It's still alive

We were horrified when an early and wet snowstorm last October broke our apricot tree in half (blog post here). We trimmed it up the best we can and so far it seems to be doing fine.





Apricot Tree Blossoms

Driveway Horses

I love weird driveway/lawn stuff like this, not that I'd ever put something like these in my own driveway, but I'm fond of people bold enough to do so.



Driveway Horses, Salem, ID 2008

My Morning Jacket

Burnt Out Cellar

A couple of weeks ago there was a photograph in the local newspaper of a storage shed that used to be a potato cellar burning down. I made a mental note and planned to visit and photograph it soon. Today Brian asked me if I had seen a cool cellar near Hibbard Elementary School. He said it was just a burnt facade. I immediately remembered the picture in the paper and set out to photograph the cellar this evening.


Burnt Cellar, Hibbard, ID 2008

Last of the Snow

I was hoping to wait and photograph this tomorrow (snow until May seems more impressive than snow until the end of April), but it's raining now and I'm afraid the snow is going to melt tonight. Anyway, here it is the 30th of April and we still have a bit of snow on the ground - unbelievable! Anyway, I think spring might finally be here.


Last of the Snow, April 30 2008

Southeastern Utah

I'm taking a group of students to Southern Utah this summer to photograph and hike and camp. We'll be going to Arches National Park, various canyons in the Moab area, Canyonlands National Park, and areas around Goblin Valley. It should be a lot of fun.

Before I had a bunch of students in tow, I wanted to make sure I knew where everything was and familiarize myself with the area. So, Jon and I headed down over the weekend to figure it out. We spent a couple of days in the Hanksville area and photographed a couple of rock art sites and found a few roads that led to destinations to take students. We also spent a couple of days near Moab and Arches National Park. We met up with my former professor Craig Law and had fun photographing and camping with him and his students.

We had quite a few adventures, got sort of lost a couple of times, had some laughs, and made a few photographs. I think things will go much better when I head down again with students in early June.

Here are some images:


Jon Photographing Rock Art near Hanksville, UT 2008


Rock Art, near Hanksville, UT 2008


Black Dragon Wash, UT 2008


Rock Art Near Moab, UT 2008


Mill Creek Canyon, near Moab, UT 2008


Double Arch, Arches National Park, UT 2008


Craig Hiking into Hell Roaring Wash, UT 2008


Rock Art, Moab Area, UT 2008

Typing Test

81 words

Speed test

Gibson Shoshone and Bannock Tribal Cemetery

The last stop on our trip back from Logan was a Shoshone and Bannock Tribal cemetery on or near (we weren't exactly sure) the Fort Hall Reservation. It was really a strange and beautiful and tender place. Anyway, here are a few images.

To Logan and Back (The Long Way)

I'm taking a group of students photographing in Southern Utah this spring and my former professor Craig Law was kind enough to meet with Brian and me today to help us decide on a few places to visit. We had a nice visit and lunch with Craig in Logan, got a few good pointers on what to see and where to stay, and then took the long way back to Rexburg. We drove the Valley View Highway (which is the highway on the west side of Cache Valley) to Downey, drove around Downey for a while, then took some back roads from Pocatello to Blackfoot. We found a lot of fun stuff on along the way. It was nice to be photographing and to spend some time away from school with Brian. Anyway, here are some images.


Taxidermy Deer Head, Cache Valley 2008


Half a House, Weston, ID 2008


Brian's Shadow while he's Photographing an Abandoned Home, near Weston, ID 2008


Tree and Power Line, Cache Valley 2008


Downey Fairgrounds, Downey, ID 2008


Tennis Court, Downey, ID 2008

Market Lake

My friend and former student Andy Duncan called the other day to let me know he was accepted to Utah State University's MFA program in photography (congratulations again Andy). He also asked if I'd been up to Market Lake (one of my favorite places by the way) because he was interested in photographing it. I decided it would be fun to head out there. So, this evening my friend Jon, Andy, and I drove out and made a few photographs. Andy made a couple of images with a 4x5 camera, Jon made one with his roundshot (a revolving camera designed to make panoramic views) and I took a couple, but wasn't terribly excited about them. After dropping Andy off at the gas station in Roberts I noticed a touching and kitschy and sad entrance sign and nativity scene at the Roberts RV park and made a photograph. I'm pretty satisfied.


Market Lake, ID from 2004 (I think)


Jon and Andy and my Shadow at Market Lake, ID 2008


Roberts RV Park, Roberts ID 2008

Travis' Wedding

Well, it's been over a month, so here's an update.

My cousin Travis got married yesterday in Rexburg. His family is from Seattle, her's is from Georgia, but they chose to get married in Rexburg. I'm sure it was so that Susan and I wouldn't have to travel. Anyway, it was fun to get together with family and participate in all sorts of mayhem.

There's always a good (which usually means embarrassing for somebody) story when we all get together. The best one of the weekend happened when we picked up lunch for the kids at Little Caesar's. I was walking out with the pizza and my dad had the window down. He read the pizza box which said hot n' ready. He said "hot n' ready, are you hot n' ready?" really loud to me. What he didn't realize was that there was a woman getting out of her car right next to his window. She kind of looked over at him and I said "Who are you talking to?" She said "It better not be me I'm 8 months pregnant". It was pretty funny.

Another funny thing was while we were in the waiting room after the wedding I saw one of my students from my basic photography course this semester. I asked her if she was photographing a wedding. She said "yeah I'm photographing Travis Simon's wedding", which was the wedding we were attending. It was also the first wedding she had photographed professionally. I'm sure she was already nervous and then to have her college photography present probably didn't make things any easier. I think she did fine.

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend.


The Wedding Photographer


My Mom and some of her Siblings


My Sister Carrie and her fairly new Baby, Cameron

New York Trip

Brian Atkinson and I took several photography, as well as a couple of graphic design and illustration students to New York City last week. It was my first time to NYC and I had a blast. Hopefully Susan can come with me the next time we go out. We visited several museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the New York Public Library, and several photography galleries (although I wish we would have had more time for gallery visits). We also visited a photography studio and Brian took some students to Design studios.

Some highlights of the trip for me include the vastness of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I had no idea), the two exhibitions at the New York Public Library we stumbled upon (Baldus - a favorite photographer of mine & an exhibit of Cliche Verres - you may have to be a photo history geek to appreciate it, but it was great), and the Post-Civil War photographs by Alexander Gardner in the MOMA.

Anyway, it was great. I had some great pastrami sandwiches, some good NY Pizza, and way too much cheesecake. Here are some random photographs from the trip.


Subway


Central Park


Some of the Students with Brian and his Wife Marie


Some of us at Grand Central Station


Pastrami Sandwich and Half-Dill Pickles at Katz's Deli


Katz's Deli


Ground Zero


The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry


Rockefeller Center


Chrysler Building


Bryant Park at Night


Vincent van Gough at the Metropolitan Museum of Art


Lee Friedlander Show at The Met


Monet at MOMA


Chuck Close and Andy Warhol at The Met


Cliche Verre Exhibit at the New York Public Library


Flying over the Utah/Colorado Border

Photomerge

So, we had weather today that's not terribly common around here... thick fog. There's a tree not far from our house that I've always liked, but the background is somewhat distracting. I figured fog would clean it up a bit, so I went out to photograph it. The problem is that it's a little too big to photograph without including the fence (at least with the lens I had on my digital camera). I decided to photograph a couple of frames with the hopes of putting them together in photoshop. My hopes weren't terribly high, but digital files (unlike film) are free, so I exposed a few frames.

I hadn't used photomerge (a function in photoshop used for stitching or merging together multiple images into one). I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised by the results. I couldn't find anywhere that the files didn't match up tonally or texturally. I was also hand-holding the camera, so I expected some difficulties. Anyway, it may not be the best photograph I've ever taken, but I'm excited by the results.



Tree in Fog (left)


Tree in Fog (right)


Tree in Fog (merged)


Tree in Fog, Sugar City, ID 2008

Melt Dang It!

Melt Dang It!, Rexburg, ID 2008

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Snow Disaster?

In the local newspaper on Monday was a story about Madison County's high snow levels in the valley. Apparently Madison County has declared it an official disaster, whatever that means. I guess it's so we can get help when everything melts (assuming it ever warms up). You can read the story here

Anyway, Kevin and I decided to take a drive after work today to see how my favorite winter road is faring. There were some pretty impressive drifts and in some spots the road was completely drifted over and impassable. Kevin had a lot of fun climbing on the drifts. Here are some photographs:


Kevin Watching a Truck Drive on Snowy Road, Rexburg, ID 2008


Kevin and a Snow Drift, Rexburg, ID 2008


Snowy Road with Stop Sign, Walker, ID 2008


Snowy Road, Walker, ID 2008

Waxwings & Swans

Sunday after the Rexburg Temple dedication, Jon and I took a drive up to the Chester area to check out the snow and see if we could find any nice landscapes to photograph. We ran into a big flock of Bohemian Waxwings along the Henry's Fork near Fun Farm and were content to try to photograph them. I really need a nicer long lens, but it was still fun. It was great watching the waxwings feed on recently emerged midges. There were also several dozen Trumpeter Swans in the area and I managed to snap a quick picture as a pair flew by. We didn't take any landscapes, but it was great to be out in the warm weather (I think it reached freezing for the first time in weeks).


Bohemian Waxwings Feeding on Midges, Chester, ID 2008


Trumpeter Swans, Chester, ID 2008

Winter Trees

After sort of sleeping in, grading photo history exams, watching President Hinckley's funeral, and eating a fantastic onion bagel and pastrami and swiss sandwich for lunch, I was going a little stir crazy. The weather and roads have been horrible lately, but there was finally a break in the weather by mid-afternoon so I decided to head up towards Ashton to look for Great Gray Owls, see how much snow they had and perhaps make a few photographs.

I didn't find any Great Gray Owls (although there are quite a few Bald Eagles and Trumpeter Swans in the area), Ashton has a lot more snow than we do, and I made a couple of photographs (although nothing too ground-breaking, just pretty pictures of trees).


Tree, Chester, ID 2008


Same Tree with Car, Chester, ID 2008


Junipers, Ashton, ID 2008

Snowy Winter

We have a lot of snow. There is probably 2 feet of snow on the ground in Rexburg right now. It's been snowing and blowing and doing what it normally does in the Upper Snake River Valley in the winter I guess. I took a drive out around the farm fields SE of town this evening after work. I wanted to see how big the drifts were. I wasn't disappointed. In places the road seemed like a narrow canyon between tall walls of snow. The drifts were as high as twelve feet in places. I didn't dare stop in these places to photograph because the road was narrow and the visibility wasn't great. I may have to get out in better conditions to photograph it though, because it is quite impressive. Here are a few snowy scenes from the excursion.


Snowy Road, Madison County, ID 2008


Snowy Field, Madison County, ID 2008


Drift, Walker, ID 2008


Snow-covered Potato Cellar and Road, Walker, ID 2008

Rexburg Snow Fest 2008 - Bonfire

At the end of Snowfest the city soaks a bunch of Christmas Trees with a flammable liquid of some sort and lights them on fire. It's a fun way to spend an evening. Enjoy!

Rexburg Snowfest 2008

Every year Rexburg celebrates Snowfest a festival the city created to try to force its residents into enjoy the miserable winter weather. It was held this past Saturday and we participated in the fun. Some of the festivities include ice sculpture, sledding, horse-drawn carriage rides, treasure hunts, a polar bear club (maybe I'll join next year), and a big bonfire at the end of the night. It really is a fun time. We had plenty of snow and the weather was relatively nice.


Kevin and Ethan Sledding (Ethan seems a bit concerned)


Jacob on the Sled (Jacob seems quite concerend)


Susan and Jacob in front of the "Road Apple Trolley"


Jacob Warming Up at Home with Hot Chocolate