Month: April 2011

Spring Flowers

Saturday, 30 April 2011, 10:04pm

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

Sunday, 24 April 2011, 6:00am

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

Saturday, 23 April 2011, 2:59pm

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

Sunday, 17 April 2011, 10:00am

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

Sunday, 10 April 2011, 10:01pm

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.