Trip Report: Grain Elevator, Reservoir, and Rural Montana

It was a smoky afternoon in Montana.

That was the story of the week, if I'm being honest. But challenging situations caused us to travel, to look, to try something different. Which I'm actually glad for.

But on this particular day, we ended up driving all over. I can't recall the original plan, but it fell apart, and we drove northward to one mountain range in particular, if my memory serves me correctly.

Montana is full of back roads, dirt roads, and roads that you can't really call roads. The year prior, we drove on some of those roads and found some nice spots. This year wasn't much different, though the conditions were poor.

I really liked the stretch of road leading up to the mountains, but the lack of clouds and the abundance of smoke made this more of a scouting shot than a final photo. Maybe I can return one day; I think there's potential.

Deciding to leave that mountain scene, we continued on some dirt roads. We came across a few other roadside opportunities, but none really seemed to work given the situation. A nice road with a tree, a large stand of trees with a small pond, a cliff by the river, even some tall grass. But we kept going.

I can't recall if we had scouted the nearby reservoir earlier or not, but we decided it would probably be our best bet. With the sun covered in smoke, it would simply show up as a red ball; this might be interesting.

On the way, we pulled into a small town for a moment, and thankfully, we saw a grain elevator nearby. The light was soft and warm, with a touch of magenta, and it looked pretty nice on the elevator.

As the light started to fade, we quickly moved on towards the reservoir.

While I won't share the image here, I had a goofy idea. Being a bit of a sci-fi nerd, and with the sun hopefully looking like a red ball because of the smoke, I thought I'd try to make it look like we had two suns setting. Tatooine, anyone? I digress.

The plan was simple. There were some nice grasses on the shoreline of the reservoir. If they caught a bit of light, they'd make a beautiful foreground, with the water between them and distant mountains.

Unfortunately, the light wasn't strong enough to pass through all of the haze; the grass didn't light up much at all. To top it off, the sun was bright enough that it wasn't the red ball that we hoped for.

But we still got out and tried. Which is so important in photography, not to mention many other endeavors.

Was it a wasted day? The diesel bill might say so. But I don't believe it was. Did I learn anything spectacular or life-changing? No, I can't say that either. But I did learn. Did I see the most amazing sights ever? No, though I got to see some beautiful places.

I'm not sure what "application" to make of this, other than that we should get out sometimes, do things sometimes, even when conditions aren't great. As long as it's God-honoring and done for His glory, it isn't wasted. Just as His word doesn't come back void (Isaiah 55:11), I don't think things done for Him (those according to His will) are for nothing, either.

I hope that's encouraging to you (and me).