Capturing the beauty of Utah

Those that know me, know that I'm never far from my camera. And for good reason... you never know when you're going to see something photo-worthy, so if you want epic shots you need to always be prepared!

I try to find something photo-worthy at least once a week... sometimes the shots come out, some times not so much. Here are a few I've had sitting around, 3 of the 4 are recent...

Late-day Sun-Ray

This one is from the summer, taken from the top of the North Side bench. As the sun set, a low level fog set in, and the 'layers' of mountains made for some neat 'sun-rays' through the fog.

Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.
But to a skier in Utah, this can mean... POWDER DAY!

This one was taken coming up Rt. 80 through Parley's Canyon, coming from Salt Lake to Park City. It took a few tries before I captured someone's tail lights streaking by, and by that time the vivid colors had already started to dissipate. Live and learn I guess...

Mount Olympus in the starlight

This one was taken on a sub-zero roadside on my way home from Deer Valley. I had to put stand the tripod on the roof of the car in order to get a good angle over those trees. Since it was dark the auto focus wouldn't work, so I had to manually ballpark it. My lens has distances written on it, but those are more-or-less guidelines, because in hot or cold temperatures things expand/contract and the distances can be off. It looked in focus on the little LCD, so I didn't take another... but when I got home it was clearly out of focus. DOH. Still, I think it captured the beauty of the mountains with Orion's Belt overhead...

Lonely sunrise

The crown jewell of my scenic collection, I took this one from the hang glider launch on the North Side one moring leaving for work. This photo is pretty stunning, but to see it in real life what breath-taking. I couldn't tell you why, but as the sun came up over Lone Peak, there was just so much color, it was incredible! This was another tripod and slow-shutter-speed shots, I wanted a low ISO and a 'smooth' look. Since the mountains and houses didn't move, they're nice and sharp, but because the clouds were moving I got that smoothed look I was going for...