Rain, snow, and Utah Lake

My first time seeing the snow was in 2002, when I first came to Utah (it's hard to believe I've been here for so long).  I loved it.  A few years later, not so much.  It was nice to look at, but not much else.  Now I like the snow again.  Along with other things...thanks to Rain.

Dogs are pretty good at reminding you to appreciate the small things in life.

Today we went down to Utah Lake to try and catch the sunset.  The light was quite beautiful, but unfortunately we got there a little late due to a construction detour.  Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.

Provo Bay

After 3 straight weekends of visiting Provo Bay, I finally got a shot that I feel satisfied with.  This location has definitely become a favorite spot to visit and shoot.  

Rain and I played fetch with the frisbee on the frozen waters of the bay in between shots.

Times like these remind me that life is beautiful.

This was a 7 shot pano.  The shadows made by the reeds caught my eye and I wanted to try and capture that atmosphere.  I had to work quickly since the light changes so much during a short amount of time during sunset.  The settings I used were f/8 and 1/125th seconds.  ISO was set to 100 as usual.

The Bitter Cold

Went down to the harbor with Rain to try and catch the sunset as I usually do on Sunday afternoons.  I was not prepared for the near freezing temperatures that greeted me near the water.  Three layers of clothes and the wind still ripped through my skin.  I felt like my fingers were going to fall off.   I only shot six pictures before deciding that I would rather maintain the use of all my appendages than stay out any longer.  The pictures I took turned out like crap.  I miss the summer.  I'll have to prep myself if I plan on shooting for the next several months.  Note to self: buy a ski mask, hand warmers, and better gloves.  

On a warmer note, here are two more pics from Hawai'i.  Probably two of my best thus far, in my opinion.

 This was taken near Makapu'u Lighthouse.  It was near sunset and my younger brother and I were about headed back to the car, but I decided I wanted to try one last image.  The ocean was actually quite rough and I was in a somewhat precarious position.  One good wave and it would have been goodbye to my camera.  Nonetheless, I took a few shots, and this is what came out of it!  I kind of forgot the settings on this, probably f16ish and 3-5 seconds.  In photoshop I used fill light to bring out the definition in the rocks, and also boosted the orange/yellow from the sunset and the turquoise in the ocean..

This was a sunrise shot at Yokohama Bay.  There is this really awesome rock formation that the waves break on.  Sometimes it even shoots water through a large hole in the reef (which you can see in the top left of the rocks).  I had to take two exposures for this shot as the sky and the ground was quite contrasted.  The sky was probably 1/15 of a second or so, while the water was about 3-4 seconds.  I wanted the time to be long enough to catch the movement of the whitewater but slow enough to get the hint of a wave.  The two exposures were then combined in photoshop where I increased the strength of the yellow/orange from the sunrise.

I Got My Camera Back

After nearly 3 weeks, my camera is fixed and back in action.  It was quite fun and educational experimenting with film but I must say that it is nice to have a digital in my hands again, one of the biggest reasons being that I don't need to dish out $9 per roll of film.

Trying to shoot with film has definitely piqued my interest though and reminded me that I still have tons to learn about photography.  The time while my camera was getting fixed, I thought a lot about what direction I want to go in with photography.  I have a few thoughts brewing in my mind, but they are still a little too premature to say anything right now.

On a side note, I have added the Nikon F6 to my wish list.  Perhaps in a couple years...

Needless to say, I went out shooting this weekend, hoping to catch something...anything really.  And even if I didn't, man did it feel nice to be walking along the harbor with my camera and Rain.  It was a cloudy weekend, but the sky cleared up Sunday afternoon and provided a nice sunset to welcome back the return of my camera.

This was a 25 or 30 second exposure at f16 and ISO100.  Because the contrast between the sky and the foreground was so great, I increased the fill light in photoshop and then boosted the colors.  More detail in the shadow was recovered using some HDR editing.  It was my first time using this technique, and I will probably experiment with it more on future shots.

The Silver Lining

My camera stopped working while I was taking pictures of Rain this afternoon.  My heart sunk.  

But just for a moment.  Life is pretty good if this is the biggest thing I'm worried about

I'm sure there is some sort of silver lining to this cloud.
  
That's how it is with photography sometimes.  You'll get ready for a sunset shot, but the sun is nowhere to be seen.  Then before you know it, the clouds start glowing red, purple, or orange.  The best sunsets, real and figurative, happen when the sun has to fight through the clouds.

September 2012. It was one of those evenings.  Clouds everywhere. Then a combination of the sinking sun and smoke from summer wildfires turned the clouds pink and purple.  The colors were boosted a little in post, but only to the extent that I remembered the actual colors being.  It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen.

Even if it is a dull, gray sunset there is always next time.