These are some of my favorite photographs of Oregon from last year’s trip. When I go there I am visiting some friends who are also photographers. We try the local food and then go find locations worthy of large wall prints. Photography is more than snapshots for Facebook. Images like these should be 30×40 inch prints!

We spent a while photographing Ruckel Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. There are numerous waterfalls in the area and it is very green and very mossy. I like it. Granted I like to dry off occasionally, and that is why I return to Utah.

Ruckel Creek Falls, Oregon

We also visited a carnival. They were having hot air balloons, rides, and more. The hot air balloons do no fly at night, but they will inflate and “burn” to create a glow. Trying to get all the balloons illuminated at the same time was a challenge and sometimes you cheat with Photoshop.

People tour the hot air balloons at night

This is one of my favorite and more unique images. I spend a few minutes photographing the carnival rides. With their night lights and some photographic technique it is an out of this world look. Almost sci-fi in the finished photograph. This is why you go with a tripod!

Spinning lights of a Carnival Ride in Oregon

Another fun photograph of the hot air balloon burn. I had tried photographing this kind of event in Utah, but the wind picked up and they had to cancel it. The weather was perfect for this and it was gorgeous.

Hot Air Balloons Burn to Glow at Night

When do you shoot landscape and when do you shoot portrait? You do both! You never know when you might need it for a layout. Magazines love the option of vertical and landscape. Magazine covers are usually vertical.

Columbia River Gorge is home to dozens of waterfalls, perfect for photography

For this next trip to Oregon, it’ll be fun to see what we create in camera. Hopefully I can create a skyline photograph. We shall see. This is why a photographer’s budget should not just be equipment… you need some money for travel.

Yellow Daffodil welcomes spring to Utah

And it was just yesterday that I blogged about having your good camera ready and with you. I didn’t listen to my own advice! I was lucky the flowers were still there. Daffodils seem to fade quickly and they are almost dying by the time tulips show up.

Much like water color paintings look different than oil paintings there is a difference between film and digital. Sometimes, I can’t see a difference, other times it is blatantly obvious. This is a direct comparison. On the left we have the film photograph, shot with my new Pentax 6×7 film camera. On the right is the digital photograph, shot with my Canon 5DII. The lighting setup is the same for both photographs. There is a huge difference between the two. And they both have qualities that are cool, but different.

Left side is film. Right side is digital.

In the “ye olde days” of film, the look of a photograph would be determined by what brand of film you use. These days I have been using Kodak and a little bit of Fuji. And depending on the subject I will use one or the other. And choice of a photo lab becomes important. I was trying out a new lab that is local, but not sure they are an improvement over the lab I have used up till now.

Why do I photograph both? and wouldn’t it be easier to pick one or the other? I love variety in life. If I was doing the same thing over and over again I would get bored out of my mind. The ability to pick a film or a digital camera and create something unique is like having the big box of 64 Crayons verses the box of 8 crayons. Give me the choice and variety.

For a number of photo shoots last year, I would take a few photographs with my film camera. I hope to do that again this year. So don’t be surprised when I bring out a large camera with wooden handle, use a light meter and take a “ye olde film portrait.”

In the case of this sunset photo, I was leaving the gym and I saw that the golden light was looking beautiful and that the sunset had a good chance of going orange, pink, and red. When there are some clouds in the sky you have the best chance for amazing. Too many clouds and it doesn’t work. No, clouds? Boring.

Well, it is a good thing I had my main camera in the trunk of my car. It doesn’t help much if it is sitting in the office at home. So I drive to a spot that would give me a clear view of the sun setting over the Salt Lake Valley. I have photographed there before so I had to get their quickly before the sunset disappeared. The key is to be prepared.

Sunsets over the Salt Lake Valley

I have shot these kinds of sunset with an iPhone before and it never does justice to the landscape. And the iPhone is limited to a wide angle of view. That wouldn’t work so well for this photograph. Fortunately, I was a bit prepared to photograph something. My camera bag will have at least one or two lenses to choose from. I never know if I will have an emergency phone call about a need for a photographer. It has happened!

I have it as a goal to have a camera on my person everywhere I go. I might not be able to carry a full sized SLR camera everywhere, but there are a few smaller cameras that might help out. And sometimes the trunk of the car isn’t close enough, so be prepared.

So today’s blog post features 2 photographs I created with a plastic toy camera. It was shot with expired Fuji Astia film, developed locally, and scanned by me! Film and plastic cameras are the original Instagram. If you’re familiar with Instagram you know you can add filters to make digital photos look like film. Guess what looks like film? Film! And you get the extreme vignette, grain, and weird color shifts with toy plastic cameras. I have few of these cameras and I try to bring them on different events and occasionally a portrait session.

Utah State Capitol shot with a Plastic Toy Camera

These photographs came from a political protest rally at the state Capitol. These were my 2 favorite images from the roll of film. The film came out with a purple color shift which I love. That could be from the expired film, or the processing. I like the randomness and it means I have some rather unique images. The soft focus and color makes this look like the 1970s. I like it.

With my Plastic Toy camera I photographed these people at a political rally

The toy camera I used is a Debonair. It is a mystery camera and I have no clue who made it or when. I have one of them and I ordered 2 more today. I hope to used these for some summer portraits in addition to some of my “real cameras.”

I photographed Jeff & Brady above the Capitol Hill area. We found one spot that overlooked the valley and we were able to get a number of shots with the valley and the mountain range in the background. After sunset we took off to Exchange Place in Salt Lake City for some urban portraits.

Overlooking the valley of Salt Lake City

Brady and Jeff have since moved to Roosevelt, which is very rural compared to SLC. I want to go out and visit them and take some portraits. Maybe when the weather warms up a bit I can make it out there. It is always fun to get photographs every few years, because people change!

The mountains surrounding Salt Lake City

Exchange Place and the Golden Doors

Jeff’s individual portrait

Black and white portrait by the golden doors

Brady’s individual portrait

We head downtown for graffiti

I did try adding fire to the photo to add a sense of danger and it didn’t feel right. And too often we add things just to add things. We should learn to keep just the essential in the photograph. If it doesn’t add to the photo, leave it out. Learn to edit. I spent about 2 hours to create the image in Photoshop. However, this is something that would have been a nightmare to organize to photograph in real life. So there definitely is some benefits to faking it in Photoshop.

Fake Movie Poster for a Spy Themed Movie

Many thanks to the people who helped create this photograph. There was a team to work on the hair and makeup for Natalie. The lighting was setup ahead of time for us. As for Rich, we had one suit to work with and I was inspired by James Bond so I had him wear a suit and bring his little arsenal to studio. It helps to have friends who have guns. And just so you know, the gun was unloaded and chamber empty so there was little risk to injury, unless he threw the gun at me.

Here is a list of people who helped out with this photo:
Model: Rich Barton
Model: Natalie Paige Willison
Hair: Derron Revere Willison
Makeup: Robin Bodily

I hope to find more opportunities to create images like this. I have been working on creating 300 Photoshop Composites and I am more than halfway to my goal!

I still love these photographs. The longer lines are from 1 or 2 hours of exposure. There are tricks you can do in digital but I think the film was a lot of fun. I want to go out into the field and do it again when it gets warmer. Moab is perfect for this because it is fairly desert like and the arches and monuments can look amazing for foreground elements.

Star Trails over the Organ in Moab

I did the scanning of the film myself. That was a challenge. I think Velvia is a different beast and it curls a bit when you try to scan it. I tried the Epson V600 and I got better results from the Nikon CoolScan V. I’m hunting for some better software to use with the scanner but it worked pretty well for 35mm. Next time I’ll just send the film to a lab and have them scan it.

Star trails over Moab

Star trails with the north star visible

Star trails with Polaris over Park Avenue in Moab

Long exposures to create star trails. Film is awesome for this.

My family on the other hand really enjoy Pinterest and they actually try ideas that they see. This was a birthday cake created for my nephew and it was a Pinterest creation. There are websites dedicated to the failures that come from Pinterest, so far we have been lucky.

Birthday cake inspired by Pinterest

My birthday is in less than 2 months, I will be turning 40! Ack! That is one of the big birthdays. Maybe I can find a cheesecake recipe on Pinterest?

And yes, I photograph my own birthdays.

Panorama of LaVell Edwards Stadium at Sunset

One of these days I should print one of these large on the wall. I think I need more walls.

Panorama View of Brigham Young University

Panorama of LaVell Edwards Stadium at Twilight