Lines of Sight

An upclose shot of one of the three silos on our farm. My parents always used to say there was one for each of us kids. I think that was a load of bull, but I still smile when I see them.

Ivy League

While wondering around the farm taking pictures, I saw some ivy growing up the chimney of our little hunter's cabin. I was shooting a few pictures when I saw a bunch of vines on a stump nearby. I shot a few vertical and then some underneath shots before I saw a perfect bokeh opportunity with the forest in the background. I had to unfortunately rotate this picture afterward to straighten the tree (resulting in some cropping), but I think with the added Lightroom preset it turned out great. Just one of those things I need to take a breath and frame up before pressing the shutter....

USDA Grade Adorable

Another gratuitously cute picture of the calf. Honestly I couldn't get enough of this little girl; she was just amazing as a photo subject. It was almost as if she was born to be a model. The one thing that I loved capturing were the bubbles that she kept blowing and the big eyes that were almost entirely pupil.

Under Watchful Eyes

A new baby calf was born on our farm a few days ago and I was lucky enough to be home while it was still with its mother. I wish I could have sat there all day taking pictures! It was almost magically watching them interact and seeing the calf prancing around the pen without a care in the world.

I had seen this a hundred times growing up, and it wasn't a new experience, but what was new was thinking of images to make and moments I wanted to capture. Next time I will come more prepared with a list, but it was still great and I will have lots of pictures for this week :)

Web Crawler

Sorry Mom, but I love this picture!

While visiting San Juan this past month, we were walking along El Morro near the coastline and there were literally HUNDREDS of these webs and spiders. I didn't know if they were poisonous or not (and didn't want to find out), so I didn't get nearly as close as I probably would have.

Iquana-saurus

Growing up I had two lizards (Fat-tailed Geckos), that I had with me for about 3 years. When I went away for college, I couldn't take the female with me (the male died) so I had to give it away to my brother's school. I kind of wish I had them around still to take some pictures of them.

My cousin has had this Iquana for four plus years and this thing has gotten massive. Right now its about 3 feet long and will continue to get bigger. The color and scales on this guy are just amazing.

Buffalo or Bison?

This picture is from the same trip as the LDS temple in Salt Lake City I posted earlier in the week. I had been wanting to go to Antelope Island for a long time, and the first time I was there it was the middle of winter and almost no animals were out. When I went with Lee, it was nearing spring, and we hit the jackpot. We saw a few herds of Pronghorn Antelope, Bison, and even a wolf. It was awesome. The Wasatch Mountains were still covered with snow, and with the sky being clear, gave some awesome views.

Falling Apart

On the drive up to McCall, Idaho you pass this set of barns every time. There are lots of old buildings lining 55 on the drive up, but this set just really stood out to me. One year I decided I had to get a shot off and just pulled over to capture a few for my own prosperity.

Temple Square

I posted pictures from the DC LDS Temple, but I was flipping thru earlier pictures and came back across some from SLC when Lee and I went down (have some great animal pictures I will have to sort thru and post). This picture was taken in the reflecting pool in front of the temple there and I think it turned out much better than the normal pictures where I included the sky.

Solitude

Didn't get out to take as many pictures as I would of liked over the weekend, but the weather on Saturday was just gloomy and grey, so it wasn't worth wasting time standing out in the cold. Sunday looked a lot better, so I swung by Manassas National Battlefield on the way home to check out the post snow conditions.

Cloud Cover

Glacier National Park is awesome. I posted before about it, but if you can pick one place to see before you die, I definitely recommend it. Its just overwhelmingly beautiful.

The main road thru the park, Going to the Sun Road, wraps around the peaks and mountains and lets you really see the terrain differences and just how high up the park really is. This picture is one of the many peaks along this road, but I couldn't for the life of me remember which one...

I know I am no Ansel Adams, but when I was looking at this picture I got the inspiration to modify it so it was reminiscent of one of his great works.

Atlas Shrugged

I have never actually read the book, but the Fountainhead is by far one of the best books I have ever read. It was one of those books where I was so absorbed with the story and characters I was actually upset when it finally ended. My buddy got me Atlas Shrugged for Christmas, so I will have to start working my way thru it soon.

When we went up to NYC before Christmas I wanted to capture some Taxi Cabs streaking thru the streets, and when I saw this statue, I knew I had my picture.

Snow Cone

Well, we didn't get dumped on, but we got enough to make it fun to drive in/out of work today. My new Subaru is a champ at handling the snow (Wyoming proved it), so it wasn't really a problem to drive; I was just hoping I would have an excuse not to. The wind tonight is ridiculous, and I am sure it will add a new level of fun tomorrow to the conditions.

This little votive candle was out on my porch during the storm over the weekend and made for some cool images.

Fire and Ice

A part of me hopes that we get buried with snow tonight. The rest of me of course doesn't want to have to dig out my car, but hey snow is still fun :)

I really like contrast in my pictures. Its an effect I am guilty of over using, but sometimes it just makes a picture pop. The choice tonight was between a half buried red stop sign or a half buried yellow fire hydrant. I couldn't get the sign quite right, so I ended up choosing the hydrant.

Oil Spill

More pictures from the snow. This picture was of the aftermath of the storm of the snow melting. I love the look of oil/gas on water; the rainbow colors and the patterns they create. There's a weird sort of beauty to the pollution...

Black on White

Wow, we got a ton of snow!! Took 2 1/2 hours for me to dig out both brother and my car this morning (mostly because I used a cake pan for the first hour), but after I borrowed a shovel it went MUCH faster.

I convinced my brother to venture out after breakfast for a walk and I got to shoot a bunch of pictures in the neighborhood, so I will have some ammo for the week. This picture was of some bushes along the sidewalk.

Off Limits

This picture tonight is in honor of the amazing amount of snow the east coast is being (blessed?) with this year. Honestly, I can not remember there ever being this many storms in one year in my entire life.

The picture below is at Grand Targhee ski resort from a trip my brothers and I made a few years ago. In a place like the Tetons, when they say an area is off limits, they mean it...

Red

Snowing again today! Hopefully I can get a few pics tomorrow morning since I am stuck in VA all weekend.

Random pic from days past of a Red Panda at the National Zoo (Woodley-Park) in Washington DC. It was a pretty crappy day with lots of misty rain, so I didn't get nearly the amount of pictures I wanted. But I am going to be photographing these little guys pretty hard this summer (if you don't know, the Zoo is free in DC...).

Faerie

Arguably, the best breakfast restaurant in Boise, is Goldy's off Capital. They serve some of the greatest food and people line up every Saturday and Sunday in anticipation of a good meal there. They used to have these AMAZING cinnamon buns, but because of the demand they stopped making them because they couldn't keep up.

There is this great light fixture in the middle of the restaurant made up of wire strands with light bulbs attached at the end of each. Superglued to each bulb is a pair of dove wings. It looks a little morbid (but still cool), but when you abstract it reminds me of a bunch of fairies or pixies floating thru the air.

Shinra

Title is a little vague tonight for anyone out there but the geeks. But when I saw this the other morning on my way to work, I had to take a picture and broke out the iPhone to capture it.

The title is the mega-corporation from Final Fantasy 7, and for some reason (don't ask me why), I thought of the smoke stacks as seen in the Trailer from back in the day...

Roll of the Dice

Went to a casino this last weekend (not Vegas, fortunately) up in the Poconos called Mount Airy Casino. They only have electronic machines there, but I was trying out some still life pictures on Friday and thought these die would look cool on some green construction paper.