ellis-photo.com Blog » Fine Art

TMA Show

Administrator — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:35:14 +0000

One of my landscapes made it into the TMA show. That’s the Toledo Museum of Art Area artist show. It’s a juried show with entrants all over local counties. Congrats to any of my fellow artists that made it in! More information on the Area Artist show can be found here: http://www.toledomuseum.org/Art_Exhibitions_main.htm. Though the show is not up until July. Show dates are July 10th-August 23rd at the Toledo Museum of Art. I like going to the show and seeing what neat things the local artists can do around here. Check out the website calendar if your looking for something interesting to do on Friday nights. The museum features many events and classes.

The piece that made it in: It will be a 20×30 canvas print. TITLE: Buffalo Console.

I took this shot at the Montana Bison range just north of Missoula, Montana on our vacation last year.

St Ignatius Mountains, MT and Glacier National Park

Administrator — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:25:29 +0000

I took this shot yesterday at the Bison Range just north of Missoula near St Ignatius (http://www.fws.gov/bisonrange/nbr/.) The bison were too far away for me to get any good shots of them. Even with my zoom they were specs. I did end up with this shot of the St Ignatius mtns on the road there at the range:

We hit up the Bison Range on our way to Glacier National Park (http://www.glacierparkinc.com/.) Which we found out since it snowed pretty good a few weeks ago, the Going to the Sun mountain road was closed. Of course this was the point of going there, to drive on the most gorgeous road I’ve ever been on. We got about a quarter up the road to where the Trail of the Cedars is the rest of the way was gated up. Here are a few shots from today:

The most exciting part was on the way out we saw a pair of moose. Here is the male.

The girl moose:

Trail of the Cedars is a beautiful hike in an old growth forest. I first hiked it in grade school. We didn’t get to hike it today since we didn’t have enough time but we took the kids up part way to stretch their legs. I took this picture of the trees at the start of the trail.

Here are two more pieces I attempted the vintage style with.

This one is actually the backdrop of where the moose were and there is actually a moose in this shot though you can’t really see her well. She looks like a rock in the water. Her butt was facing me.

Tomorrow morning I’m supposed to go up the mountains with my Uncle. I may get some good shots though I won’t be able to get up early enough for the good lighting. I’m hoping to sneak out at sunset time after the family BBQ to get some mountain shots then as well. I don’t get to come here often so might as well make the most of it when I can.

Some people have requested prints of some of these shots I’ve taken here in Montana. I’m hoping to get a gallery up in the event section for folks to view and purchase prints in the future. I’m hoping to get this up and running after my wedding season slows down a bit. I will make a post when I have it available to the public.

On Vacation!

Administrator — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:02:01 +0000

Hello everyone! As some of you may know I’m off in Montana for a family vacation. We flew to Bozeman this past Saturday with no hitches. The kids were great on the plane. I found dealing with diabetes for the first time on a road trip not so horrible–my six year old was diagnosed just two weeks ago. From Bozeman we headed right on over to Butte to visit my parents. We have had lots of fun. Today we went to Gem Mountain (http://www.gemmtn.com/) to search for real sapphires from a mine. We found a few. The kids got so hungry, it took way longer than we thought it would, so we couldn’t stay to have them appraised so I can’t tell you how successful we were. I also got sun burned not realizing how fast the time flew. The kids had fun and were thrilled to see some snow on the mountains.

Tomorrow we head north to the Bison Range and Glacier Park north of Missoula. If I can get on wireless somewhere between now and when we get home I’ll try and post some more of our adventure. I don’t have the point and shoot downloaded yet to upload family shots.

Here are some shots I’ve taken the past few days. Montana is called Big Sky Country mostly I think because the sky is always so beautiful and the mountains give it a reference to how huge it is.

This is Butte. I took this with my little point and shoot.

One of my Dad’s friends took me out to go shooting on Monday. His name is Chuck and he also loves to shoot as well. It was nice shooting with someone who has patience and understands the photographers mind. Most non shooters don’t like to stand around while you geek out over some silly fence line and some sunshine or whatever it is we photographers get an inclination to shoot.

Here is a heard of Elk I saw on the way to a mountain top:

These next few shots I’m experimenting with recreating vintage style photographs. I really love the old photographs you come across in antique stores and such and would like to create some of my own vintage works.

Here are some sky shots I took with Chuck:

This one is probably my favorite from the whole night:

Special thanks to Chuck for being kind enough to drive me up the mountain to get these wonderful shots!

More to come later about our vacation story….

Where’s the sun?

Administrator — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:25:29 +0000

Well Mother’s Day was yesterday. I hope all you mothers out there had a good day! Lately I’ve been itching for the sun to arrive and already started planting things in my flower beds. I have some seedlings going but the sun has been hiding behind some rain clouds lately and they are not growing too well, though one of my marigolds bloomed and it’s silly how one can get so excited over a tiny little bloom. My husbands tulips are still in bloom so I have to wait for those to clear out to really get planting. Some are already on their way out and I captured a few yesterday. I prefer to shoot flowers that have aged. I love the old school still life masterpieces. They actually waited for the fruit or flowers to rot slightly before taking the picture or painting them, so it’s a theme I’ve been trying to revisit in my own work. I find the subject has a bit more character to it when you let them take on their own forms with time.

One of the flowers I planted this year are sunflowers so hopefully later in the year I can get some shots of those.

Photo Reaction to Bereavement

Administrator — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:56:36 +0000

Yesterday I went outside to watch the kids play and took my camera with me. We are dealing with my father-in-laws passing right now. He’s not gone yet but it’s just a matter of time. This past Friday he had suffered a heart attack while mowing the lawn. People were right nearby and saw him go down and immediately went to help him. A heart doctor had actually been at a nearby restaurant and got to the scene before the ambulance. However, with so many there to help right away it didn’t stop the damage. The heart attack was minor and he came through that just fine, it was the lack of oxygen to his brain that has caused the problem. Right now he is brain dead and we have been waiting for a miracle to happen. It looks as though his time has come. They will be doing another brain scan today and if it shows no improvement we will have to turn the machines off. It’s going to be a tough week this week trying to explain to the kids where their Pa Pa went. I’m hoping to find some photos I’ve taken of him and in the future tell you more about him. He was a wonderful grandpa and father-in-law, you couldn’t ask for better.

This tree is in my front yard. Only a few days ago I was with Pa Pa and the kids right next to this tree. I was thinking of him as I took the shots. He was a beautiful person.