Abandoned truck at Montana’s Bannack State Park
Well, this might be the last post featuring an image from Bannack State Park. Given the relatively short amount of time I spent in the town, I am impressed with the number of quality images. I spent about two hours photographing the main town and another 40 minutes or so in the cemetery. After processing, I ended up with six solid images. I could easily spend an entire day, and well into the evening, at the park.
The lack of color in the park makes for strong black and white images. The various shades of brown of the dry vegetation and the weathered buildings make the conversion to black and white nicely. I used Google’s Silver Efex Pro to make the conversion to black and white. Silver Efex Pro is a great plug-in when used with Photoshop Creative Cloud. A few mouse clicks and some slider tweaks result in very nice black and white images. I have read several magazine articles and web tutorials on making the black and white conversion using Photoshop layers. Just my opinion, but none of they work as well as Silver Efex Pro, especially given the free price!
Abandoned Truck, Bannack State Park: N 45°9’43” W 112°59’47”
Abandoned Outhouse, Bannack State Park, Montana
Here is an abandoned outhouse on the north side of the street at Bannack State Park. Given the rattlesnake warning signs in the area, I had no desire to go any closer!
Besides the interior and exterior of the old buildings, Bannack State Park offers lots of free standing objects (a truck, outhouses, and ore carts among others) for photography. Include these objects in a wide panorama, or get close in for the detailed texture and patterns. Whichever way you prefer to photograph, there is a lot of photography to be done at Montana’s Bannack State Park.
Abandoned Outhouse: N 45°9’40” W 112°59’37”
Old-Fashioned School House Desk Support, Bannack State Park
There are rows of old-fashioned desks inside the School House at Bannack State Park (the Masonic Lodge is upstairs). I tried to capture an image of the desks in a row from several angles, but the sunlight streaming in the windows created too many blown out areas. Instead, I ended up capturing some detail images like the one above.
Keeping with the ghost town theme, I converted this image to black and white also. Anyone looking to expand their black and white portfolio should certainly pay Montana’s Bannack State Park a visit!
Bannack State Park Masonic Lodge/School House:
N45°9’42” W 112°59’51”
