As a note, it was so cold that my breath froze to the camera’s LCD while I looked through the camera’s viewfinder.

Canon Digital Rebel, 70mm, 1/6 second, f/11, ISO 100, polarizing filter

I also love the light along the ridge and snow drifts within the shot. Here is a closeup from the above photo:

Closeup from the photo above

Anyway, the family and I went up there to view the open meadows full of beautiful wildflowers. They are very impressive and I highly recommend heading up to see them if you are in Utah. I had scouted out a great spot overlooking a large meadow of indian paintbrush, daisies, and bluebells, all with the canyon below, when a bride and her entourage moved in below me so they could take her bridals. They completely gummed up the shot. They saw me but, rather than be rude, I waited patiently for them to finish and move on. They didn’t, however. They practically camped out below me, taking shots, milling around, and generally testing my patience. Unfortunately, my lighting came to an end as clouds moved in. The shot would only work with appropriate lighting, so I was miffed.

Since it was cloudy, I moved on to another location where I knew there were bluebells surrounding a nice, small stream. As it turned out, there were no bridals being done there so I had it all to myself. I took several shots but ended up with this one being my last. I had swiveled the main shaft of my tripod around to a horizontal position, placing the camera out over the stream. This provided the best composition of the bunch since the stream leads the eyes into the shot much better on this composition than the others I took. I sure love being able to quickly do that on my tripod.

Canon 40D, 48mm, 2 seconds, f/16, ISO 100, polarizing filter

This shot is the result of me being lucky. I ran around frantically trying to capture various images but things were moving quite fast and I was struggling to capture something I liked. I ended up being drawn to the various patterns on the balloons and this shot, where from my vantage point two balloons were overlapping, is a result.

Canon Digital Rebel, 70mm, 1/80 second, f/8, ISO 100

It was my turn to make dutch oven dinner so my options for photography were pretty limited. I had already scouted a spot near the lake that would work in a pinch if there was anyone on the lake and, to my luck, there was.

Normally I would have used a polarizing filter but my filter for the lens I used broke a couple of weeks ago. I had forgotten to order one before this trip and I regretted it. I think I would have had more detail in the clouds and contrast in the valley.

Canon 40D, 62mm, 1/10 second, f/16

I have always been intrigued by the miniature effect that can be had through the use of tilt-shift lenses. Unfortunately I don’ t own one, though I am considering purchasing one, primarily for the infinite focus they provide for landscape photos. Perhaps I’ll rent one someday.

Anyway, I like the miniature effect, where a photo looks as if the subject was actually a scene from a model train set rather than of the real world. It’s a cool effect but won’t work on just any photo. I realized that I could get a very similar look through some Photoshop effects so I decided to head to Salt Lake City and give it a try.

I think Photoshop recreates the effect pretty well and I had a lot of fun trying to find subject matter that would look good as miniature. I’ll definitely give it another try sometime.

On the drive up to the basin I almost hit a moose. He was meandering across the dirt road and I was probably going faster than I should have been for the dark conditions. It was a large moose but it was fun to watch such an amazing animal cross the road.

Later, as I was sitting in the grass awaiting the rising sun, a handful of deer passed by within about 20 yards. It was one of the most peaceful sunrise vigils I have experienced and, though this photo isn’t one of my best, it reminds me of that wonderful morning in the Rocky Mountains.

Canon Digital Rebel, 18mm, 1/3 second, f/16, ISO 100, polarizing filter

We also managed to make it to Snow Canyon State Park, which is just north of St. George. I had never been there but I heard that it was quite amazing and, I must say, the reports are accurate. It was beautiful and I was able to spend a brief amount of time taking some photos. Since I had never been there I wasn’t sure what to expect or when the best light would be available, but I took some shots anyway. We made our way over there at about 6:00 PM and the lighting was decent. Though we didn’t have much time to spend hiking and photographing, it was a lot of fun and I definitely plan on returning when I have more time for photography.

The below shot was one of only three spots I was able to photograph. It’s my favorite from the trip but I don’t like the fuzzy seeds all over the cactus plant. I didn’t want to remove them and was unable to find another plant in the vicinity with a similar background so I had to shoot this one anyway.

16mm, 1/30 second, f/11, ISO 100, polarizing filter

We took a family trip up there today and schedules permitted me to hang around Hayden Peak for sunset. This is a shot I’ve had on my “to photograph” list for some time so I was happy for the chance.

My first couple of compositions were not too pleasing but I settled with my third composition. All framed the peak with the pines as you see here but I tried different angles, finally settling on this one. I wish there had been more dramatic skies but you work with what you have, I guess. I do like the frozen lake toward the bottom of the frame, though. The blue water coming through the ice is pretty neat. Oh, and I had to break out the trusty hyperfocal distance table to get the focus just right.

37mm, 0.5 second, f/16, ISO 100, polarizing filter

The staircase waterfall in this picture is along the hike to the Subway and was breathtaking. The beautiful red slick rock and fall leaves combine to make this a scene like nowhere else in the world. It’s one of the many reasons Utah is such a beautiful state.

I took many shots at this location but this is the only one I truly like. I tried shooting from the left of this frame, shooting across the waterfall, shooting closeups, etc. but none of them captured the beauty of the location like this shot. I also have many people ask if I went crazy with the saturation settings in Photoshop and, while I do adjust the saturation within Photoshop (I shoot RAW so it’s necessary in order to approximate what my eye saw), I do not punch my colors like crazy. I pretty much stick to settings that mimic the various landscape slide films, such as Fuji Velvia.

12mm, 0.8 seconds, f/11, ISO 100, polarizing filter

First off, Delicate Arch is huge. It is much larger than I thought it would be, towering over tourists as they stand underneath its “legs”. As I got to the spot, I was frustrated by the hordes of people swarming the place. I knew I wasn’t going to get much opportunity for good light due to the clouds in the west so I had to quickly decide on a location. I didn’t want to take the typical Delicate-Arch-with-La-Sal-Mountains-in-the-distance shot so I worked my way to the left side of the arch. It was spring time so there was some green down in the valley below and I liked how the blue sky, red rock, and green vegetation complimented one another so I decided to setup on the left, higher up the bowl surrounding the arch in order to get more of the valley in the frame.

Probably the most difficult aspect of this shot was getting some good light to correspond to when a tourist wasn’t at the base of the arch taking a frustratingly long time to take their corny holding-up-the-arch shot. After having several spoiled shots due to inconsiderate tourists (standing around for 15 minutes at a time, causing a backlog of other tourists waiting for their turn to hold everyone else up), I finally was able to get this shot.

24mm, 1/13 second, f/13, ISO 100, polarizing filter