Thoughts about what else? Photography

I have been a photographer for a long time. I have had some very nice equipment. I have learned that it takes a lot more than nice equipment to get great photos. Through the years I have struggled to find some way to record what I am seeing in my head to the camera's film or memory card. It can be so simple but at the same time so infinitely complicated. These days with Photoshop, Lightroom, and all other software, not to mention all the digital camera's settings, it's even harder to keep pace with everyone. I recently decided to concentrate on the basics of exposure, composition, and lighting. I seem to learn something new every day. That's what I hope to do....get better every day. Photography is like golf....nobody will ever master it. Some people are very good, but nobody knows everything and every situation presents a new set of variables.

Almost every day and certainly every weekend I take my camera and go for a drive or walk. I try to concentrate on getting at least one good picture. I rarely get that picture. I am a harsh critic of my photos. I don't think most of them are worth posting on the net. I post a few here and there to see what others think. I love to hear what others think. Good or bad.

I get a lot of enjoyment from photography and hope to continue for the rest of my life to learn and hopefully get better. One day it would be very nice to pay the bills doing something I love. If not, I will keep doing what I love when I can and enjoy every minute I have doing something I love.

These are my thoughts of the day. Not really anything ground-breaking here and I know I talk a lot about photography and computers, but it's what I love. I want to be able to read this in a year and see what I was thinking at this time.

Here's a picture of an amazing sunset about a week ago from my house.

Lifetime passion for photography

I have loved photography for so many years. I remember when I first got a small camera mom or dad gave me. We went to Yellowstone shortly after I got it and all I could think was to get some good shots. I have always loved it. I have a passion for it. I now have some very nice equipment and wanted to document it so I can look back and see what I had at this time. I will always have a passion for photography. I just hope someday I can make money doing it or retire and just shoot pictures. (and build and play with computers. haha) Anyway, I am going to post some pictures of my main "Pro" camera gear. I shot these pictures with a Canon S95. One of the most advanced compact cameras sold in the world today. I am fortunate to be able to have this gear and am putting it to good use. I use it 9 out of 10 days. Hopefully someday I will be able to take pictures of people. I think I could do a great job. I have the fundamentals down. Here are pictures of most of my stuff as of 11/13/2010.

Equipment includes a Canon 7D, 17-55 F/2.8, 24-105 F/4L, 50mm F/1.8 II, 100mm F/2.8 Macro, 430EX II Speedlite, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod + 496RC2 Ball head.

From Nate's thoughts....

From Nate's thoughts....

From Nate's thoughts....

From Nate's thoughts....

From Nate's thoughts....

From Nate's thoughts....

Old trucks?

I don't know what my fascination is with old trucks, but I seem to be attracted to them for whatever reason. In the past 2 months I have taken multiple pictures of old trucks (and cars). These are a couple of examples. If anyone knows where an old car or truck might be accessible please let me know. I am even trying to see if I can get into a junkyard somewhere.

Look at this damn rabbit! It lives near my house. I see it every few days now. It was eating grass in my front yard this morning! Kind of an odd thing to see in the morning when you go outside. This was this morning.

Mirror Lake Highway

I took a ride up the Mirror Lake Highway. It would be a great place for a summer home. Here's one I passed on the way up. Imagine living here for about 6 months of the year. What a great place the Kamas area would be to live.

Digital Photography

Digital photography has not been around for very long. We all take it for granted. Just 10 years ago one of the first digital cameras came out which was available to the public and professionals. It was the Nikon D-1 and cost about $6000. There were earlier ones but they were much more money. The Nikon D-1 was a 2.74 megapixel camera. The Canon 7D I have now is an 18 megapixel camera and you really don't want to go much higher for a variety of reasons. It also has about ten million times as much computing power.

I cannot believe that such an amazing technology "formed" right in front of our eyes and most people don't even appreciate it. I am constantly amazed by digital cameras. If I could only have one hobby it would be photography. I feel bad for blind people when I am looking at my pictures form the morning "shoot" Blind people would not be able to appreciate photography. I guess if I go blind (completely....I am already blind) I will have music to fall back on.

Anyway, here is one from this morning that turned out okay. I love making pictures and will always love doing it.

Grandpa's barn

I want to get some good pictures of Grandpa's barn and the orchard. I remember building huts inside the barn. I remember all the sheep, horses, and dogs. I spent a lot of time here when I was young.

Strange objects around the moon

I was just looking at the moon through my big zoom lens. It is daylight, about 7:30 PM. I was looking at it when I started to see small balls of light zipping around the moon. They would stop every minute or so. I snapped about 10 pictures. The pictures just show what appear to be "stars" or "satellites" or some "explainable" phenomenon. I can tell you they are NOT stars, or planes. I cannot explain them. I ran in the house to get my tripod to get some video. When I got back out....the objects were gone. I have spent the past hour looking at the moon. I have not seen them objects again. I don't know what they were, but I can't explain them. I have the pictures. I will blow them up and post them in the next few days and send you all the link. You will all say they are stars, but it was daylight and the objects appeared to be moving around the moon. Very strange. It was nothing "life altering" but very strange indeed. I'll show you the pictures when I get time to crop them and blow them up.

Take the time to look up. It's amazing what you see sometimes. We have become content with living our lives never looking up into the sky like people have done for thousands of years. I have always liked to go out during the day and night to look up at the sky and stars. This is not the only odd thing I have seen.

That's my though of the day.

UFOs by the moon

Haunted House?

I have had some strange experiences in this house throughout the years. Not many have been stranger than today. This morning about 4:00 AM I was standing on my little porch looking up at the sky when I heard what sounded like a heavy mason jar or whiskey bottle break at my feet. I literally sounded like a glass object of some kind broke within 3 feet of me. I grabbed a flashlight and turned on all the lights to see what had happened.

After about an hour of looking at every glass object in my house, and every other object that may be capable of making a sound like that when broken, I came up empty. I could find nothing broken or any glass anywhere. I even looked out in the street and all around my house. I found nothing.

I have had many odd things happen here. Many much stranger than this occurrence. I don't know what would cause this sound or why it sounded like it was within 3 feet of me.

Just a strange (true) story.

Nate

A good view from Squaw Peak

I drove up AF canyon and ended up in Provo Canyon (Alpine Loop again), so I decided to go up to Squaw Peak while I was there. Quite the view up there.

Seeing the world differently

Photography makes you look at the world a little different. It's cool to be able to freeze a moment in time. I saw these birds in my pine tree this year. I have never seen them before. I assume they are here every year. They are probably migratory birds of some kind. My tree is full of them, but they are shy....it's not easy to get a good picture of them. I got this one today. It turned out okay. They are pretty colorful. Talk to you later, Nate.

The shore of Utah Lake

I have walked to the shore of Utah Lake twice in the last two weeks. I recorded this video today when I was there at about 8:00 AM. Talk to you later, Nate

I took a ride up AF canyon this morning. This site will not take a video over 100MB so I cut almost everything out, but some of the trip is here. Talk to you later. Nate

Photography again - I love it

I am just sitting down to look at the days pictures. I went to American Fork canyon this morning to see if I could get any good shots. I saw some good views but it's not easy to record what you see with your eyes. What I mean is, you can snap a picture of what you see, but it rarely turns out "exactly" like you saw it. The great pictures are the ones that turn out just like you stopped that moment in time. Other good ones are recorded to the flash memory inside the camera with a little "flare" that wasn't there when you saw the scene with your eyes. In the shot of the water in high resolution you can see at least 3 or 4 "levels". You can see the top of the water, the stuff floating on the water, stuff under the water, and the reflection of the trees and mountains. This isn't a great picture but it's interesting to see all the elements.

It was a great morning at Tibblefork when the sun came up.

I wish I could be somewhere like this every morning. I don't think I can take much more of the 8 hours a day behind a desk unless it's working for myself. Friday (yesterday) was my last day at the Murray office. It's a constant struggle for me to go to work every day. I am really having a hard time with it. I would give anything to find a different way to make my house payment and have insurance. It's human nature to resist change. Knowing this does not help ease the apprehension and the job I do is not a challenge. It's monotonous. I need something to get excited about. That's my thought of the day.

Another new camera

I was having some problems with my new camera. (the big one) so took it back to see if BestBuy would exchange it for a working one and not be hurt. They were very nice about it and let me have cash back or exchange it. They didn't have the same one so I went crazy and got a "Pro" DSLR. It's what the "pros" use and I have been into photography long enough I think I will be able to understand it after a while. I cannot believe the quality of the pictures this thing takes. Once I learn to use it....I will be taking the best pictures of my life. I'm VERY excited. It's what I have wanted for 10 years.



All I ned now is some talent and artistic ability and I'm all set. Hopefully I have some of that in my 'genes" Anyway, this is an update of my digital camera adventure. This same thing happened last time. I got one, wasn't satisfied and took it back for a different one. This camera is the best you can get without spending BIG bucks, so this is it for me.

New camera!

I have been "into" photography for a long time. I set out to learn all about it, but found there is no end to the learning. It's an art. Like any other art, there is no end to the possibilities photography provides. In late 2006 early 2007 I got a new Canon G9. It was a "high end" camera with all the settings and options available. I loved that camera. I sold it last week and replaced it with a new one. The new one has some different options and newer technologies. The new camera is the Canon "SX20-is" (image stabilization) The new one is actually not quite as "high end" as my old one, but I can still do almost everything and a lot of different stuff. I can't wait to get shooting pictures.

I have "seller's remorse" because I spent so much time getting to know that camera. I know it sounds crazy, but I really am regretting selling that camera. haha I have spent two days experimenting with the SX20is and it seems to be a good replacement. It has a powerful zoom lens built in. With the old one I had to spend 10 minutes taking it apart to attach the zoom lens. The new one takes AA batteries. The old one needed batteries specially made for it and I could only charge them with an outlet at home. With AA batteries, I have already found rechargeable ones I can charge in my car or at home in 15 minutes. ANother really neat thing about the new one is the LCD screen rotates and you can point it in any direction. It should be very handy. It also shoots HD video.



This post is to document when I got this camera so I can look back on this day and see how it worked out. I can still be the "designated photographer" for Dad, Emily, and Mom when you guys need stuff done, in fact, I am looking for some test subjects.

The pictures you see are of my new camera. The Canon SX20 is.



I almost forgot, I picked up a little point and shoot too! This would be great for any of you reading this. It's a Canon SD780is. This one is the size of a credit card and shoots HD video too!

Family pictures from July 24th

I had almost forgotten about the family pictures mom made me take on July 24th 2009. It's a good thing we did them. They will be fun to look at in 10 years. There are also good ones of the different families and couples and me, Matt, Em, Rae, and Sar. Anyway, I'm glad we got them now. Maybe we can do it every 5 or 50 years.

Here is the link to the family one :

http://rapidshare.com/files/343583063/IMG_1871.JPG.html

First entry of 2010

Well, I thought it would be a good idea to make an entry into my little blog. 2009 is over and it was about like every other year. I really got going down the road to computer heaven this year. Last year about this time I decided to start saving for a new computer. I started to put $20 into an online account here and there. In May I had done so much research into the subject I had the knowledge to build one. (I thought) so I started ordering parts. Within about a month or two I had all the parts I needed and started building. It was one of the best experiences I have had. I cannot remember something I felt so passionate about.

On the other side of the spectrum, my work is about ready to move out of the office they have had for like 30 years in Murray. They don't even have a place for me yet. It sounds like I will be driving to North Salt Lake every day to an office they have there. I even heard talk of me having to work in a double-wide trailer. The thought of driving up there and back every day makes me want to puke. Hopefully it will go okay, I need to pay the bills and just as importantly have good health insurance.

That's what's going on with me these days. I also recently got a laptop and new router. A router takes your internet connection and splits it into many connections and also makes it wireless. I have been playing around with it quite a bit. I have also been into networking since I got my laptop. I got a new router and after only one day I flashed it with open source firmware. (just some guys code, written in his basement) In other words, I ruined it and fixed it and now it's not even the same router I got. It now can do things only a $1000 network appliance could do. Doing this stuff is not easy and it's not for the faint of heart. I spent hours doing it. Maybe I will use the knowledge some day.

By the way, now that it's 2010....please don't say it "two thousand and ten" just say "twenty ten" please....thanks.