Big Piney Wyoming! Work sent me all over the mountain west this summer with trips to Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. I had many opportunities to capture this beautiful landscape with my trusty little Canon S95.

One of the jobs sites I worked at was located near Big Piney, Wyoming. I was impressed with the vast landscape, beautiful scenery and the open sky with picturesque cloud formations.

This picture was taken just south of Big Piney driving toward Kemmerer on my way back to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was edited using Aperture 3 and captured on 5 August 2011 around 6pm.

Detailed Tacoma Truck! It has been a beautiful week in Salt Lake and the weather finally getting warm. Every so often I like to pamper my truck with a nice detailing and cleaning. The shop does a great job and they have a professional crew comb through every edge to make sure the truck is looking its best. Although the truck is starting to show its age, I still like to keep it clean and looking sharp.

I took a few images with my phone and the sunlight was a little too harsh so I grabbed my Nikon D300 and turned on exposure bracketing to convert this to a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image. Unlike my Classic Car HDR images which have a very cartoonish feel, with a few changes of the setting you can make an HDR image look very sharp and clean. I’ve included the “standard” non-edited image and the image after the exposure bracketing merge and minor adjustments.

Images (actually seven bracketed images) were taken with my Nikon D300 with my AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens without a tripod. The HDR merge was performed via Photomatix Pro and then brought back into Aperture 3. Enjoy!

Green Valley Falls Hike! I was able to visit my family in California a few weeks ago and while I was there my mom organized a hike through her hiking club. We went to the Green Valley Falls which are essentially in the backyard where I grew up. A short drive down the road from my parents house you have these beautiful hills and this fantastic trail.

The trail and valley are owned by the city of Vallejo and they restrict access year round granting occasional authorized and guided hikes. The falls are just outside the city of Fairfield out toward Cordila off of Green Valley Road. Those are the hills that separate Fairfield and Solano County from the Napa Valley.

The trail was only a few miles round trip and there is a slight elevation change. We were lucky to go in the first part of May after a pretty wet spring so the falls were full of water and the vegetation was very lush. We had to watch out for poison oak and there were lots of birds, butterflies and other animals during our hike.

I have included a few pictures that I took while we were hiking. They were taken with my Nikon D300 and the first three were five or seven exposure bracketed and then merged to HDR. The last image is of my sister, her boyfriend and my mom. Enjoy.

Raisin Chocolate Walnut Oatmeal Cookies! We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful weather today and we were able to get some things done and enjoy the clear sunny skies. We adapted the recipe from the Food Network via Ina (Barefoot Contessa): http://goo.gl/64X3w. We decided to make some cookies and I took a few pictures. Right as the cookies were coming out of the oven the news networks turned to some special announcement from the White House. Enjoy!

Spring Flowers! It actually snowed last night and a little during the day but it is slowly turning to spring in Salt Lake City. I spent a few weeks preparing for my final portfolio for my photography class by capturing my favorite subjects. My portfolio focused on landscapes including large panoramic shots and some detailed macro photography. Red Butte Gardens has a large variety of flowers and landscapes that I enjoy photographing and thought I would share some of my recent photographs from Red Butte that I submitted for my assignment. I thoroughly enjoy these images and probably will get them framed and find a place for themin the house. Enjoy!

HDR Classic Cars. Last weekend we took some time to get out of Salt Lake and enjoy the beautiful weather in Southern Utah. We had a great lunch at Oscar’s Cafe in Springdale, Utah right outside of Zion National Park. While enjoying our meal a dozen or so beautiful classic cars pulled into the restaurant. They are gorgeous and I luckily had my camera handy.

It was actually by accident that I left my Nikon D300 in exposure bracketing mode and decided to take all my pictures using this technique hoping that they would convert well to HDR (high dynamic range) once I loaded them on my computer. These photographs were shot using five exposure steps (-2, -1, 0, 1, 2) and then merged using Photomatix Pro and then edited a little Photoshop CS4. I am normally not crazy for the “cartoonish” looking HDR photographs but I thought they turned out well for these images.

If you know the names/years of any of these cars I would love to know. Enjoy!

Zion National Park. Last weekend Charlie and I decided to take Friday off from work and drive down to Southern Utah to get out of the snow and the cold rain. It was clear and sunny in Saint George sporting 80-degrees outside. We relaxed and bought some clothing and had a nice dinner with some drinks. Saturday went into Zion National Park and went on a few small hikes enjoying the free admission because it was National Park Week. I snapped a few photographs and thought I would share. Enjoy.

White Anastasia Spider Flower. One of my assignments for my Art 3090 class was to photograph a white object in front of a white background. Another twist to the assignment was it had to have a form as the subject. We discussed the various ideas and I immediately thought of photographing flowers. Went to the floral shop and hunted for white flowers and found the White Anastasia Spider Flower. I rented a Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens and spent a few hours one Sunday afternoon photographing. I had unobstructed midday sunlight and picked up some poster board to create my white background. This is the photograph I submitted for my assignment. It was well received and printed beautifully. Enjoy.

Mount Nebo. A few weekends ago Charlie and I drove down to Gunnison to visit his family and celebrate his mom’s birthday. I recently purchased the Canon S95 point-and-shoot camera that can save raw files. Like a kid with a new toy I was snapping pictures the whole drive down and back because I find Utah’s valleys extremely beautiful. This picture was taken on Utah State Route 28 heading north from Gunnison to Nephi. You can see the tallest mountain in the Wasatch Front, Mount Nebo, off in the distance. Enjoy.

Lady Gaga Concert! The concert was fantastic and we all had a great time. Lucky we got tickets pretty early and were able to get front row seats. They were great and provided a great view of the whole show. The Scissor Sisters opened the show with a few songs. I managed to snap a few pictures and a fun video of the opening sequence before Lady Gaga actually showed up on stage. Enjoy.

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Video and pictures were shot with a Canon S95.