Landscapes

Where I would rather be today... Sitting in class is SO tough when all you want to do is go play outside! Being back on the island would be the best thing for me today... I'll be there in spirit.

Smiles

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.
.Mother Teresa.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
.Mark Twain.

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
.Charles Reade.

All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile.

.Chris Hart.

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. .Author Unknown.

Burr Trail Landscapes

I recently went down to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument... My home sweet home. <3 We toured around the Burr Trail, where my grandpa used to graze his cattle during the winter. Talk about an amazing experience!

Waves

Love is like the ocean waves, it either has high or low times and when it's high, it just drowns you all together.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone. One of the most visited parks on the earth. Whether you are going to see Old Faithful, the wildlife, fishing, or just site seeing, it's hard to NOT take a picture! Here are few of the million that I took over a 3 day visit this last week.

I believe that this is called Big Springs. This is where the rivers bubble up from an underground aquifer at a cool 52 degrees Fahrenheit. I swear that the rocks were blue from the cold!!



Fishing with my friend, Junior. He was REALLY excited for fishing at the Coffee Pot.

And of course. We saw a Moose. Most of my pictures were of it's caboose, though. I swear it had a vendetta against me. :)

Perspectives

Perspectives... view, angles, so on and so forth. So which is the best? I say try ALL of them. I have a habit of trying to break down my subject to find little details that no one would really notice, unless they are pointed out. So looking at this landscape, you could capture it in a landscape view...



Portrait view, which seems to emphasize the water more than the landscape around it...


Or a completely different angle, like this one taken from above the waterfall. Different angles and views bring out different characteristics or details. I love that there is more than one way to take a picture, so make every picture your own! Don't be afraid to step outside the box and capture the unique details in life.

Portraits

Here are some of the portraits that I've taken of my nephews and one of my little sister. I love having color in the background, like the purple petunias or the water. It really helps bring out the subject in each picture.





Black and white pictures are a little bit harder to really 'pop' out the subject. I try to select a background that really contrasts with the character of the subject, so if the subject has dark hair, and I'm taking a close-up, I would choose a really light background. Contrast can really make a picture spectacular.

Sunrise

So, I was going through my pictures today and found this picture.... and I was inspired to share a few more with you.

Landscapes and Some Still Life

Home sweet home... So here are some more pictures from my trip to Boulder and Escalante. There was a fire on the East end of the Mountain, so some of the pictures are pretty smoky. But I think they still turned out great. Hard not to get a good picture in God's Country.

Landscapes

Just a little teaser of more to come. Gone to a family reunion down by Escalante and Boulder... Such beautiful country! Home sweet home.