Nature Photography Class - Monument Valley

I taught a nature photography class at Utah Valley University during the summer. This class was great because it was perfect justification for road tripping. I have been behind (as usual) and will be putting up some pictures from a few of our stops as I get to them. Here is the first installment...Monument Valley.

Petra

I recently went back to my film from my travels to the middle east and finished working on one of the images. I really should finish all of my film from that trip but we will have to just wait and see how that goes. Anyways here is a picture of the treasury in Petra. (Yes that is exactly were Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail and as a result it is now a tourist trap complete with a postcard stand and theme music constantly being played by tour guides.)

More Spring Break

Rock Climbing

Here are a couple pictures I took last week up Rock Canyon. This is for a grad school project that I'm working on and I'm curious to see which one people like better so feel free to leave your vote.

Some New Portraits

Random Picture

I am searching for pictures that I need to print up for grad school. I am having no luck finding the images but I did find this random old picture that I took on a trip with BYU down to Capitol Reef. I think it has a self portrait feel, at least in reference to my apparent lack of organizational skills. My images are in complete disarray. I have boxes and piles of unsorted negatives and who knows were all my files are. Its time for some spring cleaning I think.


No this is not my room but it might as well be.

Spring Break!

For spring break at Utah Valley University I took 9 photo students out to California. We started down in Carmel and ended up in the Eureka area. It has been a little while since I posted so here are a few quick ones from the trip and I will get some more up very soon. These were taken at Trinadad for our last sunset before our marathon drive home started. (Details of said drive coming soon)

Cancun...kind of.

I spent last weekend in Mexico. I told everyone that I was going to Cancun but we stayed the majority of our time in Akumal which is much closer to Tulum than Cancun. Photographically speaking it was not the best trip but it was a lot of fun otherwise. I spent a lot of time snorkeling and visiting cool locations such as Tulum and Chichen Itza. Here are a few that I liked and I will post more along with some digital pictures of the trip shortly.

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.

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.

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.

In My Backyard

One last picture that I took at home over the Thanksgiving break. I took this just outside our kitchen window looking south through the trees that line our back yard.

Death Valley ~ Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point...Ansel Adams and plenty of other very good photographers have set up their tripods on this overlook. I think that most photographers must adhere to some mystical power that forces them to this very spot to photograph. Like they would have their camera taken away if they didn't obey the promptings. Don't believe me, look at this picture I took at sunrise the last time I was in Death Valley. I have been in many beautiful and popular places for sunrise and I had never seen anything like this. The overlook was so swamped with tripods that I got discouraged and this the only picture I took that morning.

That is a daunting prospect. What makes you think you can take a good picture in the same spots, with the same lighting, and the same everything else that so many others have had. All the photographers before you, that will come after you, and of course those that are standing right next to you.

Then I remembered, it is just dang fun to be in such a beautiful place and trying to capture and comprehend the beauty around me. Then I also remembered that if all I think I bring to the table is originality then I am bound to be disappointed. Its sad how often people claim originality only to to be taught otherwise when they pick up the next book.

The world has been around a lot longer than you have and the world has far more to teach you than you have to teach it. Quit worrying about whether others have come before you. You are always going to be following in someones footsteps whether you realize it or not so why not pick some good ones to follow and just maybe you might get further than they did. While you are at it you might as well allow yourself to enjoy what others were able to enjoy before you. This time around I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and talked to some wonderful people who were doing the same thing I was...enjoying what the camera had to show about life, even in a valley named for death.

Here are my simple attempts at allowing myself to see without worrying that I was standing in a photographic shrine.

More Cows...

Yet another picture of cows that live across the street from my front yard up in Idaho. I was inspired(?) to go photographing when I saw the cows out grazing while I was home during the thanksgiving break.



The other cow picture was posted a little while back and you can see it by clicking *here*

Death Valley ~ Sand Dunes

Needing a little R&R as recovery from the Olympic book, me and John Telford decided to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day and travel down to Death Valley. John had been once but was not able to photograph and after seeing some of my pictures he decided to check it out for himself. We took off Thursday after I got out of class and came back Monday after sunrise. It was absolutely what the doctor ordered. Highs were in the mid to upper 70's including a record high on Sunday of 81 degrees, perfect basically. (expect the sky was blank for most of the time, which can be boring)

These first few pictures were taken during sunset on Saturday at the sand dunes. The last time I went down I really didn't get enough time to hike out past the obnoxious tourist footprints so no real pictures were taken. I was glad I got out there this time around even though it came because of a change in our plans. We were supposed to go out to the race track but we discovered why we blew out a tire the last time I was there. John decided his tires were not up to snuff and did not go, which was sad. Anyways, here are the dunes and I will be posting some more very soon.