More From Yellowstone...

 In my hast to put up those photos from Yellowstone I missed putting up these images. These are between West Yellowstone, MT and also along Firehole Drive in Yellowstone National Park.

Eagle - Yellowstone National Park

Silex Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Fountain Paint Pot, Yellowstone National Park

Fountain Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

I am not sure of the name of this hot spring but I think it might be 'Black Spring' or something. It is near to Surprise Pool.

White Dome Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

Firehole Spring, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

Firehole Spring bubbling, boiling and churning

Surprise Pool, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

 Surprise

Surprise Pool Edge

Great Fountain Geyser, Yellowstone National Park - Panorama

Yellowstone July 2011

 Back in July I made a trip to Yellowstone National Park with my parents and my wife. My wife and I were moving from Idaho to Utah and we wanted to make one last trip to Yellowstone. We had even more reason to go because my father had never been to Yellowstone. Since they were up for my graduation we decided to go show him around. 

 It was a beautiful day, you could not have asked for better weather. We got to see some of my favorite places in Yellowstone and a new favorite place (there is always more to see in Yellowstone). Yes we did go to Old Faithful but the geyser is not that exciting compared to many other things in the park.

While we were going through the park we decided to play a game to see if we could find vehicle license plates from all 50 states. There were only a few we did not find in the short time we were there but we found Hawaii and Alaska so we did not do that bad. The game was just to pass the time walking through parking lots to the real attractions!

Two of my favorites are right by each other, so you can get two in one stop. They are the Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring. If you love Caribbean blue waters this is a fantastic place to see. You get to be quite close to the Excelsior Geyser and you can see the air bubble up through the breaks in the steam rising off of the pools boiling hot surface. The water is a beautiful blue but so hot it would take the skin right off of you if you were try to take a swim. 

 Excelsior Geyser Crater - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Grand Prismatic Spring has a rainbow of colors and all the texture you could possibly ask for. If you like to hike or bike I would also suggest taking the trail that goes on the other side of Grand Prismatic Spring, between it and the mountain. Not as many people go there and I have wanted to go but I have not quite had the time to do it yet.

 Grand Prismatic Spring - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

With both of these pools make sure you hold on to your hat. Every time I visit these two I count the hats that unfortunate people have lost to the gusts of wind. Like I said earlier you don't want to go swimming in these pools. this last time we visited we counted at least 19 hats!

 Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

While we were traveling from Old faithful to West Thumb there was a little turnoff that I decided to take on a whim. You can't see any steam rising or geysers shooting up into the air but you won't be disappointed. This stop is Kepler Cascades. there is a lookout point where you are basically above the river and waterfalls. This photo here is panorama I took farther up from the lookout point and even it does not capture the magnitude of these cascades. There were Rocks right by me to the right and left that limited my ability to capture the whole scene.

Kepler Cascades - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Elk at West Thumb, Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

When we got to West Thumb you can see Yellowstone Lake go off into the distance. But if you take the walking paths you can see all sorts of bubbling mud pots and steaming hot springs. The Abyss Pool is my favorite hot pool there (though it is hard to choose a favorite). Try as you may you cannot see the bottom from the walkway. The green-blue waters turn into yellow and orange as they seep out across the ground towards the lake. Though the pool is deep the water is crystal clear. The only thing keeping you from seeing the bottom is the steam and your inability to get a look from a good angle.

 Abyss Pool - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Emergency landing near Downey, Idaho

This glider made an emergency landing near Downey, Idaho a little more than a month ago. I learned from the pilot that he had left Logan, Utah and had gone all the way up by Jackson, Wyoming that day. He was on the way back when he lost track of time and the updrafts got choppy. He landed in the field of the Fuhriman Ranch and was waiting to be picked up when I got there.

Venture 2a Glider Panorama - Downey, Idaho

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