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.

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.

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.

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.

Sundance 2011! We had a fantastic time seeing a number of excellent films and documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival. We were able to get a number of locals only tickets that were up in Park City and a few down in Salt Lake. Looking forward to 2012!

Driving Through Tahoe. Luckily I was able to take some time off during the holidays to drive to California to visit my family and friends. The weather is always unpredictable and the drive through the Sierras can cause delays. Luckily the weather was fantastic and the roads were dry and clear. The mountains and clouds made for a scenic afternoon and I probably should have stopped and taken some pictures with my Nikon D300 DSLR but I was excited to get home. Enjoy the pictures.

Taken with a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS.

Taken with a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS.

Portland & Seattle Trip. The University of Utah has a wonderful thing called Fall Break. Think of Spring Break but for the Fall Semester. This year Charlie and I decided to vacation in Oregon and Washington. We spent the first few days in Portland enjoying the sites and the great food and then made our way west to the coast. Spent a day or two heading north and eventually arrived in Seattle where we crashed for a few nights and saw more sites and enjoyed amazing food. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Black & White Photographs of Teton National Park. I have posted many of my best photographs during our trip to Jackson Wyoming. Many of them show off the beautiful fall colors but I wanted to show how great they look in Black & White. My personal favorite is the road and clouds. Enjoy.

Wildlife at Teton National Park. During our adventures through Teton National Park, we came across a few animals that I was able to photograph. I was rather unprepared to photograph wildlife as I was only carrying my wide-angle lens and nothing telephoto. Luckily, I captured a few shots of a coyote, an elk and a moose. Next time I will be more prepared. Enjoy.