I am working overtime this weekend to finish up the updates on my web site. The plan is to have the web site updated on Monday. I will have new material this coming Monday, January 18, 2010. Thank you for your patience.

I wanted to share this photo with you as an example of getting lucky. I had just barely purchased my first DSLR and my boy asked if I would go to Brighton and take some photos of him doing some snowboarding tricks. I knew enough to get make sure I had the camera set up on a tripod and that I was out of the way from the snowboarders. After I got the tripod set up I also knew enough to place the camera in manual focus. I got everything set up and decided I better do a test run of the next boarder to come down the mountain. This was my test photo. I have no idea who the person is. I tried for the next couple of months to locate the person so that I could give him the photo all to no avail. My boy came down the mountain and hit a rut right before the jump and landed hard. When we came home we downloaded a free trial of photoshop and stitched the six different positions of the boarder into one photo. It took us forever. We have since learned how to make this a faster process. The big key to this was to guess the right exposure, have the camera in focus, on a tripod, and to be at the right place at the right time.

I like the complete rotation of the boarder.
I like the clear blue sky.
I like the height the boarder gets.
I would shoot this in Raw next time. Raw would allow more flexibility in the edit process.
I would shoot the entire sequence from take off to landing.

Thank you for visiting today. Let me know what you think.

~wr~

This is the truck we found while taking pictures of my daughter and her fiance. By the time we came on this scene it was getting quite dark. This was a simple three exposure HDR the longest exposure was for several seconds. First I combined the three photos using Photomatix. Once this was complete I enhanced the details and some colors using Topaz Adjust.

I like how the colors of rust, red, green, brown and much more just flow together.
I like the snow surrounding the truck.
I would like to not have the playground in the photo.

It is always important to make sure to check out the background. A lousy background can ruin a perfect picture.

Let me know what you think.

~wr~

I decided to take my daughter and her fiance up to Midway today for some Bridal photos. We had a blast, but it was cold. Just as we were about to finish up and leave for warmer weather I came across this fantastic looking cabin. It was getting quite dark at this point. This photo required a tripod and a cable release. It was a five exposure HDR with a slight amount of Topaz adjust for extra pop. The longest exposure was 13 seconds and the shortest was 1.6 seconds.

I like the rich colors of the wood and the decorations on the porch.
I like how the cabin sticks out from the drab clouds.
I like the snow and ice hanging off the front of the building.

The specs
Iso 200
24mm
f/16
tripod mounted
five exposure.

let me know what you think, and thank you for visiting my site today.


~wr~

This is another photo from last week. The sun was starting to set when we came across this bridge. The covered bridge is located between Heber and Midway, Utah. This is a seven frame HDR photo. I love the look of the bridge. It is new construction with an old fashioned feel. This bridge is a walking/bike path. The bridge goes over the Provo River. Twenty feet to the left is an ugly road for cars and ten feet to the left is a water pipe. I wish this bridge was away from these two structures it would make for some great photos if you could have the water and the bridge.

I like how in this photo the road and bridge are at an angle.
I like the blue sky.
I like the bridge being framed by the trees.
I don’t like the dirty snow on the left. It has a slightly yellow color to it due to the sun setting behind me.


Let me know what you think

~wr~

This is a 7 exposure 3 frame panoramic photo from last week. I took this photo about 20 minutes before the sleeping lady photo with the reflection on the lake. Timpanogos Mountain is located just to the right of the v in the mountains. I set the f/stop at f/2 to gain a maximum depth of field. I wanted to get the farming gate in the center of the picture, but when I took the photo I wasn’t happy about the weeds. I now like them as they add to the look of this gate being abandoned.

To achieve this type of photo you must move fast. Get all of your settings in order before you begin taking pictures. Equipment that is necessary is a tripod and a cable release. I set the tripod in the snow as far down as it would go. In saying this it still did not touch solid ground. That is where the cable release comes in. it made it so that there was no movement on the camera. For each photo you also need to have overlap so that the software can stitch the individual photos together.

I am working on an update to this web page it is looking great, but I don’t want to release it until I have it as nice looking as possible. In the meantime I am adding some of the new features to this page. Such as clickable photos on the blog and on the home page. I hope to have the new version in the next few weeks.

Thank you for visiting and please share this site with your friends and family.

~wr~