Saturday, 13 March 2010, 2:56pm
A few weekends ago, Charlie and I drove up to Farmington Bay to try to photograph some of the eagles that are typically found there during the spring. We were able to spend some time on some back roads and had a good time looking at all the wildlife and just beautiful views of Utah. While I was not able to get any pictures of eagles in flight or anything up close, I decided to share a simple photograph looking toward the mountains.
Farook Khan
Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 3:40am
A few weeks ago I went to Florida for spring break. It was a great trip that Charlie and I took with our two good friends Mark and Jeff. One of the activities that we did while in Florida was check out the Space Shuttle launch. We were pretty lucky because the Space Shuttle was supposed to launch the Wednesday before we arrived but ended up being delayed until that Sunday when we would be in town. The Kennedy Space Center was fascinating with many exhibits, presentations and tours of our space program.
My whole life I have been fascinated with outer space and the equipment and technology that we use to explore the cosmos. Watching the Space Shuttle launch was definitely one of the life events that I think people should witness in person. Thinking about the years of science and development that it has taken to develop of the the most advanced machines on the planet that is capable of tens of thousands of miles per hour to reach outer-space is just mind blowing.
I wasn’t able to take the best photographs of the shuttle launch, I did manage to take a few that I thought that you might enjoy.
The launch was really exciting. We all counted down and then when the boosters fired the whole sky became very bright and then we waited for the shuttle to rise above the building that was blocking my view. It was literally a fireball raising into the sky!
This is Jeff (left) and Mark (right). Very fun guys to go on vacation with…
The sun was already setting and we were in the shadow of the earth, but the shuttle went high enough to get back into the sunlight and even cause a really cool shadow. This picture is really cool because you can see where the two boosters have already separated and are falling back to the earth.
Just a cool shot of the sunlight hitting the smoke trail that the shuttle left behind for us to enjoy.
Farook Khan
Saturday, 4 April 2009, 4:15 pm
I have a wonderful job and enjoy all the great people with whom I work. The only major complaint that I might have is spending eight or more hours locked up in a basement of a parking garage. My office is on the B2 floor of the Regent Street Parking garage in downtown Salt Lake. There are no windows and no sunlight and no fresh air. To break the monotony of the office, I purchased a little green plant to put on my desk. I found a beautiful vase and had the guys at Cactus & Tropical make it look good. For a few bucks I was able to bring some life to our otherwise dead office.
Farook Khan
Saturday, 27 December 2008, 2:01 am
I am gay. It has taken me a while to be able to say this, but it is something important for me to share with you now. I have been out to myself for a few years and, one by one, have shared this with my family. I have recently decided to let my friends know. I’ve realize that by telling you this, there is a chance I may lose you as a friend; however, by not telling you and not being able to share the central events of my life, our friendship would certainly diminish over time.
It has been more and more of a burden to keep this from you in recent months. You can think of it as an invisible wall between us that restricts what I might share with you like the excitement of dating somebody new or the pain of breaking up. I hope this letter will help tear down that invisible wall.
You might have suspected for some time that I am gay since I stopped talking about dating women. On the other hand, my being gay may have come as a complete surprise. Hopefully, in some time, our relationship will be closer than it ever has.
When you call and ask me what is going on in my life I might say, “nothing,” or only share some of what I am doing, but that is not the full story. I am not trying to deceive you, but have felt restrained because I could not tell you the whole truth. This deception has been eating at me for some time and I’m tired of it. So this was the choice I had to make: either keep lying and allow us to grow even farther apart, or tell the truth and hopefully have a better relationship and friendship in the long run.
Although you may not comprehend what it is like to be gay, I hope that you will still love and respect me. Know that I am the same person now as I was before you read this letter; you just know one more thing about me. I am still the same “Farook” with the same personality, interests and hobbies. Nobody chooses to be gay and I accept myself and am happy with who I am. At this point I am completely out and open about this part of my life and I am comfortable with you being open about it as well. When you are ready, please write or call. I look forward to discussing this with you.
I wish to touch on another subject that is directly related with the main purpose of this letter. When I was in high school I joined and became heavily involved in the LDS Church. Those experiences were great and important for me to have. My years of high school were enjoyed with the great company of friends, teachers and mentors as I learned more about religion and spirituality. My first few years of college were at Brigham Young University, which the LDS Church owns and operates. Those years were great and I was able to start great friendships that I hope will last a lifetime.
My view of my experience with the Church can be related to one’s experience with high school. It was an important experience for me and I really enjoyed it; however, I don’t need to spend the rest of my life in high school. I have moved on to the next phase of my life bringing with me those valuable and special experiences that have impacted who I am. I think the Church is a fascinating institution that has a great capacity to help people and benefit the world. While the Church has many great people who do much good, they also have some people who do things that are frustrating and angering. I think many of the doctrines and philosophies of the Church are good; however, at this time, I have no desire to comply or affiliate with any religious system or institution.
Like many people, I still have desires to graduate from college, start my career, establish a home with a lifelong partner and enjoy the benefits of life with someone that I love. I have no desire to have children and don’t expect that to change. I have dated different guys and enjoyed the joys of a relationship. I currently live with my partner Charlie. We have lived together since May of 2008 and started dating the previous fall. We have a wonderful home in downtown Salt Lake and have a fun Yellow Lab named Jake. Charlie received his degree in accounting and currently works for a communications company here in Salt Lake. He is very supportive of my pursuit of an engineering degree from the University of Utah.
I have so much gratitude for the many things that have happened in my life – countless friends who have been very supportive and understanding and also my family for their love and support.
If I could ask one thing of you, it would be to treat all people with respect. Keep an open heart and an open mind when considering the lives of those who think or believe differently than you. I hope that you’ll continue to consider me your friend. Life is an adventure and I hope to make the journey with you.
With much love,
Farook Khan
Saturday, 29 November 2008, 4:29 pm
Happy Thanksgiving! I was able to fly to California for about two days to visit my family and friends. The flights went pretty good. I brought my camera and computer and still got pulled aside for a double check. California was warmer and more humid than Utah. The food was spectacular, which is typical of my father and his team of cooks. We had a grand feast and I will have to post some of those photographs once I get them on my computer.
My sisters are now both armed with iPhones and Mac Books which gave me the first glimpse at what I might look like at any given moment: always on some device. I am pretty happy for them though, they can now capture and enjoy the activities and events going on around them. My sister was able to capture this shot on her iPhone just before we drove to the airport.
Farook Khan
Saturday, 8 November 2008, 5:33 pm
There has been a lot of discussion about the presidential elections and also proposition 8 in California that bans same sex marriage. Thursday night when I was out having some drinks with some friends, I became aware of a protest that was planned at Temple Square here in Salt Lake City. Temple Square is the headquarters of the Mormon Church.
I literally work a block away from where the protest was planned to take place. My photography class is currently studying Photojournalism and I figured it would be a great experience to photograph a protest in my own town.
The whole thing was really well planned out and thousands of people showed up with signs, shirts and megaphones. It was amazing to watch a sea of people flood the streets and protest outside of the LDS Church Office Building. I brought my camera and took a few pictures and thought I would share some of them.
It was amazing to see so many people come out and protest. There were also people there who were supporting Prop 8. They had signs and posters that said the people had already spoken on the issue and it was fascinating to watch this peaceful protest.
Farook Khan
Friday, 17 October 2008, 5:20 pm
Yellowstone has a large range of wildlife and unfortunately I only captured a few photographs of some of the wildlife. I did get some shots of the bison and some others but there were only two photographs that I thought were good enough to share.
Farook Khan
Friday, 17 October 2008, 5:15 pm
Yellowstone Falls was very beautiful. The park made it very easy to see the falls. The colors of the canyon are what make Yellowstone park Yellow. Both of the pictures are exactly the same photograph. One showing the colors and one mixed in monochrome.
Farook Khan
Friday, 17 October 2008, 4:21 pm
Every fall the University of Utah has a fall break which is much like a traditional spring break. I had a whole week off of school and also decided to take a week off of work to enjoy the time. It was amazing. I decided to do a little bit of traveling and decided to go to Yellowstone National Park and also to Teton National Park.
Over the course of a few days, I amassed about two thousand photographs. Many of these photographs did not turn out too good but some of the other ones were excellent. I have a few photographs that I want to share and they will be broken up into different articles on my blog.
Please enjoy the photographs. Don’t exploit them. If you really like the photographs, please let me know or feel free to leave a comment.
Saturday, 11 October 2008, 12:14 pm
Over the last few weeks I have been working on moving my blog over to my farookkhan.com domain. It finally has happened. It took some time to get everything working and functioning properly, but finally, I can announce that my blog is now located at www.farookkhan.com. I have been toying with some different styles of handling my blog and we’ll see how they turn out. I hope to post a little more frequently, especially sharing my photographs. I plan on posting a few photographs in the next few days.
Fall has finally started and the weather has gotten very cold here in Utah. School has been going for a few weeks and I have the first round of midterms under my belt. This week is fall break which is basically a spring break but in October. To celebrate having no school, I also took the whole week off of work too!
Farook Khan
www.farookkhan.com