Photography 6 – Bannack – Best Of

The following are some of the other best shots I took at Bannack State Park. They’re in no particular order, or presented with any rhyme or reason.

Andy Bell - Creepy Doll - Bannack State Park — **"I Didn’t Know I Was In a Horror Movie"**; February 10, 2012, 2:30pm; f/5.6; 1/100; Canon T3i; Cropped to 8X10 proportions to zoom in on subject, and a little sharpening was applied

Fun fact: this doll was purchased at a thrift store. There’s no question in my mind why this thing was donated. It fits in perfectly with the vibe of a ghost town.

Andy Bell - Bannack - We Done Been Robbed! - Black and White HDR — **"We Done Been Robbed!"**; February 10, 2012, 2:41pm; f/3.5; 1/30; Canon T3i; HDR with automatic bracketing, processed by Photomatix Pro (trial)

I was a little surprised to see what looked like a small vault of some kind in the hotel at Bannack State Park. It was hard to get a single good picture of it, so I decided to try an HDR. I decided to give this photo a cinematic look. I cropped it to a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, which is one of the most common theatrical aspect ratios. I used the black and white preset in Photomatix to process the HDR, and added noise and burned edges in Photoshop to make it look a little older. The way I picture this scene in my head is that the camera slowly pulls back, fully revealing the empty vault, much to the anger of the vault’s owners.

Andy Bell - The Gallows - Bannack — **"The Gallows"**; February 10, 2012, 3:33pm; Bannack State Park, MT; f/14; 1/500; Canon T3i

There’s a story behind this photo. From what the park ranger told us, this photo was taken from Bannack’s original jail. But in the distance, in almost the center of the photo, is what used to be the gallows. It must have been quite intimidating to stare out of the jails single window into the distance and see where you could be ending up in a few days. It can be kind of hard to see the gallows in this small size though, so you can view an (almost) full-size image. WARNING: it’s about 7MB. (I say almost, because my WordPress installation won’t allow uploads that large.)

Andy Bell - Wagon Wheel - Bannack — **"Wagon Wheel"**; February 10, 2012, 11:34am; Bannack State Park, MT; f/3.5; 1/40; Canon T3i; Sepia-ed in Photoshop

This one is completely unedited except for the application of sepia tone.

Andy Bell - Wagon Teeth - Bannack — **"Teeth"**; February 10, 2012, 10:40am; Bannack State Park, MT; f/5.6; 1/60; Canon T3i

I don’t really know for sure what this is, other than a part of an old wagon, but it looks like teeth of some kind. I really don’t know though. The only editing I did was a small levels adjustment.