"Patchwork"

"There is a kind of beauty in imperfection" - Conrad Hall
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I've always loved a patched up, mismatched barn.  This one has wood going in all directions, it's leaning just a little, and the wood has turned gray with age.  I love all of those imperfections.  When I moved from Western Montana to Central Montana, I was worried that finding old beauties like this would be harder, but I've found more than I ever expected. This one is right outside of the city limits of Billings, and is actually visible from the interstate.  After admiring it for over a year, I did finally stop to take some photos of it.  The frontage road runs between the barn and the interstate, and it was a busy, loud, semi-dangerous place to stop for photos, but sometimes you just have to park, get your photos, and cross it off the list once and for all.  This image looks quiet and serene, but behind me it was all of the chaos of the modern world.  That's how many of my images are, a quiet spot surrounded by chaos.  Documenting those old buildings that still represent quieter days is my passion. I'd rather look at a charming old barn than an interstate any day.   

"Lost in Time"

Every once in a while, I come across a house that looks like someone meant to come back, but they just never did.  These ones are interesting and my mind starts asking all kinds of questions.  Why didn't anyone come back?  Were they elderly and thought they would come back, but went into a nursing home and never made it back?  Did they move to another house and still own this one, but never sold it?  The reasons someone would leave a house and a car parked in the front like they're in the back hanging laundry out on the clothes line, and not gone for decades, is so intriguing.  Apparently, it happens more than I realized.  Once I started paying attention to how these homes are left, there were so many odd things.  This one is in a canyon at the base of a forest and foothills, and the winters here must have been long and harsh.  Even so, it would have been that simple life that I wish I'd been a part of.  

"Red and Blue"

This is another of my series of photographs of dried flowers.  This old blue bottle was found in a junk store in Butte, Montana.  I love to collect colored bottles.  I have over 40 of them and they sit in the windows around my house.