Taking Time The Only Way He Knows...

In case you are wondering, the title of this blog post comes from a Jethro Tull Song I was listening to the other day. I felt at the time it was speaking about me in a way, taking the time to relax in the only way I know. Taking pictures. 

I was host of a continuing education course last weekend, where we had time to take our lunches on our own. I chose to take mine with camera in hand while walking around Memory Grove and downtown Salt Lake. Both days I took my Pentax K5, day one with my DA 55-300 and the second day with my Sigma 17-70. The days were warm and dry, and perfect to walk off the stiffness of sitting for several hours at a time.

I have an affinity for this building, the Utah State Capitol, you get a different view of it from across the ravine to the east. (DA 55-300 @ 300mm)

This was zoomed wide to 55mm. I love the detail of old school craftsmanship.

I had never seen this spot before, looking over the ravine that contains memory grove. I really want to shoot this as a sunset shot someday.

The trees are blooming early due to the dry and warm winter, I hope they all survive. This is the type of shot that the Sigma 17-70 excels at.

This was my wallpaper for several days. At full resolution it is spectacular.

Dogwood blossom in the Avenues area of SLC. Didn't know they grew here...

This is the same monument as in the second shot. Just shot at 17mm and from a totally different angle. Like them both.

Snowshoeing? Yep. Taking Pictures while snowshoeing? Of Course!!

Have been dying to get out and do something fun. So I took a day off of work and ran away with my brother to play. Even though the snow was not what you would call fresh, it was still nice to get out! This was as far as we dared take his truck.

Most of what we were on was snowmobile track, but due to the warm conditions, without snowshoes we were slipping and sliding and breaking through. So it was good to have them.

Here is the old guy, I can call him that because he is and always will be older than me!

Since this is a photo blog, I wanted to show you the value of a technique I use a lot, HDR. Now this first shot of the trail is an OK shot, just balancing the sky and shadows was hard and the blue in the skies really did not come out like it should have.

This was a handheld HDR shot, that gives a better idea of what the sky looked like without totally wigging out the foreground.

Sadly Some Dude has slightly dodgy hips and the motion of walking with my legs further apart than usual and with the snowshoes weight combined to make me do this a lot. Sit and rest. Sigh.....

St. Paddy and his Day

Salt Lake City has a St. Patrick's Day Parade, along with the rest of the known universe. I don't drink, so if I wanted to go it was to take pictures. What else would Some Dude With a Camera do when he has the opportunity?

They mark the route with shamrocks. Nice touch.

Nothing special to the shot but I was in love with the sky/clouds that morning.

Guy sitting next to us had some interesting hands so I snuck in a shot.

A bunch of guys in skirts marched past.

One of them was carrying St. Andrew's Cross, one of the flags of Scotland.

Behind the mall I found a door that had more than a couple locks and peepholes.

Kinda liked this truck...

Love the old ones: Pentax K 28mm f3.5

Nothing beats the feeling of using one of the old manual focus lenses Pentax is famous for. The build and the... solidity are just awesome in the hand.

While these photos are nothing amazing, they are fun for me simply due to the fact that the taking of them was a sensory experience that was enjoyable. And had to be worked for just that little bit harder.