Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/60 second, f/8, ISO 50

This capture of Salt Lake City is the current background image on my iMac’s desktop. I tend to change backgrounds quite often, but this one with its generous amount of blue sky (perfect for icons) might stay awhile.

Canon 5D, Canon 50 f/1.8 lens – 1/200 second, f/8, ISO 100

I assisted a photographer friend with a wedding last week at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Even though I have shot over 100 weddings (mostly in the 80′s), this was my first time at Temple Square. I offered to assist so I could get a feel for the differences in shooting a wedding at this popular location.

Aside from the fact that there were no less than 8 other weddings being photographed on the grounds while we were there, it was a very beautiful setting. The grounds provide many, many settings for beautiful bride & groom shots. But with so many couples being photographed at this location, the biggest challenge I see is making a shot unique.

However, working in the real estate industry I see a lot of Utah wedding photos (hanging on the walls of client’s homes). Judging by these photos I think a lot of newlyweds don’t want a unique photograph – they just want a beautiful capture of themselves in front of the temple.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/200 second, f/10, ISO 100

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Canon 30D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/15 second, f/4.5, ISO 400

On Golden Pond, photographed in Sandy, Utah.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L with 1.4x extender – 1/200 second, f/5.6, ISO 160

Here’s a fun activity that will kill a few minutes today. Head over to www.sp-studio.de and create your own cartoon character in the style of South Park (which I must admit I have never seen).

Thanks to my Flickr friend Jodi Tripp for pointing this fun website out.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/100 second, f/4, ISO 100

I’ve recently been working with April Shell, a Salt Lake City artist, to photograph her portfolio of oil paintings. This type of photography is a little different than my normal day-to-day shooting, but is still quite enjoyable.

The challenge in photographing artwork is to provide balanced lighting with no reflections and to accurately represent the colors. To achieve this, I used multiple diffused monolights. Since I know the color temperature of the lighting, I was able to set the white balance to show the true colors of the paintings.

To view the complete set, visit www.legacyonephotography.com/april.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/40 second, f/10, ISO 160

I took a walk around Sugar House on Saturday afternoon. Sugar House is a rather liberal pocket within Salt Lake Valley that many outsiders wouldn’t believe exists in this conservative community. For more details on the area, check out Bryan Catherman’s post on his Hopeless Writer blog.

I usually find when I am walking around taking pictures that it is easy to strike up conversations with, and ultimately photograph, interesting people. I don’t know if it is the professional looking camera gear that makes people want to talk, but a lot of them do.

Today’s capture of Robert is an example of this. While photographing the bulletin board behind him, I asked how we was doing. We then chatted for a bit about some of the happenings in the area. After our conversation I asked if I could take his picture – he readily agreed.

Do you prefer to sneak your street photos of people or do you like the bolder “How you ‘doin?” approach?

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/30, f/4, ISO 100

I was asked recently to assist in documenting a historic home in Sugar House, Utah through photography. The large home is over 120 years old and was originally built by a gold miner from Park City. Even though the home is currently used as an office, the decor is very reminiscent of an early 20th century home.

When capturing the interior, my goal was to light the rooms in a way to show the detail and accentuate the features without making it appear that strobes were used. With my friend Harley’s assistance, we used multiple lights to create the look.

This formal sitting room was lit with four lights. We placed a radio triggered strobe in the lamp on the right to make it appear like the lamp was lighting the room. There is a second radio triggered strobe in the back-left corner. To light the foreground we placed two lights with umbrella diffusers in the near corners.

I am fairly pleased with the result. There are a couple of shadows I would have liked to remove, but overall the lighting is fairly even and natural looking.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L IS lens – 1/15 second, f/5.6, ISO 100