If the sun had stopped setting and just hung there, I could have watched it for hours. The warmth of the sun’s rays reminded me I was communing with a star millions of miles away.
The Lion Of Utah
December 13, 2011 6 Comments
I couldn’t help but make this image. The color and quality of light had me mesmerized. Since there wasn’t a european runway model (or anyone for that matter) with me on the steps of the Utah Capitol I had to make due with what I had. The best portrait I could pull off in that fantastic light was this sculpture of a Lion.
News: I sent out our first free ‘Good Newsletter’ last Friday. If you received it, I hope you liked it. If you didn’t get it you can sign up here!
Reminder – Free Hermosa Beach Photo Walk
The When: Dec 17th @ 4:00pm (you can rsvp on Facebook if that makes things easier).
The Where:Let’s meet at the best beach hotel on the strand…The Beach House.
The What: Basically, a bunch of creative folks are going to be getting together to have some fun and photograph the Hermosa Beach Pier at sunset. Then we will photograph our way to The Shores to have dinner and drinks while listening to an acoustic set performed by reality TV show star Jett Pink (you can read his blog here). The event is totally free and open to folks of all levels and cameras of all types. That means the iPhone! I will be shooting with my iPhone. Get there early because I will be hosting an impromteau workshop on iPhone Photography. I’ll show you how you can make images these. If you are planning on bringing you iPhone, take a look at my iPhone Photography Tutorial so you can load up with the apps I use.
The Great Salt Lake
November 29, 2011 11 Comments
Ahhhhh…..The Great Salt Lake. It’s that little sliver of light at the bottom. A friend of mine told me that the sunsets in Utah are a product of both the dust from the Salt Flats to the west and the reflective qualities of the Great Salt Lake. After witnessing a few of these this summer, I would tend to agree!
Gear Update & Mini Review
My Think Tank Retrospective 10
This summer I was looking for a more discrete camera bag for travel, exploring cities, and photo-walking. I ended up picking up the Think Tank Retrospective 10. It has served me well now for several months. I just received word from them that they are running a special holiday promotion on all their retrospective bags so I thought I would share it with you. If you buy any of the Retrospective bags, you will get $20 back. If you use this link or my affiliate code on checkout (434) you get to choose from 1 of 11 free bags.
Here are my findings after a couple months of use.
- It is pretty discrete.
- I feel like it might be something Indiana Jones would use if he was into photography.
- It fits my iPad in the front pocket, so it is a viable travel companion.
- The shoulder strap is super comfortable.
- Although I don’t normally carry a flash with me, it has to dedicated internal pockets that can fit your flashes if need be.
- The ‘stuff’ organizer is really well thought out.
- I think it is cool that my bag has velcro silencers.
- The front pocket can easily hold my GoLite Gortex jacket and some snacks.
- Yes, you can put a bunch of stuff in this bag, and this is the 10. I can’t imagine what you could put in the 20 or the 30? That being said, be honest with yourself, just because you can fit it in doesn’t mean you are going to enjoy carrying it for a full day. No matter how comfortable the strap, more gear means more weight. More weight means less fun.
- Also, be aware this is a soft sided bag. It does a good job protecting gear from most stuff, but if you drop if off a building, there are no guarantees.
- Because it is a soft sided bag, it kind of collapses on itself a bit so you might end up digging around for stuff if you have it packed to the brim. But we don’t want to do that because more stuff equals more weight, and more weight equals less fun!
Here is a look at my ‘street/travel kit’. This is the kit I carry around when I’m out about exploring cities, photo walking, etc. I carry the second body for portraits. This is the kit I was using when I shot the image above.
If I’m only carrying a single body, but I want the best image quality/versatility I can manage, this is what I carry. All of it fits nicely inside and is pretty easy to work out of.
Need to be quiet? Just put it in stealth mode!
The Fastest Indian And The Planking Swede
November 29, 2011 6 Comments
Having never been to the Bonneville Salt Flats I really didn’t know what to expect. What I didn’t expect was an several mile long road that led out to the middle of nowhere. Well, I kind of expected that, but I didn’t expect to find an old beat up motorhome at the end selling raffle like tickets as admission to the races. That, and a pickup full of salt headed out to fix the track. Oh yeah, I didn’t expect a Swede to come up to me and ask if I would take a planking photo of him with his Nikon D3x. Like I said, I had no idea what to expect.
FYI – As always, you can click on an image to get a larger version to use has your computer desktop for the day.
2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge Calendar
You can now purchase my 2011 calendar! Yep, that’s right. If you are a cycling fan, or know someone who is, get this calendar for them. Even if you aren’t a cycling fan and just want to help people buy it today. It will make a pretty awesome holiday present! As always, half of all proceeds do directly to the Davis Phinney Foundation to support its mission of helping people living with Parkinson’s disease, live well.
A Beautiful Building
November 27, 2011 5 Comments
Howdy! I hope everyone in the states enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend. Those readers outside the states I hope you enjoyed your weekend too. We are starting the week off with a peek inside the Utah State Capitol. We happened upon it one weekend and decided to venture in. Boy, am I glad we did. This building is amazing. Apparently it is the place to go for your wedding photos. There were brides on each flight of stairs while we were there. Can you blame them?
News: Next Monday our domain name is changing. Don’t worry, everything is accounted for so all the old links will still work. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I will have more for you when the day approaches. There is a bunch of cool stuff I have been working on for over a year that I’m excited to share.
Cyber Monday
If you haven’t purchased either of my custom wallpapers for your iPad, you are in luck. Use the code CYBERWEEK all week long and save 50% on your purchase. Buy them here!
