Ogden Canyon

Canyon,Photography,Waterfall,Nature

Antelope Island

Current mood: sore
Category: Travel and Places

From The Archives

Every year in Utah we go through what I like to dub the Spring Teaser Phase. I.e. we go a few days were it looks and feels like spring, and then go back to winter for a few days, back and forth like this until eventually spring really kicks into gear. Then we have the Winter Just Won’t Let It Go Phase and will have a few days of winter interrupt my precious spring.

When these teaser phases last more than a few days I start getting an itch to go hiking. Mostly because I’ve been cooped up all winter long and want some fucking nature. I learned last year that I can’t go up into the mountains this early. Yes the snow is still over your heads up there this time of year… So I have been looking for lower valley nature trails to enjoy.

Last weekend we decided to venture over to Antelope Island for a fun filled day of hiking and enjoying some scenery. The fist thing that struck me is I really had no idea how far the Great Salt Lake (now to be referred to as GSL) is. It’s a lot further from the freeway than I had anticipated. Next came the entrance fee to the park, a whole 9 bucks per car just to get onto the Island. I know most of it is paying for the causeway they built, but yeesh.

As far as I know I have only ever been out to Antelope Island once when I was younger. And honestly I couldn’t tell you if I stepped foot on it or not. SO first things first; a stop at the visitor center. What is Antelope Island most famous for? Buffalo. Seriously, it’s called Antelope Island but this transplanted herd took all the fame and glory of this little island. Being as this is the islands claim to fame guess what we saw in various parts of the island.

 
You guessed it, those weird random Buffalo statues that started popping up all over Utah during the Olympics. This one, residing outside the visitor’s center, is actually kind of cool and opened up an artistic opportunity.

 
One of the many, many shots I took of the lake. But I like the way this one looks. This was taken from the north end of the visitor’s center. Inside we glanced through the exhibits, look at the aquarium filled with the only species that thrives in the waters of the GSL; Brine Shrimp.

I bought me a souvenir and inquired if there were any limitations as to where I could go on the island. Good thing to know that the north tip is free range, but once you past the fence you must stay on the trails. Okay I can deal with that. The next thing that I HAD to do was see if I could see Salt Lake City from the island. Off to the southern end where the Oldest Ranch in Utah happens to be. By the time we got out there they were closed, and very rudely informed us of this. So I don’t have much to say about this place. Here is a picture I took though.

 
Also shown in this picture are some of the only trees we saw here. It was strange, the absence of trees. I am pretty sure these are not naturally occurring trees here. I think they were brought in.

So back the way we came to enjoy the public use lands. Driving back we came across a spring and possibly more non native trees, but I think these may actually be naturally occurring here, I mean it was the only source of Fresh Water I saw on the island.

 
Continuing down the road in one of the pullouts I finally found what I was looking for. A view of Salt Lake City with, why The Great Salt Lake visible.
Depth perception is such an amazing thing isn’t it? By the looks of this picture You would think Down Town was on lake front property. Locals know better though.

Here you can see the approximate boarders of downtown SLC as compared to the lake shore (at high water levels I might add) approximately 10 miles or so. Now the water level is so low, I believe Antelope Island can properly be called a peninsula. As shown in this picture.

 
This was taken further south down the island, but it is so not the shot I was looking for, it just goes with my current point.

 
Some buffalo chillin on the shore.

 
This is called Egg Island. I read somewhere it is a major nesting ground for Seagulls and other birds. You wouldn’t believe the cacophony emanating from this place. This is at the end of Lady Finger Point, a very short trail (0.25 miles one way) at the northern tip of the island, but lots of rocks and boulders to climb around.

 
Here is Landis carrying my tripod that I never used on this trail hehe. I don’t think he knew I took this picture, but look how sexy he is.

 
A flock of seagulls over the lake.

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Here are the rocks we had to clamber over to get to the end of the trail. The rocks here are crazy. Some areas they are just everywhere appearing that it rained rocks one day. I read that the rocks on this island are some of the oldest in Utah, even older than those found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! Looking back through my images I was kind of surprised at the lack of images of the island. I guess I was more interested in the views from the island.

 
Finally an Antelope.

 
A seagull on a beach house. I am including this picture because it is the best image I have of the beach on Bridger Bay. This, this is crazy. The sand here is just like a beach you would see in California. The sand is so soft and amazing, I really was ready to take off my shoes and run down to the shore. But I was more interested in hiking this day.

White Rock Bay. When I saw the title of this bay I expected a crazy white bay with sheer cliffs of white stone. No, the white rock it is referring to is the little boulder in the lake (to the right of this picture)

White Rock Bay as seen from Buffalo Point. (Now do you see the white rock?) Going through the 140 odd pictures I took of this island I was overall disappointed in the quality. I attribute this mostly due to early spring haze, and a storm that appeared to be brewing of to the north. However, this picture I think is stunning. It looks so surreal, like the landscapes of The Neverending Story. It’s as if this is not a photograph but a painting. I really like this image and will be adding it to my portfolio I think.

Here is a pretty sun over the lake picture from the top of Buffalo Point. As you can see there was a fire on the other shore. Never did see anything on the news about it, must have gotten it under control pretty quickly. The hike for Buffalo point is relatively short (0.4 miles one way) but it’s steep and there is a small, very scary part where you have 2 feet of trail, cliff to your right, sheer, ROCKY drop off to your left, and (at least this day) high winds blowing you around. There was a moment that I was literally scared stiff and couldn’t move.

 
And finally a sunset as seen from Bridger Bay. What better way to end a wonderful day trip?

Overall, this was a great day-cation. It was a 30 minute drive from my house, but halfway across the cause way it’s as if you are transported into another world. Mostly unmolested by man. It really doesn’t seem like you are in Utah anymore, rather a beach front trail somewhere along the coast. The weather was amazing; particularly considering it is early March. There were many more trails we didn’t get to this time, but I think we will do it again. I might even consider camping out there.

Final rating: 9 Squirrels out of 10. And this is only because of the entrance fee.

A Stroke Of The Ego

Current mood: surprised
Category: Art and Photography

We finally managed to have a real craft fair without being snowed in. YAY! I did a lot better than I anticipated, but not as great as I had hoped. I ended up selling:

4 framed 8x10’s
1 unframed 8x10
1 3x5 framed set
1 3x5
3 magnets (including 1 from the previous snowed out fair)
and received pre-orders for
6 Framed 8x10’s (including one not related to the fair)

so lets see, this is a total of 16 pieces of artwork I took that are now floating around in other peoples homes. If all pre-orders pay out, I will have made almost $100 in profit. This, this is just gravy. I never really expected to gain a profit. All I had hoped was to earn back what I spent putting it all together. If I consider man hours, I doubt I would have turned a profit. Hehe.

Really all this was about for me was a) see what other people thought of my artwork. And b) see what was reasonable to price my items at. One of the rather interesting things I learned was, you never know what might be appealing. I included several shots that I thought were just fascinating with very little to no interest. On the other hand I included an image I thought was good, but not great and only included it to show some contrast within my work, and guess which one had the most requests? I sold 4 of that one.

Another interesting thing I noticed is I sold more of my most expensive product than anything else. Even the cheap little magnets I made. I thought for sure those would sell like wildfire but no, just 3.

Here is a visual result of my efforts:

This was definitely a stroke to my ego. Everybody just went on and on about how good I am and “what a great eye you have” and “oh my gosh how did you ever capture that!” And “Really? That is right outside the old building?” (most sold print). People were telling me I was in the wrong profession, and that I should be making post cards or working for a magazine. All in good time. Step one: See if people will pay for your work.

Some of these people worked as free advertising for me, going back to the floor while continuing to go on and on about my shots. HAHA Thanks for that if you were one of them. It was really great to know that other people were enjoying my hobby as much as I do.

I thought about putting up a warning sign to the effect of: Warning, I am a complete nerd, and if you get me started on a particular topic I may not shut up. LOL but no I did enjoy telling people where the various shots were, and answering the random questions. Some of them even enjoyed some various anecdotes or stories I had about particular images.

It was like a blog, in motion… HAHAHAHAHA. Ok only a nerd would really get that.

I even got a few requests to do private shoots, so that will be a new fun and exciting adventure. I just have to decide how much I can charge for a sitting fee now.

All in all it was a lot of fun, I learned a lot. I think I sold to my audience really well. I know I need to work on my layout, and work on putting together a book or a portfolio if you will then just printing out blowups of the more popular images, and have a book to flip through for orders. As it was I took up 2 tables, AND an easel with all my images and it may have been too much.

The Complexities of Digital Organization

Current mood: aggravated
Category:Web, HTML, Tech

I have always been, well, disorganized. In my physical surroundings, in thought, and in my digital world. It’s usually not such a big deal until I finally get frustrated enough that I decide to attempt to make sense of the disaster I have neglectfully created. Compounded further more by my completely disorganized manner I attempt to organize myself. Am I making any sense here?

I am a packrat. Physically, mentally, and digitally as well. I save everything. I hate to throw things out. This goes with my digital files as well. Even if it’s a shitty picture, I keep it. Even if it is a duplicate song, I typically keep it. What if one is better than the other? What if I decide I like that picture?

My latest adventure stems from finally filling up all of my memory cards with pictures. Realizing I know for a fact I have not copied all of the images to my laptop that I use most often, and then being completely uncertain whether or not I had removed any images from the memory cards I have been using. Plus, the images I have put on my other computers, and finally to what I am attempting to make my back-up drive. Luckily I have not yet started this with my Nikon images. My mp3’s, well that is an entirely different clusterfuck.

Now I have approximately 1 year of images, taking up approximately 6 gigabytes in memory cards, 3.5 gigabytes of HDD space on my laptop, god knows what on my other computers all further convoluted with a haphazard failure of a system. I had originally decided to organize by a range of months, kind of like a business quarter year. i.e. Jan – Mar, Apr – Jun, Jul – Sep, Oct – Dec per year. Well that failed with the further complication that I mis-understood my camera, and I failed to use my system properly and was just downloading files to whichever folder upon need of use.

I THOUGHT my camera had an automated system of ensuring no filename will be re-used until I told it to. WRONG. It recycled the file names with each new card I put into the camera. So I have several images with the same fucking file name. It never came up until now due to my complete failure at using a system.

Thankfully, with my new system this proved not to be a problem. My new system is years, then months. So I have a 2008 folder, then a January, February, etc.. folders. Due to how much fit on each card SO FAR I haven’t had a duplicate file name come up in my attempts to arrange and back up. However, this is only organizing what is on the laptop. My next step is to back up the memory cards with the same system, and then go through to be sure I haven’t recycled any cards this year. I am pretty sure that I haven’t but I’m not 100% sure.

After I complete this task, I need to back everything up to DVD’s just to be on the safe side. I am hoping to fit at least a year on each DVD. We shall see. Then of course comes the task of well, keeping up with my new system for 2009 and then beyond.

The next catastrophe I foresee is maintaining my backups. I need to back-up to my backup drive, and then to DVD’s, and I should really be doing this on a more consistent basis. This has already bitten me in the ass with my mp3’s. I have NO clue which albums have been backed up, and which have not. I know there is auto-backup software available, but I like to manually do it to be sure, maybe this is my downfall?

Not too long ago I had the same problem at work. I don’t delete anything, even if it is obsolete and old. I finally just managed to arrange everything by dept I was in at the time. This, unfortunately has not worked for emails. I have every email ever sent to me from within 6 months of working there (when I finally realized how important having a record of all emails is important) even though, the likelihood of me needing an email from 2006 is almost null, it has come up. But with my flawed system, it takes me a minute to locate it. Hehe.
This sucks. And it is completely reminiscent of my attempts to organize my house. I go though and create piles to be dispersed into the appropriate sections of the house, then to where they should go. I create to go boxes, and then store them. I fail at this organized world bull shit.

What I really need to do is make my desktop a file server, and then create an auto back up system with that. I just haven’t managed to find the time to do this. Physical life just seems to be more important.

How do you all fair in the digital organization world?

3rd Times the Charm???

Current mood: adventurous
Category:Art and Photography

If you have been following here and here, I have been attempting to display my photography in a craft fair at work. After the last time I was really ready to give up.

The last attempt was closed early due to weather. I did get pre-order requests for 2 possibly 3 images, and sold one of my magnets. Which was awesome for an hour while, seeing as how we evacuated, right before Christmas. So I get another chance and am stoked for it.

Last time I think I went though enough preparation and agony I think I have a good set put together. However, I am posting this to ask for some additional help to help prevent additional agony.

1st question: Are there any images I have posted that you think are amazing?
2nd question: Are there any subjects I may or may not have taken you would be interested in?
3rd question: Any requests? (I have a month so local is best)
4th question: What do you think is a reasonable price for prints from an amateur photographer for an un-matted, unframed 3x5, a 5x7, an 8x10, same sizes with matte same sizes with a matte and frame, framed 3x5 sets?
5th question: Should I risk a poster size? If so, which image, and what would you pay for it?

Please help me out for my last chance this year.

Donut Falls

Current mood: adventurous
Category:Travel and Places

We finally decided to attempt the Donut Falls hike again this labor day. This after the failed attempt at it.

This was the road leading to the trailhead…. Landis is 6'1 see how much over his head the snow is? Yea I guess May is not the time to go hiking up in the mountains.

Back to our second attempt at a better time of year….
The hike itself was rather easy, your typical walk through the woods. Very pretty.

 
The falls are up just around the bend here, but I thought this was pretty.

Finally we get to the falls. Upon first look they don't seem very impressive. I read somewhere that apparently there was a rockslide not very long ago, so it may have been more pretty before being covered up.

 
Here you can see the water disappearing into the side of the mountain.
The climb up to the falls is a lot more difficult than the trail. You have to scramble over boulders constantly judging the easiest way up. Personally my easiest route ended with me crossing the river 3 or 4 times.

 
I did take this cool close up though.

 

This picture gives you a pretty good idea as to why this was named Donut Falls.

I climbed inside the little cave underneath which hides a beautiful pool of water. There is this wonderful sense of serenity when you step inside the cavern. The voices of the other hikers disappear into a calming din of rushing water.  And then I captured this.

I love this image. It's like an angel stepping out of the top of the cave.

Here is the top where the water comes in. I guess this really gives you an idea of it's namesake.

 
The view from the top.

As I was climbing down I overheard a couple of guys daring each other to get in. As I wasn't willing to endure the ice cold water myself, I still thought it'd make a cool pic so I prodded them along, calling them pussies etc. Finally I lifted the camera up and said I'll take your picture and they stormed right in. haha.

I am glad we decided to attempt this hike again, as well even though it is not the largest, nor the tallest, nor even the most powerful waterfall I have ever seen. it is certainly very impressive and unique. There is something magical about it.

The overall hike is quite easy, however to actually get up to the falls, you do have to climb up large boulders and cross the river a few times. I was definitely sore the next day.

Overall I would give this trail 9 squirrels out of 10. I would give it a perfect 10, but it's a very popular trail and there were lots of humans about.