Turning Night to Day

The last week of April I attended "Shooting the West" 

The Nevada Photography Experience.

One of the classes I took was with Grant Kaye,

Landscape Astrophotography.  It was pretty cool!

or I should say "Pretty Damn Cool!!!

Standing out on the side of a mountain in the dark,

30 some degrees and the wind blowing and

"Glad I did it."

Basically, you get all set up and wait for the stars to come out.

Sometimes the clouds come first and keep coming.

The first photo is what I actually shot ,

not much there and as cold as it looks.

I liked the photo, so worked with it to 

 get what you see in the second photo.

Big differences.

This is the look we were going for in the class,

much better.  This summer when I'm up in the mountains,

I'm going to try it on my own.

If you would like to see more of Grant Kaye's go to

Grant Kaye Photography

Click On Photos To Enlarge

Thunder Mountain Monument

Thunder Mountain is a unique place on Hwy 80 in Imlay Nevada.

Building began in the late 60s by Chief Thunder, Frank Van Zant, 

today five acres is owned and operated by his son Dan Van Zant.

There are many stories to explain why the Chief would take on such a project.

One account is that he had a dream, where a great big eagle swooped out 

of the sky and told him, "This is where I should build his nest."

 Another is that in the fall of 1968, Frank and his young bride's

1946 Chevy pickup truck broke down, he couldn't get it running again

and put up camp in the sagebrush. 

According to his son Dan, when his father was a boy he 

saw a bottle house somewhere around  Death Valley. 

 He fell in love with it and had always wonted to build one.

Now the monument is open to the public.

It's a fun place to stop, unload your ice chest, stretch  your legs, 

take photos.  If you like bottles, old rusty thing and

 cotton tail bunnies, you'll love it here.

For the full story go to 

Thunder Mountain Monument