A Week in Missoula

Have you ever noticed how some objects can be so inconspicuous as to be almost part of the background until your attention is drawn to them and then you see them everywhere? It happened to me this week with Subaru cars.

Not a Subaru!

I could recognise a Subaru if I saw one but that's about as far as it went till I was out cycling one evening. For some reason I noticed one, then two, and before long I'm seeing them everywhere. I'd hazard a guess that Subaru is one of the most popular cars in town, which would be understandable since Missoula has a lot of snow and is environmentally aware. A car with 4 wheel drive and modest size would have a strong following.

Subaru cars were not the only thing I noticed as I cycled round town. The paths along the river are very pretty and the evening sunshine was beautiful - as was the weather which has been around 77F - 90F (23C - 33C) for the past couple of weeks, much to the delight of gardeners.

What you don't get back home as you walk around the typical UK town is an Osprey carrying a very large fish back to feed its chicks or people surfing waves. The Osprey nest was on top of a large pole near a baseball field and the chicks sounded very excited at the prospect of their fish supper. The surfer and kayaker were practicing on Brennan's Wave.  All this a few hundred yards from the town centre.

I'm noticing two things about my photography. Firstly I'm becoming much more demanding when it comes to correct exposure and sharp focus - that's not to say I always achieve them but they are what I'm aiming for. Practice and the skills we have been taught do make the technicalities of photography a lot easier for sure. The second thing I noticed, and to me a much more surprising discovery, is that in terms of content I'm a lot less picky... and lots more playful. Just because I can make a picture that is sharp doesn't mean that I have to do that every time.

Corner of Higgins and Main, Missoula

Nor do I have to avoid lens flare or extra objects in the frame or anything else I would previously have avoided. Sometimes these 'extras' are happy accidents, sometimes they are deliberate, but if they end up in a picture they are there for a purpose (hopefully!).

Side street, Missoula

So what have I been up to this week? I saw my first 4th July parade at Seeley Lake which was fun and the surrounding scenery was beautiful. I ate in a steak restaurant where pretty much the only choice was the type of steak (3 options) and the dressing - definitely not a place for vegetarians. It tasted good but I don't think I need a lump of meat that big again - and no, I don't want to take leftovers home in box, though many do over here.

4th July Parade, Seeley Lake, Mt

 
I've been taking yet more pictures for my project - the Higgins Building must be one of the most photographed places in town by now.  I've also had two more sessions in the studio, this time working in threes we got to shoot each other, or be the assistant, or be the model. I know which end of the camera I prefer. We even got to play dressing up in the last session and the two folk I was with for that session were great fun to work with - dynamic Donna was a board room dragon (I think the stern look was acting the part rather than bored dragon considering the number of variations of lighting I tried).  Hippy Diana was so into the part she was either reliving her youth or had eaten magic mushrooms for breakfast. Me? I was an artist with brushes and paint set.

Donna shooting Diana

Printing class was good though I think we'd all like a nice simple button labelled "Print" which magically puts what you see on your screen out onto paper.  Instead there are so many options and boxes to tick - and things to get wrong - that printing is an art in itself. There's always the sense of anticipation as the print starts to appear. The car at the top of this page took a couple of attempts to get right.

Early morning light on a gravestone

Yesterday was fun with an early morning (as in 5.30am) bike ride to a cemetery for a practical class, followed by breakfast in town with fellow students and time spent shooting pics in Missoula - two outdoor markets, an indoor antiques mall, and yet more of the Higgins Building. A leisurely meal later in the afternoon with classmates (I ate elk for the first time) was followed by a photo shoot for Walter. His project is photographing people photographing other people so we were lined up in various locations near the river while he did his thing.

Me shooting Walter shooting the others shooting me etc etc

After that I did more walking and shooting round town with a fellow student in the beautiful evening light followed by a drink outside a coffee shop where we chatted with another student who had just left a late evening class - yes, Saturday and classes started at 6.00am and ended late evening for some. Summer Intensive is pretty much living up to its name.

Evening light, Missoula