Original Mine Paneling

This is the side of the hoist house in the Original Mineyard uptown. The building is falling apart quite a bit, as you can see. The roof is also caving in, in some places.

House

I am infatuated with this house. I'm not sure why...Maybe it's because it looks like a castle, or because it's one of the only old houses in uptown Butte that has a yard (look to the left). I always stare at it, which isn't safe when driving. I would love to someday fix up an old house uptown, but don't really know if it's practical. Especially since 99% of them have no yards. And it costs a lot of money. Who knows.

Whiteout

There were blue skies around 3 p.m. today. It seemed insane that the weather report called for 3-7 inches of snow, wind up to 40 mph and a winter storm watch for the area until 4 p.m. tomorrow.

And then I got off work. The wind had started, but no snow. So I reluctantly grabbed my camera and started driving. I was on Continental a ways south of Mercury St. I looked about 20 yards north and saw snow highlighted in the Pit Visitor Center's street lights. It was a strange thing, actually being able to see snow near you, but having no snow actually touching you. It reminds me of cartoons, where a cloud follows a single person, and rains on only them.

Anyway, I sat in my car and shot out the window for the majority of the time. Then I braved the weather, making sure the snow was pelting my back rather than blowing in my face, so that my camera would stay semi-dry. The tree photo was taken during that time, and the others were while I was in my car.

Texture

I went back to the old gas station (I think that's what it was) on the corner of Wyoming Broadway Streets to get these photos...Click on the image to see a much larger view.

Cash for Levi 501's

Bruce and Bob's Goodguy Pawn on Arizona Street has had these stretched-out Levi 501's outside of the business for as long as I can remember. And I've lived in Butte off and on since I was 12 (almost 12 years ago). It's just one of those little things about Butte that I'll always remember...those huge, stretched out, weathered Levi's that that uptown pawn shop always had...If I ever move out of Butte I'm sure I'll get a kick out of looking at these photos.

Painted Brick Wall

This brick wall is on the corner of Wyoming and Granite Streets, on the west side of the road. It's on one of the walls of what I think used to be a gas station...It wort of like a train depot with the overhang, but I think I saw a picture of it up at the WMOM photo archives as a gas station...It apparently has been painted a few times!

This is the road between Butte and the Granite Mountain Memorial. I drive this road all the time, because this area is one of my favorite places to photograph (if you haven't noticed, from all of the Bell Diamond Mine and Memorial Photos!). But this is the first time I've taken the photo!

It just SCREAMS for a full-length portrait, or upper body portrait to be taken...
















A portrait similar to this one would work great in the above location:












This photo was taken in Moscow, Idaho probably about three years ago.

Snow Day on the Bell DIamond Mine

This is a diptych (two photos next to one another) of the Bell Diamond Mine. I miss being able to take photos at this time of day! It was at about 3:45 or so, when the light is at its best...In the summer it was at 8 p.m. It was perfect in the summer, because I was off work before the light was the best. Now I sit at my desk, look out the window, and gawk at how awesome the light is, and how I wish I was shooting. I took advantage of it in the summer...so now I get really excited when I get to shoot at that time.

Click on the image for a larger view...













Or, here are the individual pictures. I prefer the diptych above, but don't like how small it shows up on this blog.... I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Muggy Skies

This is what the sky looked like today on my drive home from lunch. I'm assuming it was from one of MRI's explosions they usually do around 1 p.m. But the dust didn't settle quickley like it used to. I know in the spring and summer they are required to use sprinklers to keep the dirt wet, and to prevent the Butte residents from breathing the mine dust. But I don't really think that would work in the winter considering water freezes...

Old Jewelry

I bought this Jewelry at the uptown antique store for my Halloween Costume. (I was a librarian...that was supposed to be from the 50s). It makes me wonder how much of the stuff from that store is from Butte natives, and how much of that stuff is from elsewhere.

Door with no Knob

This is behind the CCCS Building (Community, Counseling and Corrective Services) in the alley on the north side of Broadway Street.

Icicles

These icicles were hanging off the roof of a garage-looking building on E. Mercury Street.

Chained Door

This is a door near AWARE on E. Mercury St. It's all nice and rusted, and held together by a chain and lock.

BPOE Fire Escape

I went through every month of photos I've taken and wrote down my favorite ones so I could label them with "photographer favorites." I noticed that in the beginning months, I had a lot more that I liked on a higher level.

I think I've progressively gotten lazy with my photo-a-day. I would drive around until I found one thing that looked interesting, and would take photos of that one thing until I found a decent shot...Where as before I would let one thing lead me to another thing, lead me to another thing, etc...and I would have a large pool to choose from in the end.

Well today I was driving around on my lunch, and saw the speckled mosaic-looking walls on the BPOE building (Elks). I thought that might make an interesting photo. And it did...but I kept walking around, and decided I was going to walk around the entire building and photograph everything that was semi-interesting...anyways, I could have spent an entire day there.

There was an old rusted oven in the back, a fire escape with rocks on the weight, an interesting door handle, etc...Here is some of what i came back with:

Under the Bridge

This is a photo of where Harrison Avenue meets Front Street. The traffic was dangerously close to me, to the point that i I knew if they slid off the road towards me I would have been ran over and seriously hurt...hopefully not dead.

Window Outside the Mai Wah

This is a window on the Mai Wah building on Mercury Street. Even with gloves at 1 p.m. I was only able to withstand about 10 minutes of shooting outside...If it wasn't for Butte Daily Photo I don't think I would even be shooting outside! I may have to move BDP indoors (thanks Marcus for the suggestion) and take photos of indoor architecture.

Building on Porphry Street

This is a fairly new building on Porphry and Idaho Streets, near the hospital. I didn't see any sort of sign as to what it is for. But I do know that it was freezing outside...Negative whatever and only getting colder!

Friday's Outtakes

This is a detail shot taken from Friday's shoot. The first photo is part of the arch above the large window. The second photo is an overall shot of the house.

Railroad Tracks

These are the railroad tracks that cross Four Mile Road.

Abstract Street Lights

This is a photo of Shorty's Bar with a slow shutter speed and moving the camera to create an abstract blur.

Montana Resouces

This is part of Montana Resources, as seen from Continental in the park area of the pit viewing center. There's rock and dirt falling from the building into a pile.

Abandoned House on Montana St.

Lexington Street Fence

This is a fence just before the Kaw St. Overpass...Where I was at the road signs say Lexington, and I know Kaw turns into Lexington somewhere on that road. The duck ponds are just after this fence. The lights are showing uptown, and the Big M is covered by the second fence post. The top of the sky was reflecting a weird pink/purple hue as well.

I also saw a nice reflection of uptown in a puddle while I was driving...but it was in the middle of Kaw. And it was just after five. So I didn't want to get ran over!

No Trespassing M.W. Railroad

This sign is on Four Mile Road out past Wal-Mart. It's right off the road a couple of feet in front of a set of railroad tracks.

And, of course, the color version:

Dog in the Window

This is a coworker of mine's dog in her window, as seen from outside. Don't worry, I wasn't creepily taking photos through her window! She knew I was coming over to photograph her dog Sophia. I guess the photo doesn't scream "Butte," but I'm trying to get more of a variety of photos on the site.

Late Posts

I haven't had time to update the site this weekend, so all the photos that are missing will be up tonight!

Rusted

This is a rusted barrel of some sort near the Bell Diamond Mine.

Graffiti

There's a lot of random graffiti in the Butte alley's, including this one in one of the uptown alleys.

Horse-Drawn Carriage at Uptown Christmas Stroll

This is an abstract view of a horse-drawn carriage giving people a ride during the Uptown Christmas Stroll. I used a slow shutte speed and panned with the movement.

Big Sky Rental Center

This is a photo of some of the equipment out side of Big Sky Rental Center on Second Street. The sunset was fading fast, and I had my ISO up to 1600 to capture this image without having to use a tripod, so it's a bit grainy.

I still don't have my computer all the way set up...in fact it isn't even close to being set up! We'll see how it works once I have it bogged down with all my programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, etc. It should be interesting to see how it compares to my computer now.

This is a cell phone image of my new computer I just got five minutes ago! Its pretty and has 4 gigs of ram. And is about to make my life 1000000 times easier. Maybe now I can run more than one program at once!

Pigeons in Uptown Butte

I noticed a large group of pigeons on a telephone pole and wire today while driving during work. On my lunch I drove back up to the location (near Aluminum and Wyoming Streets). At first they were on the roof of a house, then circled around a bit and landed back on the telephone pole...

I decided I would get right under the wire and shoot up. But as I got closer I noticed white stuff dropping from the sky, and realized being directly under the birds was about the worst idea I've had all week...month...maybe year. I've never been "dropped on" by a bird before, and decided it wasn't the day to start.

I had way too much fun taking photos of birds. I think it's because I haven't taken action shots for a while (with exception to the car photo a few days ago). It was refreshing.

Im posting this from my cell. The clouds look like waves.

I just got done taking

I just got done taking photos of a mass amount of pigeons uptown during my lunch break. I will post them after work.

Metal on Metal

This rusty metal is from a door in an alley between Park and Broadway Streets. The closeup is of the bottom left corner. That dark slit on the first picture is the beginning of the long, skinny hole on the second photo.