Friday, May 11, 2012

Cliff Top Cabin near Bear Lake

Looking thought my archive today and found a couple gems I though I would share...


This is Karen's cabin near Bear Lake, a beautiful place with an amazing view of Bear Lake from the wrap around deck. Not to mention a nice view of baby hawks in a nest! I love shooting cabins.


Baby Red Tail hawks in the nest...




Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Moab Trip

Day 1

Near Price, UT I was taking photos in the canyon of a unique rock formation... A few minutes later and a mile down the road we pulled over to read some roadside markers regarding coal mining.  These markers were in view of what appeared to be a coal mine or coal plant.  We read the markers from the car as we were in a hurry and the place was not photogenic.  I looked in the rear view mirror only to see a police car with lights lit up!  I was asked by a nice but professional acting female police officer if I had taken any photos of the coal plant/mine. I replied "no just some images taken of the rock formation a couple miles back", She asked if I had any telephoto lenses with me, to which I replied I had but was using a wide angle lens at them moment for the last shots I had taken a few minutes before. She informed me that it was illegal to shoot photos of coal operation and wanted to see the images on my camera to be sure I indeed had not taken any of the coal plant.  Satisfied with that she called in my concealed pistols serial numbers to check if they might be stolen? The whole experience was no big deal to me, but I was left wondering how it can be illegal to take a photograph!!!  I fully understand that you need model release to sell people pics and a property release in some instances to sell pics of private buildings, but it has never been illegal to take any photograph of any subject for personal use when no sale of the photograph happens! Help me out what am I missing?

I guess you can say this photo trip is eventful already!

The photo below is of a formation near Helper Utah called "Castle Gate".



Day 2

We spent the night at Green River, UT. Next morning we headed out to see Goblin Valley State Park.
The weather was horrible, sand storms, rain and wind.  My mouth and camera filled with gritty sand and stayed that way most the day.  I did brave the nasty weather hiding behind goblins as needed, it was basically useless trying to hide from the sand.  My poor Canon 5D mark III SLR and lenses got a full blown real world test of their dust proofing features. As breaks in the weather allowed I took what photos I could.

These goblin formations varied from an average range of 8 to 15 feet tall. Hundreds littered the valley floor each one a unique shape from any other. Walking through them hours with camera in hand felt a bit like walking through a forest of statues on mars!


The nice thing about Goblin Vally being a Utah State Park is the ability to bring your dog and take them on the trails with you, my dog angel loved it, minus the sand blasting... National Parks crack down on dogs only allowing them on roadways and parking lots, no trails, no buildings, no hiking with dogs!


Natural washes made easy trails that wound randomly through the goblin army.  The Moonscape looked maybe more like a Mars-scape with all the red color, dirt and lack of nearly any vegetation...


I found myself seeing images and animal shapes in many of the formations a bit like an ink blot test I suppose... Some goblins looked more like duck heads, howling wolfs, Christmas trees, various body parts, and even saddles!

Day 3


On first half of the third day we visited Dead Horse Point State Park! This was the park I was most excited to visit and photograph.


The Last half of day three we spend in Canyon Lands National Park, specifically the Island in the Sky area.


more to come.....