Calf Creek Falls

These images were from a field trip for the Nature Photography class at BYU taught by John Telford. John asked if I would go down a day early and reserve a camp sight for the class. Most of the early pictures of this post were taken during the drive down. I was accompanied by my friend McCall and we were blessed with some of the most amazing skies I have ever seen. As you can probably guess I could not in good conscience keep driving so I kept pulling over and taking pictures. I thought the colors and contrast would dissipate quickly so I only pulled out the digital, a decision which I now regret. As John used to always tell me when I was back in school, "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?" I should have pulled out my 4x5.

The trip was centered around going to Calf Creek Falls. (Which, ironically, I do not have any pictures of to post yet. They will have to come later, I only shot 4x5 B&W) I was excited to go on this trip because I had not been back to Calf Creek Falls since the Raven incident of 2002. For those that haven't heard the story, the facts are these: Me and my friend Chris Parkinson were minding our own business photographing the falls when I noticed a raven over by my bag. I didn't know how long he had been there and I didn't think much of it and merely shooed the bird away. After photographing a little while longer I glanced over and saw the raven again. Only then did I realize the fascination he had with my bag, he was holding a roll of Fuji Velvia film in it's beak. While I was appreciating the wonders of nature, nature was appreciating the shiny silver things in my camera bag. (Since the medium format film was the target I'm guessing the bird had a Holga camera) I never figured out how much film that bird made off with but I learned the valuable lesson of keeping your camera bag closed even when you think you are alone or shoot with a larger format camera that birds can't steal from quite as easily. (Hence why I shot 4x5 this time around.)

This picture is only significant because my friend McCall didn't quite believe me that you can photograph using moon light and have it look like it was the middle of the day. Since I can never turn down a little competition I pulled over on the Hog's Back and took this picture for her. (11:01:53 pm in case you are wondering)

I will blame this picture on my little sister, Tianna, who has an obsession of taking pictures of unusual signs. I don't know how she will feel knowing that I thought of her when I saw this sign but at least I'm thinking of her right?

This is a candid of McCall photographing at sunrise.

This is a candid of me photographing me at sunrise.

I caught a little case of the 'macro' bug and played with some flowers for a little while.