This story begins and ends with a plane ride (and a boat in the middle too).

The view while descending into Long Beach airport.

The weather in Long Beach, California. What was more surprising was that the airport was under construction so we had to walk from our plane to what I'm assuming was the original long beach airport. It was a building about the size of a fabric store with a small cafe in the corner which my wife and I huddled in until our ride arrived to take us to the ship.

Manzanillo

Manzanillo is a new tourist destination and is primarily a shipping port for produce and cars. The port was fairly busy with several barges, tug boats, and some local police. Not to mention the locals and us.

 

Cabo San Lucas

 

Sunset over the great Salt Lake.

Just some stuff to tide you over

So I haven't been shooting much lately. Be it for the general lack of inspiration or more because I don't have very many available models, I am sorry either way. I have still been playing around with the aesthetics of a shot trying to understand what makes a shot beautiful.


I have also been playing around with fire... a common past time.

Still, I could really use some PEOPLE to photograph. So if you have some free time or know anyone who wants something done please send them my way. I need all the help I can get!

Sky Lanterns

This July I bought some sky lanterns to celebrate random occasions and lighting stuff on fire (I figured I'm an American its how we do things). They are really beautiful and quite fun to light and watch fly away. I have been trying to get good photos each time I light one off but haven't had much success. Last Sunday we celebrated my nieces birthday and I lit my last two. Knowing what to expect and letting other people do all the fire management, I got much better pictures.

A walk though the garden

I'm sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything. I was busy schooling and trying to stay out of trouble (or something). I decided, now that school is winding down for the summer and I had some spare time, that I would take a wander through my moms garden.


Enjoy!

Some puffy stuff

This weekend, Caity and I went to the cabin. It was legendary! There was a gorgeous double rainbow over bear lake and some great scenery. I took plenty of pictures which leads to the theme of today's blog, clouds and rainbows!
And now the pictures...

Air Guitar

I was working on a shoot for one of my classes when this came out... I guess that's how air guitar was always meant to be played. I may do some more work with this idea later.
More serious images from the shoot to come...

Railroads and Faces

Its past time for another post! I went to Saint George this weekend to visit my brother and this was the most normal shot he would give me.I also snapped a shot of my dad a while back that turned out surprisingly well considering he's sitting at a Walmart card table in my apartment playing "hand and foot."This week I decided I needed to get out and get a little more familiar with my camera regardless of my subject. So I went out with the intent to shoot the clouds and instead ended up running back and forth taking self-portraits using the timer.


If you disregard all the butt-shots, shots with only my legs or shoes, and scenes where I'm half in view (or less), I think I'm getting better with capturing stuff. I guess now it's time to start taking requests.

Things I've been messing with.

So I haven't figured it all out yet, apparently being smarter than the camera is hard work. I have, however, been playing around (a lot). I've also been trying to learn what makes a great picture before editing. Today I went out to cutler marsh and took a bunch of pictures and didn't like a single one of the marshes when I looked at them again. I did however find these strangely wonderful.

They are the charcoal grills set up by a picnic area and I really didn't expect anything of them. I also went out in search of some golden photo near my apartment and came back with a lot less than I was anticipating. I found that the more experimental the shot, the more I enjoyed the look. I was still, trying to make something of nothing.

And when I got tired of wading around in the mud (seriously, it's really muddy out there right now), I took these of one of my guitar.
So what did I learn from all this? When photographing anything, its more important to focus on composition than anything else.