Au Naturale

One of the best things about photography is meeting new people and getting a feel for their personality.  After speaking to this family, I knew we needed a very outdoor feel.  Their friends call their son the "Cabbage Patch Kid."  He's been out hiking and fishing with his parents since birth.  I went out and scouted a few spots, and while walking betwwen locations, the dad spotted this amazing little patch of wildflowers.  I love this shot with the purple behind him.

Be Well/Joyride Triathlon

            I promise, for all of you non-sports fans, that this is the end of sports for a little while.  Be amazed that I slipped a non-cycling shot into this one!  These are from the very wet and cold Be Well/Joyride Triathlon held on Saturday.  The perk of being the photographer was that, unlike the other volunteers, I got to sit in a car, and periodically go inside to warm up.  If that wasn't incentive to bring a camera, I don't know what was!  My next post will return to the typical non-sweating baby.  Thanks for indulging me!

Bear Lake Classic Bike Race

The day was perfect for a bike race.  I was totally feeding off of the energy of the cyclists.  My event contact instructed me to focus on the cat 1-2 guys, which was awesome. I love these shots!!  My biggest regret was the inability to split myself and cover more locations around the lake.  The intense looks on their faces as they sprinted towards the finsh line made the whole day worthwhile.  It made me want to run out and purchase a 400mm lens..(.maybe when I make it big as a sports photographer:)

Just as the cat 3 guys were crossing the finish line, my card freaked out on me.  I've never experienced a card crashing, it was a terrible feeling.  I'd been been shooting for over 3 hours and had visions of losing all of the data.  I finished to shoot with a regular speed card, cursing it's turtle-like tendancies. After the tears and the anxiety (ok, i'm not a teary person, but there was anxiety), I ran to Logan Computers in the Cache Valley Mall.  It took awhile, but they salvaged my images, I have no idea what went wrong, and haven't tried the card since.  Logan Computers earns a big shout out and thanks.  They got me right in on a Saturday evening and saved my first real attempt at sports photography.  You can view all of the images at: http://milestonephotography.smugmug.com/Other

Joyride Bikes

If I had unlimited time to pursue all of my dreams, cycling would fill a huge chunk of it!  I love being out on the open road, either alone with my thoughts, or with friends.  If you haven't hopped on a bike in awhile, I would highly recommend it.  And while I'm recommending something, run down to Joyride Bikes or visit http://www.joyridebikes.com/, quite possibly the world's greatest bike shop!

I've been working on my sport's photography lately. I had the chance to shoot the Bear Lake Classic Road Race up in beautiful Garden City yesterday.  I'm dying to sort images and get some posted, but until I do, I realized I had some older and newer shots that  I took for practice.  They are of some great guys who ride with Joyride, and were willing to humour me with a few laps and a game of cat-and-mouse.

Hailstorm

     This senior portrait started out like any other...stress about the perfect location, weather worries, etc.  There was a storm moving in, but I spoke with the client, and we decided to go for it anyway.  After about an hour of shooting the wind really picked up...REALLY.  I decided it was time to end and start the trek back to the vehicles.  Just after we passed by the easily accesible train cars there was a conversation that went a little something like this:

Super-cool fellow photog and assistant'" what's that noise?"

Naive and in denial, fearless leader (aka, me), " I think it's just the rain..."

Previously mentioned super-cool assistant,"it's REALLY loud!"

Me, no longer in denial,"  It's not rain, it's hail, quick, find an open traincar!!!"

     After being pelted with dime sized hail (which really hurts), we found an open traincar, climbed inside and took cover.  The storm was brief, and, as a photgrapher, I couldn't pass up on Hali scooping up a handful of hailballs and snapping a quick shot before trying to beat the next wave back to the cars.

Fortunately we were all thrilled at the new level of extreme photgraphy (ok, I'm not really speaking for the others, but they laughed about it...), and I got some great images.