First time out to Speed Week out on the Salt Flats.

Not only was this the first time to Speed Week: Known to some as the last true amateur racing competition.

But it was also my first time to the Salt Flats in the 7 years I’ve lived in Utah.
I’ve passed by them on I-80 more than a dozen times… but I’ve never stopped.

It was a fun and interesting experience.
It really is a cultural experience to be around so many speed loving car centered men.
But I did see A girl there and she was even cute.

I went not only to see what it was like but to hang out with a couple of Utah Photographers that were also going for the first time.

My Tips:

Everyone says where sun block (everywhere) – I would agree but I didn’t and was fine. But I was only there 3 hours and that was 6:30am – 9:30am

Get there before 7am. That’s when sunrise is best. 6:30-7:30. Plus they don’t seem to start taking money until 7am. And they also let you go almost anywhere before 7am.

Try out some stuff along the pits and towards the end but the action is happening at the start, so that’s probably where you’ll spend the majority of your time.

There’s a lot of clutter, but the scenery is surreal so if you find an excluded car/bike you’ll be happy.

Talk to people becuase they’re more than willing. (They’re there a week waiting around for a race here and there. it seems to be a place where they come and hang out with like minded people)

And now for the pictures:

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Continue reading about Speed Week on the Salt Flats

Since I post so much of wedding couples, i thought I’d take a moment an share some moments from the rest of the day. (Read a little more about my thoughts on the subject)

Continue reading about Rockin the Receptions (2)

So it wasn’t all just rain.

Here’s what was going on about 2 minutes before the rain started falling.

And then later at the reception center we were able to take a couple more.

Continue reading about Copeland Wedding

So it was a couple weeks ago that I was in Manti, Utah doing a wedding.

We just finished with the group pictures.

We were a few pictures into the couple shots and they were running a bit late to start with.

I wanted to go up around the building (temple) the other way around and take a picture with the temple in the background.

As soon as we started to go up the hill it started to rain a little. By the time we got up the hill it was too late… the rain started to come down in buckets.

I used my reflector to try to cover them up… but they were still game for one last picture.

Of course it was bound to be awesome! Too bad you can’t see just how much rain was falling.

We were all soaked to the bone.

On the drive back I don’t think I’ve seen rain fall that hard in years.

Continue reading about And the rain came pouring down!

I’m much more caught up on everything so I’ll post some of the recent stuff I’ve been doing.

Just a quick post of a couple pictures

Continue reading about Justin & Sarah

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Continue reading about Laura & Lyon

I want to give you my personal feelings and observations on the D700

No facts just opinions

There’s plenty of sites with specific details on this new camera so i’ll not repeat this but give you a little of my opinion and leave the stats and facts to them.

My Camera background:

I’ve owned the following cameras

D70
D70s
D200
D300

I use lenses that are low light 2.8 or lower.

D300

That being said earlier this year I bought the D300 primarily because I wanted to be able to operate at higher ISO

While I’m happy I have the D300 i must say that I haven’t been operating at higher ISOs with it.
I think I’m getting pickier and pickier and the way they “get rid” of the grain wasn’t to my liking.

So once again I got a new camera hoping that it would work well in those high ISOs.

Problem Solved

And my first opinion is… it most certainly does seem to solve my ISO problems.

To someone taking pictures in darker situations (receptions or indoors anywhere) that’s a big deal and could be worth the $3k

Right now I’m looking at some pictures I took at a reception. It was dark outside they were cutting the cake and I wanted to be at a faster speed to avoid movement blur when they smeared the cake in eachothers face.

125th of a second speed and 1000ISO and the picture was completely useable… and that’s what it’s all about.

I haven’t been afraid to go up much higher than 1000ISO but I haven’t tested exactly the level that I am comfortable with. My guess is I’d probably go all the way to 3200 without too much concern. And if it’s alright to have a moody grainy picture I might even go up to 12k.

UPDATE: I’ve been looking at a lot of the pictures taken at 1600 and I’ll absolutely use them without any hesitation. They look great! They’re somewhat soft and maybe not crisp as most pictures but had I taken them with another camera the grain would have been prohibitive or at a slower shutter speed the pictures might have been very blury (and that’s worse)

Not only was the grain not a factor but the colors were beautiful!

A Pleasant Surprise

I wasn’t expecting that!
It will take some more shoots to really get a handle on it but my first impression is that the color of the pictures might be way better on this camera… which certainly saves me a lot of time in editing.

Enjoyed it more than I thought.

I always considered myself more of a telephoto kind of guy.
So when I picked up the full frame camera and lost that 50% increase in telephoto I thought it would just be alright. But I must say I really enjoyed it. My 28mm lens acted just like my 18mm lens of old.

Now this just means I’ve got to get a 14-24 2.8 nikon lens for $1600 later in the month.

This is my perspective and it comes from my opinions of my D300 and how it compares… If you have any questions ask away.

Continue reading about My Report on D700

The scenery at the Tahitian Noni Gardens was great!

The shade we had at around 6-7 was great!

The bride was gorgeous, that certainly helps!

The dress was very memorable (and I’ve seen a lot)!

The mom was helpful (even helped with the reflector!

It was laid back and fun and totally enjoyable!

The bride pulled off smiley and modelish wonderfully!

I’ve picked too many of the pictures so I’m trying to unpick some to make things more manageable editing process.

But in the meantime enjoy a preview.

Continue reading about One amazing photo shoot

So all of a sudden blog usage on this blog went up 300% this month.
It’s not like the blog is new… I’ve had it for over a year.

My theories are:

• Wordpress fixed some search engine optimization stuff to make things easier to find.
• I’m taking better pictures.
• Fixing the problem when my wordpress got hacked and google told people not to visit my site.
  (This is probably the biggest thing

But it might be because I post a bit more often. For instance my website has stayed constant… I haven’t added anything to the website for a really long time! (what’s the point? 

Continue reading about Blog UP 300% ??