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Week 16 was another “up for interpretation” type of theme, which I’m really beginning to enjoy as it makes me flex my creative muscle a bit. “How do you get from Point A to B?” I thought up a few ideas and was able to at least attempt all of them this past week, although most were only marginally successful.

I ended up using a shot I made in my backyard almost on a whim and made possible entirely by luck, I had searched our entire backyard fence for a snail earlier, (they come out in droves come summer time but it’s still a bit early) and had found nothing, but a second search revealed a very small snail (it’s shell was no bigger than a penny) down low and hidden by some vines. I quickly made the paper background and grabbed the 50mm f/1.8 and the extension tubes and ran out to the deck as the sun was setting and I had literally 5 minutes to shoot this thing with any real light not to mention that dinner was almost ready…

Getting there, slowly! - 3 exp HDR handheld 50mm f/1.8 +12mm extension tube

It almost seems like he’s looking at me asking “you got a problem Pal?”

The day before I had sent out a quick note on Google + that I was hoping to shoot the light rail trains downtown at sunset after I got off of work, I had about a 20 minute window to drive there and get the shot before the Sun went down and had a shot it mind. I got 2 responses from my friend and neighbor +Heather Webb, and a fellow photographer we had met during the #jarviewalk  Nate Isaksen who brought along his friend Kristen. After a mad scramble to find parking I was able to finally get out on the Trax train platform that looks directly west to the Union Pacific building from the western edge of downtown and set up for a shot to show the train and the setting sunlight lighting up the tracks. A few problems were that the Suns angle was not as direct as I had envisioned (on the equinoxes it’s dead center on all East/West streets) But it’s been more than a few weeks since then and the Sun was farther north and completely out of the shot, and the background was just too cluttered for my liking.

While shooting on the platform Nate started talking to this gentleman that was waiting for the train and I was able to grab this shot of him as the train pulled into the station, I processed it to desaturate it and give it an edgy look.

"Waiting for the Train"
looking east/northeast towards the Salt Lake Temple, downtown Salt lake City

Following this we walked along the edge of the new City Creek shopping center and took pictures of the fountains near the entrance and the pedestrian bridge that spans Main street and connects the two halves of the massive complex. I might share those in a later post. It was a hectic mini photowalk and although nothing turned out how I had wanted,  I still had a blast and it was a good learning experience for me and I’m sure glad I got to shoot with Heather, Nate and Kristen that night as the conversation was fun, insightful and it’s always nice to have company when out at night in the city.

The next idea was to shoot a close up of my GPS overlooking a disrupted path, I took along the kids and we headed up to the area that we had found while trying to get the flying paper airplane shot for the previous weeks challenge, the road dead ends at a deep wash that’s being graded for a new highway and I thought it would work for the idea I had.

As we approached the street we noticed a woman standing in the street with her camera phone aimed up at a large black mass on a power pole, I pulled over and it turns out it was a young Golden Eagle that had just landed on the pole, I put on the 70-300mm and clicked away.

After giving himself a good scratch he kept flexing his talons

After a few minutes and a few more cars stopping to look as well we headed up to the overlook and I got a few shots including this one (nothing spectacular I know).

"Go Thattaway", The Mountain View Corridor toll highway being built with my son holding my GPS - 3 exp HDR Handheld.

We returned to the Eagle which hadn’t moved but was watching a cat that was playing in a nearby field pretty intently (luckily for that cat the Eagle didn’t seem hungry) I snapped away and waited hoping that he would fly, but after about 20 minutes it was getting dark and he seemed more than content to just sit there so we left. Still it was really cool to see a wild Golden Eagle in the suburbs, that was an exciting first for me.

"Here Kitty Kitty!" A stray cat lucks out this time...

That’s it for now, the next weekly challenge is “Coffee”… Great! I don’t even drink the stuff…

Happy Shooting!

Howard

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