than building the wood towers was. Wells were positioned centered in the pasture. This made it accessible to the entire area. A lot depended on the ground water geology to make the shallow wells work long term. (luck mostly early on).
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.
Title: Ice Blue Windmill Morning
Who is Looking by Frank Bliss
ART…. THIS IS ART. Well unless you take just the right or the left side by itself. Then it is just photography. Each is one photo next to itself flipped horizonally. Different people imagine different things with such a presentation. Your tendency to see anthropomorphic shapes in random data we are teaching to computers doing facial recognition.
Some sunsets are limited to a very little spot of the sky. To look deeply into them when no human eye could is a spiff of using good equipment. It requires one to pretty much turn off your camera to light
I see many images roll across my screen every day. Sometimes I get bored, or have an image I don’t know what to do with. This is the latter. The clouds were absolutely ROILING like a boiling pot live real time. I don’t do video. I’m not a videographer so I need to explain what I was seeing in this viewfinder.
When I look at a scene it can instantly transformed into a vision in my mind. In this case I saw a mask I was looking to. Some childhood memory of a Halloween costume no doubt. The best images bring back memories long forgotten. I find.
Mirroring scenes is a mental exercise I do pretty much with every sunset somewhere in any extended session. It’s just a check box for me to fill if I have the time. I always look for natural body parts in clouds so a set of eyes are welcome to the parts collection. 😜😜📷
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Who is Looking by Frank Bliss
Veronica enjoys long walks on the beach and Pina Coladas on her days off. Her favorite part about working for Massage Envy is "that I get to share my passion for skin care with my clients and co-workers!"
Isn't this selvedge beautiful? I believe it's Thai, and I'm not sure what it says, but I still like it! Haha!
Keala is originally from Kaneohe, Hawaii and says " I was a military child and moved all over until age 10 when we came to Hawaii. Hula and Massage are my biggest passions."
Sonnie best vacation was to surprise her husband in NYC for his birthday. Her favorite part about working for Massage Envy is "the amazing people you get to met on a daily basis and being able to change their lives."
Cassie best vacation was to disneyland as a child. Her favorite part about working for Massage Envy is "my co-workers are epic."
Leilani is from Ewa Beach and most people don't know "I've personally massaged a few celebrities and to name one that everyone know, I've massaged "Mr. Chow" from the movie Hangover." Leilani helps her clients to relax by saying "Knowledge is power and passion is key. Being in tune with their needs and body makes them comfortable and relaxed."
Sarina best vacation was to Las Vegas. What she likes most about her position at Massage Envy is "the bonds I have with no only my co-workers, but the members and guests as well."
Perspective Wounded Tree
Wide landscapes are one of my many photographic pursuits. Getting high up on a remote backcountry ridge, miles from the next closest human is usually a good photo. It’s hard to argue with hundreds of square miles of un-molested ground. When ever I travel back east, I have trouble finding 50 square feet of ground that hasn’t been effected by man’s machinations. Cleared ground is the rule here not the rare exception. The population density of this 128 square mile zip code is 124 voters last I heard. That’s one voter per square mile on average lololol.
I am standing in Montana for this image shooting across the border.. Wyoming Skies over Montana ground. This is many miles from the nearest ranch house. Not many have ever seen this view but myself, a few other ranchers maybe, and you. Ranchers don’t do a lot of sight seeing up in this country. If they do, it is a by product of course of looking for loner steers and cows out on the range. These are BIG pastures up here. Several square miles of pasture ground is not unusual to have a fence around.
Some nights out I drive for a few hours from place to place, roost to higher roost. Five miles travel as the bird flies can be 10 miles by land. There are no asphalt roads up here. Maintained gravel is the country road system, State roads are concrete and asphalt. The closest asphalt to this location is about 15 miles. Its’ a long way via two track roads to make it there. The country roads are a much faster way to travel. There are 10’s of thousands of miles on two track roads in backcountry Wyoming. Matched only by the number of miles of roads UNDERGROUND in all the deep
Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Perspective Wounded Tree
Perspective Bark Lichen Sunrise
On the crest of this backcountry ridge, trees grow out of boulders. This hill top has a hard cap rock that has resisted erosion thusly protecting the rocks below. This is ALL Hell Creek Sandstone. This leaves these relatively harder boulders for me to enjoy but trees must penetrate them.
The Cretaceous rocks are 66 million years old and that lichen can be 100 years or more old. Only rocks that are undisturbed have big lichen patches. Cattle pressure/wear from rubbing will destroy it. There are big areas of this boulder strewn surface covered with Sunburst Liichen (Xanthoria sp.), sometimes called pincushion lichen. Bear in mind that there are hundreds of different species of Lichen that inhabit Wyoming. Differentiating them exactly is sort of a science all by itself. The cattle don’t like the footing on this hill top knob.
Lichenologists have to have work of some kind. Academia is the obvious job path. I suspect that there is a use for court testimony however the job prospects of a Lichenologist is about the same as a masters in biostratigraphy such as myself. Though interestingly, biostratigraphers do a lot of work with oil companies .. My general comment about Lichen nomenclature is that you need a bachelors of science in Biology (which I have) to look at the photos. The text about the lichen is a foreign language.😀😀.
I digress, Enjoying a sunset while walking around with several cameras in the remote backcountry is similar to a shooting gallery with a .22 but without the report. Lots of good stuff to shoot at. Just a click versus bang.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Perspective Bark Lichen Sunrise
Windmill Fairbanks-Morris Circa 1870 (I think)
There are actually several models/makers of this and similar vaneless windmill that this one could be. I’m not sure which it is positively…
Windmill technology had been around since 200 BC in China. By the 11th century when big mills in Europe. To grind grain and drain swamps were their main use. The technology brought into Europe by the Crusaders returning home. By the 1700’s the industrial revolution using water and eventually steam power reduced their use considerably. (Notable exception for the dutch). But in the Early 1800’s the new settlers to the Great Plains of America had a use for the wind engines. The Emigrants from Europe brought wind power with them. The western frontier provided a crucible. Upon which the technology constantly proved it’s merit. Pumping water was it’s task.
In the American West, settlers used wind to do work and conquer the land that otherwise would be marginal without a water source for stock. By the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, small wind generated water wells were ubiquitous across the country. Almost as numerous as the mills were the companies manufacturing them great and small.
As rural electrification proceeded the number of Windmill’s declined starting in the 1930’s. We used a windmill in a remote pasture until 2006. We ran a water pipeline from an electric well about 2 miles to it. There is also a solar powered well on our ranch.
Location: Northeastern Wyoming (Wyotana)
Title: Windmill Fairbanks-Morris Circa 1870
blissphotographics.com/windmill-fairbanks-morris-circa-1870/
Two Bucks for an Alpenglow Show
This is 10 minutes before sunrise this late fall morning when i ran across these two. They were actually heading my way as I was setting up to shoot the sunrise soon to occur over my shoulder. I’m in my vehicle and pretty much in a “blind” as far as the local deer are concerned. They usually don’t mind if the vehicle moves either as long as it isn’t a fast movement or more than 20 or 30 yards moving slowly. Approach is very important lolol.
This country is big. I drove about 3 miles out into the backcountry to have these mule deer cooperate while I composed the capture. It’s always good when animals sit for me… The Pink Alpenglow was just a foretelling of the sunrise minutes away. This capture was dead center of civil twilight that morning. The Blue Streak under the pink sky is the shadow of the opposite horizon against the sky. The Pink is the red Light that has traveled hundreds of miles through atmosphere.
We have quite a bit of icy snow at the moment. much more so than the surrounding low country. ….for early march. It has been a very long winter as it started October 1 this year. It’s been not terribly severe but it’s been cold enough long enough for me lol. Life up in hight the Wyotana borderlands can be chilly at times lolol. Never a lack of things to take photos of though
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands
Title: Two Bucks for an Alpenglow Show
Krystal best vacation she has been on is a tie between Hawaii and Bermuda. She says of working at Massage Envy, "we have [the best] owners, the girls are fun to work with, making lasting impressions on clients, and the free candy up front. Oh, and getting to wear leggings everyday."
Curlew in the Grass Lands
These guys are sandpipers with obscenely long bills. Since the male and female Curlews look pretty much alike with minor differences in the bill I’m not qualified to call. What I like about these guys is that they are grasshopper eating machines in the summer. They over winters in wetland marshes and other shore line estuaries. It couldn’t get much further away from the ocean as we are only a few hundred miles away from the geographic center of North America. They like this highland grassy ridge to breed and set their nests in.
They are fussy birds if you come into their domain. Male displays over their nesting territory are impressive with loud ringing calls. They will circle about making lots of fuss trying to lead you away from the nest. Entertaining if your a photographer as catching them in not easy tracking with a long lens. Challenging is what I call it. I often find them driving along the two track trails as I’m on the flats below the higher ridges. Mostly a flat field grassy nesting bird rather than preferring a hillside with a view as I’ve seen them.
I understand that across their range, the numbers of this amusing bird are dropping with the reduction in natural grass land turned to mono-crop agricultural uses. They of course use wild non – tilled prairie to nest and feed during the summer months. A classic case of reduce the habitat and reduce the numbers. 😔
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Title: Curlew in the Grass Lands
Snowy Backcountry Lamp Post
All these backcountry Lamp Posts have defective photocell switches. They never work more than a few minutes plus never at night. I need to talk to the management about this issue. I bet they have the parts at home depot to fix them…. Just saying 🤔😜😜 High Contrast eh?
Working/driving backcountry parallel Ridges in the winter is an exercise in getting home without pulling out the snow shovel. This is miles off the nearest county road. If you travel on the ridge tops, I find I don’t find deep snow too much. It tend to blow off the ridge into the surrounding lower areas. Found some deep snow the other day with my new rig. I did manage to drive out of it without having to dig it out. Took a few minutes of trying though…. Close….Because the snow tends to blow off of the ridge tops providing potentially miles of clear travel. Of course someone thought to put fences up. There never seems to be a gate on the ridge line. Thusly I’m forced to travel between ridges through the deeper snow regularly to travel any distance. . This is the most likely areas to stick you.
We’ve had a light snow winter though some of the local mountain ranges are 100 percent pack or there about. I can only hope we get a series of regular and not too severe snows over the next few months. Winter ends here in May.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana)
Snowy Backcountry Lamp Post
Jack best vacation was back-packing solo through Japan, including a hike to summit of Mt. Fuji. What he like most about working at Massage Envy is "working on clients with chronic and acute conditions, I enjoy problem solving to figure out which muscles and tissues are the culprits to the pain and dysfunction. Most of all I love those "ah-ha" moments.
Bighorns Backlit Twilight Sky
This view of a 130 mile long twilight BigHorn Mountains Landscape Ladder was taken a few weeks ago just making it into my workflow. The grassy remote ridgetop I was on, gives way to the Little Powder RIver Valley. The first silhouetted ridge is the Red Hills backed by the 13000 foot high peaks of the core of the BigHorn Mountain Uplift. The Powder RIver Basin between the Mountains any my ranch pretty much ends at my ranch. I’m living right on the edge between the Wyoming Black Hills and the Powder River basin. Just west of my ranch, dinosaur fossil Bearing rock is older than the Big Horn Uplift . Those ancient sediments dive under the debris worn off the BigHorn Mountains.
Our Ranch is as high topograpically above the Little Powder River Valley Floor as the dark 40 mile distant ridge. It allows me to see the peaks at this distance. Weather windows to the BigHorns have been plentiful this year unlike previous ones. The sun is currently setting just north of these peaks from my vantage point at the moment. I won’t see it set over the big V notch until next fall now.. The sun will continue to set a little more north each day. I starts to rise and set a little further north each day until the Summer Solstice.
I try to be very in tune to such things as my daily photographic activities take into account moon rise, sunsets with the time of year. Angles of sunrise and sunset are critical to where I go to photograph these days. Weather has the greatest impact of course.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands
Bighorns Backlit Twilight Sky