Zion

I’ve been to Zion!  Absolutely amazing!  As we were driving up to it I was just in complete awe that something so magnificent even existed.  Once my son asked me if I could have any super power what would it be?  Although I would like to have a magic snap that makes my house clean in a matter of seconds, truly what I would give more than anything is to be able to travel back in time and witness history.  I wondered who named it Zion?  When was it discovered?  How was it formed?  I took many pictures but honestly pictures just do not do it justice.   It was warm in the 50s however the shadows cast on the canyon walls left snow and frozen ice.  It was incredible to look at.  It kind of reminded me of the movie Hook….you know where the Lost boys live and each part of their land is divided into different seasons.  So it’s fall with beautiful leaves in one place, snow on the ground in another, etc.  Amazing, amazing, amazing…..did I mention that Zion National Park is amazing?

 

I’m off to St. George again this weekend and I hope to bring back some good stuff image-wise.  I have started a new branch to my business and it has been a lot of fun.  I love being creative, and I love that I have an opportunity to do it (aw shucks .   Here is a link to my latest business venture, and why I have let my portrait business go a bit :

http://latter-dayvillage.com/proddetail.php?prod=YoungWomen2-1&cat=30

I must thank everyone at LDV for giving me this opportunity to show my work and make it available to others.  (*sigh*) I really must take a moment and express how grateful I am for the things I have going in my life.  I have the greatest husband who supports me not only as my best friend but because of his knowledge in the media world is always my toughest (and best) critic and assists me in all ways from camera shopping, lighting and just plain giving me ideas.  He’s wonderful.  My kids…though they have come to truly despise the times when I pull out my camera and say I have a new idea, they are beautiful, and I love capturing their faces as they grow up.  They are why I started doing this.   Someday, I know they will thank me for it, and someday I will be even more glad than I am now that I have such great images of them.  Finally, I must thank all of my friends, family and clients who have spread the word about my photography.  I have never marketed myself in any way and I appreciate all of the kind words from others that have kept me, not only in business, but have given me more opportunties to develop my talent and become more creative.  I love it, I could not have done any of this without the support of others.   If you have a talent, or a desire to develop your talent then I say go for it.  Study your heart out, research until your eyes are sore, practice like crazy and the Lord and those who recognize your talents will do the rest.   “If you build it they will come…”

and more dead trees

I told you I like dead trees…This was taken up near Mt. Nebo in Utah.  The trees and greenery are a little dark because I wanted to get the detail in the clouds.  This was taken in the middle of summer so I must say that these must truly be dead trees (?).   There is another one similar to this taken at the same location at the same time.  I think the other one is better, there is more blue sky.  It’s back aways in one my earlier posts… which I could link you to but I really don’t know how to do that. 

My favorite dead tree

This is a great tree don’t you think?  I love the thick branches and how it reaches up toward the sky–as yes most tree branches do.  I took this at Arches National Park, of course, notice the pink clouds.   Love that reflection thing, well okay actually it kinda bugs me because pink clouds, in my opinion, should only be seen at sunset but it is a pretty cool phenomenon.   And this photo even had some color adjusting in Photoshop–I took a bit of the magenta out yet the pink is still pretty obvious.  I really need to get some snow pics going, dead trees in the snow…maybe I will give myself that assignment.  I will be driving along and say, wow look at those dead trees against those beautiful snow covered mountains!  Must put my camera in my car so I can show you what I mean the next time I drive by.  Cheers!

Dead Trees…

You may or may not have noticed that I have a thing for dead trees (Well, maybe dormant trees would be a better term).  Don’t get me wrong, I love colored leaves in the fall and the full greens of summer, but I just absolutely love dead trees because you can see between the branches, it’s like a mish mash of total inconsistency.  They are like snowflakes, however with snowflakes you just believe none is like the other because who really takes each tiny fluttering snowflake and inspects it before it melts or hits the ground only to be lost forever?  So please, take and inspect these photos, you will see no dead tree is like another.  I’ll start with this one:

(Taken at Snow Canyon State Park in St. George, Utah.  One day I am going to have a great view of this place from my house.)

If this doesn’t make you feel cold, let me tell you about it….

This was actually, if you can believe it, taken at Gunlock Reservoir near St. George, Utah.  Utah has been in a major cold snap lately.  On the drive down South, hoping to find warmer weather the temperature actually dropped to -8.  Frost was forming on the inside of our window, and my kids were enjoying making lovely designs with their fingernails.   We took a drive out to the Reservoir and were greeted by ice, but not just any ice.  I must say that this is most definitely the coolest (no pun intended, okay maybe) ice I have ever seen.  It was smooth and shiny and so cold that I stood out there in the 27 degree temp with a windchill I swear of like -40 and snapped a few shots and then that was it, I was done.  There is only so far I will go to get a good shot.  And just for the record, my ears are still defrosting…

Moab Series–really I didn’t forget

Okay, actually I did.  No, not really forgot.  Just put it off.  I really do have a problem with taking a ton of pictures, filing them away fully intending to get back to them later.  Later being when we have finally settled in our new home and I can enlarge a ton of images and place them all over my walls.   But since I have not really ventured out with my camera lately and gave up on the lights for the time being, I am back-tracking a little and posting some sunset images from my Moab series that I promised earlier.   A thunderstorm blew over us right before I took these, and, I must note, I am NOT a storm chaser.  Infact I was terrified that either I, or my children, might be struck by lightning.  We survived, so did my camera and so did these images.  So here ya go…

Storm Chasing….

You must check out this website…

www.extremeinstability.com

A few days ago I got an email from my cousin in Nebraska telling me to go to this website and see the latest pictures of the ice storm on the plains.  They were taken by her second cousin who is a storm chaser.  Being as he is her second cousin and she is my second cousin then somehow we must be related.  And what an honor it would be to be related to such a talented photographer!

Cold…..

I walk out my back door and this is what I see *sigh*, I am afraid that I am not much of a winter cold person.  My dad sent me a pix today from his cell phone of the beach where I grew up in Goleta…..*sigh* again, I’d really like to be there about now.

 So I went camera shopping, or…camera looking I guess.   I went and played with the Nikon D200, and D80, as well as the Canon Rebel XTi and 30D.  After playing with them all I have to say that the Nikon D80 was my favorite and would be the one I would choose, should I decide to switch systems.  The Canons just felt so….plastic-like, not durable at all.  Of course they are extremely light weight but I just didn’t like how they felt in my hands.   I was hoping, however to get a hold of the Canon 5D which the local retailers did not seem to have in stock.  My conclusion is that my Sony is not so bad after all.  It has, by far over all of them the best viewfinder.  Through the viewfinder or LCD you can see a histogram, all of your settings including flash and white balance and as you adjust your settings the viewfinders changes.  So if I am shooting really low light, as I open up the iris and lengthen the shutter speed the viewfinder actually brightens.  Very cool, and I did not realize others did not have this feature.  I couldn’t even find the histogram on the Canon.    The other feature I love about my 828 is the way the camera grip swivels.  So if I have my tripod at it’s tallest and I can’t see into the viewfinder-because I am short-I can swivel the camera back to point down at me while the lens stays fixed on the subject.  Also, very cool.

So, my conclusion…..I’m going to stick with my 828, and if I do decide to upgrade, unless the Canon 5D can blow me away, will probably go with a Nikon (no offense Canon users).