Photo about 2017 Havre, Montana snow storm goes viral

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I've had a few posts go viral over the years, but nothing like this.

This past week Havre, Montana was in the news. This doesn't happen very often. In fact, I don't know another time Havre, Montana received so much attention. Why? Well, if you're anywhere near Havre you already know the answer. On Monday and Tuesday Havre was hit with an early season snow storm, which made headlines around the world. I posted a photo of mine to fill in some friends about the storm and it went viral.

If you look at my image above, one of my blizzard photos and post received over 1 million views. That's incredible. Never before have I had a photograph seen by so many in such a short span of time.

The first blizzard of 2017 resulted in widespread power outages and downed trees in Havre. A total of 15 inches of heavy, wet snow fell on the tiny northern Montana town, which was a new record for a snow storm in the month of October. The previous record was 8.6 inches, which fell on October 4, 1914. And not far from Havre on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation, 30 inches of snow fell during the storm. One drift was reportedly eight feet high according to Weather.com.

Many days after the snow began to fall, Havre was still without power.

Montana calendar is available on the Hi-Line only at Gary & Leo's IGA

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Several people have asked me if they can buy my new 2017 Montana calendar from Protege Publishing somewhere locally near Havre. Well, there's good news folks. I worked out an arrangement with Gary & Leo's IGA to sell the calendar at their store in Havre, Montana starting October 15th and just in time for their re-grand opening on November 2nd. The cost will be the same $14.99 you would pay if you purchased it online or at Costco.

For those who don't live Havre, don't worry, there are plenty of other places to purchase my new 2017 Montana photo calendar, too. If you want to buy it in person in Montana then all you need to do is visit your local Coscto warehouse.

My 2017 Montana calendar is also available to order online right now at Calendars.com (order now). It is also available to order now online at Amazon.com (order now). As mentioned before my 2017 Montana calendar will sell for $14.99 and it features some of my very best Montana photos.

Here are the addresses for all of Montana's Costco locations where my calendar will be available:

Costco (Billings)
2290 King Avenue West
Billings, MT 59102-7415
(406) 651-2421

Costco (Bozeman)
2505 Catron Street
Bozeman, MT 59718-7993
(406) 585-0383

Costco (Helena)
2195 East Custer Avenue
Helena, MT 59602-1217
(406) 495-7040

Costco (Missoula)
3220 North Reserve Street
Missoula, MT 59808-1556
(406) 543-6445

More information on where you can purchase my 2017 Wisconsin calendar will follow soon.

Prints for Havre grocery store

I am happy to announce I recently sold 11 very large framed prints of Montana photos to Gary & Leo's IGA in Havre, Montana. It is one of many Montana corporate art sales I have made so far this year. The framed prints are part of a major new remodeling effort the locally owned Havre grocery store has been undergoing all summer long. When the prints are hung in another couple of weeks or so you will see them on the perimeter on all four walls of the store.

Great care was taken to select the right images to tell the story of north central Montana and to give both their customers and their staff something wonderful to look at for years to come. The photos were printed onto canvas and then mounted onto hardboard. A UV resistant coating was then added to the prints and so too was a 3" frame and security hardware.

Below are the photos that will appear in Gary & Leo's IGA. When the photos are installed I will be sure to share some of those images with you, too.

Kind note from Senator Steve Daines

I know it is an election year and the politicians will do just about anything to promote their parties, but I thought it was kind of nice to check the mail a few weeks ago and see that Montana Senator Steve Daines took the times to send me a card and congratulate me on winning my recent awards for my farm & ranch photography. It is a simple gesture to be sure, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

High resolution panorama photos of Montana

Cain's Coulee Overlook at Makoshika State Park near Glendive, Montana. → Buy a Print or License Photo

More and more clients are asking for (even demanding) higher and higher resolution photos of Montana for special projects. Some of you know I created a high resolution panorama photo of Ryan Dam outside of Great Falls, Montana. That images now hangs inside Great Falls International Airport and is 11 feet tall and 60-some feet wide. I also recently sold several photographs for a new corporate headquarters that will end up being 9 feet tall and 14 feet wide. Not every photograph is capable of printing quite so large, though.

The average professional dSLR camera today makes an image that is approximately 20 megapixels. If you were to print that photo at its native resolution, assuming it hasn't been cropped, the largest photo you could print at its native resolution and maintain ultimate clarity is only 19.2 inches by 12.8 inches in size.

To overcome this I am now making many new photos using a higher resolution camera that captures images that are 50.6 megapixels. However, for super large images that still isn't enough. So in those cases I will take as many as 9 to 24 images of a scene and stitch them together. The image above required 9 individual 50.6 megapixel photographs, which were stitched together to make one massive 32,000 x 8700 pixel sized image. And to show off that clarity of those images on my website I'm using some new software as you can see above. The largest file I can upload to my website is 1500 pixels wide. The image above is 8000 pixels wide. That's a far cry from the 32,000 pixels wide the original image is, but it does show in greater detail how much clarity and resolution is available in any given image.