April, 2008

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

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

81 words

Speed test

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.

I’m taking a group of students photographing in Southern Utah this spring and my former professor Craig Law was kind enough to meet with Brian and me today to help us decide on a few places to visit. We had a nice visit and lunch with Craig in Logan, got a few good pointers on what to see and where to stay, and then took the long way back to Rexburg. We drove the Valley View Highway (which is the highway on the west side of Cache Valley) to Downey, drove around Downey for a while, then took some back roads from Pocatello to Blackfoot. We found a lot of fun stuff on along the way. It was nice to be photographing and to spend some time away from school with Brian. Anyway, here are some images.

Taxidermy Deer Head, Cache Valley 2008

Half a House, Weston, ID 2008

Brian’s Shadow while he’s Photographing an Abandoned Home, near Weston, ID 2008

Tree and Power Line, Cache Valley 2008

Downey Fairgrounds, Downey, ID 2008

Tennis Court, Downey, ID 2008

My friend and former student Andy Duncan called the other day to let me know he was accepted to Utah State University’s MFA program in photography (congratulations again Andy). He also asked if I’d been up to Market Lake (one of my favorite places by the way) because he was interested in photographing it. I decided it would be fun to head out there. So, this evening my friend Jon, Andy, and I drove out and made a few photographs. Andy made a couple of images with a 4×5 camera, Jon made one with his roundshot (a revolving camera designed to make panoramic views) and I took a couple, but wasn’t terribly excited about them. After dropping Andy off at the gas station in Roberts I noticed a touching and kitschy and sad entrance sign and nativity scene at the Roberts RV park and made a photograph. I’m pretty satisfied.

Market Lake, ID from 2004 (I think)

Jon and Andy and my Shadow at Market Lake, ID 2008

Roberts RV Park, Roberts ID 2008

Well, it’s been over a month, so here’s an update.

My cousin Travis got married yesterday in Rexburg. His family is from Seattle, her’s is from Georgia, but they chose to get married in Rexburg. I’m sure it was so that Susan and I wouldn’t have to travel. Anyway, it was fun to get together with family and participate in all sorts of mayhem.

There’s always a good (which usually means embarrassing for somebody) story when we all get together. The best one of the weekend happened when we picked up lunch for the kids at Little Caesar’s. I was walking out with the pizza and my dad had the window down. He read the pizza box which said hot n’ ready. He said “hot n’ ready, are you hot n’ ready?” really loud to me. What he didn’t realize was that there was a woman getting out of her car right next to his window. She kind of looked over at him and I said “Who are you talking to?” She said “It better not be me I’m 8 months pregnant”. It was pretty funny.

Another funny thing was while we were in the waiting room after the wedding I saw one of my students from my basic photography course this semester. I asked her if she was photographing a wedding. She said “yeah I’m photographing Travis Simon’s wedding”, which was the wedding we were attending. It was also the first wedding she had photographed professionally. I’m sure she was already nervous and then to have her college photography present probably didn’t make things any easier. I think she did fine.

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend.

The Wedding Photographer

My Mom and some of her Siblings

My Sister Carrie and her fairly new Baby, Cameron