In mid-August we reached our final destination of the trip, Missoula. Hugh and I have spent many happy trips to Missoula, usually for a photography workshops.
When I first decided I wanted to go to Missoula more than a decade ago, the line was, “I want to study photography with Elizabeth Stone, and if I have to go to Missoula to do it, then I will go to Missoula.” Little did I know that this place in Montana would grab my heart and that I would return many times both for photography workshops and just a place to find some peace, especially after a difficult tax season.
I had last been in Missoula in 2015 for a photography workshop on lighting. Much had changed. The photography school that I had frequented no longer occupied a building on Higgins. For old time sake we walked through the building remembering the wonderful teachers and students we met there. Two of those students I now count as close friends, Deb with whom I have traveled to Vermont, Bryce, Michigan and Poland with, and Pat with whom we went to Zion and in 2023 to the Netherlands and Belgium.
Also a favorite coffee shop, Liquid Planet, had moved and now focused only only coffee. I had purchased a couple of teapots as gifts in the store in 2015.
Some of our favorite restaurants remained. And we enjoyed local tacos, a steak dinner, a local ice cream shop and an organic grocery shore we loved to frequent.
Also new to me and to Missoula since 2015 was the Confident Stitch. A local fabric shop. I got to meet the owner and fall in love with all the garment fabrics she carried. In 2023, II am still ordering from the there.
We love photographing around Missoula, especially the Nine Pipes area and the National Bison Range. We had connected with Barb Eddie to guide us to local places and to help expand our photography experience. We had met Barb on a photography workshop in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There, she spent part of a morning helping me get a difficult shot. She had since moved to the Missoula area and she knew some great places to photograph that we were unfamiliar with. And, she got me using a new camera that had been sitting in my camera bag for several years. I had kept it as a backup camera but Barb encouraged me to break it out and to use it. Most importantly, she helped me get started with some of the new features.
Barb’s eagle eye found wildlife at the Bison Range, that Hugh and I might have missed. None of my photos would win any contests but I sure had fun!
After the Bison Range closed, Barb took us to a place in the Nine Pipes area, and old church to photograph during the sunset. I love shooting reflections and one of the church’s windows captured the sunset in its panes.
