Words

abstract

admire

blue

new

open

orange

place

polaroid

ripple

round

scent

self

shadow

square

summer

two

water

wrinkle

Over at Words to Shoot By today, I posted a beautiful collection of images from 30 photographers around the world: 14 of us are regular contributors, myself included, and the remaining 16 are just a small sampling of those who entered Words' second-ever open call for entries. It was an absolute pleasure to review and choose photos from these wonderful people, and I can't wait for our third open call in April.

Upon looking at the lovely group of triptychs over on Words, I realized I probably haven't posted many of my own entries here, so above are my favorites over the past couple years. This has been such a fun yet challenging project to be a part of, and to curate. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I can't wait to see where the project goes in the next couple years.

Leave Town

When our favorite bands announce tours and leave Salt Lake City off the list, we have no choice but to leave town. A lot. This time we took a quick flight up to our favorite little city, Boise, Idaho. We flew up last Saturday afternoon and walked over to TableRock Brewery for dinner with some friends, good food, and really good beer. I've recently discovered how much I love a nut brown ale and they brew one that's really tasty. After dinner, we walked a couple blocks to the Knitting Factory (a great venue) to see Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. It was our sixth GPN show and it was awesome. We've been fans since we saw them open for Big Head Todd & the Monsters at Red Rocks in 2006. I bought their CD at the show and Grace signed it. Since then, we've seen them at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco and at the Targhee Festival in Driggs, Idaho, and twice in Utah, although it's been a few years.

We spent less than 24 hours in Boise, but it was so fun and very comfortable. I don't even need a map to get around any more! It was my fourth trip in seven months, but the first that wasn't for work, which was nice. We had breakfast at the local bagel shop downtown, then walked around so I could waste some film before we had to be back to the airport. When we turned in our rental car, we didn't even have to put gas in it! Hopefully another of our favorite bands will announce a Boise stop soon because we're already wishing for another trip back.

Yarn Bomb

Yarn bombing has come to Salt Lake City on a very as-yet small scale thanks to the Outdoor Retailer show, Ibex, Blazing Needles, and of course, local knitters. Compared to other amazing feats of yarn bombing, these are really, really tame but it's a start. A week or so ago when I was making a few last stockinette stitches on my first hat, Cynthia at Blazing Needles was gathering up knitted pieces to hand over to Ibex and asked if I'd go shoot some photos of the finished products, so I did. I think the whole knitting community was expecting a lot more, something much more showy and not so hidden, but Ibex was running a contest for attendees of the Outdoor Retailer show so this is what they did. Despite it being pretty lame compared to what I had in my mind, it was still cool to see and I enjoyed the nice photo walk.

Big Places

Back in mid-November, I had to make one last trip into the field for the Forest Service, back down to southern Utah. It was fitting to end the season in Pine Valley Recreation Area on the Dixie National Forest since that was my first overnighter this season, and now the last. Pine Valley is such a pretty little place, quiet, quaint, almost like the place that time forgot. It seems that way to me anyway. We made a long weekend of the trip and headed to Zion National Park for a couple days where we hiked, rode the shuttle bus, and ate a lot of pumpkin pie.

It wasn't until this past week that I finally posted the last of my trip photos on Flickr, but it was then that I realized how I photograph my husband, and how I have been all these years... from a distance and in big, big places. In the west, it's easy to photograph big places because that's what it is here. Big. I used to think it was a bad thing to photograph him this way, that I should be shooting more portrait-like, up-close photos, but I think these are portraits. They are who he is. He loves being active and being outside in these places. He loves his hiking shoes, his hats and beanies, his backpack, his snowshoes, his kayak, and I think he'll love seeing all these photos together.

I never set out to create a series of photos like this, it was completely unconscious, and now I hope to promptly forget that I noticed a theme so I can continue photographing him this way. I'm sure I will though because it's not like he's going to start smiling for the camera any time soon. I think he'd be perfectly fine if I never turned a lens on him again. But I will over and over again if I can catch him in quiet moments like these.

My First Hat

I might have to change the name of my blog to PhotoKnitSteph because I think it's going to be inundated with photos of knitted things. Just wait. This photo of a knitted thing makes me very, very happy. I took the "My First Hat" class at fabulous Blazing Needles and finished up last night. I intended on making the hat for my husband since he called first dibs, but I'm not sure what I did that made it so bucket-like and girlie. Needless to say, I very proudly took ownership of it and have to make him his own now.

It was surprising to me how quickly the hat came together, and ultimately how easy it was. The double-pointed needles, as they sat in their package, completely intimidated me but it turns out they weren't scary at all, just a little awkward to work with at first. To be honest, the circular needle freaked me out at first too, but it was very easy to use. And I might as well admit that knitting in general freaked me out when I first started. I'm still quite nervous that I'll make a mistake and not know how to fix it and have to drive all the way to Blazing Needles to have someone help me, but that's a bridge I'll cross if/when it happens. So far so good! Tomorrow I'll be heading back to the shop though because it seems that I left my circular needle on the table last night when I left class, and I need yarn for my husband's beanie. I also have my eye on some pretty turquoise Cascade 220. Like I need more yarn. What I do need though is a yarn keeper, a bin, a bag, a tote. Something cool to keep it all in. I'll be on the lookout.

Well, I'm off to admire my new hat in the mirror again. Yeah, I've been wearing it all morning.