Alpine Loop Ride video

It has been a while since I last posted anything. Life has me busy with work, school, photography, and motorcycling. This past Monday, after running some errands, I jumped on my Harley and rode through the Alpine Loop. Here is footage that my GoPro camera caught.  Enjoy. I'll be posting some photos in the near future.

Xavier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJp3MeP1gU

Leatherface's Home B&W photos

Last week I found an old abandoned farmhouse which I am pretty sure at one point was a meth house. I dubbed the place "Leatherface's Summer Home" just because being on that property reminded me of the 2004 remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I took my Nikon D500 and my Nikon F-100. Unfortunately my F-100 had color film in it so I wasted a roll of film...no big loss I hate shooting color film.

Anyway, here are the photos from my B&W shoot.

Leatherface's Summer home and Golden Hour.

I had a conversation on Facebook today with a friend of mine and the conversation inspired me to pick up my cameras, jump on my motorcycle, and find some cool places to do some photography. I drove around aimlessly hoping that the gods of photography...mainly Anzel Adams, would lead me to a cool place.The photography gods must have guided me because I found a place that time and urbanism seemed for have forgot.

I as I drove I came across a sign that read "road closed." I do not know about you but from past experiences if there is a road closed sign there is usually a cement barricade or construction barrels blocking the path. There were none on this road. I thought to myself, "If they really wanted to keep people out of here they would block the road. As my motorcycle and I sat there idling, I looked down the empty street. There was no sign of life whatsoever. You know what they say about the cat and curiosity right? Well, I'm no cat but curiosity finally got the better part of me. I opened the throttle and rode past the "road closed" sign and man I am glad I did.

After parking the bike I walked down the sidewalk to this abandoned home, garage and shed. The only sign of life other than myself was a Utah County deputy asking me what I was doing. He let me be after I told him I was taking pictures.

The feeling of being truly and utter alone finally hit about 45 minutes later. It was dead quiet, there were no birds or grasshoppers chirping. As I got closer to the red house this dark disturbing feeling kept getting stronger and stronger but I kept snapping photos. Finally when I could not longer bear it I packed up my cameras, jumped on the motorcycle and speed away.

My next stop was Allan's Camera Shop in Orem where I was going to develop the black & white roll that I shot only to be told that I had a color roll instead. I was upset but kept my cool. When I got home I noticed the last rays of sunlight right before the monsoon like storm hit Orem and Provo and took a few pictures of some trees right by my house. I will be returning to this spot once the weather is clear and is not acting like Mount Doom at the end of Return of the King.

Enough of my adventure...here are the digital photos I took.

Black & White 35mm film prints

A Light in a Dark Place

Salt Lake Temple
Spire on Joseph Smith Memorial Building
Rain Drops In the Reflection Pool
The Bronze Couple (statue)
Come Play With Me

Red Cliff Canyon

Old Hollow Tree Stump
Sunset on a Distant Mountain

These are only some of my film prints. More coming soon. Any feedback or comments are welcome.

New Assignment- Self-portrait and photograph another person.

The first assignment for my black and white film photography class was to take a landscape and cityscape photo. I did that and got an A on the project. My new assignment is to do a self-portrait and take a picture of somebody else with extra credit if the person we photograph is someone we do not know.

The dillema? None, really. Except how do I approach a girl that I do not know and ask her if I could photograph her. Even harder, is how do I ask a guy that I do not know if I could photograph him without making it sound like I am hitting on him?

As it is, I am afraid to talk to girls that I know that I find attractive and have thought about asking out. Maybe I just need to overcome my fear and intimidation of women. :)

Hmm, that CCR song "I put a spell on you" just came to mind. If you have not heard it, here is a You Tube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hvA0wWTIv4&feature=related

New Camera!

Another semester started today. As most of you know I am enrolled at Utah Valley University. Nine of the twelve credits I am taking this semester are more generals that I am knocking out of the way so that I can get into my major which at this time I am still undeclared.

However, after writing a thirty page paper last semester and finding much joy in writing, I have decided to pursue a career in Investigative Journalism. I read two books whose stories were amazing but what really kept me sucked into the stories of these books were the writing styles of the authors. The books I read were Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and Dave Cullen's "Columbine." Both are fantastic reads and I recommend both books to everyone!

Anyway I kind of got off point here.

The three credit class that is not a general requirement class is a black & white film photography class. The first day of class the professor went over the syllabus and told us that every student in his class needs to get a film SLR camera.

After the class was over I came home and started scouring the classified ads on ksl.com when I stumbled upon an ad that read, "For Sale: Nikon F100 film SLR camera." I clicked on the ad and looked at the photos of the camera and then called my uncle who was a professor of photography several years ago. He also looked at the ad and after he and I did some quick research, we both came to the conclusion that this was a once in a life time find.

The Nikon F100 was released to the public in 1999 and at that time was selling for $1400.00 dollars. Today, the F100 body alone sells for $800.00 alone. The ad I was looking at was asking only $250.00 I called the seller and asked him if he was selling just the body of the camera or the body and the lens. He said that he was selling both and that the camera was in mint condition.

After conversing for a few more minutes, I told him that I was interested in purchasing the camera but before I did I would want to take a look at it in person. We met up about 45 minutes later and after inspecting the camera I forked over the cash and we parted ways. Upon asking why he was selling the camera for so cheap the seller stated that he needed money for school and that he had just returned from a two year missionary service in Taiwan.

He got money for college and I walked away with an amazing film SLR camera.

When I figure out how to transfer 35mm film images to jpeg files, I'll post photographs that I take over the course of this next semester and beyond.

Checkout the link below for more info on the Nikon F100 and some photographs that have been taken by other people who use it.

http://www.photoextract.com/camera/film/slr/nikon/nikon-f100.html

I am excited to learn how to use this camera and see the photographs that I produce from it.

Aspen Grove shoot and "Clouds of Doom" over Lehi, Utah

Photos from the Alpine Loop and Aspen Grove, Utah

The Clouds of Doom over Lehi, Utah