The Rexburg Temple Presidency

I had the great opportunity to take photos of the Rexburg Temple Presidency. This temple has special meaning for me because it was where my wife and I were married. This is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all over the world.

There are 134 operating temples, 12 under construction, and 14 that have been announced. Most of the temple has been built in the last 50 years.  Here is a video showing many of them all around the world:

A temple is a sacred place and  a person has to live their life in a way to be worthy of entering. Though that is the case the temples are open to the public right after construction is complete, but before their dedication, so everyone might be able to see what a temple looks like from the inside. These open houses are great opportunities for anyone to learn more about temples. The open house for the San Salvador El Salvador Temple will end Saturday and there are upcoming open houses for the Brigham City Utah Temple,  Calgary Alberta Temple, Cordoba Argentina Temple,  Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple,  Kansas City Missouri Temple, Manaus Brazil Temple,  Phoenix Arizona Temple,  Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple,  Rome Italy Temple, and theTegucigalpa Honduras Temple.

If you have any questions about temples or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visit http://mormon.org/ and you can see if there is a temple near you at http://lds.org/church/temples/find-a-temple?lang=eng

Hanna, Utah - July 2, 2011

 There is nothing like a bit little fireworks to celebrate freedom and independence. This last weekend I was able to do just that. I was out with family in Hanna, Utah and while the pyrotechnic festivities were going I decided to take some photos (in part because I was having flame-making difficulties which tends to be a problem in this sort of thing).  But I was able to get a few beautiful shots.  After the little show I took some photos for a night sky panorama. You can see the Milk Way in it, it looks like a bit of clouds.

Ground to air firework - timed exposure on tripod

 Panorama of the night sky - also timed exposure on tripod

Watching Fireworks -  timed exposure on tripod

Watching Fireworks 2-  timed exposure on tripod

Lighting Off Fireworks -  timed exposure on tripod

McCammon Idaho Father's Day Panorama

What a great Father's Day present! This was the best sunset that I have seen in a great while. If you look at the photo closely you can see a rainbow on the right side of the photo. Had I taken a 360 degree photo you would have seen another rainbow.

Cross Processed Slide Film

When I talk to people most of them don't know much about film photography. I have shot in film and it is where I got my start. With that being said I had never processed my own film or made my own prints until the last year or so. Even though I have shot with film I had never shot with slide film. Well now I have shot with slide film! I did not process the film myself because I do not have the chemicals for it. I took it to be cross processed as color negative film because it is more expensive to develop as slide film, and I am on a budget. So when I scanned these photos I did so with, and without, color corrections. When you cross process slide film the color goes a little wonky. By adding a color correction when scanning I got a more realistic image. I find that the images have and old style look to them. It makes me feel I am looking at old photos from the 70's where the colors are not quite right.

I took these photos a while ago but I had to do some of my own cleaning to the film before I could scan it. that is what I get for having someone else develop my film for me. In any case here they are. These are from about the past four months. Some of these next single photos had a "color restoration" manipulation done to them when scanning and others didn't.

 Japanese stone lantern, sister cities monument, Sportsman Park, Idaho Falls, Idaho

(Idaho Falls, Idaho and Tokai-mura, Japan are sister cities)

 Waterfall from Sportsman Park, Idaho Fall, Idaho

Another photo of the Waterfall at Sportsman Park in Idaho Falls

Old fish hatchery pond in Sportsman Park, Idaho Falls, Idaho

 A family get together of mine.

 With these next photos I have the two versions I scanned. The "color restoration" was used in scanning with the photo on the left and unmanipulated image on the right. You can tell that there is a great difference between the two photos even though they are the same image. If I might suggest, I would click on the images to make them bigger to really be able to take the image in.

 Tropic dwelling flowers in a greenhouse at BYU-Idaho

 Taken on the trail to the Wind Cave in Logan Canyon, Utah

On Gallatin Rd SR191, Montana on the border of Montana and Wyoming near Fan Creek in Yellowstone National Park

A tropical cactus-like plant in a greenhouse at BYU-Idaho

An Overlooked Panorama

When I was putting up those last panoramas I forgot to put one up. The one I forgot was one from Yellowstone National Park. This is Abyss Pool at the west end of West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. It really is a beautiful hot pool and extremely deep!

Abyss Pool, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

You want to see all of my Panoramas? Take a look at my Panoramas page.

HDR That Looks Real

I don't know how much you all know about HDR, High Dynamic Range. They are images that have a high range of tonal values present that still retain detail. If you were to do a google search of HDR images you would find a bunch of sureal images that do not look life like. Those images have given HDR a bad name. HDR is a great way to multiple images of the same thing to get them to look how they are to the naked eye. Digital cameras are limited on the spectrum of light they can sense at any given time. Film is much better and our eyes are even better at capturing wider ranges of tonal value.

I took some photos at Montezuma Well (part of the Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona). I took these photos at varying exposures. As you can see from these photos they are too dark in some places on some and to bright in places on others. I took them and combined them together automatically and manually using Photoshop.  The entrance in the background of the photo was hard to see even to the bare eye but not impossible. I wanted and image that went beyond what my eyes could see but that looked natural.

Here is the final product of my work. If you look at it you could not have been able to tell that it was HDR unless I told you or you have been trained to see it. Not bad eh?

So when people are head over heals for HDR or against it you can know that it is useful, and can look completely natural.

New Panoramas!

It has been a while I know. But here are some panoramas that I have been meaning to put together and get up here. Some of them are from places that I have other panoramas of but these are new. I hope you enjoy!

Grain fields east of Pullman, Washington

Trail to Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

 The Tetons and Jackson Lake, Wyoming

Somewhere between Ferdinand, Idaho and Cascade, Idaho

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Rexburg Latter-day Saint Temple, Idaho
(with smoke from INL/Jefferson County fire July 2010)

Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington
Clear Water and Snake Rivers

Arches National Park, Utah

Recent Black and White 35mm, 120mm, 4x5

Here are some recent black and white photos that I thought you all might like to see.

Here is a view of snow and the shadows of a tree. I am excited to not see so much snow. The Snow is mostly melted here but even today it snowed. The weather wants to remind me that I am in a place with the word "burg" in its name. Today's snow special was of the dip-n-dots variety.


Though it snows I have found a nice greenhouse that has tropical plants that helps me take a mini vacation. I think everyone should have a green house! It just goes to show how much you can do with a little global warming. There are just some places that can use more warmth. Here are some photos from with in the greenhouse. There is a swirling tropical cactus-like plant, sugarcane, and a banana tree. Sounds like it could make a great drink.

The first image was taken with a large format 4x5 camera while the other two photos are taken with a 35mm camera.

Sugarcane

Banana Tree

Here is a little something from near the Wind Cave from my last post. This is a leaf that is smaller than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. The interesting thing about this image is that I used the leaf as a negative when printing it in the darkroom. The leaf had been out in the snow all winter and it had become quite translucent. So what you see here is the reverse of what the leaf really looks like.

This shot was taken at a wood mill just south of I-90 in Livingston, Montana with a Hasselblad medium format camera. My wife and I were heading to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone to try out a large format camera (4 by 5 inch film). The image at the bottom is one of those 4x5 photos I took. It was my first time shooting with a large format camera. It was quite exciting!

Livingston, MT 45.640497,-110.573469

Mammoth Hot Springs 44.966734,-110.704739

The Wind Cave in Logan Canyon

Just so you know, the hike to the Wind Caves in Logan Canyon is not that hard. Sure you are climbing but it is quite a nice hike. At the trail head it says the hike is difficult. It would be if you were on crutches, anything is hard on crutches, but you could still do the hike. I highly recommend this hike.

On Saint Patty's I was in Logan, Utah and I was able to take a short hike up to the Wind Cave in Logan Canyon. If you head east on US-89 out of Logan City you are a short drive from the Wind Cave Trail Head. When you get to the trail head make sure you have good shoes on. In my personal opinion the trail is easy but I must be wrong because the sign says that the hike is difficult. When the trail is only 1.9 miles long and much of that is shaded I would not consider it to be hard. I would not even call it steep compared to other trails I have been on.

This photo is a view from the trail of Logan Canyon. From the trail you can see one geological feature that is called the China Wall. Yes there is snow on the ground but most of it was from the previous night. Most of the snow covered ground was free of snow on the way down.

When you first arrive at the cave you will not know it because you will be on top of it. As you walk around the destination you finally realize that the cave is beneath you. If that happens you might have to walk around one of the holes of the cave to be able to get down in the cave. Because of the melting snow and the colder night I encountered ice covered rocks as I tried to go down in with my camera equipment. I was a little nervous on my way down I must admit, but the view is worth it. I also have some god personal memories of this place as well.

The Ice was beautiful... but hard to walk on.

Where the cave opens to the south the sunshine comes in and makes for a stark contrast of all the ice I encountered on the north entrance of the cave.

The Cave has arches within the cave and in one place you should see a fire that someone had made to keep warm (or cook their lunch).

As I was leaving The snow was melting and the ground was mostly exposed and I saw this small tree and I thought it was very beautiful. I can feel spring in the air!