Valentines Day Splash

This is a plastic goblet that I drilled two holes in, one just below the lip, the other in the base. I then tied fishing line through the holes so I could swing it from the ceiling with one and with the other jerk it to a stop to spill the water from it. It took three of us to orchestrate this process. One to swing the goblet, one to take the picture, and one to trigger the flash unit. So much fun.

Liahona

There is an artifact that was provided by the Lord to a prophet named Lehi in the Book of Mormon that served to guide them through their journey. It is known as the Liahona. We don't know what it actually looked like but this is a carved wooden representation of what it may have looked like. The actual Liahona was made of brass and it had two pointers in it, one to point the direction they were to go, the other gave them written directions on what the Lord wanted them to do.

The Virgin's Lamp

A friend of mine brought this lamp back from Jerusalem. I sat a birthday candle behind it and shot it so it would look as if it were lit. I used a tree stump as a base to make it look authentic with its similar colors.

Grape Splash over Black Rawhide

I decided to set up my white photo box and drop some grapes into a goblet in front of it. This was lit with a flashlight, some dim room lights, and by triggering a SB700 at just the right moment. I set my D750 on Manual Mode, ISO 100, 2 sec, WB 7600K, and aperture f/22. It took 20 tries to get two photos I could work with. Photoshop and On1 are my PP programs of choice.

The Grapes of Splash

I was getting bored with what I have been doing lately so I tried throwing some grapes in a goblet. This is the result.

Broken Promises

My wife composed this shot with the story line of a broken romance. I really like what she was thinking, I should have her on the set more often.

Tinkerbell

I used a flashlight to create the light streaks in the background during this long exposure shot. I thought of Tinkerbell when I saw the results.

Playing with Fire

I used some charcoal lighter fluid to set this rose on fire. It was lots of fun but I learned to not do it in an unvented garage. It didn't take too long to get pretty dangerous in there. I won't be doing that again, but I sure like the results.

Bokeh Hearts

Shooting through a small heart shaped cutout in a piece of black paper that I taped over the end of my lens made for these heart shaped lights that are in reality a string of Christmas tree lights draped in a black photo box behind the subject.

Ready to Cook

Utilizing some common household food stuffs I composed this shot as a teaching opportunity for a class of senior citizens that I teach at the local Senior Center here in Taylorsville, UT.

Oranges

A couple of orange slices and a goblet make a nice composition for this photo. I used a flashlight to provide the lighting in a black photo box. So much fun.

Peek-a-boo

These wonderful rock cairns were scatted along the landscape as you enter the park from the east entrance. There seems to be an abundance of wild life in the park at certain times of the season. I had to laugh as I was viewing my photos and realized I had one peeking from behind this cairn, it does give an idea of the size of these things.

Overhead Root Ball

The root ball seen lodged high overhead in this slot canyon is evidence of just how high the water reaches during a storm in Zion National Park. This slot canyon is located just above the tunnel in Dry Gulch.

Bridge to Angel's Landing

This is the bridge one must cross to gain access to the trail leading to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. It takes a lot of patience waiting for the right moment to capture it without tourists standing on it.

In the Moon Light

Night photography is so much fun in Zion National Park. All of the tourists are back at camp so the whole park belongs to those who know how to shoot it. Normally I can set up in the middle of the road without any concern for traffic or having someone walk in front of my lens. This bluff stands just across the road from the main lodge in ZNP. A long shutter time allows for the correct exposure to capture all of the beauty of the park.

Big Horn Sheep

I stopped along the road to admire and take pictures of a small group of Big Horn Sheep. It was fun to watch them as they were watching me. I suppose they were keeping an eye on me to make sure I wasn't going to do anything to them as I was very close to them.

Checkerboard Mesa

Zion National Park's  Checkerboard Mesa is lit up by a full moon in this photo taken from the parking lot adjacent to the mesa. Night shooting is always so much fun and the results can be stunning.

Golden Tree

A wonderful twisted tree trunk caught my eye as I was coming down from Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park. I stopped and lit it up with a flashlight and used a long exposure to get the stars in the photo also.

Yellow Grasses

While coming down from the east entrance and through the tunnel I noticed this wonderful bed of dried grasses running along the river. I stopped and sat on the river bank and took this shot. I really like the lines of the grass, river, and hills of Zion National Park.