Waterpocket Fold

Sunset over Waterpocket Fold from Hall's Crossing.

Mt Nebo

While returning from a winter excursion to the Little Sahara sand dunes a few years ago.

Timpanogos From Work.

Light on the mountain caught my attention while on a lunch break.

Concerning Rock Art

There simply is no better term.  Sure the "Rock" part is easy enough and the only thing that really applies which leaves "Art" but was it created for arts sake as they say?  Doubtful that it was considering what science might tell us of, from archaic to just prehistoric times, those standards of living in such a harsh environment that have been gleaned from the remains of the past.  "Rock Graphics" has been suggested instead, but admitted to be another place holder for that unknown better term for certainly if the purpose was higher the term graphics falls short.  "Indian Writing" frequents older reports and stories.  This at least eludes to some form of communication or relation of meaning for more certainly some sort of higher purpose might have allowed for it's creation, perhaps by those important enough in society to be provided for while doing so, considering eras when day to day survival would have been so consuming of ones time and energies.  But without anyone left from the creating culture to verify what if anything is being communicated we are left only with the extremely limited scientific facts and an unlimited supply of inference and compound inference.  So accepting the most common lack of a better word, here is some of the finest rock art I've been privileged to visit and photograph.  They call this one perfect.

Sunset Season

It's that time of year again, the sun goes down behind the mountains and sometimes lights up the sky timely, right about the end of the work day.  Though the sunset captured in my Sunset Pano taken a couple weeks ago was the best of the season so far.
Here are a couple more including another image from that night to start off with.

November 8

Novermber 17

November 20

November 21

Sunset Pano

The sky lit up last night over Heber Valley with a storm system approaching.  Three image panorama

Bokeh Panorama Experiment

disclaimer =  some technically challenged photos below but chalked up in the name of learning ; ).

After learning of a process to boost the narrowness of the depth of field of an image this morning using panoramic stitching of multiple overlapping images taken with a longer lens  instead of shooting the same field of view  in one shot with a wider lens,  I had to experiment as soon as possible.

I've shot panoramics with longer glass before to increase level of detail and angle of view, such as this wide rock art panel at the Horseshoe Shelter site last year.
I've also contemplated the benifits of a long lens wide open in different situations, but never put two and two together.

Below the  first image is a panoramic of 16 overlapping images taken with my 40-150mm at 40mm (x2 crop) and wide open at f4.  Stitched with an old version of Hugin (as was the above image), please excuse the parallax errors,  exposure variences, and mostly a gross lack of scenery.
 

Now for the "control", I changed to my 14-42mm lens, took a sip of the drink, and shot at 14mm and wide open at f3.5,

In spite of a lower aperature,  much sharper throughout, less bokeh, and broader DOF. 

I'm sold on trying this on an actual subject of interest or a good friend standing somewhere scenic this weekend!

Ferguson Canyon 08'

A long exposure scene I photographed in Ferguson Canyon, spring 08'

Provo River

Long but scenic is my commute.  I've often wanted to stop every fall and winter to shoot this stretch.  I finally had a few extra minutes to stop for a change, though not the same as I've always invisioned from the higher perspective of the roadway.  A couple "test" photos along the Provo River before the next storm finishes off all the leaves.

Labor Day Weekend 2012

Another trip to the Arizona Strip brought with it a bunch of scenic distractions.  Here are a few early favorite photos for now to keep me motivated to eventually get caught up.

The Wave and surrounding environs was prominent on the to do list for this trip.
I've got many photos to go through and there look to be some promising ones in there.
I liked the composition on this one with Randy adjusting his tripod for a reflection shot,
and our soon to be new acquaintance from Germany frozen taking a step.



But not before passing through a storm or getting a Jeep out of some quicksand.






A visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was also on our agenda. 
My "vision of Vishnu" Temple is a definite favorite so far.



Challenged but this was my first experience with the sunburst effect first thing Labor Day morning.



Now catching up will be hard to do while I hope to be elbow deep rebuilding a Jeep engine.  But there will eventually be much more to come from this trip.

A big thanks to my friend Randy for an invite to use an extra permit and open passenger seat.  His "adventr" blog can be seen here.  He will have a full trip report of this adventure posted there by about this weekend no doubt. 

Timp Meadow, Film Favorite to Digital Delight

The Wasatch Mountains are the most common scenic distraction for me by far over the years.

On the left, a snapshot envisioned while hiking back from the summit of Mt Timpanogos, and then almost carefully composed after retracing a few steps and taking a few steps off the trail (I still wish the whole shelter were included).  Taken some time in the mid 1990's, captured on an Olympus Infinity Jr 35mm point n shoot with Kodak Gold film no doubt.  A shoe box favorite ever since getting the prints back, often residing in a frame on a desk or dresser, and blown up large on the wall.
On the right, a re-shoot just about the same time of the season, late in the evening while en route to the summit (eventually), captured on July 2010 with my Olympus E-510 DSLR and 12-60mm zoom lens.

Spring on Mt Olympus

Hiking after work yesterday before sundown, a chance to get some exercise and see this years crop of spring wildflowers in bloom. Photographing wildflowers over the last few years has for me been a good means to an end of learning to identify them.

A new to me Parsley was in bloom.

Always on the lookout for a better shot of Glacier Lilys.
Still not quite there yet.

Phlox has been on my list to re-shoot also and I'm happy with these.

Last Thursday's clear bluebird morning sky

My old E-510 delineated the sky's subtle changes in tone with lines of noise, annoying.

Nearly Full, At Sunset

Will be full tomorrow.

Peakaboo Gulch

Taken during a week long trip to Escalante last October.

Peakaboo Bridges


Peakaboo 4th Bridge


Peakaboo Gulch Contours

Stone Contours

A favorite I saved from deleting after deciding to try b&w first.

Hidden Canyon sandstone contours, Fall 07'

Tree

North Fields, Heber Utah

I hope to re-shoot this view of a large tree out in the fields many times to try and capture the scene the way it continually inspired me during the couple weeks leading up to finally pulling over and trying for a shot.

Snowdrift 2

Original, out of camera.

Three versions of a snowdrift.

Original, out of camera.


My regular post processing, light curve and levels adjustments.


Dramatic result from a simple "auto equalize" feature of the software.

Flowstone