This is a small section of the White Rock area of Snow Canyon in St. George. From a distance the rocks look grey and uninviting, but as you get closer the color starts to pop. This section was taken in the full shadow with about two hours of daylight left. I love all the different textures of the rocks. I like the lines of erosion that come straight down the mountain. I like the different colors that are present in the rocks. I also like the cross sections of layers of rock. While we were there we told that these layers are from an ancient sand dune that was compressed into the rocks. These rocks are now being turned back into sand by mother nature. My biggest regret of this trip was to take my back up camera and a kit lens. I wish I would have had one of my pro lenses or my macro 105 mm for this shot.

The specs:
iso 100
66mm
f/22
1/6 second hand held.

Thanks for visiting today.

~wr~

This shot is from a year and a half ago. I was just starting to understand how to shoot photos in camera raw. I still took the photos in raw and jpeg. I haven’t done anything with this photo until today. Everytime I tried to edit I didn’t like how it turned out. That was before I had lightroom and CS4. Overall I like how most of the photo turned out. The main problem I had was how to bring out the color of the center without blowing out the white areas. This photo is the perfect example to me of why you shouldn’t throw away you old files and that you should shoot everything in Raw. As your skill in using the editing software increases your photos will likewise look that much better.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Today was a cool morning with rain showers, but by afternoon the temperatures warmed up and the sun was out. It gave me hope for warmer days to come. This photo is from Stewart Falls. This is the largest waterfall on Timpanogos Mountain. To get to it you hike from the Aspen Grove trailhead. The hike is about 45 minutes. For this photo I used a tripod, neutral density filter and a cable release. Because of the time of day the sun was directly over the top of the waterfall and was too big of a distraction to include. I processed this in Lightroom 3 beta and applied some burn in CS4. as a final step I added some Topaz Adjust to bring out just a little more detail. I then faded the adjustments to get the final copy. When I cropped this photo it looked crooked so I made a small adjustment there as well.

The specs
iso 200
18mm
f/22
0.6sec

I like the three different waterfall sections.
I like the texture of the rocks.
I like the water.
I am not sure if I have the crop right, but I was unable to find the angle I like the most. I think this is due to the three separate sections of the falls and the water moving in different directions.

Thank you for visiting.

~wr~

This photo is another in my series from Colorado last fall. I was excited to travel to Colorado and take some photos of the intense aspens and cottonwood trees. The colors that year in Utah were as vibrant as I have ever seen them. One of my side trips was to go to Hanging Lake Colorado and film that wonderful area in full fall color. The only problem was that Colorado had a super freeze that hit the area a few days before we left. There were only small pockets of color. This area was one of them. This is just as the creek is about to enter the Colorado River. By the time we arrived here it was about noon with a full sun. In order to blur the photo I used a neutral density filter and a polarizing filter. This decreased the amount of light hitting the sensor. I also dropped the iso to 100 and stopped down to f/22. Even with all of this all I could muster was a 1.7 second exposure. For this type of photo two pieces of equipment are a must. First a steady tripod with a strong ball head. I also used a cable release to minimize vibration.

I like the intense blue sky.
I like the color of the leaves.
I like the dead trees both standing and fallen over the water.
I would like to have more trees with color on them. Maybe next time.


The Specs:
f/22
Shutter 1/1.7sec
+0.7 ev
38 mm
iso 100

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Feedback is always welcome. If you would like to see this photo large and on black just click on the photo.

~wr~

We had a quick moving heavy snow storm this afternoon. It was snowing so hard the visibility was limited. This prompted me to look into my photos for something that was winter. I found this photo from my trip to Eureka, Utah about a month ago. This photo was a three stop HDR. On this photo shoot I was sick. I had no energy, but I wanted to get out of the house. Because of this I shot everything that day hand held. I was too tired to put the tripod together for any of the shots. In saying this I still think they turned out pretty good.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

I decided to take a vacation day from work today. My job today is to watch my baby while my wife takes our daughter skiing. As they were preparing to leave the house I looked out the back window and I saw several Cedar Waxwings. I have wanted to take pictures of these birds all winter. I grabbed my camera and threw the teleconverter and 70-200mm lens on and went out to take some photos. I was in such a hurry I forgot that my son had used my camera last to shoot an indoor high school game. The settings were iso 1600 normal large jpeg and automatic white balance. By the time I figured this out they had flown away. I am very pleased with how this photo turned out.

I like the orange color of the half eaten fruit.
I like the detail of the branches and how they frame the bird.
I like the quick drop off of focus. This adds additional focus to the bird.

Let me know what you think, and thank you for visiting.

~wr~