November 30, 2009

Today was a good one. I've walked around work looking for things to photograph and I have never noticed this one. Finally, while I was walking past these railings it caught my eye. In this picture, many will notice the bold, beautiful steely railing towering in the top 1/3rd of the photog and descend toward the right of the picture. The pattern then repeats itself agin n' agin n' agin and pulls the eye's focus to the lower portion of the scene. The strong pattern is what immediately made me like this picture.

As you can see, I used a somewhat lower aperture setting (a wider hole for light to go through) to focus on the objects in the foreground and slightly blur out the objects in the background. It was good that not too high of an aperture setting (a narrow hole) was used because I didn't want to totally loose the detail in the railings at the end of the row.

The building and plants catch the setting and I like the amber color of the picture. It gives it a warm feel. I didn't want to pale out the beautiful blues in the railing or the nice contrast in the blue sky, though, so I took out some of the red in post production processing to bring back some of that blue.

By the way, please visit the last couple of posts. My wife and I had poor luck this weekend with our internet and I wasn't able to post the PODs for Friday and Saturday but they're on there now. Or, I updated the moving car picture to explain how to do it if you're interested.

November 28, 2009

What can I say...they're cute kids! You can't lose with cute kids in Liberty Park no matter what time of the year. The privilege of getting to play with kids and getting to know people makes photography fun.

This was the best of the few good shots I got of the kids (I think I've explained why that is in an earlier post). To enhance the mood of the scene, I created a layer mask copy of the image in Photoshop, applied a Gaussian blur, faded the blur, sharpened the key parts of the picture and then erased the blurred layer, exposing the natural facial features on the children and merged the images. It's trendy. I like it...as long as it's used correctly and not overused. It's really late right now, so let me know if you need a detailed explanation. The result is a soft and cute picture that matches the children, and re-creates the mystical feeling of the park. The sharpened faces create the permanent focus of the image.

November 26, 2009

I said that I'd only keep one picture per day, and this is really only one picture. My brother-in-law said that I should post more analyses of the pictures, so I thought this was a good example of composition to talk about. The first picture is a christmas village scene that my Mother-in-law set up on a counter top at home. I used a narrow aperture setting of about f-stop 10 which means that the hole that the light enters was narrow and the focal length was long. A higher aperture setting means that you can get a longer depth of focus. I also tried using a wider aperture to get the look I was hoping for. The only problem was that the lens focused on a different spot than I was hoping for. In this scene I repositioned the chapel and and people and added a little red car that she won as a prize today. When I got home, I still thought that the picture was a little un-interesting, so I experimented with several different croppings to emphasize different parts of the picture.

With a little bit of luck, I came across this picture. Same picture, but a different part of the picture. The result looks almost like a different composition of characters and scenery. The focus is now on the man and the woman and child. Despite the fact the figurines are inexpensive plastic molds, one begins to notice details about them. Some questions arise, such as, what is the man holding? It looks like Christmas time. Is he going to give something to the little girl? Who are the little girl and woman? Is it her mother? Is it a delivery man? Or is he a philanthropist? Is that his car, and is he going to get into it and drive away when he is done?

You can see how the picture comes to life with a different composition or simply a different cropping. Obviously, if it both images are the same photo, both of them contain the same elements, but with a slight change in the focus, it makes drastic changes in the significance of the picture. This was a fun one to talk about, don't you think?

November 27...MY dating LIFE

The lighting tradition at Temple Square

In this picture, I could have cropped in on the temple to highlight the grand structure, but I didn't want to do that this time. My intent was to capture the grandeur of the building in the midst of the people enjoying the lights. I wanted to capture the activity, the sense of commotion. It was lively and fun. There are few better things than feeling that exciting energy in the midst of the peaceful feeling that the temple sheds upon you when you are near it.

My wife and I started a new tradition when we went on our first date! It was by far the best dating experience we had up to that point (I hope we keep getting better)! And for that reason, we go out on the same day of the week at the same time of the year and do the same thing we did on our first date! We look forward to it starting in Spring time.

It starts out with me picking her up at her parents' house. We bypass the gas station for gas and the trip to the credit union in Dick's grocery store for food money because they are a little better planned than the first date. The first time, I was just planning on picking her up, taking her to see the lights at temple square, drive home and send her on her way. That was the routine at that point in my dating career. I was enjoying dating but wasn't expecting dating to go anywhere (as I was 28 at the time) especially with someone a half generation younger than I was.

We got money for dinner because she said that she hadn't eaten dinner when I asked her and I hadn't either and was starving, so I reluctantly got out some money to pay for another dinner. We had to get money out of my credit union because that was the way I paid for things...no credit cards, no debit and no checks. I'm writing this somewhat cynically because that is how I felt at the time. After spending 15 minutes in the car with her, however, I felt differently. I was having fun. I was laughing. I didn't have to work to have a good time with her and it was coming naturally. I think that I probably quickly put away my bag of dating tools, let down my hair, and had a great time with her. Later on, I found out that this was how she felt as well.

Our first stop is dinner at the Gateway. Following the tradition of our first date, I finish her plate of food for her (not wanting good money to go to waste). We then walk to the Church's art and history museum across the street from Temple Square. We both are artists, but my wife is an art major and was deeply engrossed in the art world up at the university at the time. I still remember her explanations of many of the techniques that were used in the paintings on display.

Following that, we walk over to the lights on temple square that have, by that time, been on for a couple of hours. We enjoy the different colors on the trees, admire that beautiful evergreen on the South side of the temple, decked out in red lights on EVERY branch.

Then we walk back to our vehicle...I can still hear the conversations we had the first time, the jokes she told, the singing we did while standing on street benches. After hearing about that kind of an evening, who would want that to end? EXACTLY! So, I took her to ice cream. I laughed so hard. She is so funny. Then, I take her back to her parents' house, we talk a moment, hug momentarily, hook ears, laugh again and she walks up the porch stairs to the house.

The rest is a long story of a short and confident courtship. I hope for many more of those years.

November 26, 2009

November 25, 2009

November 23, 2009

I was encouraged over the holiday by comments over the holiday from family about the blog. Thank you out there for those who check it out. My BiL had some questions about this picture so I thought that I would explain.

I was trying to figure out a POD during break on this day, and I saw a couple of people on bikes whiz past me and it reminded me of a technique I've been dying to try out. There were no more bicyclists, so I aimed toward the street.

With this situation, we've got the feeling of motion...of speed. But, in this case, instead of having the moving object out of focus, I've put the car in focus and all of the motionless things out of focus.

To do this, of course, you need a slow shutter speed. In this case, it was probably 1/10th to 1/20th of a second. The problem with that slow of a shutter speed is that it lets a lot of light in. In other words, you get a really bright picture. So bright that you can't see anything. To compensate for this, you need a larger aperture setting (a smaller hole for the light to come through). You also want your light sensor to absorb less light (make it slower). The light sensor sensitivity is controlled by ISO. The lower (slower) the ISO, the less light comes in. So, this ISO setting was probably about 100 or 200.

Now, I realize that this explanation doesn't mean anything to anyone, so let me explain how to do it on your camera if you've got one. (I actually was using our smaller camera because I don't carry around our big camera during the day and I haven't figured out how to adjust everything manually so this explanation can be used by anyone with a camera).

On most cameras (even the little silver ones) there is a dial with different pictures and letters. The control function that is represented by an "AV" means aperture value or aperture priority. It means that if you turn the dial to that function, you can control the aperture yourself and the camera will measure the light in the air and will automatically adjust the ISO and shutter speed that will correspond with the aperture setting you've chosen. Pretty amazing. Actually, the relatively short delay time between the moment you push the shutter release button and when the shutter actually opens is the camera's computer figuring all that out automatically!

So, if you want the shutter speed to be slower, you close the aperture (the hole that the light comes through) by increasing the number for the aperture setting. The camera will do the rest.

Another way you can go about doing this, which is not the way I did it, but is probably a more logical way would be to turn the dial on the camera to "TV" mode which stands for time value or time priority. In this case, "Time" corresponds with shutter speed (or how long the shutter stays open to expose the light sensor to the light. By the way, the light sensor is what captures what you see. It's the same thing as film in old cameras, but the digital counterpart). So, if you want a slower shutter speed, turn the dial to TV mode, set the shutter speed to a slower speed like 1/10th of a second and the camera will take care of the rest.

Now, if you want to take a picture like the one above, turn the dial to AV mode, set the aperture to a high number setting, and get ready. When the moving object comes along, point the camera in its direction, hold down the shutter button part-way to focus the camera on the moving object, then follow the object with the camera so that it stays in the view of the view finder. As the moving object passes, fully press the shutter button (take the picture).

Or, if you're going to control the shutter speed instead of the aperture, turn the dial to TV mode, set the shutter speed and follow the same procedure from there. The awesome camera will take care of the rest! Enjoy! WHew!! That was wordy!

Speaking of Kids

There is a little boy--I say little boy but he's not really little...he's ten--in my primary class who has some special needs. I don't know what to call it. I just know that approximately half of his body is quite unusable. Unusable as it is, with one foot dragging behind, he still walks around. His mind often seems like it is thinking about something else, but when you speak to him he smiles at you and you feel like he loves you. His speech is slow and at times difficult to understand, but speak to you he does, and it is with joy and confidence.

He started coming to church a couple of months ago and I got the understated "privilege" of having him in my class. I don't know if it was just coincidence, but there has been a depth of spirit that has come into our class since he started being there. The kids are a little better behaved, which is saying a lot because they're good kids. They act kindly and understandingly toward him. He loves offering prayers. The first time he volunteered to offer our class' benediction, he dragged himself to stand up at the front of the class. It soon became apparent to me that he would need assistance, so I asked him, "Do you want some help?" He nodded his head. What did I say about confidence?...and humility? He has become the unofficial prayer giver for our closing prayers every week.

FAITH. During sharing time he sits by me. Not long after he started coming he asked me why he didn't have any scriptures. I told him that we would love to get him some of his own someday. Not wanting to wait to receive one, he then raised his hand and told the primary president. Within minutes he had, in his good hand, a copy of the Book of Mormon with his name on the inside cover. I didn't waste any time to start flipping through the pages. He didn't know how to read it but he followed with enthusiasm. I pointed to a picture of the Savior in the front pages and asked him to tell me who it was.

He said, "JESUS. I like Him."

Then he repeated the same question back to me and said, pointing to the picture, "Tell me who that is." I replied with the appropriate response.

A couple of weeks ago, we were practicing parts in the primary room for the upcoming Primary Sacrament Program. There is a step when coming down from the podium to be careful about. Members of the presidency were conscious of the risk and so they helped him safely down. As he neared the rear end of the sharing-time room to take his seat, he tripped and took a spill. As I said, his left foot trails behind quite a bit. Everyone gasped at the site, and I jumped to his side to help him up. By the time I was able to grab his arm he was almost to his feet. He's a strong kid. We quickly took our seats as the primary began singing the next musical number.

He leaned towards me and asked with a smile on his face, "Did you see how fast I got up?"

I tried to match his enthusiasm with my response.

Then he asked, "How fast was it?"

With, I imagine, tears coming to my eyes, I told him it was about a second.

He knows only one primary song, "I am a Child of God", and he not only knows it, but you kind of get the feeling that he knows it. It is so exciting to sit with him during singing time. Usually, the chorister accepts song requests from the children. I help him know when to raise his hand to be the first one with his hand up so the chorister will call on him. Again, what was that about confidence. Everyone expects now and it's a little easier to get his song picked. Rather, I think people look forward to it. I don't cry very much, but it's so touching that I often feel like crying. Sometimes it's so bad that I have a hard time singing. Just writing this post makes me feel emotional. I feel more like a child when I think about him. I feel closer to my Heavenly Father, and a greater desire to do good.

I guess I just wanted to share some of the things about this young boy that have made me feel so close to Heavenly Father. I keep feeling tears come up. I hope it does the same thing for you.

Jesus called [the children] unto him, and said, "Suffer little children to come unto me...for of such is the kingdom of God." Luke 18:16

And it came to pass that he commanded that their little children should be brought. So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him...And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones. And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them. 3 Nephi 17: 11-12, 23-24

Thank God for children. I have my work cut out for me!

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. Mosiah 3:19

November 21, 2009

What is better than pictures of kids? Sarah and I photogged some clients today. Sarah likes me to come along and capture candid moments of the customers that we photog. I like doing it. More particularly though, my job is to get kids to smile. It's so much fun getting the friendly responses from kids when you get down on their level and treat them like they're important. This little guy was a unique challenge. The reason I picked this picture is not because it was a rare smile but because it was a rare genuine smile. I got it! It's my trophy for all the crazy things I had to do to get him to smile.

November 20 ,2009

How do you know you're a Freak? Here are some ideas:

1. You make a big deal out of your billionth second alive
2. You drive several hours before 9:00am on your day off
3. You convince your wife and baby to go along
4. You milk your one billionth second for a whole day and act like it's your birthday
5. You convince your wife to making chocolate chip cookies to celebrate your big event

My wife is such a good sport. Most people wouldn't give this the time of day, but not only does she acknowledge it, she plays along like it's a good idea! Lucky to be in love with my best friend...

So, there were obviously some sweet things out in Skull Valley this morning. This train was only one of them. The angular patterns are especially interesting because if the picture had been taken on normal land, it would have been quite boring, but every angle, shape and color takes on additional meaning in its multiplication. My eye is immediately drawn to that powerful train whose presence is exaggerated by the reflection in the water and the bright colors that make the train so alive and distinct from the overall cold hue. I love the repetition of the angles and shapes. My eye wanders the image and explores the textured mountain in the background that looks like a chiseled arrowhead or an ice sculpture and then is quickly drawn back to that large and impressive machine.

The POD from yesterday was the gear shift handle in my car. You know, the lever to the right of the steering wheel that you pull up or down on to shift the gears in your car...the kind that is in cars that precede the Bush dynasty or suburbans and minivans. Yes, that kind . Nice guess, Christa.

It only happens once every 31 years...
...8 months...
...10 days...
...21 hours...
...46 minutes...
...and 40 seconds (including four leap days)...

...my...ONE BILLIONTH...SECOND.

Today is one billion seconds from March 14, 1978, my birthday! That's a one with 9 zeros behind it! My grandpa is over two billion seconds old! One billion seconds from 12:00:00am on March 14, 1978 happens this Friday, November 20, 2009, 1:46:40 am MST. I have no idea what time I was born, so I assume 12:00:00 Noon. If anyone wishes to call and wish happy 1,000,000,000th second or send a money order, I will be happy to accept any time this Friday.

1.0 x 10^9 seconds equals one billion seconds. Does anyone know how long that is? Let me add a little perspective: One billion grains of sand weighs approximately 143,000 lbs--roughly the mass of an Abrams Tank; My scriptures are roughly one inch thick. If I was to lay one beside another standing up, not laying flat, from Centerville and heading east, they would stretch through Raleigh, North Carolina, across the southern tip of Africa, just north of the Southern French Antarctic Islands and hit Perth on the wetern tip of West Australia!

I just realized how nerdy I am...not a true nerd...a TRUE nerd has Math skills that I don't have. I just have nerd tendancies. I'm so glad that I became aware of it in time. I decided to figure it out about a month ago...JUST IN TIME! WHEW! Since then, my friend showed me an awesome website that will do the math for you, so if any of you are interested in your one billionth, or one millionth OR TWO billionth second, visit WolframAlfa.com

The billionth second, admittedly, is a little tongue in cheek, but I started thinking about what a milestone ONE BILLION is. Not as much compared to those who are TWO or THREE BILLION seconds old, but one billion is still a LOT! I realized that goals, challenges, anything worthwhile, and life in general are accomplished by the unimportant and the mundane...great things that are done by seemingly insignificant steps, taken one-at-a-time. Hey, that reminds me of a scripture..
It's a great second to celebrate even if for only the principle.

Speaking of the mundane, I try to do something a little fun to spice it up a bit. So, everday, myc amera goes with me adn I take pictures of things on my way to work, on my breakts at work, on my way home, and at home. You may see me parked on the side of the freeway walking around wiht my camera or before sun-up with my camera pointed at one of the beautiful LDS temples. Some days it's a temple, sometimes it's a flower, sometimes people, and others, a mystery pictures that focuses in on a tiny detail of the beautiful world in which we live. At the end of the day, I delete all of the images except for teh best one. The community in which we live is actually very beautiful, but the beauty becomese common with the business in which we live our lives. I love getting pictures of regular, even mundane things in common places and portraying them in an uncommon way.

I created this blog so that I could start posting my best picture of the day (bPOD). Since my one billionth second was comping up, I thought that it would be a good platform off of which to launch my bPOD. It is also fitting b ecause the whole idea of taking a picture every day is for practice, and hopefully, over a period of time, improvement.

November 19, 2009

Guess the subject. Answer will be given with the next posting.

November 18, 2009

A nature scene at about 1120 West on North Temple during my 15 minute break today.

This was a hard one to decide on. Today, I was at Adam's and Hobb's reservoirs in Layton as part of the training for my new dam safety position; I got some sweet photogs! I had already narrowed down my choices to two pictures that I loved. I edited them and was about to delete the others when this little part of one of the pictures I was about to delete caught my eye. I loved it more than the other two and decided to keep it because of the emotion it evokes in me. The direction the birds are flying literally and symbolically suggests the end of a season. The shapes in the picture are so soft and unintrusive; there are no hard lines; it just makes me feel peaceful and reassured when I see it, so it was the winner.
It looks like a water color painting but it's not, and it looks like I did a water-color filter but I didn't. It's blurry because of how far I cropped in, and that's exactly what the picture needed. After cropping I actually increased the blur with the lens blur tool in the distortion drop down menu in Photoshop CS3. The blur made the brown colors in the birds' wings and bodies less disjointed and really brings out the mood of the cool day. If you look at the edges of the shapes, there is a little bit of a fade. I thought this was another appropriate feature that lent itself to embodying the waning season. I bet when I look back at this picture in a couple of years, I'll be able to recall exactly what part of the year it was by seeing nothing more than the birds and the water.

November

My wife, speaking volumes with the expression on her face, as she prepares to instruct a photography tutorial tomorrow. Nothing uncommon about this picture...rather than the best POD, it should be the best subject of the year!
I wanted to create two points of interest in this picture by including the book in the foreground, and in front of my wife's face. But to avoid overpowering everything else in the composition, I wanted to make my wife's expression a little more subtle. I did so by blurring out her face and bringing the book into sharp focus by widening the aperture. This makes the picture a little more interesting because it makes your eye scan the picture and look at the intended objects.
As an afterthought I decided to desaturate the color in my wife's face to accentuate this effect, while keeping the vibrant colored green label on the manual.

So I decided to start a blog...

It only happens once every 31 years...
...8 months...
...10 days...
...21 hours...
...46 minutes...
...and 40 seconds (including four leap days)...
...and in 4 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes, and 42 seconds...
...it will be...
...my...ONE BILLIONTH...SECOND.

That's a One with 9 zeros after it! One billion seconds from 12:00:00am on March 14, 1978 happens this Friday, November 20, 2009, 1:46:40 am MST. I have no idea what time I was born, so I assume 12:00:00 Noon. If anyone wishes to call and wish happy 1,000,000,000th second or send a money order, I will be happy to accept any time this Friday.

1.0 x 10^9 seconds equals one billion seconds. Does anyone know how long that is? Let me add a little perspective: One billion grains of sand weighs approximately 143,000 lbs--roughly the mass of an Abrams Tank; My scriptures are roughly one inch thick. If I was to lay one beside another standing up, not laying flat, from Centerville and heading east, they would stretch through Raleigh, North Carolina, across the southern tip of Africa, just north of the Southern French Antarctic Islands and hit Perth on the wetern tip of West Australia!

I just realized how nerdy I am...not a true nerd...a TRUE nerd has Math skills that I don't have. I just have nerd tendancies. I'm so glad that I became aware of it in time. I decided to figure it out about a month ago...JUST IN TIME! WHEW! Since then, my friend showed me an awesome website that will do the math for you, so if any of you are interested in your one billionth, or one millionth OR TWO billionth second, visit WolframAlfa.com

The billionth second, admittedly, is a little tongue in cheek, but I started thinking about what a milestone ONE BILLION is. Not as much compared to those who are TWO or THREE BILLION seconds old, but one billion is still a LOT! I realized that goals, challenges, anything worthwhile, and life in general are accomplished by the unimportant and the mundane...great things that are done by seemingly insignificant steps, taken one-at-a-time. Hey, that reminds me of a scripture..
It's a great second to celebrate even if for only the principle.

Speaking of the mundane, I try to do something a little fun to spice it up a bit. So, everday, myc amera goes with me adn I take pictures of things on my way to work, on my breakts at work, on my way home, and at home. You may see me parked on the side of the freeway walking around wiht my camera or before sun-up with my camera pointed at one of the beautiful LDS temples. Some days it's a temple, sometimes it's a flower, sometimes people, and others, a mystery pictures that focuses in on a tiny detail of the beautiful world in which we live. At the end of the day, I delete all of the images except for teh best one. The community in which we live is actually very beautiful, but the beauty becomese common with the business in which we live our lives. I love getting pictures of regular, even mundane things in common places and portraying them in an uncommon way.

I created this blog so that I could start posting my best picture of the day (bPOD). Since my one billionth second was comping up, I thought that it would be a good platform off of which to launch my bPOD. It is also fitting b ecause the whole idea of taking a picture every day is for practice, and hopefully, over a period of time, improvement.

November 13, 2009

Speaking of billions, if you were to look through one of the mid-sized windows in your home, then remove it from your wall and look through it above your head, you would be looking at roughly one billion stars in the sky! Now, let's talk about trillions. If you get a bunch of the same sized windows and arrange them so that they all fit together snugly until they cover the whole face of the earth, you would need about...

...May I have a drumroll, please...

...700 trillion windwos! That's a seven with 14 zeros after it! In other words, there are about 700 trillion times one billion stars in the observable universe (7x10^23)...WOAH!!!

How much would 700 trillion times one billion (7x10^23, that's a seven with 23 zeros after it. Does that have a name?) grains of sand weigh? Yesterday, I got weighed at the doctor's office prior to getting my in-grown toenail (a whopper) cut out. I weighed in at an overwhelming 210 lbs...WHOAH!!! If you were to take a number of grains of sand, equal to the number of stars we have in the observable universe, it would be about 4 quadrillion pounds (1 x 10^15 lbs). That's 18 trillion times my weight. It would be a teensie, weensie, eensie, peensie, eeny, weeny little fraction of that pile of sand, and suddenly, I feel quite small.

That evening, I went out to Nolls, Utah, about 50 miles west of Skull Valley, where Tooele's located, and probably 70 milies east of Wendover. We're talking about the middle of nowhere! The sky was almost pitch black. To walk anywhere, I had to use a headlamp. The temperature felt like it did back in Sweden, and I was there to record teh stars in the sky with my camera. The results were AWESOME!!!

The entire basis of this blog is to post only the BEST picture (singular) of the day. I'm very good about this rule. But these pictures were so SWEET that I had to break my rule. This will be the exception, and I'm also sorry about the length of this post. I know it's a waste of time, but please keep revisiting to see my bPODs and much more concise posts in the future.



The very first picture is a view of athe sky if you were to stand facing North and look straight up in the heavens. In the picture, it is very faint, but you can see a cloud, of sorts. That cloud is not water vapor. It's the Milky way...the galaxy in which we hang out! The "cloud" stretches in one huge arch from one horizon to the opposite. It's amazing. The blinking row of lights is an airplane. My shutter speed was set at 30 seconds and I noticed that there are exactly 30 blinks in the picture. So, apparently, airplanes lights blink exactly once every second.

November 13, 2009

The second picture is the best. The landscaped view is deceiving. As I mentioned, the area was completely dark. The reason the landscape is visible is because of the long exposrue time and a very high ISO. I realize that it is not the cleansest picture. If you look closely, it appears grainy. We call that "noise". That's because the ISO is so high. But, my lens wasn't the best for really low light situations, so I cranked up the ISO and sacrificed som grainyness to gain the beauty of the landscape all lit up. My favorite though is, again, the faint cloud of stars taht you see in the middle, which is the Milky Way. The brightest point in the middle of the photog is a verty dim light emanating from Wendover (a good distance to the West). The long streaks of semi-white and red are teh cars driving along I-80. I thought the Wendover lights were espeically interesting how they highlighted some fo the clouds in the sky and made a glowing, space-like effect that went along perfectly with the cosmos theme.

November 13, 2009

The last picture features a very cold young lady, who modeled for the photographers in the group, against the beautiful sky and silhouetted landscape. Again, the shutter was open for a long time (30 seconds) to capture the light in the sky, and during that time a quick burst of bright light was flashed on the model to make her more visible. The light reflected some cool colors in the outfit she was wearing. I thought that the colors, lines, and shopes of the model were very space-age-like and fit well with the scene. She's surrounded by various colored, martian-like rays of light rising up from a distant plant in the desert. The variety of colors produced by the lights is beautiful, and the display on the mountains is breathtaking.

I loved freezing out in the middle of the desert under that clear, beautiful sky. I felt excitement, solitude and peace. The majesty of the stars demand contemplation of their vast home and teh Almighty that built it. But, askide from the tranquility of the night, the photographic techniques I got to play with made it beyond fun. After waiting for my camera to take the picture and display the captured image on the screen, I felt a rush of excitement!

It was thrilling to be able to look at the world and teh sky, the lights and the colors, in a way I never would have been able to if I had simply looked up with my eyes. I loved having a camera and I loved teh technique we played with. The effect was breathtaking. The cosmos were vast and beautiful. I felt small but connected. It was a privilege to have a thing that letme to do that. It was an experience that couldn't have been any better unless my wife had been there with me (on a warmer night of course, she doesn't like the cold).