Treasures

I don't know about you, but I have a bunch of folders full of my digital pictures that I have taken over the years.Some of these folders are of family pictures, some are pictures I have done for friends, and some of them are of my photography adventures when I ventured off with my camera. And in these folders I have a lot of pictures that need to be processed. Well that is what I am going to display in this post.

 Like a treasure in the attic I am sure that many of you like me have some treasures hiding away in a hard drive somewhere that is just waiting for you. Some of them may not be the best pictures of the bunch, but they might just be good enough to show others.

These pictures are from a photography trip I took to Moab Utah in 2009. During the trip I went to Arches National Park and to Dead Horse Point State Park. I am not sure of some of the names of the locations in the pictures, but I am not sure I knew what they were in the first place. Well without further ado here they are, a few of the treasures that were waiting for me to uncover.

Park Ave. at Sunset. Arches National Park

Balanced Rock at Sunset

The Three Gossips. Arches National Park

Raven over Arches

Raven at Delicate Arch. Arches National Park

The Monitor and The Merrimack. Dead Horse Point State Park, Moab Utah 

Delicate Arch from the lower viewpoint. Arches National Park

The Colorado River. Moab Utah

Balanced Rock and the Moon. Arches National Park

I hope you enjoy the pictures and please feel free to leave a comment or contact me via email. Now go check your own hard drives and CD's and see what treasures you might have. 

~B. D. Young, Photographer/Author

The Red Barn

Have you ever driven past a place or a scene thousands of times, but never thought twice about it? I have done this so many times I can't count them. But then one day you drive past the same place and all of the sudden you think to yourself, that would make a great photograph. Well that is exactly what I did with these pictures of a red barn. One day I was driving past this hay field at thought it would make a good photograph. I kept checking it at different times to try and get just the right light. Finally one day I thought I had the right light and I went and took several pictures of it along an adjacent road. I wanted to get some clouds in the sky to add some drama to the scene, but by the time I arrived at the site more clouds had moved in and all I had was a gray cloud covered sky. Well I went ahead and took several pictures anyway. I moved about the scene a bit to capture different perspectives of the foreground and where the hay bails were placed. In the end this is what I captured.

Even though the bails of hay and the sprinkler pipe is right there in the foreground I tried to capture the red barn as the main subject of the photographs. Ever time I look at these pictures the red barn is what my eye is drawn to every time. I would like to go back and take a series of photographs of the red barn with the bails of hay in the field, and it is on my long list of different photo projects. 

The lesson that I learned from this photo adventure is that sometimes when we try to hard to get a landscape or nature photo just right we tend to miss out on other opportunities. No two pictures are going to be the same even if all the settings and placement of the tripod are the same. The light that we paint with will always be different from day to day, hour to hour, and minute by minute. This is a lesson that I have had to learn over and over again. My advise, and I should take this more often, is to just get out and do it. The one thing that I like most about taking landscape, cityscape, and nature photographs is that they are not staged or set up. You use your skills and knowledge of photography to make the best photographs that you can at that exact time in history. 

Happy Shooting,

B.D. Young

~Photographer~

My first Night Sky Pictures

This evening I went out and took my first night sky photographs with my new 50mm lens on my Nikon D80. It was so cold the stubble on my upper lip froze. It took me a while to find the right place to take pictures of the night sky, but after trying several locations I found a decent spot. Now this is my first night sky adventure so they are not the greatest images. I think I might have bumped the focus a bit, or the fifteen seconds that I set the shutter speed to was to long. On my next trip I think I will bump up my ISO to 800 and drop the shutter speed down to twelve seconds. I have played around with the pictures in Photoshop a bit, but just to adjust the colors and brightness a little. I hope you enjoy these and my other pictures and please feel free to leave a comment.

There was a bit of fog hanging over the valley that was helping to show these lights shooting up into the sky. I thought they would make a cool picture and they did. 

With this one I just looked for the brightest star. After I took the picture and looked at it on my LCD screen I was surprised at how many stars there were that I did not see. 

At the bottom of this picture you can see a few clouds. Looking through the viewfinder I did not see them, but I think they add a nice touch to the picture.

What can I say about this one. I think it speaks for itself.

The light coming from behind the mountains is from Salt Lake City. At first I was not going to shoot this direction, but I decided I would because I wanted to see just how much light pollution there was. I think the picture turned out pretty good. 

Again, what can I say!

Of the pictures I took this evening this is probably my favorite one. 

In this picture I just love the amount of stars in one area. I think Orion's Belt is in the middle of the picture. I did not bring my Night Sky map with me, so I am not 100% on this. Also if you look through the pictures you can see satellite trails running through the pictures. 

So, there they are. My first attempt at capturing the night sky. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back soon. 

B.D. Young  

Adorama TV: Episode 320

I am a huge fan of Adorama, and I have bought a lot of products from them. Adorama not only sells everything you need for photography, but they also have web videos and articles. I posted a link in the articles and websites section on the right hand side of the screen to a video were Bryan Peterson took several pictures of some old silverware he found in an old abandoned house. I encourage you to watch the video and explore Adorama TV to get some great tips and ideas. If you have a link to a photography related website or article that you want to share with others leave a comment and the link, and I will get it added to the photo links section. Enjoy the video and have a great day.

B.D. Young
~photographer~

In God We Trust

Today I would like to share a few pictures that I took at a few different churches. Churches are not just places of worship, they are community gathering centers. Over the years some of the happiest events in my life were at churches along with some of the saddest. When it comes to photography, churches offer some really good scenes. Of course when taking pictures at churches it is important to remember not to offend anyone, and in my experience it is best to photograph the exterior of the church. However, if there is a subject you would like to photograph inside the church it is best to just ask for permission.,Also ask about the subject if you do not know. Many times someone at the church is more than happy to share the meaning of the subject with you. So without further ado here they are.

I took this picture of the Virgin Mary at St. Marguerite's Catholic Church in Tooele Utah. I took this picture to give to my wife's grandmother as a gift.   

While photographing an event for a friend of mine I went outside to take pictures of the kids playing. While outside I took this picture to use as a cover photo in case my friend wanted to put the pictures in a photo book or something. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I hope they inspire you to keep an eye out for some of the great subjects that can be found at churches. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment or check some of the other cool links that I have provided on my blog. 

B.D. Young

~Photographer~