Bambi Butt

Bambi Butt 036
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen with the search engines when I posted this photo to my Flickr account. I originally posted it back on February 22nd, then I forgot about the search engine experiment part of it until today.

Well, I went to Google and when I put "Bambi Butt" in and clicked search, this photo was the 4th most popular page returned. The others were a Facebook page and a couple of pages I probably shouldn't look at.

Now let's see what happens with my blog stats with "Bambi Butt" as the title of a post. LOL

Polite Piper

Plentywood Montana bagpiper final edit 055
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

I was driving away from a scenic overlook at Bolster Dam near my hometown of Plentywood, MT earlier this month when I thought I heard my cell phone ringing softly from the bottom of my camera gear bag. But when I turned down the radio, I heard the unmistakable sound of bagpipes and they were coming from the other side of the lake, about a half mile away. So I did what any curious person would do, I drove all the way back into town so I could see what was happening on the other side of the lake.

What I found was a man practicing his bagpipes in relative isolation, hence the title "Polite Piper". I approached and visited with him for a bit and got some close ups. Then as I was leaving, I turned back and using my 70 to 300 mm zoom, I got a couple shots of him framed in the vandalized opening of the picnic shelter where he was practicing.

I think this may be my last edit on this photo. I've used The Gimp to remove a BBQ grill that was growing out of the bagpiper's gluteus maximus. I also tweaked the colors a bit.

To hide the BBQ, I copied sections of the grass and the frozen lake in the background and then used the smudge tool to blur any straight lines that gave away the location of the edits.

Is Spring Finally Here?

At least a few of our hardier avian friends seem to think it is. The bird feeder outside my kitchen window is starting to attract some customers.

Here are a couple of pictures I've taken in the last couple of days.

Friday Photo Safari #3

Snow blowing at CGI Plentywood MT 015
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

This was one of the first pictures I took on my photo safari Friday afternoon. The tractor operator was clearing the parking area at Columbia Grain International's elevator east of Plentywood, MT. I loved how the snow blower on the tractor was kicking up such a large plume of snow. As a result, my first and last photos from Friday both featured plumes!

Friday Photo Safari #2

Wheelock ND faded hoop dreams 131
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

The town of Wheelock, ND is full of deteriorating buildings and machinery and is going to be fun to photograph throughout the year. It was a bit of a challenge yesterday because the streets had been plowed out, leaving 5 to 10 foot walls of snow on each side of the road.

Friday Photo Safari

Wheelock ND drilling rig 156
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

I took a road trip around Northeast Montana and Northwest North Dakota yesterday and shot a bunch of photos. This one took a bit of patience. When I first pulled up I noticed the block going up and down as they were tripping. Then I noticed the smoke from the rig's diesel. I had to wait a bit to get a nice plume of smoke in the shot, but I think it was worth the wait. Made for a more dramatic shot.

Photo editing

Cara Stadstad
Originally uploaded by dgolterman

The photos of the girls basketball players shown here are the result of some creative editing. The original image is on the left and the edit is on the right. I would have left things alone, except I accidentally cut off #24's left arm from the elbow down and it looked strange to say the least.

What I did first was crop out the bodies of the other players as much as I could with just a rectangular crop in The Gimp (an Open Source photo editing program). That left the right arm and a bit of the toe of the other girl. The solid color background in the gymnasium made it easy to copy a portion of the red wall and paste it over the arm. I did the same on the floor, using the red lines of the lane to align things to cover the toe.

I'd like feedback on how natural the finished result looks.

February 3, 2011 Photo Tour

On Thursday I had to run up to Scobey, MT with some paperwork. As I am in the habit of doing, I took my camera with me (hey, I even have taken it to church!). One of the best shots of the trip was only a mile from my front door. I captured a shot of our neighbor driving his truck down the road on his way home.


A little farther down Highway 5, I captured a shot of this old stone barn at Archer, MT.



















The road construction work at the Redstone Hill is shut down for the winter and it gave me this interesting shot.

Scenes from Eastern Montana & Western North Dakota

In addition to shooting sports in the last few months, I've also enjoyed capturing some of the scenery in the region, from nature to work in the oil patch.

This snowdrift has been forming off the hillside next to the house on the farm.




















The next two photos are of Patterson Rig 82 drilling in the Bakken Formation in Richland County, Montana, just south of the Missouri River.

Been awhile!

I know, I haven't added any new photos here since last summer. Well it's time to change that. I've shot a ton of photos since my last post and have even bought myself a new camera (Nikon D3000) and added a Tamron 70-300mm lens.

I've been taking a lot of sports photos in the past couple of months. This first shot is of Rob Nyby of the Plentywood Wildcats channeling Michael Jordan (the tongue thing).





I've also had the pleasure of attending a few hockey games in Sidney and Williston this winter. Here are a couple shots taken when the Langdon Blades played the Richland Rangers in January.