Everything here seems to be pointing “up”.
This scene is behind the mountain in the background of the first photo. (Taken on two different hunting trips.)
The larch needles are dropping rapidly now and so their bright splashes of color will be soon be leaving the woods for this year.
Montana Outdoors 
dumb question…sorry, city girl you know. are larches related to pines?
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Comment by silken — October 26, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
Really like the second one Terry, you make good use of the lines and angles on your landscape shots, very nice work 🙂
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Comment by Bernie Kasper — October 26, 2007 @ 9:46 pm
silken,
They are in the same Family pinaceae as pines. Then the Genus Larix P.Mill. separates out the Larch and below that the Species for Western Larch is Larix occidentalis Nutt. There are actually 8 species of larch.
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Comment by montucky — October 26, 2007 @ 9:54 pm
Thanks Bernie! I hold a theory that the scenes I capture with the camera are really the same scenes I want to put into my memory of the places I see.
After so many years spent in these mountains, to me lines and angles and slopes in particular are critical attributes of the terrain which indicate where wildlife might be and where it may be feasible to access an area. At times it may be a life or death decision about whether a mountainside can be negotiated and I need to know that before I commit to going there. Therefore those lines and angles probably come out in the way I frame a photograph. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it’s interesting.
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Comment by montucky — October 26, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
I agree that the line composition in these photos is really strong. The diabgonals of the hills in the lower photo give the shot plenty of action and the hint of horizontals criss cross nicely with the vertical larch forest. The vantage of the camera in the top photo emphasizes a strong vertical thrust and gives it a soaring dynamic that is just commanding.
Well, what I mean to say is I just love ’em.
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Comment by nouveaufauves — October 26, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
Thanks, nouveaufauves! I think everything you mentioned is part of the drama of this wild country, and that’s one of the reasons why I love it so much and enjoy photographing it. It’s exciting to me and I’m pleased that you also enjoy it.
Now if there were just some way to capture all of the smells, the feel of the cool breeze and the sound it makes in the trees…
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Comment by montucky — October 26, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
I’m not quite up to such analysis as the above commentors, although I always learn something. But I do know I like the subject and lines in the first photo. Thanks for all the info.
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Comment by barbara — October 27, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
Thanks, barbara! I like that look at the height of the larch. I also seem to think they have a great attitude. It’s also pretty special to me because many times I’ve sat on the top of Mount Baldy in the background and looked over the area from which I took the photo.
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Comment by montucky — October 27, 2007 @ 8:19 pm
Only because I’m a self professed nerd am I still studying larch species – obviously you’ve done your homework already. 🙂 I like the “line” comments too – and yeppers wayy over my head. Fundamentally I love the first shot. It is beautiful. In your second I like how my eyes seem drawn to the mountain in the foreground especially since it is very faint. Nice work.
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Comment by aullori — October 27, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
I wonder what it is that makes some prefer the horizontal lines while others would rahter ‘get vertical’.
I prefer the first photo, by the way. It seems more personal.
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Comment by Pinhole — October 28, 2007 @ 8:00 am
Lori,
I like to see the comments from those who know much more about art and photography than I do. It’s both interesting and helpful. What I generally see is the beauty of the scene, the color, the form and I have a desire to capture it so that someone else can enjoy it too. Both of these photos are scenes that are very seldom seen by anyone, especially the first one, and yet they are representative of this part of the country.
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Comment by montucky — October 28, 2007 @ 9:48 am
Pinhole,
Different folks have different “eyes” for images I guess, and some especially because they are trained in art. It’s always interesting to me to learn what someone else sees.
The first photo really is a more personal look at the trees and it is in a more remote location. I also had to work harder for it because of the terrain. It was difficult to find an acceptable opening between the other trees.
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Comment by montucky — October 28, 2007 @ 9:55 am
Thanks for sharing with all of us the scenes you want to keep within your memory.
Whenever I hiked in the Rocky Mountains, or in the much older and gentler Smoky Mountains, my frustration with my camera techniques came down to not being able to show how vast the area was. Standing on top of Going to the Sun Mountain in Montana or on top of Mt. Pisgah in North Carolina, one can almost literally breathe in the almost infinite exspansiveness of the place. Yet, without trees or branches or landforms to frame the picture, the camera’s view (when I take the photograph) of vastness always comes out one-dimensional and boring. I can’t translate what I feel into photographs that show what I feel.
That’s one of the man reasons I love stopping by this blog, whether I leave a comment each time or not, for your eye and technique both show not only what you want to remember but what you love.
Malcolm
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Comment by knightofswords — October 28, 2007 @ 11:00 am
I know exactly what you mean about the vastness of some of these areas. It’s the perspective that is impossible to capture. Try as I might, I can never get a photo to quite show everything I see either. It takes some similar experience on the part of the viewer to fill in some of the missing dimension, I guess, but that leaves out those who have never been in similar situations. Still, It’s worth trying and the attempt is better than nothing.
I’m sure there is a similar difficulty with pictures painted with the written word too. For example, I have a feeling that I get so much more out of The Sun Singer than someone who is not familiar with that kind of setting. I felt as though I was somehow involved as part of the story, and wondered how close other readers would be.
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Comment by montucky — October 28, 2007 @ 1:23 pm