Ranch Sharpening Tool Grant-Kohrs Ranch

Ranch Sharpening Tool Grant-Kohrs Ranch (click to enlarge)

Here is a tool used to sharpen farm implements.  This tool is located in the blacksmith shop at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.    The circles of the gears and the teeth make for a classic repetitive pattern composition.

In this image I relied upon a large aperture setting to increase depth of field.  I think I should have used the stacked focus technique to get sharper focus throughout the gears.  Given how close I was to the subject and the 70mm focal length on my lens, I was not going to get depth of field sharpness throughout the depth of the subject using aperture alone.  Not sure what I was thinking as focus stacking is usually my go-to technique for depth of field.

Oh well, maybe next time…

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site N 46°24’31”  W 112°44’19”

Wagon Yoke on Barn Wall

Wagon Yoke on Barn Wall (click to enlarge)

Here is a detail shot from the interior of one of the outbuildings at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.  The ranch has several outbuildings and barns full of farm implements such as this.

I like the various textures and details such as the peeling pant and the dovetail looking joints of the timber.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site N 46°24’31”  W 112°44’19”

Wood Grain Ghost, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

Wood Grain Ghost, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site

This image is from a barn at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.  Grant-Kohrs is a ranch between Missoula and Bozeman Montana.  The site made for a good pit stop as we drove from Glacier National Park to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.  We spent a considerable amount of time at the ranch.  If you go, make sure you take the ranger led tour of the main house.

The reason this composition caught my attention is the wood grain over the wheel which looks like a phoenix rising from the flames.  At the time I decided to take the image and figure out what to do with it later.  The image above started as a color image.  I then made the lower half black and white while keeping the top half the natural color.  In the end it looks like a combination of a black and white and sepia image.

There are lots of detail images such as this to be had at the ranch.  There are several barns chock full of farm implements, a blacksmith, and a chuck wagon that all present photographic possibilities.  If you are lucky, the rodeo will be in town right across the street!

A quick small world story.  I talked to one of the park rangers while waiting for the house tour.  It turns out the ranger was a former sailor.  A few years earlier I had spent several weeks aboard the same ship he was on out in the Mediterranean.  We had some fun talking about a port visit in Sicily.

Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site N 46°24’31”  W 112°44’19”

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