I'm using some Photoshop effects to make my photos resemble oil paintings, watercolors and other non-photographic media.

I have begun exploring different black-and-white conversions for my digital photography. Here are the results.

I'll be updating this album periodically to be a selection of my favorite photos from my other albums. I've loosely divided them up into progressive distance from Billings: the Beartooth Wilderness, Yellowstone and the Tetons, Glacier National Park, other Montana and US photos, Canada, and finally photos from France and England. Enjoy.

Enhanced versions of some of my favorite photos, roughly organized by distance from my home in Billings, Montana.

Some of my favorite photos in black and white

A few photos from the wedding/housewarming party (but not many, as I became preoccupied!), and then photos from a day in the Beartooths with childhood friends from Bartlesville, and a day near Billings with Mom, Dad, Billie & Louis.

On our way back to Billings, Chad and I climbed Specimen Ridge to check out the numerous petrified trees that are in many cases still standing upright along the ridge. Then we drove back across the Beartooth Pass to Billings.

For my 40th birthday, I was joined by family and friends at Chico Hot Springs. We spent a few days seeing the sites in Yellowstone, and celebrated my birthday with dinner in the Chico Wine Cellar . . . with a special surprise for Rory.

Finally a day in Banff, touring the Banff Springs Hotel and seeing the town of Banff. We also ran into some bighorn sheep, and had a deer lounging at the RV. Then we headed back to St. Mary for a night before driving on south to Paradise Valley for my birthday.

Rory and I spent a full day hiking around Lake Louise--climbing up to Lake Agnes and Big Beehive, then across the Plain of Six Glaciers to Lower Victoria Glacier.

A day exploring the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield: hiking to view the Saskatchewan Glacier, and walking on the Athabasca Glacier.

Yoho National Park is one of our family favorites. Dad loves the Spiral Tunnels that carry the Canadian Pacific trains across the Continental Divide. We also visited Takakkaw Falls, Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge over the Kicking Horse River, and saw the cliffs where the Burgess Shale fossil field is located.

We said goodbye to Aaron and Paulette, left Glacier National Park, crossed into Canada, worked our way through Kananaskis Country, and arrived in Banff National Park. Our home base for our stay was Tunnel Mountain RV Park, inside Banff Township. On our first day of sightseeing, we drove along the Bow Valley Parkway to Morant's Curve, Moraine Lake, Bow Lake and Peyto Lake at Bow Pass.

The latest St. Jude Dream Home is being built in our neighborhood. We were part of the VIP ribbon-cutting celebration. Some of Rory's handmade candles are featured as decorations in the house. The big drawing is Sept. 27. Information can be found at www.stjude.org.

Vern and Jacqueline were married at Dan-Walt Gardens in Billings.

On July 16, I closed on the house, and we finally go to see it all clean and finished . . . well, mostly finished. Later that day they installed the last ceiling beam, and the next day they had to hook up the bubble tub, add more drawers to the master closets, and touch up some interior paint. Most of the touch-ups are completed now. After closing I walked through and photographed each room, before the view became obscured by boxes! Moving in was uneventful but still a long hard slog. We were glad when my Mom and Dad arrived to help whip things in shape for the housewarming party before we left for two weeks in the Montana and Canadian Rockies.

I am building a house at Josephine Crossing, an environmentally friendly community in Billings that was named the 2007 Northwest Energy Star Development of the Year. This album will chronicle my experience building my first house.

After leaving the geyser basin, we climbed through the Cement Hills to our lakeshore campsite. The next day, we exited the Cement Hills, hiked the north shore of the lake, and came back to the Grand Loop Road along DeLacy Creek . . . in a hail storm!

This was our destination: the nation's largest backcountry geyser basin--possibly the largest in the world. We just had to "ford every stream" to get there!

A three day hike to Yellowstone's Shoshone Geyser Basin--the largest backcountry geyser basin in the world--and Shoshone Lake, the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states. I believe we also encountered the largest gathering of mosquitoes in the world, but it was fun nonetheless! Day 1 took us from Old Faithful, past Lone Star Geyser and across Grants Pass to Shoshone Meadows. Day 2 took us along Shoshone Creek to Shoshone Geyser Basin and through the Cement Hills on the north shore of Shoshone Lake. Day 3 took us out of the Cement Hills and along the lake shore to DeLacy Creek, and back to the Grand Loop Road and home.

Congratulations to new residency graduates Jenni Bigback, Kris Cunningham, Zach Meyers, Ryan Schwanke and Neil Sun Rhodes, as well as sports medicine fellowship graduate Ben Phipps!

Spring is always a busy time at MFMR. I'll try to capture as much of it in pictures as I can. We'll start with some photos from the farewell party for Renee Crichlow and Tom James, and continue with some photos of the visit by R. E. Losee (author of DOC) to the residency for noon conference. Then the annual picnic at the James residence, followed by graduation.

Rory and I escaped Billings for a day and drove to Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming via the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations.

Ben, Rory, Zach and I reunited at Rory's house for some Warren Miller Ski Bum Red wine, some Warren Miller movies, and general merriment. Buddha and Zach provided the entertainment.