More Parley's Summit

Snowshoeing at Parley's Summit

In my typical masochistic style I hauled my big camera up Parley's summit to go snowshoeing and sledding with my cousin Matt and a group of his friends. 4 hours sleep and 4 months out of shape made for a fun trip up the mountain, the way down was definitely a lot easier. At the top the group built a large jump that we went over on the sleds that we had hauled up with us. I spent most of the time photographing everyone else but decided to take a run at the very end...I should have kept photographing. Lets just say it was a good thing there was so much powder to soften the landing. On the way down we basically sat down on the toboggans and weaved through the trees. It was a very fun day.




A few more to come shortly.

Artist Statements

I have been trying to write my philosophy on photography and artist statement for quite a while with very little to show for it. Every time I try to verbalize my photographic impulses in an academic way all the creative synapses in my brain start to hemorrhage and I gain a strong desire to play video games. (Lets be honest when your brain shuts down the only thing you can still effectively do is play video games. Or if you want to shut your brain down video games work to accomplish this as well.)

Since I was struggling I turned back to my reliable cure for overcoming stress - sarcasm. This time specifically the comics. In them I finally found a good strategy for writing an artist statement. Here it is:


Honestly who hasn't read an artist statement that fits this description to the tee? Part of me wishes that this particular stereotype wasn't true but alas, I fear it is more true than most artists would be willing to admit.

Toni Frissell

When I was out in Maine last November I picked up a book at Tim's called "Against the Odds-women pioneers in the first hundred years of photography" It focused on women photographers in the United States and the impact they had on the development of photography into what we have today.

As in all aspects of the arts the roles that women played has been woefully underrepresented. So it was nice to see a substantial book focused specifically on that topic. It was a very nice book that was well researched and well written. I had the entire book read by the time I got home from Maine.

Out of the book there was one image in particular that had me hooked. It was an image done by Antoinette Frissell Bacon (photo name was Toni Frissell) for Harper's Bazaar. I can't think of a better way to describe this image than photographic poetry. I typically like straight forward images that do not rely on cryptic messages. But with this image every time I look at it, it evokes a different mood out of me. It has a subtle magic to it that seems to transcend time, genre, meaning, etc.

So no this picture is not mine. It is Toni's. I only wish I had taken it.

Dec. 1947 - Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida

One Last One...

I had initially decided against even working on this image and then on a last second whim decided to severely crop the image down. I find it important to remember how significant something as simple as the edge of the picture is to the success or failure of an image.

Some More Fog at the Lake...

More Utah Lake Fog...

Some Overlooked Utah Lake Pictures

These were shot a few months back but for 'numerous' reasons I had not gotten to the film yet. I have been up in Idaho after giving a lecture to the BYU-Idaho art department and that has provided me with some quite time to play catch up. Hopefully I can get through a few more as well.

From the 'Stranger than Fiction' department.

No I did not make these up by myself, but I thought they definitely deserved sharing. Enjoy.

“Don’t touch or handle the mirrors or brains may fall.”

(This was on a sign in front of an exhibit in Gallery 303 in the Harris Fine Art Center at BYU. I’ll leave all the rest of the context to your imagination)

“Thanks for choosing to visit us today.”

(I read this little nugget on a sign in a trauma room in the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center emergency room. Maybe they have a different definition of emergency than I do.)

P.S. Happy Valentines Day!

Fog & Frost

While I was down in Death Valley a thermal inversion rolled into Utah Valley. Luckily I was able to get out for a couple of sunrises after I got home because it made for beautiful conditions out at the lake. Everything was coated with a thick layer of hoar frost and the thick fog was constantly changing. It was worth having to be late for class and work both mornings to squeeze in some quality photo time. More coming soon.





P.S. Happy Friday the 13th

City Gallery Exhibit

I had a last second show kind of drop in my lap. On about 1 week notice me and Brandon Allen decided to pull together an exhibit. Basically in my house I pulled all the frames off my wall so that I would have enough frames since I would not have time to make new ones. We will have an opening this Friday (February 6th) from 7 to 9 at the City Gallery in Provo (250 North University Avenue) as part of the gallery stroll. If you can't make it on Friday, the show will be up through March so we will also have a reception for the March gallery stroll. The images really don't have a connecting theme other than beautiful black & white. I will have some brand new images that I have never printed before as well as some golden oldies (well, silver actually). Everyone is invited and hope to see you there.