Things Other Than Taxes

For the most part I enjoy my work and I only complain under my breath. I just wish I had more time to get things done but it's as much effort to worry about it as it is to just get the work done. Taking pictures is a perfect diversion for me and it helps tremendously to keep my mental state in shape if I can spend a little time each week taking photos and honing my photoshop skills. So when my friend Roslyn got promoted to Sergeant with the Salt Lake City Police Department I told her we needed to take some pictures of her in uniform. It happened that about the same time the Stake Presidency asked me to take some of them too. This was something I couldn't pass up, 2 solid hours of picture taking! The pictures don't need much explanation because they speak for themselves. JUMP, haha. It made for a great day doing things other than taxes.

Valentines Day (or Hallmark ripoff?)

I'm a much bigger fan of holiday's like Thanksgiving or Memorial Day or even the 4th of July. They seem like legit holidays. Valentines Day ... I don't know. It was always fun in elementary school to get a Valentine from some mysterious little girl that you weren't sure you could beat up in a fair fight, but after the 6th grade I'm not convinced it's anything but another day to buy things that die in a few days, or make you fat the minute you consume them. Nevertheless, I know who butters my bread so until the Obama administration finds a way to tax or regulate roses out of existence I will let wisdom overrule cynicism. Happy Valentines Day Marsha, Kirsten and Kylie :)

An Old Friend

I know smoking is bad for you and has fallen out of grace with political correctness, but my Marine Corps branded Zippo lighter has been with me for a lot of years and actually brings back wonderful memories of times past. It has lit it's share of cigarettes but it has also started campfires, lit Coleman stoves, countless candles and even acted as toy keeping idle hands busy flipping the lid open and closed. If you've never had experience with these types of lighters you have to be careful after you filled the base with lighter fluid. If the lighter ended upside down in your pocket the fluid would seep out and soak your clothes, Before you realized it was wet, your leg would have an almost immediate burning sensation and you suddenly wished you had paid better attention to the orientation of the lighter in your pocket. It was worth the eventual liquid fire in your pocket to carry such a handy tool. With a Zippo and a mini-Leatherman you could survive in the wild. How cool is that? I need a new flint and some Zippo Lighter Fluid and mine would be good as new. I might need to run to the grocery store tomorrow.

And February Begins

I'm looking forward to the Winter Olympics this month because the January blah's are hanging tough everywhere. When I got to Manti there was still 8 inches of snow on the ground, but it's all from the week before Christmas. I heard that this has been the longest cold stretch for 80 some years in Sanpete county and I believe it. The temperature peaks around 28 and then falls at night to as low as possible, depending on cloud cover or a clear sky. The result is crunching through the same snow we partied in nearly 6 weeks ago with nothing fresh whiten it up.

Salt Lake has had the worst air in the nation a couple of times this year and that sure isn't comforting. I'm not a hippy-tree-hugger and I love big American iron on the highways, screaming from 0 - 60 in 3.4 seconds, so hopefully the solution to bad air can come without all of us having to become vegans and card carrying PETA members riding long boards to work. But despite the winter blah's Sunday's Superbowl and next weeks Winter Olympic kickoff should jumpstart my attitude. I'm feeling the work load set in so I thought I would post a picture that fairly represented my week at the office, but my favorite shots of the week were from Thursday when the best peeps in the neighborhood let me take pictures of them jumping after their exercise class. I have the best neighbors on Earth, bar none! So let February begin and so what if the jumping pictures were taken on the only day the sun came out. I've been happy ever since!

More Awesome Jumps!

Had I known before that I would have had the chance to take all these totally sweet jumping pictures this week I would have looked forward to the last week of January 2010 all year long! January is such a generally awful month, nothing brightens it up like a slug of pictures. The last jumping picture of Summer I took was in the church on a Sunday a few months ago and I've wanted to do more ever since. We finally had a chance today but after dark, in the freezing cold, it isn't easy to leap around while I count "... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Jump ...", but Summer is a real trooper and she did jump after jump and didn't gripe at all. If my shutter button finger was more accurate my jump subjects would probably be much happier. I promise to work on that :)

Time To Jump

I managed to escape from work on Tuesday to run up to Park City to take some jumping pictures with a couple of awesome photographers that I talked about in an earlier post. Well I finally had a chance to process the pictures and they are included with this post. The weather was crappy but the jumping was excellent. I hope I get a chance to do more with those two again sometime. Then to top the week off I finally cornered my friend Tanna Fox to do some perfect jumps. I can honestly say that I don't go anywhere without my camera and this is about the only way to be ready to capture the perfect jump picture. It's a rare situation that a jumping session is planned so I try to be like a Boy Scout and always be prepared. That way when it's time to jump, I'm prepared to capture the fun.

Bret Pictures, Finally!

I haven't checked to see how long ago it was that Bret sent his sd card home, but it's been too long. He made it clear that he won't be sending another card home from Taiwan before he leaves. At least from this batch of photos I can tell he is still a strange kid, and I mean that only in the nicest way :)

Lauren Randolph

Holy cow, where do I begin! Just like the following post about Mike Hedge, I wanted to post some jump pictures from Lauren Randolph aka Lauren Lemon, and I said I was going to get permission so as not to violate her copyright. I've always had the impression she is a very nice person and I figured it wouldn't be a problem if I asked nicely. What I didn't expect was to be asking her in person, in Park City. What a way to rock my week!! She and Mike Hedge contacted me back after I sent them an email and said "come on up and shoot some pictures". The Commandant of the Marine Corps couldn't have stopped me from running up there today. I haven't had a chance to process the photos I took today so this is one of Lauren's from her photostream on Flickr and you can link to it by cutting and pasting this address into your browser http://www.flickr.com/photos/renolauren/2849521762/sizes/l/in/set-72157605153925743/. Lauren is the queen of jumping pictures and she is the first photographer that really got me hooked on jump pictures. She is a professional in every stretch of the imagination for all things photographic and a wonderfully nice and accommodating young woman to boot. In this picture she is jumping with her sister (on the right) Caitlin Randolph and shot with a self-timer, something I haven't dared try for fear of killing myself. I think I might have to get brave. I can't wait to process the jumping pictures we all took today and get them posted here and on my Flickr page. I think I can rest in peace now after shooting pictures with a real life celebrity!!!

Mike Hedge

IMG_9060, originally uploaded by @mikehedge.

A post or so ago I mentioned the two people I admire most for their jump pictures and out of respect for their work I wanted to get permission to post some of their photos on my blog. Little did I know that I would have the chance to get that permission in person. Holy crap, I've been taking pictures with Mike Hedge today in Park City!! If you have a minute google Mike Hedge and check out his work. This dude is awesome in the photo world. He does magazine photo shoots, like for Jay Leno recently, and tons of other free lance work. He is the premier jump person on Flickr and while others imitate, none can match his quantity or quality. This photo links to his Flickr page and I suggest anyone spend some time browsing his photos. I owe Mike a huge THANK YOU!

A Friendly Discussion

_MG_7756, originally uploaded by rtsmithcpa.

I know my last post was just a few hours ago but after having a friendly discussion about the days events with myself I thought it was appropriate to make one more post for the evening. Things went quite well considering the company!

Safety Pays

My friend Vicki Laughlin in Louisiana was kind enough to send me a hat with her company's logo on it, "Total Safety", and I have started working on a project with that cap as my focus. The biggest problem I'm having is my attention is being diverted to the things I do for a living, namely taxes. So this project is moving along much slower than I would like but I managed to do a couple of pictures to satisfy my yearning to be creative and I have many more ideas in my little tiny brain, filed away for a day when I have time. So in between deadlines I intend to entertain myself with pictures of whomever, playing it "safe".

How Do You Spell JUMP?

Everything about photography interests me but after stumbling onto the curious world of jumping pictures I've been on a quest. I have had the good fortune of making contact (over the internet) with some of the best jump photographers anywhere. They actually ran across some of my pictures posted on Flickr and have added me as a contact which allows me to see all of their uploads. If I can get their permission I will post a few of their pictures in the near future. I learned very quickly that it isn't as easy as it would seem to catch someone mid-jump, in focus, correct exposure along with a half decent background. In fact some of my earliest attempts are pretty pathetic to say the least. If you can get off the ground at all you can be a perfect jump picture candidate and any knocks against my photos relate to me, not the photos subjects. I scan the virtual pages of Flickr looking for ideas and pictures that "jump" out at me. Some are challenging to say the least, both in terms of photographic ability and jumping agility. I really appreciate the willingness of all my friends and family to endure this unique interest of mine and one friend who continues to tolerate all of my requests is Nicole. She jumps over and over until I finally get it right and I suppose at some point she might tell me to "jump" in a lake, but so far so good and the pictures gracing this post are all thanks to her amazing jumping ability. So in this post I spell jump : "N I C O L E."

You Gotta Love The Fog

Not much to celebrate when the fog rolls in and I try to hide in my house and stay warm because that kind of cold cuts to your core. So when I was relaxing last night enjoying one of my favorite shows "Fringe" I was shocked back to reality when my peep Andrea texted to tempt me into driving downtown to take pictures of Temple Square in the fog. After a couple return texts she said "I don't know, I'm kind of tired." So I said "... your call woman, I'm tired too." Well as you can see from the pictures we pulled it together and hopped in the Yukon along with Marsha and a semi-reluctant, cry-baby Wyatt. All he could say was "I want hot chocolate ..." By the time we got there and set things up to get some pictures before security threw us off Temple Square, there was no time for hot chocolate. Sorry Wyatt :(
It was a little disappointing that the fog had lifted around the Temple but what a great time to be there. I was surprised at how empty it was after the huge crowds at Christmas. I've learned to trust Andrea's instincts for everything photographic and last night was no exception. If you want to see the most awesome shots from the night just link to her website from my links to the right side of this page. Her shots through the gate are amazing.

Dancing Kylie

These pictures have nothing to do with January, cold weather or the awful inversion we are experiencing. I ran across them while I was editing some other pictures tonight and these made me smile. I'm not sure I was ever as lighthearted and free as Kylie seems to be. Her demeanor in these two pictures is actually the norm for her and when I see other teenagers misbehaving I have a hard time relating to the grief their parents must feel. The only advice I can offer to parents raising a daughter is beat 'em when they're little. Haha, that's the only thing I can figure out from my "vast" experience of raising children. I don't think I came to this life with the ability to cope with snotty, tempermental, high maintenance children so having Kylie in our family has been a real blessing. When it's freezing cold outside with a nasty inversion hanging over the valley I don't need to reach for mood enhancing medicine, I just need to look at pictures of Kylie being Kylie.

Jump Into The New Year

_MG_7150, originally uploaded by rtsmithcpa.

We are full on in January now and from my perspective there's not much to celebrate. It seems like it's dark most of the time and that's no different than December but all the outdoor lights are off so it seems worse. And even though I would rather be cold than hot, January isn't exactly my favorite month. It's kind of like Monday morning. The weekend is over, the party is in the rear view mirror and Friday is a long way down the road. Ok I'm done whining. I've set a goal for the year to take the best jump pictures I can and when I walked out of the office the other day and noticed the sunset I borrowed my friend Nicole long enough to get my first jump shot of the New Year. Maybe January won't be so bad after all.