Ann-alog, a Pixel Remix, where Ann Torrence blogs about photographing for a book on U.S. Highway 89, the greatest road trip route in America. Photography tips, locations, trip reports, and real life.

My set of images as an animated GIF. D700 at 16 mm, ISO 800, 20 seconds, from f8 to f13

Large file, may take a moment to load. Alt/Option reload to cycle it again

Only 8 dedicated Photowalkers showed up for Saturday's moonlight snowshoeing outing, but we made the most of the empty palette to do some light painting under the thinning clouds. Light sources included cellphones, headlamps and chemical glow sticks from the dollar store.

We played with the lights and did not completely block the path of the cross-country skiers. Then we went to late-night breakfast to celebrate the Olympic bobsled win and our own record of least distance traveled in a PhotowalkingUtah event.

That record won't stand long: look for an announcement of the first ever Photocrawl for macro enthusiasts later this spring. In the meantime, look in the Flickr pool to see the other photos from Saturday night.

My 10 year old friend Baylor's first studio shots*

Imagine you are a 10 year girl. It is Saturday and your dad invites drags you to to some weird photography club thing a church in a strip mall. And the family's camera is in another state. "This will be fun," dad says. Yeah right.

Baylor tried out a Lensbaby at Niki's set-up

Further imagine that 175 strange ADULTS are packed into this strip mall church. Not one person your age, no one that you know. Thank God. What if your friends saw you here with these weirdos. A strange woman who seems to be friends with your DAD (yuck) shoves a camera in your hand. A scary, heavy camera. "Push this button here. This will be fun," she says. Gulp.

Baylor hit the small-strobes set-up too

It's crowded, loud. Strobes are going off all around you. It's your turn. Someone slides a Pocket Wizard onto the camera and shows you where to stand. The model smiles at you, she seems normal, your age. Push the button. Bam! Flash! Wow! This is fun.

Baylor shoots Andrew on the trampoline

That was my new friend Baylor's introduction to Photowalking Utah. We organized our third annual Studio Indoor Photowalk last Saturday. I made some good pictures that day, but Baylor's pictures show what we are all about--a brand new member can show up, not knowing a thing about studio lighting, and jump right in.

Rich was on point for this event, organizing the people, place and gear. Volunteers put together nine different set-ups for folks to try, and the models worked for hours on the promise of splitting a tip pool. $5 a head is all we asked, but with 175-200 participants, it added up to a nice sum for them. Thanks to Pictureline for loaning us the lights used on the trampoline set-up. And thanks to everyone who came early and stayed late to convert Gateway Community Church from sanctuary to studio and back again.

Like Rich, I get asked all the time (by nonmembers) why I put so much time into Photowalking Utah. It comes down to this: we are building a photographic community unlike anywhere else. And by "we," I mean all 892 894 members of PhotowalkingUtah, with room yet for friends we haven't met yet. No one is carrying around a pedestal for someone else to climb on, although we are having trouble hunting up a tall enough ladder to take our group shots. It's a community where the person who bought her first camera at Costco last week can get help and encouragement from someone who has been shooting 20 years and still is having fun with photography.

When we started this, I said I wanted it to be simple, friendly and free. We are having some growing pains, but we still have no membership forms, no dues, no dreadful business meetings. A newcomer can join today and org up a Photowalk tomorrow if she wants. I don't know where we are going next, but based on what we've been able to do so far, I imagine it will be somewhere amazing.

*shot with a Nikon D2X, straight from camera using exposures as directed by volunteers for each set-up. Baylor did awesome for using that camera for the first time.

Scott and Nate, my camera, Scott's 14-24mm lens

I stood to the side last night and watched Rich giving his low-light tips before Photowalking Utah set out for our third annual event at Temple Square, and I thought, "what have we done?" Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would grow and serve and make so many new photographer friends. We are guessing that we had about 140 at the clinic (Harley stopped counting at 130 and more trickled in) and have no idea how many more joined us at Temple Square.

I asked Scott to make a photo of our largest-ever clinic crowd. He only had his D300s with him, but he did have his 14-24, so he popped it on my D700 to get the full-frame goodness and took off with Nate. This image is what I found on my chip this morning.

PhotoJohn shoots many all at once for www.photographyreview.com/

PhotoJohn cut class, but met up later. So did BWJones and his wife, and more I didn't see, since I had to stow the projector and was late for the group shot. We did a clothing drive and collected a huge mound of stuff for The Road Home.

Salt Lake LDS Temple, Lensbaby, f8 with Telephoto adapter

The weather was warm for once and we had photographers spread out all over the Temple Square grounds. Photos are amassing in the PhotowalkingUtah pool. I think Jeremy hit right in his wrap-up, this event has become my way to get into the holiday spirit. Thanks to everyone who participated this year. Looking forward to next year, but we might need a bigger room

Some photographers can't be deterred. Despite the 100+ degree heat and the back-to-school mania of last weekend, fifteen intrepid photowalkers met up at Red Butte Garden for a couple hours of companionable picture-making.

Bridespotting at Red Buttee

The garden was hosting a wedding at the same time. I felt so bad for the bride because of the heat. Usually it's not so hot in late August--I tried to schedule the 'walk late in the season for that exact reason. Oh well, we all made do. The bride indulged my propensity for a bride-spotting photo. Sequoia, on her first Photowalk, photographed a rattler on the trail. One nice thing about the smaller group was that I got to spend time with our several newcomers: Cathy, Jen, Megan, Whit, Klover and Ashlynn.

Grape arbor

The Red Butte Garden is a location PhotowalkingUtah can return to often. They are building a new education facility that we hope to use next year for an event or two, and there's always something new to see and photograph. Even at 100 degrees. Thanks for hosting us!

Paintbrush

A favorite image from our last PhotowalkingUtah outing to Albion Basin. Shot with a Lensbaby Composer w/4x macro adaptor on my D700, at 200 ISO, f 4.0, 1/1500 sec.

Run and flash, Albion Basin

Imagine my shock when I pulled into the Catherine Pass trailhead parking lot at 5:15 am last Saturday. I scheduled this photowalk the way I schedule my own dawn shoots, which means be there early. I didn't really expect more than a handful of people to show up, but there in the dark were more than a dozen, and by the time we actually geared up and got out of the parking lot, we numbered over 30 photographers.

Grand Canyon Voyage, Day 9

About one hour after sunset on the 9th day, I started yet another star trail. I had never done night sky photography before this trip--wasn't really interested when I shot film and the older generation digital cameras weren't going to give the results I wanted. So the dark skies of the Grand Canyon gave me a great, sleeping bag accessible venue to practice.

And practice I did. Not until the third or fourth try did I make anything that pleased me. Not because of the Nikon D700, simply operator error. I worked out a procedure that gave me this result, and it's what I'll start with on Saturday, at our next Photowalk.

• Fresh batteries
• Turn off noise reduction (NR uses as much battery as your shot, and if you run out of power in mid-shot processing, the D700 and probably every other digital camera out there, records nothing.
• ISO Low 1 on the D700, which is equivalent to 100. I used that because ISO 200 collected too much background brightness. Sensitivity on individual cameras varies enough that it needs testing, but high ISOs aren't the place to start.
• f4 aperture. Aperture is the real control in this kind of photography, and 1 stop off widest aperture is generally a very sharp choice.
• compose. I wanted to include something of the rim in my shot. This is at 28mm on a full frame sensor. I wished I had an even wider lens.
• shoot RAW
• use a manual camera release, with a locking mechanism to hold it open.
• wait. I can count on at least 45 minutes on a fresh set of 8 AA batteries at 70 degrees in the D700 battery pack. Maybe longer, but by the time I had this shot, the sliver moon lighting the canyon wall had set and I was almost out of AAs. I'll try a longer exposure on Saturday.

100% pixel crop

The details captured by the D700 is unbelievable.

For RAW processing, I used a temperature of 3400K, tint of -3, exposure +.60 (suggests using a slightly higher ISO, like Low -.7), brightness -20 (to kill background and separate the stars). For a first success, I'm quite happy, and looking forward to Saturday:

PhotowalkingUtah on Saturday, if this infernal rain stops: Stansbury Park Observatory (Not the Island)
June 13th, 2009 (Saturday)
* Starting Time: 9:00pm
* Ending Time: 11:00pm (you can stay later if desired)
All the details

Tulip triplet

I'm lending Rich Legg a hand with his bimonthly photography clinics for Photowalking Utah. Much of what we will be talking about will apply to any outdoor subject (lighting conditions, composition, using color). We will also discuss how to get into the macro game for about $100.

As a bonus, our friends at the Moab Photo Symposium have donated a free registration for a lucky attendee at tonight's clinic.

Date: Thursday April 2nd
Time: 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Location: Salt Lake City Main Library - 210 E 400 South, Conf. room #4, 4th floor
Cost: FREE!

Hope to see you there.

Orchid (Lensbaby w/macro diopter(s)

From the most recent PhotowalkingUtah event, a trip to Cactus & Tropicals store in Draper. I used my DIY studio box most of the day, but the orchid was too tall. It fit perfectly in Harley's more elaborate (PVC sprinkler pipe construction) set-up. I also used his flash and remote trigger, since it was already set up for his environment.

Besides the abundance of floral subjects (and no wind!), another great thing about this Photowalking venue was the ambient temperature was not just well above freezing, it was downright clement. Great call by Bryan Jones to select this location for January. You can see more photos from the group of +60 at our Flickr page.

Taken at the 2007 Temple Square photowalk

I, for one, am hoping for some wet weather for the December Photowalk because of the reflections of the lights in the wet concrete at Temple Square. The Highway 89 project has given me ample opportunity to work out a wet/cold weather practice for myself and my gear.

Before leaving the car:

I spread out a trash compactor bag on the seat where my camera bag rides. If you read nothing else, skip to the end to find out why. It could save you a from an optical disaster. Otherwise, venture forth.

Keep warm

1. Your mom was right: wear a hat. Preferably one that blocks wind. Even better if the brim flips out of the way so you can keep it on AND see through the viewfinder. A hat and the warmest, driest shoe/sock combination in your possession delivers you 90% of the way to comfortable in any weather. As for in between, I use the tried-and-true three layer method: inner wicking layer to keep dry*, thick middle layer to keep warm, outer layer to block wind and wet. No cotton, no denim, lots of fleece. It ain't a fashion show out there.
2. Gloves: Some people like the photographer's gloves, I wear some fingerless combo glove mittens I picked up at a truck stop in Wyoming. The price was right--I guess truckers don't spend disposable income like some photographers. At -25°F in Yellowstone I used inner glove liners under a waterproof glove topped by some mittens, stripping down the outer two layers as needed. At -25°F your exhaled breathe freezes into sparkling crystals. Tequila acquires an unctuous thickness. The vapor in Old Faithful's plume froths up into a voluminous cloud. I digress.

Air Force Thunderbirds on their May 2006 visit to Hill Air Force Base

Join PhotowalkingUtah tomorrow for our second-to-last outing of 2008. We are going indoors at the Hill Aerospace Museum. Doors open at 8 am. The details summarized on PhotowalkingUtah's webpage, so I won't repeat. Hope to see you there.

Salt Lake Cemetery Angel

The first ever Ladies Special Photowalk was a smashing success, except we didn't smash anything. Ten of us enjoyed seasonable weather and lovely golden light on Saturday, including Elizabeth (wibbet_64), Renatta (wildvinephoto), her as-yet Flickrless friend Stacy, Judy (jkiel), Anna (yanimfah), Diane (Lady Pebbles), Robyn (photogirl66), Jessie (jeszerszen), Diana (dianalbrks) and me.

Now that PhotowalkingUtah has over 300 members, it was kind of nice to get back to our roots with a smaller group. Naturally we dispersed and I hardly saw a couple people the rest of the afternoon. It was still fun. Robyn showed us where she made this stunning image. Diane was explaining some lighting strategy when we came upon her and Renatta. Then she organized the post-shoot dinner at Chili's.

The images are starting to drop into our Flickr pool. Next month we return to our regular program of walking about in large groups of marginally organized photographers at Hill Air Force Base Museum. Subscribe to the PhotowalkingUtah RSS feed to get the details.

Bison being herded into the first chute at Antelope Island

I hadn't been out to Antelope Island since Millie's pig-roast in 2006. This weekend I went out twice, once on Friday to scout with Scott Smith, and again with Bryan Jones for Saturday's sunrise and the actual photowalk. Thirty-plus photographers showed up for PhotowalkUtah's fifteenth event at Antelope Island on Saturday. Scott did a great job organizing this month's trip to observe the working of the captive herd of bison. Working means injecting, ear-tagging, micro-chipping, pregnancy testing, culling, and other -ings, none of which fit in with the bison's desires for the day.

A managed herd of about 700 bison roam the island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. Each fall the state parks employees round them up, using horses, vehicles and the occasional helicopter. After resting a week in holding pens, a large group of volunteers and staff give medical check-ups to nearly all the bison; a few old mean bulls are left out on the range. A couple hundred are culled for auction to get the herd back down to the carrying capacity of the island.

The operation is a mix of time-honored skill and new technology. The animals are herded into the first chute with beat-up SUVs, and then flagged on buy a line of men ready to jump the panels. Micro-chips are read with a wand and the operators wear wireless head-sets to communicate with the folks in the office updating the database. One person grabs a little calf's horns to keep it from thrashing around, full-sized units get temporary nose-clip roped to a strong cleat. The herd manager rebuilt stronger chutes this year, for the safety of the animals and the workers, but Scott and I still saw a bison jump a fence.

The main group arrived around 10 am, we made our group photo and hung out at the pens for a while. Mostly I had a great gabfest, since I shot so much on Friday. Others went on to an old ranch on the island and are contributing some interesting images on that subject to our Flicker pool. It was great to see Tom again, meet his son Zach, and to get to spend some time with newcomers Chris, Mark and Megan.

There will be at least two more Photowalks in 2008, and we have some exciting plans for 2009. You can subscribe to PhotowalkingUtah's RSS feed at our spanking new website. Simple, fun, free: that's PhotowalkingUtah. Hope to see you out there soon.

Tulle and ribbon

Fairy princess witches Halloween costumes appear to be the fashion this year for the under-ten girly set. The Photowalkers had plenty of willing subjects to photograph at Gardner Village for Photowalk #14.

We a great turn-out, not well-represented by our group photo. Between late-arrivals and the early dispersal of Photowalkers with kids, getting the tribe together for a group shot was fairly hopeless from the outset. At least five or six first-timers joined us, some even brought their families, which was great. I remember Chris, Chris, Diane, Suzanne, Jim and Pat, and I know there were more.

Thanks to Harley and Diane for shepherding the post-party dinner away from the original location (no thanks for a 90 minute wait!) and thanks to everyone for posting their photos to the group pool. See you all in two weeks at Antelope Island.

Be sure to visit our shiny new website at www.photowalkingutah.com.

American White Pelicans at Bear Lake, Idaho/Utah

Sometimes I can only shake my head at myself. This photo has been sitting, languishing even, in the archive. When I took it (June 2007), it didn't "fit" into my vision of the Highway 89 project. Now that I'm writing about Northern Utah, I see that it might work in just fine.

There's a lot of news, and a lot of miles to put on the chariot in the next few weeks:

• 18 October: Gardner Village Photowalk, which somehow I ended up hosting. This one is going to be great for families.
• 24-26 October: I'll be showing my Highway 89 work at the first Bear Lake Regional Photo Seminar in Montpelier, Idaho. The organizers would appreciate it if you would get your registration in if you are planning to attend.
• 1 November: Antelope Island Photowalk to capture the working of the herd.
• 8 November: Ladies Special Photowalk at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. I am hosting this one too.

I am also excited to announce that in March 2009, I will be teaching "Introduction to Digital Photography" in Park City for the Lifelong Learning program of the Continuing Education department at the University of Utah. I will post details about how to register for the course when the spring 2009 catalog is on-line.

Somewhere in that schedule, I hope to finish a book too. Won't that be grand? In the meantime, peregrinations, but no migration to warmer climes for me.

Photowalking Utah is going to Ogden on Saturday 16 October. Meet up at the Union Station (the trax dropoff) in the main lobby at 5:30.

I wish I were going - it's close enough to Highway 89 to count. The weather looks lovely and the buzz from the Flickr group is enthusiastic. Instead, I'm heading south, to Tucson, and the end of the highway in Nogales. Have fun everyone!

Balloon Remix

Another victorious PhotowalkingUtah wrapped up on the 4th of July as the temperatures began climbing toward 100 °F. About fifteen members photographed Provo's Freedom Festival Balloon Launch; a dozen of us actually found each other on the field amongst the 25 balloons. The good folk of Utah County were there in large numbers, impressive considering the pre-dawn launch.

Heidi at the Great Salt Lake

When six of us met up for the first Utah Photowalk, I don't think any of us imagined where it would lead nine months later. We have over 200 members in our Flickr group, aliased from our own www.photowalkingutah.com URL, and 1665 images to date in the pool from 10 outings, plus the occasional impromptu meet-up. And we are still having fun, albeit a bit more organized fun than that first October Saturday in the rain.

So I am not shocked anymore to see 20 cars at the starting point when I arrive, the group growing to 40 as we gather up to meet the newcomers and outline the plan. We got to the Great Salt Lake plenty early for sunset, somewhere around 100°F. Issue out sunscreen and seek shade. While our guide, Charles Uibel went out to scout the sunset location, Rich improvised a Kenneth Linge style demo on the use of reflectors in hard backlit sunshine.

Tulips at Thanksgiving Point, Lehi, Utah

I shot almost everything at the last Photowalk with either Cokin's Dreams or Pastel filter, sometimes both. For this one I used the Pastel 2 filter, and a very shallow depth of field (3.5). Because of the 20 mph wind, I cranked up the ISO to 400, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec. That's stop action even for waving tulips.

A newbie to our Photowalking tribe posted a message advising that we reschedule - I'm glad we didn't. Our group is not about getting the perfect shot, just having fun, and why would I put that off for a week? So the newbie didn't come, but we adopted some other folks that we met, and now we have new friends. And that's why Photowalking Utah is the best dang group of photogs around.

Impressionist-style spring flowers

The next Utah Photowalk is Saturday at 5 pm. We're meeting at Thanksgiving Point to photograph the tulip festival, should the weather and blossoms cooperate.

I like to assign myself a little project for each Photowalk, and this time, it's to get familiar with some new filters I bought for my workshop at the Moab Photo Symposium, and to collect some more base images for my examples.

Today's image used no filters, just 9 exposures I made while jumping about in one spot. I stacked the images into layers in Photoshop above a black background. Then I used the screen blending mode for each layer to screen, dropping the opacity to 20%. Why a black background? One way to think of the screen mode is as if two slide projectors were pointed at the same black screen; what you see is the blended image; the black background serves as a blank canvas for my watercolor effect.

Hope to see you out at Thanksgiving Point. More details are at our Flickr site.

Arena Station glass

Riding UTA's TRAX line for a Photowalking event has to be one of my better ideas - just about the time I got cold (40°F), another train came along and carried the twenty-five or so of us to the next station. We did walk four blocks on this 'walk, from the Temple Square station to the Gallivan Center.

I decided to travel extremely light: one lens, one body; and to get out of my comfort zone, by choosing my 12-24 mm lens. I bought that lens in 2005, because I previsualized this image of the Wells Fargo Building, and needed the wide angle coverage to get the shot. Its classic use is to exaggerate the foreground/background transition, especially for hyperfocal landscapes, and for photojournalistic portraits. Using it effectively in nearly all situations means getting close to the subject. I don't use it as often as I might, so I wanted to spend some play time with it. And to make sure I wouldn't cheat on this self-imposed exercise, I left everything else at home.

Among the many things I like about Photowalking is setting aside a time to do experiments. When we went to the west side, I brought only my new G9; when we did the Christmas lights at Temple Square I stuck with my lensbaby for everything but the group shots.

The wide angle exercise worked well for me, except once when I snatched Bryan's camera out of his hand to get a shot I saw. That wasn't the most stylish approach, although he handed the machine over with aplomb. And that's another great thing about our Photowalking group - everyone is there to have fun, lend a hand, make some new pictures. No stress, no prizes, no drama. Just a lot of laughs and new friends. Next time we might even have snacks.

Thanks to UTA for letting us have our group event on the rails.

Public art at the 9th East TRAX station (Canon G9, Adobe Camera Raw)

I spent all of 2 minutes and 10 frames scouting for tomorrow's photowalk, um ride. Thanks to UTA for letting us bring our group on the train. If it rains/snows, we'll have a place to duck out of the weather.

We meet up at 4 pm at the stop across from Primary Children's Hospital. Bring some $1s and coins for your ticket - the machines don't take no stinking credit cards. I plan to travel light, just one lens. Haven't decided which one yet. It's a little personal challenge I do each photowalk, to limit the artistic palette and see how much I can do with it. Hope to see you there.

Glassware on a drying rack

Pre-photowalking: I did a little scouting of my husband's lab at the Moran Eye Center. If making still-life photographs of weird junk scientific implements fires up your creative juices, you will be in the right place next Saturday on our Photowalk.

A few thoughts on what to bring. Tripod, or you will be using very high ISOs. A small to moderate piece of black cardboard to improvise a background. Flashes, gels, gobos. Macro gear. (I will bring my low-brow Nikon 70-300 with the 5T and 6T diopters, if anyone wants to give it a test run. A tripod will be essential for macro stuff.)

I asked R to round up a couple of white lab coats, so you all can take turns posing as scientists, maybe even do the cliche classic pose with the pipetter tool. I spent two hours in the lab, intending to venture out into the lobby, but I never got past the first lab bench. R's rank and funding earned him a large lab--we'll have plenty of room. But he's got a grant deadline looming, so we really will shut down the lab photography at 11 am. We'll start Photoshopping at 11 in the Moran auditorium for those who want to partake of part 2 of our day's program.

Take TRAX, or park for free under the building. See you on the 23rd.

Wow, Jeremy did a fantastic job with this video! I saw more of the Photowalk from the video than I did in person. I wonder if he got to make any photos!

Bryan is polishing up the announcement of our next Photowalk, promises it will be posted soon.

The models. And some interloping photowalker who couldn't stay out of the picture (Rich!). They were everywhere

The Photowalking Utah group had a very successful studio lighting event in lieu of an outdoor walkabout in the January cold. We had 75 attendees, at least half of whom had never worked with studio lighting. Several wrap-ups (Annie, Jeremy (a new ring light fan), John, Rich) and tons of photos are on-line already. Rather than repeat, I will post some data and a few thoughts that might be of use to other Photowalking groups and camera clubs that undertake a studio lighting workshop.

Randy, Ramon and Adam

These guys are working outside on my house. They are tough. Today (35 deg) they turned off the propane heater because it was too loud, interrupting their music. And who knew DeWalt made radios? But I digress.

We Photowalkers are not so tough. The Temple Square shoot at 24 degrees was enough cold for a while. So we are moving indoors to work on our portrait skills. Rich has found us a venue, we have models, backdrops, at least 5 sets of lights, and many planning to attend.

The most exciting part for me is how many absolute beginners are planning to attend. I didn't help start Photowalking to meet self-annointed experts- there are plenty of other photo groups in SLC brimming with them; what we need is enthusiasm, creativity and some laughs, with enough experienced hands around to make sure no one gets hurt by a falling light stand.

We are also going to set up zones where we can test out gear owned by fellow members. There will be large Canon and Nikon contingents. Bryan has promised to bring his ring light, I've got some odd filters, even the Olympus folks will get a table.

Now that we are up to 62 people on the team, I'm bringing name tags. It will be nice to finally get to see people without all their winter outerwear, and to associate Flickr ids with real names and faces.

Please join us! Always room for one more.
Saturday 12 January 2008, 11 am to 2 pm
Gateway Community Church - 584 E 12300 South, Draper
All the Details

Alternate take on the Santasaurus shoot

Christmas cards were only mailed yesterday and today. Most will be late. I let R pick the one I printed; this one is the #2 choice.

We are back on the road tomorrow, Highway 89 of course. That, and I am still disentangling my site from our company's MT installation, so I might not be blogging for a few days as Xmission redirects the host over the holidays.

2007 has been a spectacular year for me and my work. One of the best things has been what's been happening right here. New visitors, new friends, from so many different aspects of my life.

When Bryan, Rich and I organized the first Photowalk in SLC, I had no idea it would take off. This morning our Flickr pool had 43 members, and I'm sure we will grow again in January with the indoor studio event. Here's some of the new people I've met through Photowalking:

Annie, Harley, Laura, Paul, Scott, Trevor.

I did the 37Days Artist Trading Card Challenge as a lark, and now look who's visited the Ann-alog:

Annie, Cindy Jones Lantier, Kikipotamus the Hobo, Nina, and Rick.

One of my most popular posts this year had nothing to do with photography, but rather a knitting tip for hand-winding wool. It's good to be able to contribute something to the greater Internet depository of craft instruction. Google-Giver-of-All knows how frequently I consult the oracle myself. These bloggers stopped in to look:

Eliea, Lisa, and Teeni.

Then there's the Other stuff (like my main topic, photography...). From all over the globe, meandering their ways through the web, these folks took the time to comment and enliven things up here on the Pixel Remix:

Airhen, Denise, Jay, Kevin, Lisa, Pete, Scott, Tracy.

Near and far, thank you all for being part of the greatest year of my life. Best wishes for a happy holiday, and even better things in 2008.

The big Christmas tree at South Temple and Main Street

I hung out at the big red Christmas tree for a while to greet any stragglers to last night's Photowalk. Used my time wisely, making several shots with my Lensbaby, the original model. It was so cold (I figure about 28degF) that I was using two gloved hands to focus the Lensbaby, and my mouth to trigger the remote. One thing I like about my Photowalking experience is that I am using it as a time apart to do things to feed the creative flames, rather than always going for the hero shot. So yesterday, I shot everything with the Lensbaby. Next time, it might all be from 6 inches off the ground. Just something different, light, fun. Break my routine, see some new stuff, meet some nice people. So far, it's working out.

Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City

Remember that we moved the start-up time to 5:15, but come when you can. It's going to be cold. I'm digging out the hand and toewarmers. If there are any last minute updates, they will be on our Flickr group

Temple Square remix

I put the details on the Flickr group, so check it for updates, but recap here:

Date: 11 December 2007
Time: 5:30
Meet: Corner of Main and South Temple, by the red Christmas tree
Bring: Tripod, camera release, festive attitude.

Remix from 2006

Architecture above Center Street, downtown Provo

Who would have guessed that a placed called Taqueria Tormenta is in downtown Provo? Provo may be the heart of Utah County, but like all of Utah, and the west, the old myths don't really match up to what's out on the street. Tacos, apparently, although we didn't have time for snacks. Center Street has plenty of the three scourges of the impoverished: pawn shops, bars, and payday loan storefronts. And a guitar maker, antique stores, and lots of restaurants, including an Indian place that looked pretty interesting.

Lots of new people on the Photowalk team showed up, and they seemed to be having a fine time. We maxed out at about 15, although uploads to the Flickr pool are just now straggling in. Don't be shy! I was amazed to log in and see that we now number 26. Our attendees were good sports about posing in front of a Highway 89 sign just to humor me.

I especially enjoyed meeting James from Texas with the donkey skull on the grill of his jeep. Imagine you are new to Utah, and you emerge from some commercial establishment in Provo to find a half dozen people surrrounding your car, with tripods, wireless flashes and making a ton of noise. He was a good sport, told us the name of the donkey, which I forgot, and that it had been pastured with horses as a sacrifice for cougar attacks. Donkeys are cheaper, and apparently slower, at least in Amarillo. No way, if I had a donkey, would it be permitted to become cougar bait. But I still found James charming, even so.

Lots of kids this time, which was fun, and they were willing subjects, which was convenient. Next time, I'm bringing the walkie-talkies so we can do more with our collective mound of Pocket Wizards and flashes. If we spend 10 minutes thinking creatively about costuming, we can have a ton of fun with the flashes, some volunteers, and the lights on Temple Square. Which, by the way, is also on Highway 89.

Rich called the next Photowalking destination: Provo. Yep, deep in the heart of Utah County. He (himself on a recent list of top 87 photography bloggers) has scouted locations for us. All we have to do is show up with our toys.
When: Saturday November 17th. 4:00 - 6:00(ish) pm
Where: Downtown Provo. Meet at 560 W. Center Street.

ArtSpace entry during Gallery Stroll

Bryan and Scott covered the who-what-when-where of photowalking last Friday night. I for one was very happy about the weather. Check out the Flickr pool for more shots. What I want to talk about is first impressions on my new Canon G9.

Warehouse on 200 South, Salt Lake City

This morning, I scouted locations for Friday's photowalk, and found this great doorway. Locations like this building really rock my boat, should be a lot of fun. (That building is really wonky, there is no true level on it at all!)

Here's what I posted on our Flickr pool, the "official" source for all your SLC Photowalking news and images
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Theme: the grunge/gentrification interface
Location: meet at corner of 500W, 200 S. Parking is available in 100-200 block of 500W.

Met on the street outside Port O'Call, Salt Lake City

'Who's inside?' the driver asked from the car window. 'Is it someone famous?' None of us was swift enough to say, 'Britney Spears.' Six people standing out in the rain must have an important reason to be getting their cameras wet. Paparazzi, that's us. Yer, not quite. This couple was kind enough to pose. And the Port O'Call bouncer was friendly; we invited him to join us on the next Photowalk.

We declare a complete victory on the 1st Salt Lake City Photowalk, despite disappointing the passersby on spotting glitterati. Met some nice folks: Harley, Rich, Diane, and new blogger Scott, (already knew Bryan). Took more pictures than I expected, see them on our flickr pool. Rich has a nice write up about it.

The only disappointment of the day was the sad news when I arrived home. France 20, AllBlacks 18 in the quarter-final elimination round of the Rugby World Cup. And now I see that kiwi Prime Minister Helen Clark is telling her citizens not to blame the refs, as she returns from the match to New Zealand. The prime minister was at the quarter-final in Wales? Rugby is serious business. The night we arrived in NZ in 2003, the AllBlacks loss to the Aussies in the semi-finals provoked days of national mourning. The hand-wringing has commenced again. Kind of like half the state of Utah after the Utah-BYU match. But the poor kiwis have four years to wait for revenge.

Next Photowalk won't be that far off - Friday, October 19. We are planning to go west of Gateway, around the galleries and clubs during gallery stroll. Will have a real plan soon.

Part of the cow crowd

I should put this in the category, "completely unready to make a photograph" because when we were driving north toward Montpelier, ID, a) my camera was not accessible, and b) I wasn't anticipating the chance for a shot. I have sheep being herded down Highway 89, but not cows. I would have liked a better shot for completeness.

My cameras don't make pictures, I do. But only if I get them out, get myself out, and push the button. Another camera in the arsenal won't make the slightest bit of difference to my productivity if it sits in the drawer. But I am in the wants (badly) for that new Canon G9...

My pilot (that's a fun phrase to type!) called. It looks dicey for Friday, so I may be able to go to the first SLC Photowalk after all. If your camera is spending too much time alone in its case, maybe you'll join us.

P.S. Who knew that cows had freckles?

Big Blue - Wells Fargo Building, Salt Lake City

It's time SLC had some Photowalking! I'll be there if (bad) weather allows. I'm supposed to go do aerials down in Arizona, but if the weather doesn't cooperate, I'm totally going to be down at the Salt Palace next Saturday at 5 pm.

Rich Legg has the details here. Good spot on the LDS conference, Rich.

We've also tentatively got a plan to go to the club district on the 19th, which is gallery stroll evening, lots of fun possibilities in both locations. Bring an old friend, make a new one. The idea is to keep it low key and FUN!!! Get out there and make some pictures!