On this hike my intention was to climb Frary Peak, the top of Antelope Island in Utah. Interestingly, I ended up right smack in the middle of a herd of bison (no lie - I was literally in the middle of the herd) along the trail, which slowed me down significantly. Since I knew I wouldn’t make it to the summit before the incoming storm arrived I decided to photograph the storm.

This shot is looking toward Salt Lake City from the west side of Antelope Island (the city is behind the hills). The storm was quite powerful so it generated some nice clouds. I even managed to capture a rainbow in this shot. Once the storm hit me it actually blew my Manfrotto tripod over. Fortunately I had my camera off the tripod at the time but I was pelted by rain and hail. I think the shot is worth it, though.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the little brown specks in the shot are the bison that passed me on the trail.

This was a shot taken for my wife’s benefit. She loves sunflowers and wanted a sunflower photo. Of course, I had a hard time finding a “look” that I was pleased with until this shot.

The family went to a farm in (of all places) Farmington to get some pumpkins for Halloween. Our kids love to take this trip and the farm no doubt rakes in the cash. They have horse rides, tractor rides, mazes, and other activities. It’s a nice day for the family - especially the kids.

As we were leaving the farm I noticed a huge patch of sunflowers, most of which were in good shape (I wasn’t at all interested in “cleaning up” a beat up flower in Photoshop). There was quite a bit of wind and, due to the location of the flower I chose, I had to hand hold the shot (I usually use a tripod). I also had a polarizing filter on my lens to increase color saturation and contrast, which cost me a couple of stops. I had to hold the flower still with my left hand while shooting with my right.

The crop of the flower was intentional. I liked the way the yellow of the flower played with the blue of the sky and green of the background vegetation so I pushed the flower to the left of the frame. I also think the framing makes the image a bit more unique than the cliched sunflower shots I usually see.

I originally traveled down to the Salt Lake Temple to take some fall photos. I had a specific image in mind but was unable to find a suitable foreground tree or angle. As I wandered around looking for another angle I saw this shot.

My favorite photographs usually have a bluish hue to them and are either taken at dawn or dusk. There is a brief period of time where nature creates some beautiful blues and purples.

I took this only about three feet from the reflecting pond just to the east of the temple (you can see it in the foreground). By using a wide angle lens I was able to get a lot into the shot, from the reflecting pool to the temple and sky.

The sky is what makes this photo for me. I really like the way the clouds are situated and how they almost surround the temple. The fact that they are reflecting a nice purple color adds to the overall feel for me as well.

I nearly missed this shot. The sun was nearly completely down and, due to the dense clouds, the area around the temple was quite dark. I packed up my gear, threw it in the car, and was heading out. As I drove up the road I looked back and saw this scene. I quickly parked the car, setup, and snapped some shots.

Due to my close proximity to the temple and the wide angle focal length used, I had to adjust the image for perspective in Photoshop, thus a bit got cropped.

I often get asked whether the colors seen in the photo are real. Of course, color is a somewhat subjective thing as each person’s eye perceives color a bit differently, but the colors are true to what I saw. The bright orange along the horizon was caused by the sunlight reflecting off the clouds of dirt being blown in from the west desert.

This shot was taken on a very stormy evening. The sun to the west had an opening in the sky which produced some fabulous colors on the clouds. There were also strong winds blowing in from the west, carrying with them dirt from the west desert, which added to the color richness in the sunset. You can see the effects of the wind in the slight blurring of the foreground trees. This shot is looking east from the road just to the west of the temple and it was quite a struggle to keep the rain off the lens.

This shot was taken from a spot to the north of Salt Lake City near the trail head to Ensign Peak. I took several photos, mostly wide angle shots in an attempt to capture the sunset overhead, the city, and the Wasatch Mountains to the east (left from the shot’s perspective). After taking several of those shots and not really being pleased with any of them, I decided to use my telephoto and try my luck with a different perspective. I liked the results much more.

We took a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park and stayed in a cabin along Henry’s Lake located in Island Park, Idaho. It was a wonderful vacation and we saw some beautiful scenery, though it snowed on us for most of the trip.

As we were leaving the cabin for one of the evenings I saw that there would be a break in the clouds as the sun set over Henry’s Lake so I stopped to take photos. I took a bunch of photos as the sun set but this was the one I liked best.

This was a tricky photo but one that I enjoyed taking. The moon was nearly full at night while we were at Christmas Meadows so we got the idea to take a night photo at a bend in the river. We didn’t have a light meter so we had to use some trial and error to get the shutter speed right. We also used the distance marker on the focus ring in order to focus properly.

The moon was shining from outside and to the upper-left of the frame. The bright streak in the sky was from Venus and the odd colorization above the river is from moonlight reflecting off the mist that was rising from the river.

When I went to Christmas Meadows for photography this was the photo that I had in my mind’s eye. You may notice the red paint brush flowers on the far side of the bank. I searched all over the near side of the bank for the same thing so I could place them in the direct foreground but it was to no avail.

The most difficult thing about this photo was waiting for a break from the numerous fish in the river rolling and creating ripples. I wanted as much of a calm river as I could get.

When I first created this website it was designed as a photo blog. My main desire was to tell the story behind each photo. Unfortunately, designing the site as a photo blog left navigation a bit cumbersome for those just interested in the photos, so I switched to a gallery style design. I’ve now gone full-circle but intend on using this blog section of the site to tell the story of each of my photos. In conjunction with this change I have also added a sidebar navigation titled “Photo Locations” where I will link to the various posts associated with each location. I hope you like the change.