I hope...

  I hope you all had as wonderful and memorable a Christmas as I did with my family and friends. 

Jingle Bells

  Handpainted by Doug Simmons 

Lights

Multiple long exposures near Temple Square

Main Street Plaza

We wandered through Temple Square and the Main Street Plaza in downtown SLC Monday night and snapped a few tripod-less, long exposures with a Holga. Here's one with a simple PS inversion.

Candy Cabin

Nativity

Reindeer

Old School

Yup, that's me about 23 years ago. I've been going through a big box of Polaroids from my childhood and came across this one. I don't know what my mother was thinking, putting me in a Yeti coat.

Santa

The Tree

My nephew a few years ago...

First Tracks

A wintery landscape made with my Ansco Super Memar, a cherished camera of my grandpa's. On this day, we made first tracks with our snowshoes in North Fork Park after a storm.

Greetings!

Last one from the village... this year

Snowman

Another of my favorite figures...

Chimney Sweep

The chimney sweep is my favorite figure from the village. I always put him right out front.

Carriage Ride

Another from the Village

The Village

Years ago, my grandparents delighted my sister and me (and themselves, I'm sure) when they purchased an original Department 56 Dicken's Christmas Village. Each year, I got to "build" the village and create stories and memories with my grandpa as my grandma and sister would play nearby. My grandpa's been gone almost 14 years now, but I still look forward each Christmas to setting up the village while my grandma and aunt sit nearby and chat. The village is one of my favorite holiday traditions. I hope you've got some too.

Old Saint Nick

Berries

Snowman

Handpainted by Doug Simmons.

Joy in a Glass

Believe

Light

A goal of mine this year is to post a holiday photo every day of the season. Today, because it finally snowed at my sweet little house and because I've finally arranged to do my Christmas shopping this Friday, I'm posting holiday photo #1. It's the time of the season...

Something

Feeling a little behind in posting so I thought I'd post something! This is detail of the salt crust out in the West Desert off I-80 near the Utah/Nevada border.

My “Saltair Sunset” and “Mingle” images will be hanging at the Icehouse in Lexington, KY beginning November 17 for Toy Polloy. Big beery mugs of thanks go out to Tread for his ingenious organization of this great show. Sure do wish I could be there.

Caught Up

I’m finally taking a big sigh of relief. I’ve caught myself up completely after being behind on my own photography for weeks. I quickly learned this summer that after working eight hours a day on someone else’s photography, the last thing I want to do after work is come home and work on my own. I buckled down this week though and finally got through five rolls of negatives and a horrible case of scanner blues. My Epson scan software went kaput so I was forced to seek an alternative. For about a week, I debated between getting a new scanner or just buying VueScan. I thought the $50 option was better than the $500 option, but now I’m stumbling my way through the new software. After the scanner woes subsided, I sent off two of my images - “Saltair Sunset” and “Mingle” - to the Toy Polloy show beginning Nov. 17 at the Icehouse in Lexington, KY. Thanks Tread! And just this morning, I finalized 33 new images for my website! They’ll be up soon so please check back.

Here are a few more images from a visit to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. I’ve become a recent fan of my $1 yellow panorama camera a photo pal named Sam gave me a couple years ago.

road to the Jetty


Spiral Jetty and someone’s back seat


abandoned oil-extracting equipment

Spiral Jetty

A couple of weeks ago, I visited Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on the distant, middle-of-nowhere north shore of Great Salt Lake. I took along my Polaroid 420 camera, determined to get some good results for the first time and I feel like I was finally successful. This shot was one of several I made and actually feel good about. Yippee!

Abandoned #2

Rozel Point, Utah

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Abandoned

Rozel Point, Utah

PS: Light Leaks! Buy it!

Paul's

Take a drive about 20 minutes north of Ogden, Utah and you'll find "Utah's Famous Fruitway," a nice country drive lined with old farm houses, barns, fields and orchards. Locally owned fruit stands like Paul's Patch also dot the road. We visit Paul's every fall for pumpkins, peaches, squash and apples and I always take a camera. This year, I tried out my new K100D Pentax digital. Nice and sharp and quite a deviation from my trusty Holga.



Vote for my JPG Magazine shots:
"Tattoo" and "Leaving Canyonlands"

My "Desert Door" shot is in The Collection at FILE Magazine!

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Left Turn Ahead

A couple of Sundays ago, we drove an hour north to go for a nice hike. It had been snowing and in the Mt. Naomi Wilderness in Northern Utah, winter likes to come early. There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground at the trailhead and a mile up the muddy slush trail, there were six inches. We headed back and walked around the snowy shore of Tony Grove Lake instead. Despite our failed hike, the scenery was beautiful, our cameras were snappy and our bagels were tasty.

My "Desert Door" shot is no longer on FILE Magazine's homepage, but it's in The Collection!

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Go for the Donuts

There are so many things I love about this time of year: the colors, the chilled air, the closet full of fleece, the prospect of pumpkin… It’s just such a wonderful time to celebrate!


And speaking of celebrating, my “Desert Door” image is featured on FILE Magazine’s homepage! Click and visit! I’m sure it won’t last long!

If you’re ever in the neighborhood of Garden City, Utah, about three hours north of Salt Lake City, stop by the Holey Cow for coffee and fresh made-to-order donuts at Bear Lake’s only coffee shop. Oh, and while you’re there, look at the walls. My work will be hanging there beginning Sunday, October 8. Whoopee! But seriously, go for the donuts!

You want Light Leaks. Trust me.

Full of Fall

Fall colors in Logan Canyon

If you visited northern Utah yesterday, you may have thought it was winter. A cold storm brought heaps of early snow to our full-of-fall-color mountains over the weekend and to celebrate, Travis and I went hiking in Logan Canyon. We intended on hiking the 3.8 miles to White Pine Lake but soon found ourselves in six inches of snow. There were icicles dangling and dripping from the pines, giant cow hoof prints all up and down the mud and snow-covered trail and a beautiful white blanket draped over everything. A snowball fight ensued, my socks got soaked with slushy mud and we wore gloves and beanies in mid-September. What more could we ask for?

Please order a copy of Light Leaks! Our fourth issue is available for pre-order RIGHT NOW for only $12.99 US + shipping. Click the link to see the mag’s fabulous new look, the special features and to order your copy today!

Happy Fall!

Light Leaks -- Issue 4

Get it while it's hot!

Diving for Dave

Last night, we thoroughly enjoyed the Dave Matthews Band show from the sixth row (Trav's 10th Dave show, my 8th) at the horrible Usana Amphitheater. Two girls in front of us were dancing and having fun and one of them became increasingly drunk. She left for beer six or seven times and was just a tiny little skinny thing, so you can imagine the effects. Toward the end of the show, one of their buddies showed up and all three of them began carelessly passing around a joint and they then became increasingly high. Dave and the guys then bust out an 18-minute version of "Two Step," my all time favorite DMB song, live or otherwise, and at the end of the song, Dave throws his guitar pick out to the audience. Drunk/high girls don't even notice and it lands at their feet. I see that no one is going for it, so I dive head first over the immoveable row in front of me and lose my shoe temporarily. Trav sees that I can't quite reach the pick, so like what every wonderful husband would do to help, he puts his hands on my butt and shoves me over the chairs. I then grab the pick and wrestle to stand back up over the row of chairs and then proceed to scream and yell and carry on, proudly holding the heavily worn pick high over my head to show the world. Some guy immediately offered me cash right then and there for it, starting at $50 and finally ending on $250 when I shouted "No! It's not for sale!" in his face. The drunk/high girls, five minutes later, finally realizing something happened with a guitar pick on their row and one of them turns around, sees that I have the pick, yells "THAT'S AWESOME!!" gives me a high five and asks to kiss the pick. I oblige, knowing that if she had been paying attention, I wouldn't have this sweet Dave Matthews guitar pick that he played all of the Salt Lake 8/30/2006 show with. I rock.

Behold, the pick:

Big Hugs!

I came home today from a long day at work and was delighted to find a postcard in the mail from an old Yellowstone friend who I haven't seen in years. So today, I'm doing something a little different. I'm writing a small letter on my blog because I know the recipient is reading...

Miss Barbara! BIG HUGS from Ogden Ogden! Thank you for the postcard and for thinking of Travis and me on your vacation (which sounds (and looks) just wonderful!). What beautiful surroundings. Someday, I promise we'll visit you! I'd tell you about what's going on in my life but since you read my blog, you know most of it! We've been traveling and kayaking quite a bit, going to concerts (do you ever listen to Dave Matthews anymore?), hosting backyard BBQs and just plain having fun. My photography is doing well, with lots of great new things on the horizon (that I don't want to talk about on the internet just yet). Our families are great, we are great. Life is good! I hope all is going well for you and your loved ones. You know, Autumn is just around the corner and with the cooler temperatures, the colored leaves, the pumpkins... I always wish you and Kelly were here again so we could trek to the bird refuge for a safari, eat yummy Farr's Ice Cream and laugh all night. It's been so long since we've all been together. Here's wishing you a lovely rest-of-summer and a colorful and memorable Fall. I miss you! E-mail me when you get a chance and let me know your address. I've got some YNP pictures I'd love to send you.

A tribute to our crazy fun times...

Look Sharp

We just returned from our trip to the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe, where we kayaked for days, hiked for miles and laughed for hours. It was a wonderful vacation in such a beautiful area. I tried out my new Pentax K100D and boy, is it sharp!
I was standing under this group of trees next to our tent at the Emerald Bay boat camp when this massive pinecone came ricocheting off the branches above, followed by the skittering of this squirrel.


Shasta daisies in front of Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay


Shasta daisy close-up

Doozy

Lake Mary, Big Cottonwood Canyon

This summer has been a doozy, with two wild and crazy events: first, I got a new job. In two days, I'll be leaving my old job of eight years to work as Howie Garber's office manager. He's an award-winning, world class wildlife, landscape and adventure sports photographer and just a real nice guy. I've been working both jobs for about five weeks now and my brain is toast. Just...two...more...days... Second, remember "never say never?" Yeah, well, I said I'd never buy a DSLR and guess what. I did. I've got a shiny new Pentax K100D with built in image stabilization! It's awesome! I hate carrying my tripod on hikes and backpacking trips and it's damn near impossible to use a tripod on a kayak, so this is working out well! "Much to learn, I have," as Yoda would say, but I will. I will. Any tips or tricks are certainly welcomed!

I hope your summer has been wonderfully fun and full of great photo opportunities.

Stop by my new website. It's lovely, if I do say so myself.

Bloomers

Indian Paintbrush in Albion Basin, Little Cottonwood Canyon


One of many fields of Arnica blooming in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Nice to be Home

After working two straight weeks from 5 in the morning until 8 at night at two different places an hour's commute apart, today, it's just nice to be home.

Visit my new website!

I'm LIVE!!

Check it out! My new website is up! Very special thanks to Mike Barnes for his great design and his unending patience. Thanks, pal! I never knew I could be so indecisive until it came to building a website.

Please link me up to your sites and share the good word.

Thanks!

Blue Sky

I just discovered a roll of film I somehow missed from our trip to southeastern Utah six months ago. Here's my favorite shot of the roll, from Hovenweep National Monument just over the Utah border in Colorado.

Fireball

Had you been at the astounding Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado last Saturday night, you would have seen my poor rhythmless self, white-girl dancin’ on the front row to an old favorite band – Big Head Todd and the Monsters, and a new favorite - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Travis and I spent a too-quick weekend in and out of Boulder, hiking, shopping and that’s right, singing and woohoo-ing from front and center at Red Rocks. It was incredible! Grace Potter is Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt and a little Norah Jones all rolled into one heck of a fireball musician who told me as she signed my cd that she had glasses just like mine! She and her band are blues, rock and jam band all at once and you’ve just gotta listen to them. Visit the website and buy their music. You won’t regret it!

And while you’re in a buyin’ mood, buy Lightleaks!


Nothing to do with Red Rocks... Kayaking, Little Dell, Holga.