White Family

I photographed this family last year, about Christmas time. I was out to shoot her brother's wedding and she said– well since your here why not take some pictures of us? I said why not. Then pretty soon everybody said why not! and then we were out back capturing light in my box. 

They were quite the delight. He's a drama teacher and she's a mom. She worked in the costume design, closet/worshop/thingy at BYU-Idaho. And their kids are children, which is the best kind of human. Enjoy.

My uncle Ed and my aunt Marie. Ed is the brother of my mother. We visited last month. He showed me his vast collection of pedal bikes, scattered through his house, garage, and many nicely assembled along one enormous wall. He and his youngest, Trevor, enjoying "digging", intense downhill riding on their Ellsworth's. Plus, they grow some mighty fine peaches. 

This is my brother, Greg. Taken in Snow Canyon, outside of the lava caves.



Nikkormatt FT 50mm Prime 35mm film

My Sister

This is my sister Abbie. She speaks for herself.




Nikkormatt FT 50mm prime 

Grand Tour Part II: Cement Factory Revisted

Me on my way back from Mexico, 2007

I stopped by the old cement factory in Lime I had to. I had stopped there a long time ago on the road back from Mexico. This time passing through on my bike, I thought I'd relive the adventure. 

Cement bits covered the once busy work place. Graffiti decorated the walls with mind melting vulgarity and antagonism– like "thank you". The ambience still excited, but it wasn't the same, an adventure already lived never quite relives the same way; the grounds had already been explore many years before, and they remained in much the same state minus a doorframe hear and there and perhaps some new wallwriting and a moved chair. The real adventure was in the before and after. 

To arrive there I took the closed back road from Huntington, crossing the active train track bridge in the process. Leaving I got stuck. The only road out of the place was the freeway, which I had no desire to ride in the fade twilight. After some debate I put up on the otherside of the tracks in a beautiful grove of trees– beautiful in the sunlight, not so beautiful once the full moon rose, perpetual wind gust blew, highway traffic whirred, and trains consistently blasted past in the night. Bum fire pits littered the grove and deer nibbled on the grass as the night went on. I was convinced a train bum would knife  me in my hammock at any moment.  To say the least I was terrified; gradually sleep won over.

Me on my way home, 2012

My Father's Lips

These are my father's lips. For the first fourteen years of my life they were largely unknown to me. For a number of years A Van Dyke beard covered most of the lower section of his face; a mustache grew over his upper lip, and a goatee covered the extent of his chin, and before this a full beard decorated the expanse of his cheeks. 

One day he shave it all off. All of it. We pleaded in favor of the life of the Van Dyke, but my father simply said- It is time. And that was that; he never looked back. For myself, I was shocked. The fact that my father even had lips amazed me, and more so I was fascinated by the way they curled- and I still am today. Nobody has lips like my father, they seemed to curl with open joy, and yet they seem to enclose some greater wisdom. They bring me joy. 

Many people are like my Father's lips, they conceal themselves and their greatness. They remain hidden in perhaps some ornate decorated facade for some time, but eventually their desire to be revealed wins and they come forth, their natural simplicity made public. 

Nothing against my father's beard, it was more than epic in its own right, but there's just something about those lips. 

Milo Simons

Milo Simons is the newest member of my family. My sister-in-law, Rachael, asked me if I could take some photographs of the boy a couple months ago. I could not, for I was not available due to the great distance between us. But just last week my family rendezvoused in Milo's abode in Lehi and from there vacationed down to St. George, hence the distance gap between us lessened and so I became available to photograph the boy. I photogaphed Milo, and these are the results. 

I enjoy this look. I mellow the blacks and highlights, and add I certain tint with white balance adjustments. This one has a green tint. 

The delights of outsourcing my negative scanning– the scanners rarely get all the photos cropped correctly– notice the large vertical bar. Its these kind of things that make me love film photography. 

We drove down to a nearby nature park and sauntered down the trails till we found the appropriate spot. We chose a nice shady spot near the creek. It was a good spot, but it seems that it may have been too dark, or that I had my shutter speed down too low. I did what I could but they still have a lot of black in them, but I like the way they came out: the serendipitous delights of film. We changed location and the second set came out noticeably brighter. This is my first shoot focusing on a newborn, I hope you enjoy it. 

All of these captured by my Nikkormat FT through my 50mm prime 1.4 lens on 35mm Kodak Gold 200 film.