What’s Gotta Stay

For those from Poulsbo, WA, nothing more needs to be said.

For the rest of the world, if you happen to visit the small Scandinavian town of Poulsbo, be sure to stop by Sluys’ Bakery for a little bit of sweet indulgence.

I had the opportunity to spend a day last week driving around my old hometown. What a flood of memories as I visited various places. I’ll be posting a few photos in the next few days from my solo photo walk/drive plus selected shots from my sister’s wedding.

Tags: poulsbo, sign

Taken at the Freedom Festival in Provo, UT on Saturday. Big thanks to the owner and pilot of this balloon Tim for taking my kids and I inside the balloon as it was filling with air. I only wish I had had time to get my wide angle lens on to get an even more dramatic view of this amazing scene!

Tags: freedom festival, hot air balloon

This last weekend I had the opportunity to make portraits of the wonderful Rapoza kids. Lately I have been doing many photo sessions in the American Fork Canyon with the beautiful trees & mountain scenes. We used a couple of locations and took a number of shots with all the kids and of course singles of each one. With seven kids that equals quite a number of photos! Here are a few previews of the session.

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This was a particularly tough shoot in the middle of some strong mid-day sun, but that was when we could do the shoot, so we made the most of it. Between a diffuser and a single speed light we were able to create some better scenes. I did leave this session thinking a lot more about getting or creating a much bigger diffuser like a Scrim Jim or Sun Swatter. Of course some big lighting for locations would be nice too – the wish list is never ending in the photography world!

Tags: family, portraits

This little one had just barely joined this world, having hatched barely before my being there. Huddled down in the rocks, I would have completely missed seeing this nest due to the perfect camoflague with the colors of the rocks. This little guy was obeying his insticts as well as mama telling him to hunker down and hold still. I was there shooting some portraits in the yard and the family had been keeping track of the nest and noticed one had hatched.

I snuck in a couple of photos but quickly left when the mama killdeer started complaining from a distance.

Tags: baby, bird

The city I live in, Pleasant Grove, Utah, has an annual week long celebration called Strawberry Days. It is a good old fashioned, small town agrarian festival full of family activities from baby contests to a PRCA rodeo. Downtown is transformed to a carnival that the kids enjoy hitting each year, full of booths, heart stopping food and of course the requisite rides.

I was able to steal away for an hour one night with camera and tripod to try and capture some long exposures. The rides are crammed into one city block street, but with some creative angles I was able to capture a few shots I was happy with.

Light trails are easy, just a matter of toying with the long exposure to match the setting. A tripod is a must, so with the crowds you have to find a suitable position and watch the legs from getting kicked by the crowd, but I found most people to be very kind about watching out and actually interested in what I was doing.

Here are a few other shots that I hope you enjoy.

With this next shot I didn’t find the ride to be all that interesting in motion, only forming basic lines. Instead capturing the ride while stationary had some cool stars from the aperture blades of at f/22.

This last weekend I had a great time in sunny Phoenix, Arizona with the responsibility of photographing a wonderful wedding. I have a ton of photos to work through, pick the best and do the processing to make them look as good as possible. I figured I’d share a couple of photos for a “sneak peak” of what I was able to capture.

Thank you for entrusting me to document your special day.

EDIT: Forgot to point out how happy I was with the low light performance combo of my 50mm 1.4, 5D Mark ii and Lightroom 3. The top image was taken in very low light conditions without any flash. Shot at 5000 ISO, f/2.8 and with some noise reduction the image turned out very usable despite the conditions!

Tags: reception, wedding

My youngest daughter had another dance recital last night, so of course with her getting all dolled up we had to do some quick portraits.

It’s pretty funny having kids of someone that tries their hand at photography. This post was her idea, among many others. She was the creative director for the evening

I have learned with my kids, if they are happy and involved the whole session goes much better and we all end up much better in the end. I have also learned with the little girl moving all around and making various expressions, take a lot of photos and you’ll end up with a few keepers out of the bunch!

On Monday I went out quad riding in the West Desert with some friends. Part way through our ride we all got out for a break, and the kids quickly discovered there were lizards running around, prime for the chasing!

This guy was the unfortunate soul to end up being caught. He was brought back to camp & made temporary mascot for awhile.

Tags: animal, lizard

Last night I had the opportunity to join the Provo Creative Meetup Group on an outing near my home. It seems I usually miss their events as they conflict with other commitments on my schedule, so I was happy when things opened up so I could attend.

This time everyone attending brought a "prop" of some kind to photograph and everyone took turns seeing what they could do to creatively capture the various objects. I chose to exclusively use my 100mm macro lens and go for tight details. It will be interesting to see what others captured.

See more of this set on Flickr:

Tags: macro, meetup, provocreative

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go camping with my son and the 11 year old Boy Scouts. We had a great time visiting the "Little Sahara" sand dunes about an hour and a half southwest from us.

Not being a native of Utah, I have never explored this area and really enjoyed the outing.

This first photo was taken as various recreational vehicles were heading back into the campsite area from a day of enjoying the sand. I was amazed at the variety of recreational vehicles at this place, and I’m told it was a light weekend in terms of people there.

My son Spencer was looking out at the exapanse of sand for a few moments and I snapped off this shot. He was really surprised that this pocket of different terrain existed in Utah and was so big.

I am definitely planning to come back with my family and perhaps some friends to enjoy this locale again. The two chief complaints I have about the place though are a) It is $18/day/vehicle charged by the BLM to make use of the location which is pretty steep considering there are minimal services; and b) there is a “courtesy” noise curfew of 10pm to 6am that is clearly not recognized or enforced. This is not a state or national park, it is BLM land, and therefore is not patrolled by any staff.

Tags: family, outdoors