Gritty and Off-beat Photography

Ever since my mother worked at a lookout tower in Montana when I was 11, I've been a bit obsessed with them. Whenever I see one on a map, I make a plan to go see it. Sometimes they're no longer there, sometimes they're (rarely) still occupied by a human, and sometimes they're for rent by the Forest Service! They're never a disappointment. My favorite are the older wooden ones, but they're all beautiful to me. I have more marked on maps than I've actually visited, so I've got some work to do, but I've recently taken the time to add some to my shop for other Lookout Tower appreciators to see and, if they like, own a print of! Garver Mountain Lookout: Unmanned but Rentable for the night! Garver Mountain Lookout, MT Garver Mountain Lookout Tower is found in the farthest northwest corner of Montana. We took a camping trip to this area a couple of summers ago with our motorcycles and rode the long dirt road up to the marker on the map. From there, it was on foot for over 1/4 mile, in our stiff motorcycle boots, but totally worth the trek. When we came back down to our bikes, we were greeted by a curious snowshoe hare who had no fear of us and walked right up to me while standing next to my bike. A genuine northwest Montana experience; since I partially grew up there, I should know! As a kid, though, I never visited the Yaak area, only a short distance (relatively) from my town. For some reason, it was shrouded in mystery, and rumors of disturbed, violent animals were spread around my school, but I never believed them, and now it's a favorite place of mine to visit. See the print. Kanabownits Lookout Tower, AZ Kanabownits Lookout: Was manned when we visited This lookout tower we found while exploring the back roads north of the Grand Canyon in Kaibab National Forest. Very remote yet manned full-time, and we were invited to make the climb and go inside. Kaibab National Forest is one of my favorites for its sprawling dirt roads, trails, scattered campsites, and cool Arizona forest trees and wildflowers. Being able to ride our motorcycles for miles down a dirt road and eventually reach rarely seen parts of the Grand Canyon is priceless.  See the print. Jacob Lake Lookout: Manned tower Jacob Lake Lookout Tower, AZ Jacob Lake Lookout isn't very far from the previous tower, and if you've camped at Jacob Lake, a little way north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, or even driven to the North Rim, you may have seen this one right next to the highway. This steel lookout tower is 80 feet tall and has a 7-foot-by-7-foot steel box on top. It was erected in 1934.It, too, was manned when we visited, and we were allowed inside to take a look around the vast, burnt landscape surrounding it. Much of the forest was unfortunately burnt from a huge fire in the 90s, and again in 2020, 70 acres around Jacob Lake were burnt. We've camped nearby, off-grid, and the area can get incredibly windy. Please be careful with your campfires! See the print. Gardner Lookout Tower, Louisiana Now, Louisiana is not a place I would have thought of when thinking about lookout towers, but that's because I grew up in the mountains and thought of forest fires only really happening in forests, which were in mountains...right? And then I lived in Portland, where it was typically too wet for fires. Until I started traveling the rest of the country and realized how many forests there were, and that even when places are completely flat, they still get forest fires. The weird things your childhood logic does to your brain can be amusing; luckily, traveling fixes most people's skewed ideas about the world. Which is why it's the best. This tower was surprisingly high, but I'm having trouble finding any history or info about it, unfortunately. See the print. Lunch Peak Lookout Tower, ID Lunch Peak Lookout: Unmanned wooden tower view.  This historic tower stands high atop a mountain outside Sandpoint, Idaho, in the state's panhandle. The drive was easier than some, but definitely took some patience. It's no longer manned but lovingly cared for and a favorite spot for hikers and nature lovers in the area. The alpine air had fresh wildflowers and a chilling breeze to accompany the amazing view. The tower itself is only one story high due to the already vast view. Definitely a favorite, even if we didn't get to go inside! See the print. Blue Mountain Lookout Tower, MT This is the one my mother worked at when I was 11. When my partner and I visited in 2012, the tower was still there and manned, but the cabin that we stayed in had burned down years before. The current worker had a travel trailer to stay in that had somehow been hauled up the long, jackknifed, tedious route by the fire department. I remembered how the commute home to where we lived, on the other side of town - down and up more mountains- would have taken my mom hours for what was geographically a short distance, which is why we stayed on the mountain without going into town unless completely necessary. Somehow, we actually ran into the guy working the tower in 2012 twice in town in the month we stayed in the area. It's a small town, but still.. We were invited to come hang out on the mountain and have a few beers, but we never made it, unfortunately. Our giant F350 worked hard enough the first time, and I had a broken leg - which sadly meant I didn't get to go up the tower this time like I had dozens of times as a kid. Hopefully it's a tower I'll get to see again!  

We stayed outside Birmingham, Alabama, in Oak Mountain State Park for a few weeks in the spring of 2011. It was our first stay in the South outside of New Orleans, and so many things were new to us. In New Orleans, we had stayed in the city, at Jude Travel Park, an RV park on Chef Menteur Highway. Aside from a few road trips during the day (and overnight once in the southern Bayou), we didn't know what to expect from living in the forest for a while. Southern forests are my favorite, in part because of Oak Mountain. The trees are epic, especially the root structures. The forest floor is often open, more so than the Pacific Northwest where I've lived for so long. The insects in the forests are amazing and make the environment otherworldly. Cicadas would deafen us till past midnight, and outside our RV, toads waited in the light of the road for 2-inch-long roaches to run past and become dinner. We took our young adopted NOLA cat out into the night on a leash to chase roaches alongside the toads. She was pretty excited, to say the least. We first visited Birmingham on a Sunday. The city felt so empty, to say the least. We found a restaurant downtown called the Bottle Tree and the famous Sloss Furnaces, an industrial complex you can apparently tour by yourself - at least no one was there to tell us how it worked. We wandered the machinery and structures for an hour or two, getting in some good practice on my newish Pentax 67. Light leak somehow, but I don't mind. We eventually moved on to Oxford, Alabama, and years later returned after exploring most of the other Southern states. The South has left me with thousands of film and digital photos, fodder to remind me of what I love about those states. I don't even mind the heat and humidity as much as I probably should. I loathe only the fire ants

It’s true that companies can cut 120 film down to 127 size, so I consider 127 my favorite format and size. I truly love my 127 cameras as well. I capture some amazing images with these cameras and this film.  My favorite 127 cameras are my Brownie Bullet and a 1920 Kodak Vest Pocket camera that I found at an antique shop in Maidstone, UK. Nature photos taken with these cameras often have an eerie quality, which I really enjoy. While they may not be the sharpest cameras—one even has a plastic lens—they’re incredibly fun to use. Kodak Vest Pocket Olympic National Park Summer 2018 - Kodak Vest Pocket Glacier National Park Tamarack Forest, NE Washington - Kodak Vest Pocket Lost Lake Hike, 2018 - Kodak Vest Pocket I also love to take my lightweight cameras anywhere. When your main camera is a Pentax 67, which can weigh 6 pounds with the handle attached, using smaller cameras makes a significant difference.  I usually don't shoot in color with them, primarily because Efke was my go-to film until recently. I still manage to find a roll here and there, thanks to some generous friends.  One more thing I enjoy doing with my 127 photos is creating collage art. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it stems from my desire to bring to life every single photo I consider worthy, even if it's not in its original form. Brownie Bullet Insect attack - Hand colored.  Dinos in Snowy New Mexico Butterfly HuntressFor as long as they keep making 127 (anyone), I'll keep shooting with these cameras. * Smaller than my cell phone *

Before I had ever been to Colorado, I thought oaks were always giant trees. I noticed the shape of the leaf before anything else and was dumbstruck: baby oaks? No, shrubs of magnificent color!