Adventures on Spider Island

Last weekend a night hike up Mount Timpanogos became a morning hike on Antelope Island because of rain, then became more of a morning hike on Spider Island, for reasons that should be obvious from the images below:

The Laugh

About a week ago my sister and I took a quick trip to the Gilgal Sculpture Garden, just off 7th East and 500 South in Salt Lake City.  After taking a few shots of the bizarro assortment of LDS doctrine-meets-eccentric-sculptor artifacts, I talked my sister into posing for a few test portraits.  I wanted to see if I could get anything out of my camera's 6 shot-per-second advertised frame rate, so I told her to head-bang a bit.

The shot above is the result.

I was really happy with the sharpness and the energy that comes from her hair flying all over the place, but what I like best about this picture is how perfectly it captures her personality.  Anyone who knows my sister knows she comes with a striking, happy laugh, and in my opinion, this portrait captures that energy perfectly.

The Rib Master

My roommate John is a computer guy.  He writes software for the military, networks all our TV's to his PC, and fills our house with little robots that do our housework.  And yet his most popular skill is cooking.  On a number of occasions since I moved in last summer, John has prepared vast racks of pork for fortunate gatherings of our friends.

Last weekend John prepared yet another bounty of ribs for our house Super Bowl party, and as he did his work late Saturday night, I pulled out my camera in an attempt to immortalize his signature work:

 

  

 

A Few from the Fossil Record

This is a portrait of my dad.  I'm posting it in honor of his birthday this weekend.  I actually took this picture on film back in 1998, for a Basic Photography class at the University of Utah.  My work in the class wasn't all that distinguished, and it certainly didn't leave me with any hint of the passion I picked up for the field years later, but I still find my portfolio from the course interesting.  In particular, I find the shot of my dad fascinating A) because it shows the early use of that cockeyed thing I like to do, and B) because I can't remember how I convinced him to put on his lab coat and wave our hedge trimmer around while I took pictures of him.

Here are a few more shots from that class.  I'm tempted to present them as a way of saying "look how far I've come," but I'm not sure that's what they would say.  To tell the truth, I'm really not sure what these say.

Mikey Go Splat

This shot was actually taken as part of a three-part series.  The assignment was to use three sequential photographs to tell a brief story.  The first picture was of my buddy Mike, calmly sitting in a lawn chair on my roof, perusing my class text.  The next one showed him falling backwards out of the chair.  The shot above finished the epic tale, showing the aftermath of Mike's fall from the vantage point of my rooftop.  That's my dog Otto sniffing at the corpse.

The Shadow of Doomage
I'm really not sure what the assignment was for this one.  It may have had something to do with the use of shadows, in which case I'm guessing I probably missed what my professor was going for.  Kind of an interesting shot, though.

Patsy and Friends
The Saga of Patsy is a long one, certainly worthy of some sort of Hollywood treatment.  He* started out as a faceless stuffed human dummy my buddy Mike (same guy as the one in the shot earlier) used to dress up in Viking gear and take to our high school football games.  Then after Mike and I became friends, he built a new and improved Patsy to use as a general stunt double, something we could strap to the roof of our car and drive over with my Honda and so forth.  Mike even made a nice paper mache head for him.  Eventually Patsy met his demise up at Mike's family lot in Morgan, where he either set him on fire or blew him up with illegal fireworks or both.  The details are a little hazy.  At any rate, somewhere between the second incarnation and the firework show, I dragged Patsy into my backyard and posed him for picture that would demonstrate depth of field.

(For anyone interested, the figures in the background are a life size cardboard stand-up of Boba Fett and a life-size cardboard stand-up of Slash--with Teddy Roosevelt's face pasted on top of it.  Oh, and Patsy is wearing an old bagger shirt from Dick's Market in Centerville.)

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*Patsy, while gender-neutral in an anatomical sense, was always considered a male in spite of his ambiguous name.  He was named after the sidekick Patsy from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" who was responsible for banging the coconuts.

My Friend the Costume Designer

My friend Melonie is a professional costume designer.  She specializes in costumes from the 19th Century (I think...I'm not all that up on the whole fashion thing), and is pretty good at her job, as you can see below.  Last fall she asked me to take a few pictures of her favorites to use in her portfolio.  I learned a couple of things from the ensuing shoots:

1. It's easy to get nice shots when you have quality subject matter (and nice diffused lighting).
2. I'm really, really glad I'm not a woman from the 19th Century.  It would take me all day to figure out how to dress myself.  Then I would cringe and say, "that hurts," then have to start getting ready for bed.

 

 

 

 

Faces of 2009

Most of my paid work this year has been as a portrait photographer, which is nice, because I really love shooting people.  Thing is, my favorite pictures are the ones that the subject doesn't see coming.  Here are a few of my favorite faces of 2009:

"401K Run," Capitol Hill

One evening my friend Jon called me to spread the word about this crazy race that would be taking place in Downtown Salt Lake City the next morning.  The only rule was that you had to be wearing business attire.  I was invited to participate, but I was more interested in the photo op, and I caught this one near the starting line at the top of Capitol Hill.

 

"Proud Parents," outside Bountiful Utah LDS Temple

I shot my first wedding for my ex-roommate Rhee (the fuzzy guy in the middle) back in June.  While trying to take a nice shot of his parents, I started goofing around with the wide angle lens I'd rented for the shoot and wound up with this picture.  Probably my favorite of the whole day.

 

"Christmas Card Shoot," Memory Grove

Between the lighting, the cold weather, and one super-crazy little girl, I had a tough time getting a decent shot for this Christmas Card gig back in October.  But with a little Lightroom magic, this one managed to capture a little natural energy.

 

"Ultimate Frisbee," Millcreek Junior High School

A pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee gave me a chance to get a little aerobic exercise for me and for the $1200 telephoto lens I picked up in the spring.

 

"San Diego Smiles," San Diego LDS Temple
When my old roommate Brandon got married in San Diego in July, I shot a few candids while the official photographer did the straight stuff.  Aside from capturing the true personality of the bride and especially the groom, I love this one because I caught a confused look from a lady who was passing by at the same moment.

"Festival Jam," Farmington Festival Days
When my friends Karlie and Paul teamed up for an acoustic set at the Farmington Festival Days last summer, they asked me to tag along and help immortalize the experience.  The pictures I've taken at musical events have yielded a number of my favorite photos so far.

"The Future LaRocco's," Christmas Date III
About a week after their engagement, my old roommate Mark and his fiancee swung up to Salt Lake to join us for Christmas Date III.  For some reason, every picture I took of Mark wound up looking something like this.

 

"The GC Laugher," LDS Conference Center
Back in October I drove down to Salt Lake early one Saturday morning in hopes of catching some action before the first session of General Conference.  There's always a ton of people, and a whole pack of street preachers ready for some Bible Bashing.  No real confrontation came out of this shot, but I do love the juxtaposition of the preacher with the kid, laughing at some unknown cause.

 

"Magic Sticks," Island Park, ID
The miracle of this photo is not that I managed to score a great expression on my auxilliary nephew Max's face, it's that I managed to get a shot off in the microsecond I had before he moved again.  Most of my attempts just wound up a yellow and blue blur.

 

"Lost Angels," Griffith Observatory, CA
During my epic journey down to San Diego and up to San Francisco, I spent some time in LA, in this case up at the Griffith Observatory that overlooks the valley.  This couple was also visiting the observatory, obviously to discuss some deep meaningful subject.  Or maybe they were just there to look good.

 

"Raja," Energy Solutions Arena
In February I was able to man the baseline for a Jazz-Bobcats game and build my sports photo portfolio.  Near the end of the game, I caught this exasperated look on Raja Bell, who actually used to play for the Jazz a few years ago.  This is the look of a man who used to duel with Kobe Bryant in the playoffs, then gets traded to a squad that loses about 50 games a year.

 

"Blue Eyes," Hogle Zoo
Every year Hogle Zoo hosts a special Halloween event where local sponsors set up booths throughout the zoo and hand out candy to all the kids.  Everyone dresses up, and the whole thing is photo gold.  Just in case you're wondering, the little bits of food on the lips of this little elephant are crumbs from Ritz crackers.

"Old Friends," Christmas Date III

Not a whole lot I can add to this shot.  These guys have known each other for a long, long time, and I think the result just kind of speaks for itself.