Sunset Sunday - 37

(f5.6, 1/80, 14mm, ISO 160)

I know it's Halloween, but this was taken Thursday evening and my Halloween post was Friday morning for Phun Phriday!  so no Halloween post today.

We got the entire membership of the NDPES together for a day in a small, nearly forgotten, railroad town called Helper, Utah on Thursday, (I'll share some of those shots next week) and even though it is 140 miles away we still got back in time that I could go out to the lake for some sunset shots.  I walked away after this one with a smile on my face - you just don't get this lucky all that often, but then it only got better.  This is just an appetizer for some I'll post in future weeks.

Do you have a beautiful sunset/sunrise to share? We'd love to see it. Just post a link in your comment, or just tell us it's there and we'll click on your name to find it.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Transition

(f5.1, 1/60, 31mm, ISO 160)

When is it that Winter officially begins?  Oh yeh, Dec. 21.  Sometimes it sneaks in a little early in Northern Utah where the elevation starts at about 4000 feet (1200 meters) and goes up to over 7000 (2100). 

Hope you have a wonderful and safe Halloween weekend.  See you tomorrow for Sunset Sunday.

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Phun Phriday # 38 - Be Very Afraid

(f3.5, 60 Sec, 14mm, ISO 800)

All right children of all ages, it's Halloween weekend and it's Phun Phriday!  Not too many combinations could be better than that.  This photo was voted as one of the two best shots for Phun Phriday's Halloween weekend post by the NDPES (North Davis Photo Expedition Society*).

Answer to question one:  Taken at night and the tree was painted with light from a small LED flashlight.
Answer to question two:  It is the same tree that was seen here only taken 9 hours and 59 minutes later and from the opposite angle.

As you know by now photography should be Phun and that's why I have my Phun Phriday! posts. Have you done something Phun, weird and/or creative lately? If so, leave a link to it in your comment. If not - well I'd really love to hear from you anyway.

*It's called the North Davis PES because all the founding members live in the North part of Davis County, Utah but it is open to others no matter where they live.

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Monochromed Color

These rock formations are often known as much for their reddish coloring as their shapes.  I thought it would be good to focus on the shapes and texture for a change and when I turned it to Black & White I liked it so I thought I'd share it with you.

This shot is HDR and if you would like to know more about HDR Karen did an excellent job of introducing it and comparing some HDR software here.

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Lone Tree & Salad

When I first started this series of photos from the Moab, Utah area that includes Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and Dead Horse Point and Goblin Valley State Parks, and some photos getting there and back home again, I referred to a feast.  I'd say with the greenery of the previous two days' posts and today's, that we're in the Salad stage.  I sure hope you're hungry.

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Autumn Reflections

(f3.5, 1/13, 14mm, ISO 160)

We've had a major weather change here in the last couple days that I'm afraid signals the beginning of the end of Autumn and a warning of Winter.  This photo was taken a week and a half ago on the way home from our trip to Moab and the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
 

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Don't Fence Me Out

(f8, 1/160, 20mm, ISO 160)

Taken on 10-10-10 this was the first picture taken on the way to Moab, Utah for our photo excursion.  We probably still had about 150 miles to go.  If you look closely you'll see part of a large beaver dam.

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Sunset Sunday - 36

The sun had actually been down for about a half hour or so when I shot this glowing sky. Especially when there are no clouds at all, you have to get creative.

Do you have a beautiful sunset/sunrise to share? We'd love to see it. Just post a link in your comment, or just tell us it's there and we'll click on your name to find it.

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Time to Refresh

(f10, 8/10 sec, 25mm, ISO 160)

I thought you might be getting a little dry from all those previous posts taken in the desert.  This pic a a few weeks old, taken in Logan Canyon, about 40 miles from my home.

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Phun Phriday # 37 - Starry Starry Night

(f3.5, 50 Sec, 14mm, ISO 800)

Credit where credit is due.  It was Chad's idea to stay out until it was totally dark to take more photos and I'm glad we did.  This photo had only two sources of light, the moon and the stars.  Fortunately for us the moon was fairly bright so that it gave enough light on this arch to make it very visible - of course the shutter was open for 50 seconds.- and when you are that far from civilization the skies can get pretty dark and reveal thousands of "stars".  The bad news is that I found out that my camera does not do all that well with high ISO settings as it introduces a lot of noise.  I was able to clean up most of it on this photo, but I won't be able to share very many of the ones that I took.  Maybe if you go to Chad's blog and ask him real nice he'll share some of his.  I may have some where we painted an arch with light that I can clean up enough to show, and I am saving a very special one for next week.  Night photography was definitely Phun!

As you know by now photography should be Phun and that's why I have my Phun Phriday! posts. Have you done something Phun, weird and/or creative lately? If so, leave a link to it in your comment. If not - well I'd really love to hear from you anyway.

If you'd like to learn exactly how to put a link in a comment it's pretty easy.  I added a tutorial on how to do it here.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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How to do the Mouse Over Technique

On my previous post I used a technique where one photo is visible, but by placing your mouse over that photo a different photo appears. Some people who commented wondered how it was done. Here are the instructions that told me how to do it. I did not write these instructions, though I did change a couple words to try to make it more clear, and I would happily give credit to whoever did but I just copied them and put them in a document so I would have them and did not keep track of where I got them. If any of you know who wrote them please let me know so I can give them credit. These instructions are for blogger or "blogspot" posts.

-----Tutorial begins here-----
Upload 2 images, edit in HTML mode and cut away everything except the file names/URL's from the first image reference (the smaller image with s320, s400 will give poor results). Use the s1600 size if possible. The image URL you want to keep looks something like this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yYnydmbc6Ss/TAXh6xN1yzI/AAAAAAAAZwY/TsAC2pwqG-I/s1600/imagename.jpg

Paste the first image URL in both URL locations indicated below (IMAGE #1) and the second image URL in the center (IMAGE #2) spot. Insert YOUR blog URL at the beginning of the line of code and editing is complete. Image #1 is the image that is shown by default and image #2 is the mouseover image.

<a href="BLOG URL HERE"><img src="IMAGE #1 HERE" onmouseover="this.src='IMAGE #2 HERE'" onmouseout="this.src='IMAGE #1 HERE'" width="400"/></a>

With all pasting complete, it should look something like this:

<a href="yourblogname.blogspot.com"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yYnydmbc6Ss/TAXh6xN1yzI/AAAAAAAAZwY/TsAC2pwqG-I/s1600/firstimage.jpg" onmouseover="this.src='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yYnydmbc6Ss/TAXh6xN1yzI/AAAAAAAAZwY/TsAC2pwqG-I/s1600/secondimage.jpg'" onmouseout="this.src='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yYnydmbc6Ss/TAXh6xN1yzI/AAAAAAAAZwY/TsAC2pwqG-I/s1600/firstimage.jpg'" width="400" /></a>


Paste the above code with all the edits into your blog entry (edit in HTML mode), publish and you are done! Mouse over the image and you should have a nice surprise in store. The width tag at the end can be changed to suit your needs. For me 400 wide works well on a verticle shot and 500 wide works for a horizontal shot. If you don't keep the width tag your image will not correctly display, showing only about half its width.
-----End of tutorial-----
NOTE:  When I previewed this, it looks like there are spots where there are several spaces "like        this" between words when there should only be one.  If you see several spaces between words above ignore them and use only one space.

One thing you have to watch out for is all the quotation marks.  There are singles and doubles and sometimes they are next to each other so it looks like this '" and if you miss any then nothing works right.  This works as you can see by my post yesterday, so good luck and enjoy.

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The Arch of Triumph

The Arch of Triumph is my name for it since I don't know what the official name is. Not to be confused with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris which took only about 30 years to build where as this one has been under construction for a couple million years and is still a work in progress. I call it the Arch of Triumph because I had to make a pretty good climb fairly quickly to get this angle while the sun was still illuminating the inside of the arch.

This is an HDR image and if you scroll your mouse over the image you should see the best of the 9 images used to create the one you see. When you mouse over you will see the second image make a small size jump, that is simply because I did not bother putting a frame around it. Which do you like better?

Note: Thanks to Dave for the tutorial on how to do the "mouse over" trick.

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A Little Honey Butter

(f7.1, 1/125, 24mm, ISO 160)

Do you love honey butter on your hot rolls? I sure do.

We spent 5 days roaming the desert areas of Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park and Goblin Valley State Park and this is the largest wild flower I saw, but then what do you expect in October in the desert?

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As Requested

(f7.1, 1/125, 24mm, ISO 160)

Last Friday I posted a photo of Chad taking a photo as we rapped up our trip.  If you didn't see it you can click here.  Some of you said you'd like to see the photo that Chad was taking.  Well, I don't have the exact photo, but I do have one that I took of the same gnarled old Juniper tree.  We both found these to be fascinating.  Kind of like some nice whipped butter for your hot bread.

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The Rolls Are Still Warm

(f5.6, 1/80, 42mm, ISO 160)

I don't know why, but when I sit down to a great meal - or any meal for that matter, I tend to save the best for last. If it's Fillet Mignon I'll slide it over to the side while I eat the vegetables and potatoes. I may have some of the Fillet along the way, but the best part will get saved to the very end.

As I serve up this meal of photographs that I took last week in central Utah, I'm kind of doing the same thing. So far all I've given you is a glass of water and a look at the menu. Now I'm bringing out the fresh warm rolls in a basket wrapped in white linen to keep them warm.

I haven't even looked at 1/4 of the photos that I took myself so I'm kind of sharing as I go, but I do know there are some that I'm really excited to get to when the time is right.

I hope this little offering from Dead Horse Point State Park taken as the sun was setting, keeps you interested enough to come back as I serve up what I hope proves to be a delightful feast.  Getting there and photographing it was certainly a feast for me.

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Sunset Sunday - 35

(f5.6, 1/60, 42mm, ISO 160)

On the way home from our photo excursion Friday night as we exited Spanish Fork canyon we were met with this beautiful scene including the fall colors along the bottom.  I know some people don't like these windmills, but I love them.  I think they are not only very handsome but I also love that they represent that we are harnessing natural energy sources. 

Do you have a beautiful sunset/sunrise to share? We'd love to see it. Just post a link in your comment, or just tell us it's there and we'll click on your name to find it.  No sunset to post?  That's okay, we'd still love to hear from  you.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

(f7.1, 1/125, 39mm, ISO 160)

I think today's photo could qualify as a Phun one too since it isn't really a very spectacular photo, but it's kind of Phun to see weird places like this.  We visited Goblin Valley State Park yesterday where there are hundreds and hundreds of these funny little formations.  I thought this looked like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, except Bashful was hiding and Sleepy was lying down there in the front asleep, of course.

OBTW, if you think you may have seen things that look like this before, you might have if you've seen the movie Galaxy Quest (A favorite comedy of mine).  They used Goblin Valley for the scene about the Beryllium Sphere.

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Phun Phriday! #36 - The End

Okay, so this one isn't too far out of the box.  But I thought it was appropriate since the Phun is ending today on our trip to Moab, Utah where we've been visiting two national parks and by the time we get home, two state parks full of visual wonders.  So here's my traveling partner and photo taking friend Chad in Canyonlands National Park, filling up his SD card with gorgeous images. 

We've been busy taking pictures from very early in the morning until very late at night.  In some ways getting home will be a nice rest.

Have you done anything Phun, wierd or out of the box lately?  Tell us about it and leave a link.  Even if you haven't we'd love to hear from you.

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Hello From Canyonlands

Just wanted you to know that we are in Canyonlands area, near Moab, Utah. We've been so busy taking photos we haven't had time to post anything until now. This is just a SOOC of one of the several hundred we've takens so far.
I can't wait to show you some of the good ones.

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Sunset Sunday -34 and 10-10-10

Today's Sunset Sunday was posted at 10:10(MDT) on 10-10-10 and since I accepted David Foote's challenge for 10 photos I am posting 10 Sunsets that I really like but have not posted before.

I wanted to post something else but since it fell on a Sunset Sunday I was really put in a bind.  Oh well, I didn't have any trouble coming up with 10 beautiful Sunsets, only 10 beautiful sunsets that I had not posted before.  I do have to admit that you may have seen sunsets that were taken in the same location or even the same evening as some of these.

Do you have a beautiful sunset/sunrise to share or did you take David's challenge for 10 photos? We'd love to see it. Just post a link in your comment, or just tell us it's there and we'll click on your name to find it.

NOTE:  I will be on a photo excursion for the next 6 days and I don't know how much Internet access I will have.  So you may or may not see posts during the next few days as I have not staged any for auto posting.  I hope I will be able to give you a glimpse of what I am capturing while there but if not, then when I return.

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Stand by for Further Developments

Looking for Sunset Sunday?  Today is a special day as it is not only Sunday, and therefore Sunset Sunday but it is also October 10, 2010 or also known as 10/10/10.  I have accepted a challenge to post 10 photos in commemoration of this date, and I thought I would take it a step further so I will publish today's post at 10:10 AM Mountain Daylight Time on 10/10/10.  See you then.

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Color to Die For

(f5, 1/60, 23mm, ISO 160)

As the summer dies it leaves behind a beautiful farewell tribute.

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Phun Phriday! # 35 - Seriously

It's Phun Phriday! again, but I wanted to do something a little different. I was going to explain all about why I took this photo etc. but I've decided to let it just stand on it's own and you tell me if it does anything to or for you and why. Of course I also always appreciate constructive criticism from talented photographers like yourselves.

As you know by now photography should be Phun and that's why I have my Phun Phriday! posts. Have you done something Phun, weird and/or creative lately? If so, leave a link to it in your comment. If not - well I'd really love to hear from you anyway.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Facing the Sun

(f6.3, 1/125, 42mm, ISO 160)

They look like small sunflowers or yellow daisies, but they grow in the wild like a weed. A beautiful weed in my opinion.

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Life

(f10, 0.8 sec, 14mm, ISO 160)

There could be no life without water.

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It is Autumn After All

(f6.3, 1/125, 36mm, ISO 160)

It is my nature to run against the grain so I have to talk myself into posting Fall photos in the Fall.  I'm just weird that way.  In the spring we see a lot of beautiful flowers on the various blogs, and now it is Autumn, so why shy away from the unique beauty that is associated with that season.  I hope you enjoy today's offering.

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By the Sea

(f8, 1/160, 42mm, ISO 160)

As I was going through photos today to try to get just a little more organized I was reminded of how much fun I had on the Oregon Coast with family on my birthday this past summer so I thought I'd post this.

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Sunset Sunday - 33

(f6.3, 1/800, 92mm, ISO 160)

It all began on Sunday, February 21, 2010, and this is # 33.  This one was taken this past Wednesday evening.

Do you have a beautiful sunset/sunrise to share? We'd love to see it. Just post a link in your comment, or just tell us it's there and we'll click on your name to find it.

If you'd like to learn exactly how to put a link in a comment it's pretty easy. I created a tutorial on how to do it which you will find by clicking here.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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Fall Has Fell

(f3.6, 1/250, 15mm, ISO 160)

I, for one, am certainly pleased that you don't have to use proper grammar for a title.

This photo was taken early evening two weeks ago today, I've heard rumors that it is even prettier up there now. I may have to go up this week since it's only about 25 miles.

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Phun Phriday! # 34 - Try It, You'll LIke It

(f16, 1 sec, 22-42mm, ISO 160)

Seriously, what could be more Phun than these Phun Phriday! posts - well . . . for one thing, getting out there with your camera and making your own.

You've all seen zooming lights at night I'm sure. If not you can find some here, here and here. But you don't often see daylight zoom. This was NOT done with software - not to say I didn't run it through Adobe Bridge and enhance it a bit, but the zoom effect was done by taking a 1 second exposure in the late evening when the light was kind of low and adding a ND (Neutral Density) filter and closing the lens down to f16 and then zooming while the lens was open.  And, OBTW, the camera was on a tripod. 

You may have to click on it and enlarge it to see it better, but what do you think it was. . . . . . . . . Ding, time's up.  If you guessed grove of Quaking Aspen trees you're spot on. 

As you know by now, photography should be Phun and that's why I have my Phun Phriday! posts.  Have you done something Phun, wierd and/or creative lately? If so, leave a link to it in your comment. If not - well I'd really love to hear from you anyway.

NOTE:  Today is the first day of October so I have put up a new banner.

NOTE 2:  Be sure you visit again on October 10th - 10/10/10 at 10:10 am I will post my answer to David Foote's challenge.

Don't be shy - leave a comment or email me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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