This is the stream at the bottom of Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is a canyon near Salt Lake City, Utah.  The canyon is home of Brighton and Solitude, two of the best ski resorts in Utah in terms of quantity and quality of snow.

This image was taken using a slow shutter speed to capture the movement of the water, and is part of my gallery at The Lens Flare.  Slow motion water photography is among my favorite subjects, perhaps because Utah is largely desert so moving water tends to be in the form of smaller streams and rivers; however the mounainous terraign creates many spectacular waterfalls.

This image was taken while I was hiking in the Uinta Mountains in North-Eastern Utah. It was taken with a simple 3.1MP Digital Point and Shoot camera several years back, when I first started with digital photography.  Even though I've since upgraded my camera equipment several times, I still think that first camera produced great color and clarity, and this is still one of my favorite pictures.

Before buying the camera used for this picture, I used a 35mm film SLR; however, the film and processing costs were expensive and I couldn't afford to experiment too much.  Once I made the switch to digital, it no longer mattered if it took hundreds of photographs, which made it possible to experiment and improve my skills.  Eventually, I had a few dozen pictures that I really liked, and ultimately programmed The Lens Flare to display them.  Fast forward a few years, and now The Lens Flare has a few thousand members and thousands of visitors per month.  It was designed to be family-friendly, and is one of the more popular photography communities on the web.

One of my favorite subjects to photograph is lightning.  Sometimes a rather nasty storm will pass over my house like this one so I'll set up the tripod and camera near the front door of my house. The technique to capture lightning is quite easy, especially late at night.  What you do is set your camera to manual focus and set the focus to infinity.  Then you set it so the aperture will stay open for 1 to 30 seconds depending on how dark it is outside. This photograph was taken with a 2 second shutter speed.  From there, all you do is keep taking pictures until the storm passes or your card runs out of room.  If you're in an active storm, usually you'll capture several lightning bolts in a few minutes.

Make sure you follow all of the lightning safety rules to avoid getting hit.  Don't wear or sit on something that's metal. Don't stand under the tallest object. Don't be the tallest object. Stay low to the ground. Don't stand in water, etc.  Wear clothing that will keep you dry, and invest in something that will keep your camera dry as well. Research lightning safety before attempting to photograph it so that you don't end up hurt.

Assuming that you remain safe, shooting lighting is very rewarding.  The amount of lightning photographs available are quite small in comparision to other types of photography, and it's a great addition to anybody's portfolio.

For more information about this lightning photograph, please view my gallery on The Lens Flare.

We were fortunate to see this elk walking near the side of the road in Yellowstone National Park. If you've never been to Yellowstone, I highly recommend taking a trip there. We were able to see several elk, moose, deer, bison, and bald eagles in their natural settings.  These are not zoo animals; they roam free, but they are protected from hunters. If you want to photograph them, I highly recommend taking a good telephoto lens with you. This way you can keep your distance, but still get a good shot.

In addition to the wildlife, Yellowstone offers some of the best volcanic formations in the world such as the famous Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and many other geysers, paint pots, and hot springs. A wide angle lens is a good thing to have when photographing these awesome landscapes.

A large image of this bull elk is available in my gallery at The Lens Flare.

This photograph was taken in Montana in September of 2008.  We tracked these deer for a few miles until they were close enough that we could get a decent shot of them.  I used a 500mm telephoto lens to capture this image although I almost missed it because they were really fast. 

Wildlife photography is my favorite type because it's a challenge to track and find the animals as well as capture their unique moments.

You can view a larger image of this jumping deer in my gallery at The Lens Flare.