Thanksgiving Point & Yellow Fork Canyon

These two pictures (above) were taken at the Thanksgiving Point tropical room. The lighting was just perfect for me to get a time delayed waterfall picture. I love how the water splashes into a blur at the bottom.

These three pictures were taken up Yellow Fork Canyon. Most of the leaves have already changed colors, but it is fun to see the little things like the moss and the berries hanging around still to create contrast in a picture.

Also, it was interesting to take the picture of my son, with his green sweater, against the red/brown backdrop of plants that used to be green.

Kids Photos

Flower

One of several beautiful flowers left in my neighbor's flower bed. Thanks to the Searle's for letting me hang out in their front yard to snap pictures.

Blue Boys

The other night we drove around the industrial area of West Jordan out by the brick factory. We found several buildings that have metal siding. I had the kids jump out and stand by the wall while I snapped pictures. I think the color contrast turned out the best with these.

Mountain Colors

This picture was taken from the tram on the way up to the top of Snowbird. It really is fun to see the fall colors, with the deep green pine trees and then a skiff of snow on the ground.


I had to walk through the snowy forest to get this picture. The sound of the stream was so peaceful, and it really added to the picture.

Post editing a photo

Here is a nice B&W picture of my daughter that I used "Surface Blur" on. It really made her skin smooth, even in B&W.

Here is a picture of my nephew that I added noise to. He had such a serious look on his face, I couldn't help but emphasize it by adding the noise.

Here is a fun picture of my son that I edited in Photoshop. I used the "Surface Blur" feature to get his skin to have that soft glow.

My little model!

Today I took the kids up to Snowbird because they had a special deal for riding the tram. If you bring a canned food, you get a free ride up the tram. We brought some cans and rode the tram up to the very top. It was really cold and the ground was covered with snow. We quickly ran into the warming hut to wait out the remanider of the time until the tram left (20 minutes). On our way out I was snapping pictures of the kids as they were coming down the stairs of the warming hut. When I took this one, I was blown away. I couldn't believe how naturally perfect it was. There is no post-editing of this picture!

Butterfield Canyon & Candy

It is really interesting trying to remember how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings all affect how the picture turns out. In the past 24 hours, I have taken literally hundreds of pictures. With each setting, I would change the shutter speed up and down. Then I would change the aperture up and down, and so on. Once I found several pictures that I liked for each setting, I adjusted them in Adobe Photoshop.

The original picture of the candy jar didn't have much (if any purple). I had to bring that color out.

I really love changing the settings in Photoshop to see what fun colors or contrast I can bring out. Please feel free to comment on any of these pictures. I would love to hear what you think, and if there are ways I could improve them.

New dSLR camera

Well, I did it. I took the plunge and bought a new Digital SLR camera. I am pretty excited. It has quite a few awesome features and capabilities. All of the pictures posted here on this blog, and on the family blog have been with a regular point and shoot digital camera.

Bear Canyon Photographs

The hike up Bear Canyon is really worth it. It wasn't hard to get beautiful pictures of the trees, views and water falls.