Curtains

Computer Down

I apologize for not being able to post! As of Wednesday my computer has had a virus, and I've been skeptical of loading photos onto it to post. It's currently having Malware and Virus scans performed on it, so hopefully I will be able to post by Saturday of Sunday!

I shoot my photos in RAW format, and so I need a computer with Photoshop or Lightroom to convert it into a jpeg format.

Hopefully my computer will be working good after this. I definitely need a new computer anyway, but my little compaq presario laptop will have to do for now!

Carpet Store Sign

This is an old sign on the east end of Broadway Street for a custom carpet store.

Stairs Up the Mine

Centennial Concrete

This is Centennial Concrete (on Centennial Street...Front St. turns into Centennial). This is an eight minute exposure...I wasn't all that happy with it, but it was the second eight-minute exposure and my camera batter was about to die because of it. Anyway, you can see six stars from the big dipper in the photo. The furthest left star from the handle is missing.

Trashed Wrangler Jeans

Thanks to the person that decided to throw their Wrangler jeans in the weedy area behind the King Pin near Silverbow Creek. There was also a mangled shopping cart in the creek with parts of it sticking out of the water. I'm not really sure why people feel the need to throw jeans, caps, flannel, bottles and furniture pieces in and near the creek. It's kinda trashy to throw trash around Butte, but I guess it's something for me to photograph!

I converted the image into black and white, added some contrast and some filters to make it look more grungy.

Locked Fence

This fence is near the Lexington Mine on the north side of Main St. I held my flash to the left to creat a little more texture.

Im publishing this post from

Im publishing this post from my cell phone via text messaging. I can now post on the go using my camera phone.

Slides

These are two old slides at the Blaine Center on N. Main Street.

Railroad Tracks on Montana Street

These are the railroad tracks going west that cross Montana Street just north of Shea's Auto. The tracks are reflecting the orange and purple of the sunset.

The Laurenz Building

This is the Laurenz Building on Broadway St. in uptown Butte. It was at around 6:00 PM.

Cement Building Near Mud Wall

This is located on South Montana St. just down (south) of King Pin. It's between the underpass and the mud wall. I'm not sure what it's for, or was for, and also don't know what the area is used for anymore.

My tripod wasn't tall enough to get a view of this over the fence. So I improvised. I set my tripod on the roof of my car with my camera and telephoto lens (zoomed all the way to 200 mm) on top. I couldn't look through the viewfinder, so I did my best to prefocus before butting the camera on the tripod...it worked OK, but could have been better. I had my driver-side back door open, stepped on the seat with both feet and hung on to the roof ledge. I could somewhat see what was and wasn't in the viewfinder, but zoomed out a bit just in case. So that was how I tried to get a decent composition. Then I got off the car and used my remote with self-timer so I wouldn't have to risk shaking the car and getting a blurry image.

This particular photo was an 8-minute exposure while setting off my flash head about 10 times to brighten up the foreground.

Blaine Center Sunset Window Reflection

The sunset was reflected on the windows of the Blaine Center, which is on North Main St., just after the Walkerville sign.

Anselmo-20 Minute Star Trail Exposure

This is the Anselmo Mine uptown. It is a twenty minute exposure, the longest exposure I've ever done. I came up with a new technique for shooting long exposures at night...I set the tripod up right outside the drivers-side window of my Bonneville, then use my remote to set off the exposure. So during the 20 minutes, I can roll the window up and be warm and listen to my music. And my camera is within arms distance so it for sure won't get stolen. AND I don't get too creeped out being alone in the dark taking photos.

Anyway, back to this photo. The color looks really strange. The head frame looks gold while the sky looks kinda orange or copper. I think it's because the only light was coming from the street lights.

Old St. James Healthcare at Night

This is the old St. James Healthcare on Idaho and Silver Streets. And that's me in the doorway. I had my camera on my tripod set up across the street. Then proceeded to set off the timer with my remote. I had twenty seconds to run across the street in my heels up the stairs... And I did something I haven't done since I was in fifth grade...I turned my sweatshirt inside out! Apparently that was the style back in fifth grade. There was white writing on the back of my hooded sweatshirt, and I didn't want it to stick out.

Bus Station

This is the bus station on Park Street. It was a 25 second exposure in order to get it bright enough and to get everything sharp.

Alley Window

This window is in the alley between Galena and Park Street. It's a little strange. The building has no roof on most of it, but from the front of the building on Park Street, it looks normal. It's on the east side of US Bank. So the white in the photo is the sky. The weird thing is, I think someone lives in it...

Stairs Between Two Buildings

This is a set of stairs and gate between the Carpenter's Union building (right) and another building. If it was light out, you could see the Courthouse behind that gate.

I lit the area up with my portable flash head again. I hope I didn't creep out too many people walking on the sidewalk in front of the gate. I may have startled a few people...

















And, for kicks, here's a REALLY creepy self-portrait. You can see where I was sitting in the first photo if you look closely. I was sitting in that shadow area on the left side of the photo.

This photo seems very appropriate for Halloween...

6 Months of Butte Daily Photo

As of yesterday, October 13th, it's been six months since I started Butte Daily Photo. Wow. Time flies. I will hopefully continue to do this until April 13th when it will have been a year.

Sometimes I think about how funny downright insane I must look to other people when I'm taking these photos.

A blonde girl creeping around the Butte alleys and streets at night. My arms and shoulders exploding with my camera, flash, camera bag, flash chord, filters, tripod, remote, light stand, gells, lenses, power pack and flash head. Fumbling in my hooded sweatshirt for my car keys and cell phone.

Butte Daily Photo started, for me, as a daily struggle of motivation. Motivation to get off the couch, pick up my dusty camera, get in my car…and the hardest of them all, get OUT of the car and wander around until I found a “postable” photo. A photo I wasn’t embarrassed to post and call my own…And a few times I didn't succeed in that, but posted anyway. And now, after 6 months and more than 180 photo posts, it’s part of my daily routine. Like brushing my teeth or going to work. But it’s better than a routine. It’s different every day, and it’s what I love to do.

I’m a person who needs to be motivated by others. The only reason this blog didn’t go under five months ago was because I knew people were checking the sight often, some people daily. And I thank everyone for that. That’s why I have felt an obligation to continue this project. The kind e-mails have kept me motivated, and have made me felt this project is worth doing. The Butte community, including those from Butte living in different areas, are an extremely supportive group of people.

A few statistics about the site from my hit counter:

Of the past 500 visitors, 82% have been from the US. 12% have been from Canada. The other 6% have been from Germany, the UK, Romania, Australia, France, Sweden, Ireland, Thailand, Netherlands, Turkey, South Africa, Taiwan and Iceland.

And also people from 37 different states have been among the past 500 visitors.

Today there have been 49 page loads and 20 visitors. Of those 20 visitors, 13 have been to the site before.

Tree Behind the MAC Center

These photos of are a tree behind the MAC Center. Well, actually it's two trees that look like one...but who's really counting. With the first photo I used my Vegabond, which is a portable power pack for my Alien Bees, which sounds crazy, but is an economical brand of a type of lighting.

The light is set off to the left, which you can see by the trail of light from the left leading to the tree.

The second photo is about a half hour to 45 minutes before the first photo shown was taken. The sun was going down, giving off a warm tone.

Anselmo Mine at Dusk

This photo is of the Anselmo Mine at about 7:40 p.m. The Anselmo is on the northern end of Excelsior Street on the east side of the road.

When I pulled up to the dirt parking area it was already pretty dark. I grabbed as much gear as I could carry (tripod, camera, light stand, power pack, light) and trekked down the walking path past the trains and to the mine.

It was kind of interesting...one of the buildings is hosting the more than 100 dogs that were rescued by the animal shelter from a man traveling through Rocker in a bus. So I was listening to huskies barking at each other, and I'm sure it didn't help that I was popping off a powerful light as fast as the power would recycle (about every 4 seconds) during minute-long exposures.

I was lifting the light as high as I could over the fence, trying to avoid too much light on the fence and not enough on the buildings. You can see near where I was standing by the bright spot on the right of the photo...If my arms were only a foot longer I could have avoided that! But that would look funny...

The clouds were moving at a decent speed, which you can see from the blur during the long exposure. The moon was shining above the clouds, and lit up the sky behind the clouds giving it a blue-sky appearance. The clouds reflected the orange of the city lights.

Snow

Well, the snow is finally here! I drove out north of Walkerville to get this photo of the trees, fence, snow and little bit of fall color left.

Lexington Mine

This is part of the Lexington Mine on North Main St., just after you pass the Walkerville sign.

Windows

Copper King Mansion

This is the Copper King Mansion from North Idaho Street. It's actually kind of scary that part of the street is considered a street...it's very steep, and I was afraid my car wouldn't make it up the hill. I know in the winter it wouldn't for sure, and I don't think 4-wheel-drive vehicles would make it up in the winter.

Trail Crossing

This photo of a "Trail Crossing" sign was taken uptown near the Kelly Mine, just off of the walking path that leads through the old tunnel. I had my flash connected to my camera with a sync chord. The camera was in my right hand and the flash in my left. At one point a car drove by. Directly after I lost my balance and fell backwards onto the ground. I'm sure it was a spectacle! But at least none of my gear got hurt...

The pink is a little bit of the sunset reflected high in the sky. The right side of the photo is west.

This is another version of the photo without my flash...Notice the sky is lighter and the sign is darker. Also, the sky is more pink because I took this photo first, before the color started to fade. I'm not sure which one I like better.

South Montana St. Traffic

This photo is of South Montana Street traffic, under a train bridge. It was a 20 second exposure. I used off-camera flash to light the front area a little.

REC Silicon

Panorama

Fall Leaves on Highway 2

This photo is of the trees on Highway 2 near Butte, toward Whitehall. I figured I might as well take photos of the fall foliage while it's still around!

No Parking

This is on Wilhelm's Flower Shop building, on the back of the building. Wilhelm's is on the corner of Broadway and Montana Streets. There are weird stuffed animals (I think that's what they are) in the barred windows...and, judging by these two signs and the three other signs on the building, I don't think they want anyone to park there.