This is the very rock that Tom Cruise climbed in the opening scene of the Mission Impossible II, apparently all by himself without any ropes. Visually it is at least 1,000 feet tall, but who knows at which point he started.
The rock is a neighboring rock to the one from which this photo was taken, though the drop is not as dramatic or deep.
The Mother of all arches, the Delicate Arch, the most famous Utah landmark, at sunrise.
See it large.
This is by far the craziest and the most dangerous photo I have ever taken in my life. Brandon is sitting on the edge of the Dead Horse Point in Moab, Utah, and if he was to fall, he was to fly about 2,000 feet down.
This is a MUST SEE large.
I am submitting this photo to the next issue of JPG magazine. Please help me get published by following the link and voting for it.
You may also vote for this one while you're at it.
"The snapshot is not as simple a statement as some may believe. It represents something that each of us has seen - more as human beings than photographers - and wants to keep as a momento, a special thing encountered. The little icons that return from the photo-finisher provide recollections of events, people, and places; they stir memories and create fantasies. Through the billions of snapshots made each year a visual history of our times is recorded in enormous detail." -- Ansel Adams
Please see it large for best results.
Continuing on with my environmental theme, here is another example of how we are trying to deface the nature by leaving our crap behind.
It's always good to start a new day by watching sun rise at the lake. This is now the South shore of the Utah Lake, not far from where we live. This is not an HDR, but just plain old playing with contrasts in PS
I really don't have the time for outdoor shooting on Mondays, so I decided to expand my world of water set by one more image. This time you are seeing two green drops making contact with red water.
The result of this? I finally cleaned the sink. As any wife would tell you, it's never a bad consequence of a photo shoot.
The more I go out to shoot the landscape, the more I appreciate my own surrounding, and the more I am disgusted with humans. Utah landscape is occupied by hunters, and though I have nothing against hunting, they always leave piles of trash behind them (bullet shells, food, bottles, etc.). Someone should really put up a wired fence around nature so we don't destroy the beauty like this.
Interesting parallel - just like the Holy Land, Utah has a salt lake (i.g. Salt Lake) and a fresh water lake (Utah Lake) and just like the Holy Land, they are connected to each other through the river, Jordan River.
One area I'll explore more closely in the next few weeks is the Utah Lake, the only natural water fresh lake in Utah.
Those who visited BYU know that as far as dress standards, everybody looks pretty much the same (i.e. boring). So it's nice to see someone make a statement like this and celebrate the nice day outside.
Notice - he even has a bracelet to match the green color and some kind of key toy around his neck to match the blue bag.
This has been a long but eventful week. When it happens, we like to finish it off at a restaurant. Today we had a lunch at Carrabas, one of our two favorite Italian restaurants in Utah County.
This is probably the worst photo I have taken in a while from every point of view, but who cares.. Today we found out that the boy is on his way!!
DISCLAIMER: No nudity here. The doctor is just pointing to his stomach.
After 7 years of higher education and with 49 days left until graduation, I find it almost impossible to focus in my classes. I still go to them, but even though I am there, I am not really there, kind of a ghost of a student.
I decided to hit another canyon today, Spanish Fork, which is actually closer to my house than Provo Canyon where I am used to shooting landscape. I am disappointed. My favorite golf course that is in the canyon is still closed, the snow is not really melting and when you get to the canyon, nothing tells you the March is here. Will this stupid long ugly winter ever end?!..
I grew up in a big city, but I fell in love with the nature as I spent my last four years living in Utah. Today I was at the study session with three buddies of mine who are also moving away from Utah, and they are all in the process of buying new houses in Arizona, Colorado and Texas. I'm moving to Bay Area shortly, so my aspirations aren't as high, but if I was to buy a house, I'd want the one just like this one - on a lake in the mountains.
One of those random spontaneous shots as the kid froze looking at my camera at Church. This is one of the twin sons of my friend Wallie.
BYU's basketball team finished their regular season today, and in the final game clintched Mountain West Conference title with a solid win against the rival University of Utah, 85-62. We're dominating the conference in just about every sport this year.
I took this one from the very top of the packed Marriott Center.
I wanted to see what water drops looked like in a different color, so I bought some food coloring for that purpose on the recent trip to Walmart. This also gave me a reason to join my wife on a shopping trip, which I don't do as often as I should.
See other photo here.
On this photo somebody tried asking him about the model of him and Michael Dell working together as they used to in the 90s, but Kevin knew what the question was all about.
Kevin Rollins, a BYU alumni, who was Dell’s CEO during the past two years until he stepped down a month ago to give the reins back to Michael Dell, spoke to us today. He tried to avoid speaking about why he is not Dell’s CEO anymore, but he knew it was coming during the Q&A session. He was brief, saying that he and Michael no longer share the same vision, and it’s time for him to move on. I wonder how Michael's return to Dell will go. It worked for Steve Jobs and Apple, but will it work for Michael? Dell certainly has a lot more problems to deal with than just the upper management. A positive in all this for me? I been a strong supporter of Dell products due to Kevin’s affiliation with BYU, but I think I’ll stop buying their products for a while, and be a bit more objective in my choices.
I was impressed with Kevin Rollins overall. He spoke about the future, as he sees it, saying that online communities today have a tremendous power, and it will only continue to increase as Internet enters less developed countries. I also liked his ideas on moving and working abroad. The countries where economies are booming right now (India, China) have what it takes to develop growing businesses, but only when it comes to lower and upper management. They lack the skills of middle managers, and that’s where Americans can do much good. He also spoke about how he came to Dell. He was a partner at Bain in Boston when a new assignment came up. It was early 90s, and nobody was excited about commuting to Texas on a weekly basis to work with some computer company. He said he’ll do it, and I bet he still has no regrets, as severance pay ($5 million) is still coming through in the next two years. Not bad. I wish him luck wherever he goes next.
