Yellowstone

A trip that I look forward to every year is our family trip to Yellowstone / Island Park. Always a fantastic time as I get to combine 2 of my passions in life, my family and wildlife photography. 7" of snow in Island Park couldn't even slow us down. All of the animals in the park were pretty active. The elk were rutting pretty hard and all the other animals were on the move. It was fun to see the whole family involved and I must say they are good sports considering I get them up pretty early and drag them around until the sun has set. It makes for a long day but the memories made were priceless. We were able to see every major specie of animal in the park except for moose. I have now officially traveled every square inch of road in the park as we traveled through places I hadn't been before. My boys were on mission to see a grizzly bear and I was not going to disappoint. As it got later in the evening I started getting nervous and frustrated. I learned that we had just missed a mother griz and her cubs as they were hanging out less than 100 yards from the road. We finally found our griz though, and it was the closest we've ever been. We were 80 yards from this magnificent animal. This time of year the bears are pretty active as they get desperate to get fat for the winter. They will spend the entire day eating. This guy spent hours digging in the dirt and I believe he was either eating some sweet roots or insects. Mase was beside himself with excitement - and that, my friends, is worth everything to me... Till' next year :)



An HDR shot of Mammoth Springs




Here's my Mason watching every move of his griz through his binoculars.


400mm, f5.6, 1/200, iso400


In this pic you can see whatever he is eating hanging from his mouth.

U of U Homecoming

The anticipation and expectations were very high but the outcome of the game was anything but desirable... I guess this is what you get when you play with the big boys in the PAC 12. It did make me miss the MWC days when we'd smoke anybody that stepped on our field. Still a blast hanging with 2 older boys and fantastic friends. The best part of the whole experience was the half time entertainment ;) I got to see my smokin' hot wife dance her guts out with the U of U alumni dance team - what a treat. Brought back some fond memories I have of watching her perform at the games...

Stadiums seem to always scream 'wide' so this is where the 10.5 fisheye goes in my pocket. The sun had set and the clouds had formed perfect. I didn't have a tripod so I shot hand held. With some help from Lightroom's lens correction I was able to straighten out the field lines to avoid the fisheye look.

Wild Flowers

Plenty of water throughout the year has lead to some pretty flowers and plenty of feed for the horses of Strawberry Ridge.

Urban Wedding

My beautiful sister in law and studly future bro in law are getting married this November! I twisted their arms to let me take a couple engagment photos for them. They wanted to stick with a cityscape background. I had this vision of what I wanted for a while and I have to say was pretty happy with what we got.

Bavelas Farm

Some photos of a recent shoot at the Bavelas farm. This place has a ton a crusty stuff that always makes for some interesting background. This is my brother's family. I was pretty excited with how this turned out, had to get down and dirty to get this shot.





These are mine... I love these punks!




This was love at first sight... Trust me :/




This is one of my favorite families in the world. Each one of these kids have a special place in my heart.

Lake Powell Trip

Every year we look forward to LP. One of our favorite corners of the world. Plenty of family time, swimming, food, hikes, laughs and photo opportunities. Every evening you can look forward to breathtaking sunsets and vistas. Sometimes within a .5 mile hike away.









This is where I ran out of shade... We were on a long hike and one of the boys forgot to bring sandles and it was the hottest part of the day. It got to the point where you couldn't walk bare feet without burning your feet. I ended up giving Mason my shoes and staying back. I had about 18" of shade along this wall, so I laid down to take a nap while the rest of the group continued hiking. This was my view as I laid on my back.

Go All Macro On Me.

Found this guy at Lake Powell. I'm kind of mad that I didn't take a different picture to put his size in perspective. Let's just put it this way, he fit on my pinky finger nail - He was tiny. I caught him and held him in my hand while I ran through the house boat trying to find my macro lens. Ever tried changed lens' with one hand, always exciting. The family was worried about me and mentioned they have medication for people like me, but I didn't pay any attention to that. I used the Nikkor Micro 105mm VR lens.