My New Website!

I have officially launched my new photography website-- http://www.celestiallightphotography.com/

Along with the new website, I have a new blog http://celestiallightphotography.com/blog/, so I will no longer be using this one.

Ashen Flame

Update: Final Version (maybe) -- 9-26-08

Update: New version -- 9-24-08

I found some cool framing software so here are a couple tries for this image:

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.

Solar Migrations

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. Better edit to come. By the way, if anyone is reading this, I was wondering what people think of the titles I've been coming up with for my images. Too corny? Would you rather they were titled based on where they are?

Indigo Twilight

This, of course, is a preliminary edit. 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. Hope you like it.

Celestial Array

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. This is the first prelimary edit of the scanned image. Hope you like it. Remember to click on the photo for a larger version.

Among the Clouds

Update -- This is the final version (maybe :) )
Click on the photo for a larger (better) version. This shot was taken on the same Arches trip in 2005. I guess it takes me a LONG time to finish pictures. I just got this back from scanning and this is just a preliminary edit. The actual edit will take at least a week. Tell me what you think.

Subterrestrial

Update -- An even more final version :) (6-2-08)
New Update -- This is the final version.
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.