One little man, so many trees crushing down.

I went out to Salt Lake City for New Year's. It was an interesting trip and included car shopping and a 24 hour stomach bug that knocked me flat. But I love Utah and it was nice to get away from the office, home, and the computer. Unfortunately, the Nor Cal rain followed me to Utah. These photos are from a New Year's Day hike in Mill Creek Canyon, above Salt Lake City, in the wonderful Wasatch Mountains. The mountains in the background are the Oquirrhs.

No bikes! You must all be psyched! ;)

The snow was very, very heavy for Utah. It was raining on us during most of our drive out to the trail. We got lucky in the end, even though the snow was on the sticky side. To keep things even more interesting we could hear avalanches in the distance. I think we heard about 5 or 6 of them. Never did see one, though.

All vacations must come to an end. These are from my flight home. The first is Antelope Island, just west of Salt Lake City, in the Great Salt Lake. The second is home - San Jose. The photo is of the south end of the San Francisco Bay.

A couple of reasons for traveling to Utah.

Great photos! Looks like I'll be headin out that way over spring break for a good long MTB trip and to see some friends.

Sorry you got sick - but it looks like you enjoyed the trip for the most part.

Nice photos - I like the last one......great shot of the 2 reasons for your trip.

Liz

A couple of reasons for traveling to Utah.

PJ - these are some excellent shots. Almost all of them would look good on a post card or hanging on a wall. I really like the last one.

How did you get such good exposure in the pictures with the snow? I've never really had a chance to shoot a snowy scene since it has been unseasonably warm here in Wisconsin, but I've heard that snow can play havoc with an in-camera light meter.

How did you get such good exposure in the pictures with the snow? I've never really had a chance to shoot a snowy scene since it has been unseasonably warm here in Wisconsin, but I've heard that snow can play havoc with an in-camera light meter.
Wow Masdog...I can't place Fond du Lac off the top of my head, but I'm in the far sw corner in Platteville, and we've had 6+" of snow on the ground since mid december. It's been unseasonable warm here for the past week or so and now most of the snow is gone, but I got a lot of snow shots this year. Can't say much for the past 8 years I've been up here...but this year has been good for snow until a few days ago. Well, they say tonight and tomorrow there are some more chances for flurries, maybe you'll get a chance to try some of PJ's suggestions, when he makes them. Good luck.

Wow, John, Great shots!!!!! I can't wait to be able to take and produce shots like that. Mine all still look like "snapshots"!!! But, I keep shooting and learning...and know that someday, I'll get there...hehe...

Ken

Great photos! Looks like I'll be headin out that way over spring break for a good long MTB trip and to see some friends.

When and where? I went to SLC last May and there was still too much snow to ride Deer Valley. Let me know more and maybe I can arrange to be there at the same time. Maybe we can have a little SLC mtb/photo gathering!

How did you get such good exposure in the pictures with the snow? I've never really had a chance to shoot a snowy scene since it has been unseasonably warm here in Wisconsin, but I've heard that snow can play havoc with an in-camera light meter.

Snow is tricky. Basically, you need to overexpose from what your meter is telling you. That means using exposure compensation if you're using auto exposure modes. I always use manual exposure so I look at the meter, look at the scene, and make an educated guess about how much to lighten up my exposure in order to get it correct.

You should also know that no photo you ever see from me will be untouched. I process all photos in Photosho - some of them pretty heavily. What comes out of the camera is only the start for me. I never use anything straight out of the camera. Just for an example, I'm posting an untouched version of one of the above photos, here. It was shot with the Olympus Stylus 800 Digital P&S and it was wayyy to dark when I took it. But it was no problem to tune it up using Photoshop Adjustment Layers.

I'm pretty sure we're gonna be up there the last week in May/first week of April. We're planning on dropping my wife off with some friends of hers in Provo, while my buddy and me head out to ether Fruita/Moab, or perhaps we might go down to St George and do some riding. We probably won't figure it out until a month or two before we go. We actually did a cool snow ride up in Butterfield (I think) Canyon that was pretty fun.

Snow is tricky. Basically, you need to overexpose from what your meter is telling you. That means using exposure compensation if you're using auto exposure modes. I always use manual exposure so I look at the meter, look at the scene, and make an educated guess about how much to lighten up my exposure in order to get it correct.

You should also know that no photo you ever see from me will be untouched. I process all photos in Photosho - some of them pretty heavily. What comes out of the camera is only the start for me. I never use anything straight out of the camera. Just for an example, I'm posting an untouched version of one of the above photos, here. It was shot with the Olympus Stylus 800 Digital P&S and it was wayyy to dark when I took it. But it was no problem to tune it up using Photoshop Adjustment Layers.
Wow John, you just made my day!!!! I have been very depressed with my photos as of late because of being very dissatisfied with the way they look. But then I saw your "virgin" shot and lo and behold, it reminded me tremendously of many of my winter shots. Now, I guess I need to continue my shooting, but really concentrate on my PS'ing at the same time.
Ken

That wasn't great raw material, but as you can see, it was certainly useable. Don't ever think that what comes out of the camera has to be the final product. I would have liked that photo to be a little brighter, but it's harder to control a point-and-shoot and my model was on the move. I had to work quickly. Basically, you want to make sure your highlights don't blow out. Once the highlights are gone, you can't do anything. A little dark is fine since you can easily lighten it up in Photoshop. Using your camera's histogram is the key to good exposure. This is a photo of the live histogram from the camera I used to take this picture - the Olympus Stylus 800 Digital. The photo was taken for the pro review (http://www.photographyreview.com/cat/cameras/digital-cameras/6-megapixel-and-higher/olympus/PRD_337450_5648crx.aspx?TabID=2).