W A N D E R I N G S

Snake River Diversion Dam

2008-07-23T21:46:00.001-07:00

My friend Andy Duncan told me about a diversion dam north of Idaho Falls that I hadn't photographed. I happened to be in Idaho Falls the other day, so I photographed it.

Snake River Diversion Dam, Jefferson County, ID 2008

Chukars

2008-07-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tracie called the other night and invited us to an Idaho Falls Chukars (minor league baseball) Game. Her friend Jeff's work was having a company party at the game and he got discount tickets and the price even included dinner (pizza and soda) and t-shirts for the kids. We decided it would be fun. It was fun, and it's something that we'd like to do a bit more often. Here are some photos from the evening.

The kids getting their t-shirts signed by Charlie the Chukar

The Boys with Charlie the Chukar

The older boys testing their pitching speed (Kevin threw 38 miles an hour, Ethan didn't throw fast and/or accurate enough for the radar gun)

Kevin waiting for foul balls (he almost got a couple)

Oh yeah, the Chukars beat the Missoula Osprey 8-2.

Student Work Summer 2008

2008-07-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

The Summer Semester ended yesterday and my summer break is finally here, yea. Anyway, here are some of the better images created by some of my students this semester.

Willard Cron

Deanna Campbell

Shauna Morse

Rosalyn Johnson

Leanna Kotter

David Summermil

Melissa Gallup

Kayla Christensen

Maddy Lucas

The Summer Semester ended yesterday and my summer break is finally here, yea. Anyway, here are some of the better images created by some of my students this semester.

Lumen Prints

2008-07-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

For a while now some of my students have been making Lumen Prints. A former student, Andy Duncan, started making these prints after seeing some of Jerry Burchfield's work. Anyway, they're fairly simple. All you do is get some photo paper, place objects (plant matter seems to work fairly well) on the paper, expose the paper to light (sunlight works very well) for long periods of time (20 minutes to several days) and then fix the paper with traditional darkroom fixer or sodium thiosulfate. Depending on the paper, the length of time, the subject matter, the fixer, and even the chemical makeup of the water, you end up with an image of different colors, saturation, and values (even though the material is black-and-white paper and chemistry).

I got a wild hair the other day and decided to finally make some of my own. Jon came over and we gathered the supplies and made a few lumens in the backyard. Kevin and his friend Daylen even made one. Here are the results.

Exposing the Paper

Fixing the Print

Rinsing the Prints

Drying the Prints

A couple of finished prints

Felt Power Plant

2008-07-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

The other night Jon talked me into walking down into the Felt Power Plant on the Teton River. It was a cool place. Most of my serious photographing was done with film, but here are a few digital snaps:

Pipe and Pump, Felt Power Plant, Felt, ID 2008

Beaver-chewed Cottonwood, Felt, ID 2008

Teton River, Felt Power Plant, Felt, ID 2008

Felt Dam, Felt, ID 2008

Power Lines and Big Yellow Ball, Felt, ID 2008

A Few Cutthroat Trout

2008-07-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

I had a really nice afternoon of fishing. It was a lot of fun to catch several big native cuts in a pretty small stream.

The Stream

The Fish....

A Few Miscelaneous Photograph from the Weekend

2008-07-11T22:36:00.001-07:00

Larry's New Pool, Gunnison, UT 2008

Discarded Christmas Tree, Fayette, UT 2008

Gunnison City Park, Gunnison, UT 2008

Gunnison High School Class of 1988

2008-07-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

One of my obligations while in Fayette, was to accompany Susan to her 20 year high school reunion. It was actually just about as painful as it sounds. Here's everybody from her class that showed up (Her graduating class was 43).

Gunnison High School Class of 1988

Gunnison 4th of July Parade

2008-07-11T22:26:00.001-07:00

The Gunnison parade was a lot of fun. It wasn't too long, there was plenty of candy, and even a painted cow.

Briana, Kaitlin, Ethan, Heather, Kevin, & Jared

Jacob eating his catch

Painted Cow

Kevin and Jared with Miss Gunnison

This was one of the best moments of the parade. MaryAnn caught Miss Gunnison's attention and had her come over to have a picture taken with Kevin and Jared. They were pretty embarrassed and it was great.

Fireworks

2008-07-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

The Gunnison fireworks were a bit of disappointment. The fireworks themselves were nice, but they had everybody watch them from the community park. The problem was that they were too far away and too low to see. It was pretty funny watching people scramble to get a better view once they started. I just stayed and photographed.

Ethan with Glow Sticks

Gary with Glow Stick "juice" on His Nose

"Independent" Firework (Before the Show), Gunnison UT 2008

Gunnison Fireworks from the Park

4th of July Weekend in Fayette/Gunnison/12 Mile Flat

2008-07-11T22:15:00.001-07:00

We had a fun 4th of July weekend in Susan's hometown and surrounding areas. We did a little camping, watched the parade and fireworks, went to Susan's 20th high school reunion, and even managed to get in a little fishing. It ended up being quite a nice weekend

Milestone

2008-06-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

Kevin caught his first fish on a fly rod this afternoon. We had a great time at Birch Creek, a nice little creek an hour or so from Rexburg. He whined a little bit, got his line tangled more than once, and got a few slivers and scratches on his legs, but he persevered and was so proud when he landed a pretty little rainbow trout. Of course the camera was in the car. When we got home he said "Dad, I'm so glad we went fishing together, I had a great time". It was a small, but tender gesture, which I made it all worthwhile.

Anyway, Jon met up with us after a bit and I had him snap this picture of us near the car.

Birch Creek, ID 2008

Moody Potato Cellar (a few months apart)

2008-06-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

I posted about this image a few posts ago. Here is the finished version. The first image was taken in November of 2007, the newer image was taken in May of this year.

Potato Cellar, Moody, ID 2007 & 2008

Trip to Southern Utah with Students (long overdue post)

2008-06-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

June 4-8 Brian and I led a student photography trip to the Moab/Hanksville area of Southern Utah. The two of us and ten students had a great time despite some minor mishaps.

On the way drive we hit tropical depression Roy, (near Roy, Utah coincidentally). The wind and strong rain wasn't too bad, although most of our camping gear was in the back of Brian's truck. We were dealing with it o.k. until one of our windshield wiper blades blew off. So, we stopped, got a replacement blade as well as a tarp for Brian's truck and were on our way. We got into Moab at about 3:00, set up camp and drove into Arches. About the time we got to Arches it started raining, which was o.k., however, it continued to get stronger, winds picked up and we sort of waited around for a while to see if the rain would quit, it didn't. By the time we left Arches, Hurricane Moab unleashed her fury. We got back to camp to find all of the tents flattened, one of the tents ripped to shreds, many of the sleeping bags soaking wet, and the rest of the gear wet and scattered. Fortunately, the students and Brian had great attitudes (I was sort of sour, but tried to remain positive). Everybody chipped in, fixed up camp, and the rest of the trip was great.

If you had asked me the first night if I would ever take 10 students camping again I would have said "never", but after it was all said and done, we had a blast and are planning on doing it again next year. Here are some photographs:

Chris's tent (the one I was supposed to sleep in)

Camp chair, sleeping bags, and stuff

Rock Art Figure, Sego Canyon, UT 2008

North and South Windows, Arhces National Park 2008

Students photographing near Moab

Ceremonial? Markings in Rock, near Moab, UT 2008

Toad near Hog Springs, UT 2008

Little Wild Horse Canyon, UT 2008

Goblin Valley State Park, UT 2008

Petroglyphs, Hanksville Area, UT 2008

Sunday Drive (Stone Flies)

2008-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

After church we all got in the van and took a nice little drive up to Ashton to feed the fish and see if we could find a few Stone Flies. The fish enjoyed the bread and Ethan loved the Stone Flies. It was a lot of fun.

Ethan with a Stone Fly, Ashton, ID 2008

Ethan, Jacob, & Kevin, Ashton, ID 2008

Ethan, Kevin, Susan, & Jacob, Ashton, ID 2008

Another Cellar Rephotograph

2008-06-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

A Cellar that was in pretty poor shape last fall (in fact I photographed it and blogged about it here) collapsed/was burned down this spring. Of course I had to rephotograph it. In order to more accurately line up the after shots I brought some small prints to use as a comparison.

Free Fisherman's Breakfast

2008-06-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last Friday (May 23rd) was the 53rd annual Free Fisherman's Breakfast in St. Anthony. The event is held the Friday before the opening day of fishing season. We sent Kevin off to School and drove up for the event. Here are some pictures:

Ethan & Jacob at the Fisherman's Breakfast 2008

Sausages at the Fisherman's Breakfast, 2008

Pancakes at the Fisherman's Breakfast, 2008

The Spread at the Fisherman's Breakfast, 2008

Kristy trying to Coax/Force Jacob down the Slide

Night Photography Field Trip

2008-05-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

My photo II class has a night/available light assignment due in a couple of weeks. We held an optional field trip Tuesday night. We met at the photo lab at 7:30 and planned to drive up to Clyde Keefer Park in St. Anthony. The plan was to photograph in late evening light and then photograph a bit by moonlight before heading home kind of late. There were nasty wind storms and rain squalls all evening and it was looking pretty iffy, but we went out anyway. I think the weather scared most of the students away, but six students and I braved the elements. Once we started photographing, the wind calmed down and it was a beautiful night. Because of the heavy cloud cover we didn't wait around to photograph by moonlight. Anyway, we had a good time and hopefully the students learned a bit.

Diversion Dam at Clyde Keefer Memorial Park, St. Anthony, ID 2008

Henry's Fork of the Snake River, St. Anthony, ID 2008

Flooded Tree at Night, St. Anthony, ID 2008

It's still alive

2008-05-15T19:08:00.002-07:00

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 could and so far it seems to be doing fine.

Apricot Tree Blossoms

Driveway Horses

2008-05-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

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

Burnt Out Cellar

2008-05-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-15T15:21:00.000-07:00

81 words

Speed test

Gibson Shoshone and Bannock Tribal Cemetery

2008-04-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

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.