Velvia

Autumn is traditionally seen as the end of the growing season, time for harvest, pumpkins, falling leaves, turning over fields, and readying for winter. But not in Lake Oswego! Nope, around here we prefer to let the Fall colors become vibrant and warm, red and orange and yellow, and then sprout new growth right next to the discards of Summer. I love it.

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Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/8, 1/4s, ISO 100.

Velvia is a film that has traditionally been favored by landscape and nature photographers for it's vibrant greens and blues and saturated colors. You can just tell images that were made using it, and it's a classic. I have a process that also produces rich colors in my digital darkroom. Unfortunately, there're no songs about Velvia, so you're stuck with Kodachrome again, and that's not too bad.

Mama, Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

Yeah, it's that song. I made this picture with my pal Darryl Dobson in September in Park City. It's quite a popular spot to make pictures...but it was the first time I'd photographed it myself. And the colors were coming so nicely. 

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens @50mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 320.

In fact, that whole week was pretty incredible. As I was driving to and from Vernal to work on those portraits below, I stopped several times to make pictures. That's a huge advantage of riding a scooter across the country--no windshield to shoot through, and it's easy to turn around and make a picture.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/4, 1/1250s, ISO 100.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/9, 1/400s, ISO 100.

See, my family was having a little reunion in Park City. That's when my nephews and I made one of my favorite portraits of 2012:

Nikon D800, 105mm f.2,8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/200s, ISO 2000.

Growing Family

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/7.1, 1/60s, ISO 100. Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Man, Last time we made pictures for the J. family, that little guy was a newborn. I love this. Watching families grow through my lens is really a wonderful thing.

Falling

It's time! This is the last week for Fall pictures. It's been really wonderful, though, hasn't it? It started high and hot red with the mountain maples firing up the canyons on the Wellsvilles, and now the valley here is heating up with hot oranges, yellows, reds, and maroons. I'm loving it.

And I know you'd love some pictures with your family in it, too. It's not every year we get this kind of wonderful color set, so please give me a call and together we can create some really terrific images.

435-535-1501

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/8, 1/125s, ISO 100, Nik Color Efex Pro  4.

What A Mess

Apparently, God dropped his palette and the colors got smeared all over Sardine Canyon. Sheesh.

The Cache Valley Photographers and I boogied up there this morning to take advantage of the incredible weather and the clear, smoke-free skies. It was well worth the early call. I hope you get out and take a drive to enjoy one of the best Autumns we've ever had. It's happening right now in the canyons, and I'm predicting next week will be great here in the valley. Try not to trip over my tripod legs when you're out there...

Nikon D800, 300mm f/4 lens, f/8, 1/6s, ISO 100, Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Freezing Flower Friday

Here's a little something I made with a student the other day. We were walking to another spot where I have been noticing great light lately, and I looked down and saw the pristine frost on the soft gradients of colors in the leaves and the little camera in my brain started winding, and the computer in there started processing how the image would be finished with Lightroom and Nik softwares and I was thinking how great it would look.

Then I realized, "I'm with a student, who I'm teaching photography...I have a camera in my hand!" I love when I remember that there is a camera in my hand. Not like the other day when I was walking to work and saw a great picture, wished I had a camera, pulled out my iPhone and made a few frames then kept walking, then adjusted the camera strap on my shoulder cause the lens was bumping me in the hip...duh.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @135mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 400.

Autumn

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens @ 75mm, f/11, ISO 200.

Seems like the whole valley drove up the canyon this afternoon to view the leaves. They are in full color at Tony Grove, and creeping down the canyons daily, like a shag carpet--out with the green, in with the orange!

There's a special grandeur to the changing of the leaves--like the world is putting on it's best clothes before death. Have you seen that movie, "Get Low"? Like this is the party of the year, and it's time to dress up for it. 

Nikon D700, 300mm f/4 lens, f/8, 1/15s, ISO 200.

So, we oblige. I called up the Cache Valley Paparazzi on Friday and invited them all to come with me on Saturday morning for the red carpet opening of Autumn up the Canyon. We tossed around where to attend, as if J. Lo and Lady Gaga were both throwing galas and we had to choose which one. We thought of heading to the Temple Fork road with it's high vantages, but Steve scouted that beforehand and noted that there was a distinct lack of red maples; we decided the place to be was Tony's.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens @ 70mm, f/16, 1/125s, ISO 640.

A herd of photogs appeared for the show, and it was well worth awaking at 5:00am. That first image was one of the very ones I made. I like to begin shooting well before the sun is up because the colors are very rich and the sky is not yet bright so there is not too much contrast between light and dark, which means that you can capture detail in both the sky and the landscape. And anyway, I'm already up, so I may as well shoot!

Nikon D700, 300mm f/4 lens, f8, 1/100s, ISO 200.

It never ceases to amaze me how much fun it is to make pictures of this kind of majesty. The colors, the clouds, the light, the hills themselves--it's all quite stunning. This kind of experience reminds of how much I love travel photography. I love creating images that show some of the soul of a place, the things that locals rave about--the things they are proud of in their home. Tony Grove is just such a place to the residents of Cache Valley. Everyone always goes on about how beautiful it is, at every season, and they spend weekends there and hundreds of people use it for snowmobiling each winter. Well, this was my first trip to that particular spot, and it really is lovely.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens @112mm, f/8, 1/160s, ISO 200.

So, this great place has been in my backyard while I've been traveling to Dubai, Korea, and St. Louis, etc. and relishing the pictures I made in those great places. The lesson for me, then, is that I can create great travel photographs right in the place where I live! I don't need to travel around the world to find great locales loaded with culture and interest.

Anyone want to join us for our Caribbean cruise this winter?

Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II lens @160mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO 200.

Nikon D700, 70-200mm, f/2.8 VR II lens @ 145mm, f/8, ISO 200.