Home is Beautiful!

Woodland Hills, Utah

There is beauty everywhere!  I sometimes forget there is beauty close to home, not just in faraway places.  When life gets too busy, I forget to look for it, but when I do, often something beautiful jumps right out at me, even in a vacant lot next to the road.  I hope you look for something beautiful during your travels today!

About this photo:  no, a new type of large Utah sunflower is not in bloom! These wildflowers are a little bit bigger than an Oreo cookie on a plant that is about a foot tall. And no, there was no Photoshop trickery involved in this image. Unique and different compositions can be created by choosing the right scene, the right lens, the right camera settings and the right perspective or point of view. Here I used a wide angle lens, a small aperture (f/20), placed my camera just a few inches away from the flowers and focused about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the scene.  I was in a hurry because behind me were black rain clouds that were moving quickly and dumped just minutes after I took this shot. If I had had more time, and wanted a technically better image, (sharper), I would have put my camera on a tripod, taken numerous shots using different focal points from foreground to background, then combined them in PS or another software program. (For you Utah County photographers, I recently posted a similar shot that I had taken several years ago, and said it was taken in the Elk Ridge area. I went back to find this place again, and it is on the main road into Woodland Hills and the flowers are blooming right now.)

Traveling Salesman - Bali

Traveling Salesman....perhaps???

I can't imagine what a balancing act this must be, especially turning corners! Necessity really is the mother of invention!  (I'm going to think of this photo the next time I hop in my car and drive the two blocks to Costco!)

Traveler and Toiler

Traveler and Toiler

In Bali, like many countries, the local residents who need to work hard most days, have learned to coexist with the tourists who come to relax and sight see.

A Moment in Time - Bali

A peaceful moment in time...or so it seems. 

We only spent one day on the beach in Bali, and were there along with about a hundred of our closest friends. The day was hot and humid, the midday sun was bright and moving across a cloudless sky, bleaching out most colors. Not good conditions for landscape photography, but I knew I had to come away with at least one beach photo. I noticed this pergola with hanging lanterns and draped in matching fabric. I thought this might add some color and interest to an otherwise boring and 'high key' like scene. It was a miracle there were no people directly in front of me, (they were everywhere else on the beach). Just as I was quickly composing my shot, using the pergola as a 'frame', this lady strolled into my picture and stopped long enough for me to use her as my subject of interest! She almost looks like a model purposefully posing for the camera, but she had no idea I was taking her picture! (I did do a bit of editing to lighten and even out the color to enhance a high key look.)

Water Lily - Bali

Water Lily - Bali

Dinner Entertainment - Bali

The Welcoming Committee and Dinner Entertainment

The Greeter!!

The 'Greeter'

Welcome, I'm so glad you're here!!!! This was our greeting as we entered the Monkey Sanctuary in Bali! The country is filled with ferocious looking statues, (among more friendly ones), which is so contradictory to the nature of the Balinese people we met. Mostly, these people were soft spoken, respectful, modest, friendly, helpful, etc.

Spring on Temple Square - Predawn

Salt Lake Temple

Predawn when the light was dim and warm and cast a soft dreamy glow on the Salt Lake temple. Each year as the trees grow larger in front of the temple it gets increasing hard to compose an image that includes both the temple and the flower beds from this vantage point. I used a tripod and slow shutter speed to capture the light and still had to edit to increase the exposure. (This was the first shot I took on the same morning as my two previous posts.)

Salt Lake Temple - Spring 2018

Temple Square - Spring 2018

Whenever I point my camera at the sun, I am usually surprised at the result.  Often the result is a blown out mess, but sometimes I end up with interesting sun flares or colorful bokeh, (soft light circles), that make for unique images.  This one may not be everyone's 'cup of tea' but it certainly meets my criteria of trying to find different and original compositions and lighting effects that I haven't seen before in any of the photos I've taken of the Salt Lake Temple over the years (see last post).  P.S.  I did a fair amount of editing to make this a presentable image by toning down the exposure on the highlights and lightening the midtones and darks.

Spring on Temple Square - 2018

Temple Square - Spring 2018

This morning I made my yearly spring pilgrimage to Temple Square to photograph flowers.  It is always a challenge for me to get different or unique compositions because I have done this for so many years, plus today the sky did not cooperate and was pretty boring.  Nevertheless, it's always a beautiful day on Temple Square!!

Bali - 4

Long Tail Macaques

Monkey Forest Sanctuary

Monkeys live in various places in Bali. We visited the Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud. The monkeys there are called long tail macaques. They have lost their fear of humans and many were within a foot or two of where we were walking. Our guide told us there are two kinds of monkeys......mischievous, and naughty, depending on where they live. The mischievous ones might steal your glasses and jewelry or unzip or steal purses and backpacks looking for food. Or they might sit on your shoulder or your head and not get off until you give them something to eat. The naughty monkeys will become aggressive, attack or even bite if they perceive you have food and are not giving it to them, or if you offer food then withdraw it. Someone told us a story about a monkey opening a waist pack, (I have learned that the term fanny pack is offensive in some cultures), pulling out a wad of paper money, then scrambling up a tree and throwing it away. I have to say, I was a bit nervous being so near to them, but as we had no food or other enticing objects with us, they left us alone.