Back Under Big Sky

Photo By Justin Franz

After five awesome weeks back east, that included many a memorable day trackside, I’ve finally returned to my temporary home here in Montana. Unfortunately, with school work, a life to lead and other photography duties in photojournalism classes, time spent trackside hasn’t been as plentiful. Not to mention the less then perfect weather that has planted itself right over western Montana for the past few weeks. But that’s ok, there will be plenty of time to shoot later on in the semester, especially when the grunge of winter is replaced with the greens of spring. For now, I shoot what I can. Saturday evening was one of those times as my roommate, Dylan Peck (check out his photo-blog at http://chouinardphoto.blogspot.com/), and I went out for a impromptu night photo session around Missoula. One of the targets was the former Northern Pacific depot in downtown, now owned by Montana Rail Link parent company, Washington Corp. With its classic design and NP ‘Monad’ adorning the sides it’s a reminder of Missoula and western Montana’s rich railroading past, present and future. One I hope to capture on film, and pixels, in the next three and a half years.