Friday Wanderings in Salt Lake.....

It is always nice to have a day to play, after having my wife gone for the week to Dallas, it was my time to run away and play while Grandpa took care of the kids after school. Always knew he was a bit crazy! Thanks though young man!

(as always click on the photo for a larger view)

After leaving my beater truck at my friends house, I headed downtown to the Hilton where there was a Photo Expo I wanted to attend. Always on the lookout for a photo I could not pass up this shot. I feel like putting this on the back of my backpack sometimes!

Down the street I noticed an interesting shadow on a less than interesting building. Did I make it interesting for you? I tried to...

I personally liked this one the best, though the first is the best technically I think.

Walking on 200 S. I was enthralled by the shadows, but not too many were particularly photogenic. Though I liked these.

I love these two chaps, the spiky crowns make me laugh. Enjoyed performing in the theater they once guarded. Now only the facade remains.

Stopped at the Photo Expo, Pentax had a booth and as a Pentaxian thought it would be fun to drop by. Here they had the 645D, Medium Format 40MP (on the left) Which I would gladly sell a kidney to own, it is the PERFECT landscape camera, and I am totally in love with the viewfinder, it is the best I have EVER looked through, simply incredible. In the middle is the new but not tested Pentax Q, it is tiny and could be fun, but isn't worth it to me. On the Right is the Pentax K5, if I could afford it I would buy it and never buy another camera until this one died. It is just exactly what I want out of a camera. Except I have to pay for it....

After a nice lunch I headed back to an alley I had visited before, lacking inspiration to get really creative, I just chose to document the progression of the graffiti, and move on, I was getting kind of hot.

The front door to Gallensons provided a chuckle.

I then put my camera to the test, and took this (JPEG as it came out of camera)

And pulled this from the RAW file, much better than I thought it would do, the window is a bit messy, I could clean that up if I cared to clone the old window back in at 50% opacity-ish. But I like this shot.

Deciding I was done sweating, I decided to head out to Butterfield Canyon and up the backside of the worlds largest eyesore, the Kennecott Copper Bingham Canyon Mine. Great view of the worlds largest open pit mine. Impressive but still an eyesore.

Portrait orientation pano.

Landscape orientation pano. Getting better at these things.

Hope you enjoyed sharing my day, let me know if you liked the shots.... or hated them too....

Of Sunflowers and Sunsets.....

Went for a ride the other day after the kids went off to school. Along my route there are LOTS of sunflowers, happily this day there was little wind and they were not swaying much. (This makes things MUCH easier!) So I hopped off and quickly shot a couple. Only one that I really liked though, but I did like it enough to try to get it really right. BTW I seldom revisit a shot once processed. Unless I botch it the first time.

This was my first attempt.

This my second that I like just a little bit better.

At the end of the day, my kids and I took a free ride on the new Light Rail line, and then hustled to the east side of the lake to shoot the sunset. These shots were stitched together from a bunch of shots. Like them though.

15 shots in Landscape Orientation.

22 shots in Portrait Orientation.

My Dad's Camera: Voigtlander Vito II

Seeing as some of my online photography buddies have been playing with film, I thought it might be fun to go WAY retro and play with a film camera. This guy was manufactured in the '50's, folds and makes you guess the distance, because you do NOT look through the lens. You also have to use a handheld light meter to set your exposure. This is NOT an action shooting camera.

One of the meters I have to use, my brother found it for me.

Uncased and unfolded. I wish somebody made a digital camera that folded like this. APS-C or Full Frame Sensor, 35mm equivalent Field of View. Simple and easy.

The Tri-X I put in, kinda messed myself up with 400 speed, daylight doesn't work so well, I can't set the highest shutter speed so I can't effectively shoot in broad daylight.

Looking forward to shooting with this camera, just need to find the right opportunities to do so.