Monochrome

Majestic

I captured this scene with color in mind, and I love the color version of this, but once I got done editing it, I noticed that I had taken on a distinct blue and purple tone to it, and I threw it in Nik Silver Efex to see what tonal contrast I could pull out. The end result is my favorite from this trip. It's a touch over sharpened here, but I love the detail and crispness of the lines on the granite statehouse. If I can find room on my walls, this would look incredible in metal, 24"x36"...

Do Not Look Into The Eyes of The Idol!

In Disneyland, there's an Indiana Jones Adventure ride. In one part, after you board the car, Salah exclaims 'As you enter the Chamber of Destiny, do not look into the eyes of the idol!' and for whatever reason, his inflection on the last half of that sentence has always stuck with me. Now, whenever I see an 'eye' when I'm out and around, that line goes through my head, and it certainly went through when I was shooting this Bridge. This is the Olympic Legacy Bridge on the campus of The University of Utah. It bridges the University Guest House, and the Olympic Village where the athletes for the 2002 Winter Olympics stayed, and the rest of campus. It's up by the old army base, and the Fort Douglas wedding chapel. I had just left class when I saw these beautiful fluffy clouds in the early evening sky. I drove up here to shoot a frame or two, but the sun decided to hide behind the clouds, so a color shot was out of the question, as the beautiful color contrast was gone. So I found this composition, and took it with black and white in mind. I really like how it turned out.

Gateway to the West

While driving out in the west desert to shoot the Perseids, we came across this abandoned horse corral tucked behind a sagebrush covered hill. It looks like it was well used in it's day, but has since fallen in disrepair. I love the feel of this image; to me, it evokes the feel of the Old West. It's well weathered, beaten and scarred, but it's still standing, probably ready to be used in another 50 years.

TransAmerican Noire

I really liked how the Transamerica Pyramid lined up perfectly down Pier 7, in San Francisco, but the lights that run the length of this pier are brutal when it comes to lens flare and hot spots. Fortunately, I was able to compile several exposures together and convert it to monochrome to get rid of the nasty orange colorcast from all the lights.

100 Years in the Making

Some buddies and I were walking around Stanford University and came upon this scene. It's the Centennial Fountain and Bing Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library. This was taken at blue hour, but I didn't like the contrast of the deep blue sky and the green trees, so this got a black and white treatment, which I absolutely love. Fear the Tree, y'all

We Are Our Choices

This was taken up on the campus of Stanford University, down the hall to the left is the President's office. I loved the look and feel of this particular hallway, but trying to capture what I loved about it was hard. I shot down both hallways, both up high and down low to the ground, trying to find an angle I liked before I found this one. I shot this with a black and white conversion in mind and love how it turned out. If these walls could talk, what stories would they tell? “We are our choices.” - Sartre

Aspen Obelisks

Black and white treatment of a stand of aspens up Big Cottonwood Canyon, just north of Brighton Ski Resort, up Guardsman Pass.

Shakespeare Trees

Just outside Wendell, Idaho as you're headed east on I-84, is a stand of trees. I've driven by these trees for several years now, always wanted to take a picture of them, and fortunately one day I had my DSLR and a nice wide angle to shoot with. I call them my Shakespeare trees.

Winter Cobweb

My 14mm puts some crazy distortion on vertical lines when you point it up, combine that with some bare quaking aspens against a cloudy sky and it looks like a tangled mess of cobwebs up high.

Salton City Beach, Salton City, CA

Pylons of a forgotten pier at the Great Salt Lake

Heroic Arch

Drove 4 hours to shoot this at sunset but full cloud cover ruined that idea. However, I'm really happy with how this turned out.

A John Ford Western

Spent time shooting from a roadside rest stop in the Navajo Nation as a way of stretching my legs. Loved the way the contrast played on the rocks at high noon, made me feel like I was in a John Ford western.