Garnet Ghost Town
Today we met at 7 a.m. to go to the ghost town of Garnet. Since it had snowed there yesterday, we contemplated going north to the Nine Pipes area. But just before leaving, I started thinking that, since we were having bad weather, it would probably be good to go to Garnet since we’d be shooting indoors. I ran it by our group and finally everyone concurred. The town had been thrown together for a gold rush and later abandoned when the gold ran out. Now it is under the auspices of the Bureau of Land Management and open to tourists for the cost of $3. For most people, this would have been a snoozefest. But for learning photographers it was fantastic. All the textures, lines, and colors inside the building were great for practicing. I spent 3-4 hours there shooting with Billy, Judy, Barb, Anya, Larry, and Perry and really had a nice time. I’m not sure why it is, but in some settings I really struggle to take pictures and in others, it just comes naturally. Today was one of those natural days and I think many of the pictures came out well.
After Garnet we drove around for a while looking for other photo destinations, but didn’t have much luck. On the way back to Missoula we stopped for about half an hour to shoot a small creek and the water running over the rocks. It’s funny to watch 7 people get out of 2 cars, all armed with big cameras and tripods, head to the water and just go nuts playing with shutter speeds, polarizers, etc. It’s nice not to have people asking me “Can we leave yet?” after 2 minutes. We are definitely geeks enjoying each other’s company.
