The View From Here

I have decided to build my LDS temple portfolio to try to sell to local galleries. I have three scanned and edited so far, with more waiting in the wings.

“Partake of the Tree”

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

Jenn and I went together to take this picture on one of our dates. Just when I was about to take the picture, a woman parked right in front of the temple (in my shot), and rushed inside. We had to wait ten minutes for her to return to her car before I could get the shot. The light was magical when I was ready to take it. It faded a bit, but I think I was still able to capture what I wanted.

“Cloud of Fire”

Provo Temple

Jenn has been begging me to get a shot of the Provo Temple (where we were married), since the one we have on our wall (that we bought years ago) isn’t very good.

“Ascend”

Salt Lake Temple

My sister-in-law asked me to take a picture for her of the Salt Lake Temple (where she was married) that was different from other temple pictures. The only day I could go up there just happened to be a day when 50 people were getting married. I had a hard time finding the shot I wanted because people were in every shot. I eventually found this area of the temple that did not have as many visitors. I really liked the lines and the simplicity–the stairs leading into the temple, with just the lip of the doorway showing, and the symbolism of the three windows going up.

This is the first scanned image from my very productive Mt. Whitney trip. Jenn’s parents made my day when they said they wanted this picture for their entryway and said they would pay for the scan and everything! The image is of a dead Bristlecone Pine tree in the White Mountains of California. These trees live up to five thousand years and the oldest known tree on the planet is in a grove just a few miles from this location. These trees are really inspirational. If grown at lower elevations (this was around 11-12,000 feet) they don’t live nearly as long. But up high, the winds, lower nutrient soil, and lower air pressure slow down their metabolisms, which makes them live so long. Also, the wood from these high trees rots very slowly so their legacy will continue for thousands of more years. Adversity makes them strong! This tree was probably 3000+ years old when Jesus walked the earth.

On another note, the mountains in the distance are the Sierra Nevadas rising to around 14,000 feet and the valley between (about 70 miles north west of Death Valley) amazingly falls to 2000 feet. The mountains were magenta because of a very nice effect caused by the heavy smoke that was in the air from the wildfires. Anyway, I think I’ll be working on this edit for a while to try and get it just right. Hope you like it.

This image was taken on the Nebo Loop near Payson Lakes, in spring. I didn’t realize this before, but apparently young new aspen leaves can be just as yellow as fall color aspens are.

I took this from West Mountain (south end of Utah Lake) just after sunset. I was frantically trying to get everything set up before the high pink clouds disappeared. I had to use a 10 sec exposure and literally during the last two seconds of exposure the pink clouds were gone. Remember to click on the image to see a larger version.

This photo was taken from West Mountain near Spanish Fork. I had anticipated a shot with large clouds over the snow capped mountains (I think it’s Spanish Fork Peak) below — I did this to give perspective for the clouds above. I waited there for several hours for the perfect composition.

I took this picture on the same trip to Arches as the picture below this one. If you looked in exactly the opposite direction you would see Delicate Arch right in front of you. Everyone there is always so distracted by the Arch that most people don’t notice this view. It was a real sight; I was the only serious photographer there at the time and to everyone’s surprise, I pointed the camera in the opposite direction. Very fun.

Click on the photo for a larger (better) version. This shot was taken on the same Arches trip in 2005.