A lucky man.

No it is not the groom that is lucky, well he is really lucky also , but I am lucky to be able to get to work with such neat kids as they start their lives together. Weddings scare a lot of photographers and rightfully so since it is such a special day and there is so much that can go wrong for a photographer. There are time limitations, equipment failures and lighting that is just plain hard to work with but it is also very rewarding. The fact that you get to preserve memories for a bride and groom. The words of the ceremony are very wise but never remembered very well. The cake, well most of it gets eaten quite quickly or thrown out except for that little bit that gets partially eaten a year later and then thrown out. The guests are there all happy about the event, especially the food, and "OH! Can you get these pictures done quickly I'm hungry" has been said more than once. Then there is the whole event itself that is just a blur for the wedding couple UNTIL they get their pictures and then it's "I didn't remember what happeed, Wow, is that what we served?", or "I don't remember doing that!"  Yes, I am lucky because I am the one who has only one of a very few things that really gets remembered from that special day. There is the wedding certificate that hopefully gets framed for all to see and then the wedding album that brings the blur of the day back into focus "I hope, did  I mention equipment failures that could happen?" Well usually it doesn't but it is always a possibility not to mention hard drive failures and other such things..

A little Trip

So I took a little trip around Utah over the weekend with my wife. Actually we were on our annual trip to photograph Utah National Parks Council Silver Beaver recipients for the year 2008. These are men and women that have spent countless hours in the service of youth not only in scouting but also in their communities. So we traveled to places like Delta, Cedar City, St. George, Kanab, Monroe, Annabella, Roosevelt, and Heber plus several others in a whirlwind three day trip around Utah. I took time though to take pictures as I always try to do just for the additional fun. Here are just a few of those images. 

Some of the falls

So yesterday I said that I would be putting pictures from my hike down the Silver Falls area and so here they are.

Hiking the Silver Falls Trail in Oregon

I suppose some would think that if you are hiking a trail to see the Silver Falls in Oregon that on a blog you would put pictures of the some of the several falls that are along the trail. Well my purpose today is to help others to understand that as you are in the process of doing what you are doing then you also need to watch out for other opportunities as well. There is an old saying that tells us to "take time to smell the roses" and I also believe that we need to take time to "see the world" that is around us. Yes, I have pictures of the falls that I will put up later but today just try to learn that I saw a thousand other things that were also worth photographing on my hike past the falls, and you will also if you take the time and keep a vigilant watch.

As close as 50 feet

OK so my nephew Alan Poulson, who (with his wife) runs an online photography school "www.ppsop.net/aplr.aspx", and I were talking at a family reunion last saturday about his school and some of the comments he gets from people who take classes from them. Alan told me that he often gets comments about how someone will say that they live in such and such a place and there isn't anything around them to photograph. Also, last friday one of my special visitors to this blog told me that she wanted to learn more about how to take pictures of things that are around her. I told her to just go looking and it won't be hard. Well to illustrate that point I went out Saturday night as the sun was setting and took the following photographs.
I first went out too check out my swimming pool that I have been trying to clean ever since I went to Oregon and I found a Dragon Fly floating on the water. It was luckily still alive so I carefully put it on a stem of grass and took a picture. The swimming pool is about 50 feet from my house and was the farthest away from the house that I went to do any of these photographs.

I have a large yard and sometimes it is hard to totally keep up with it and sometimes I let certain places go just because I know what they will look like a little later in the summer. These two weeds are actually quite beautiful and the setting sun with it's warm light only added to the beauty of this second one.

This is from the same tall grass that I had used for the Dragon Fly to rest on as it dried out. I love to photograph this type of tall waving grass because it seems to be so peaceful and serene. It also will help me to feel that same peace as I try photographing it from different angles.

And finally the sunset. I must admit that I have had a pretty good view of the setting sun all of the years that I have lived in my current home. It has been the object of my photography many many times. The addition of a subdivision of homes has detracted somewhat from what it used to be like but it still is pretty and the tops of the houses are sometimes not in the pictures depending on the time of year and location of the setting sun on the horizon. The tree in my neighbors field is also often a part of the photo just because of how it filters that light from the sun during the last half hour prior to the sun going down below the hills.

It is easy for me to find things as close as 50 feet from where I am to photograph just simply because I like to look at the world as a photograph just waiting to be taken. Go outside and try it in your own yard and you just might be surprised no matter where in the world you might live. People travel from all over the world to different parts of the world just to find what you often have in your own backyard.

Sunsets are fun

OK so the most fun I had in Oregon was taking pictures and part of that fun was on the ocean each night as the sun set into the water. You see in Utah it melts into mountains so watching it sink into the ocean was a neat change to that sunset watching activity that I so enjoy. Then when I have a fence or other water to also reflect the sunlight it is even more enjoyable and up here in Utah I don't usually have that luxury. There are some variations in my camera settings as I sometimes will stop down my aperture and shutter to allow less light to hit the sensor making it appear a little more dark than it might actually be at that time but it enhances the colors so I love to bracket (try several settings in succession) and just see what I get. Then add a few birds to the foreground and it really makes it fun.

A walk on the Beach

It was just a little vacation with a few walks on the beach but it will have a lasting memory and mostly due to the fact that I have 4,738 images to remind me of the activities of the week. 

One morning was especially fun because I took a walk to the beach with my son, Ben and grandson, Gabe. He was so excited to go down to the beach but not to go near the water. He loved the white sand and digging in it but the water was just too cold. It was fun to see the ocean from the trail.

Gabe was in a hurry to get there also.


He just couldn't get us to move fast enough.


And it was partly because grandpa was stopping to photograph everything along the way.


Maybe the size of the waves might have been part of Gabe's desire not to go near the water. For Grandpa though it was another thing to try to capture on a digital memory card for future fun away from the beach back home where there were no crashing waves or white sand.