I bought a camera and moved to Utah

This is pretty much a life report from when I bought a camera in June to present. Warning absolute photo overload.

Last June I bought a canon 40D from Cascadianwarrior. I had little knowledge of photography but have always been interested in it and felt like I had a decent eye. I picked up a 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 to go along with the body. I work at Mt. Hood over the summers and spent the summer trying to figure out how to use the thing while getting tips from friends and campers who knew more than me. Towards the end of the summer I was able to get it out of sport mode and start shooting in manual.

My first week at Hood it snowed and we ended up making laps off of ZigZag all day.

I'd hit this cornice many times but never with fresh snow.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7411/9...ac95b841_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5550/9...d59a1ccb_c.jpg
Getting out of it there where a few rocks, you could either navigate in between them or jump them, or do this.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5454/9...ca5dec1f_c.jpg

Oregon has to be one of my favorite places and was the perfect setting for learning how to use a camera. I started to understand depth of field
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7284/9...dd8ede48_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3673/9...1fe43403_c.jpg

Saw my first bald eagle
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/9...0217d9af_c.jpg

I made it up to Timberline for the super moon, admittedly I had no idea what the camera was doing at the time, simply set it to AV and held it steady on a table
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3770/9...17000774_c.jpg
Happy campers
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7396/9...71c364e4_c.jpg
The whole area is beautiful
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5543/9...0a7a5f10_c.jpg

Shot lots of racing
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3675/9...cd0dcd64_c.jpg

Messing around in the High Cascade lap park
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7281/9...73afca75_c.jpg
Really wish I knew how to use my camera for this one, believe it or not, wasn't planned
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7413/9...e8ba3190_c.jpg

Got to hike one of the hills behind the camp lodge for sunset. Got to the top right at sunset and ended up bushwacking our way down in the dark.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7307/1...1e923587_c.jpg

I now go to The University of Utah and did my orientation trip rafting on the Green River in Flaming Gorge. At this point I understood how to use manual controls much better.
Went on a hike to the "U" behind campus the one night we stayed in the dorms
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/9...9dafe7f7_c.jpg
View from outside the tent at orientation
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3798/9...ca6888af_c.jpg
Getting artsy
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/9...c1979cc9_c.jpg

I went home for two weeks then back out to Utah in the end of August. I quickly realized the sunsets here are consistently amazing.
My first trip up Little Cottonwood Canyon
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5476/9...6ed046c0_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2888/9...ae03214f_c.jpg

Slacklining by the dorms is very common
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2861/9...a87677fa_c.jpg

Some friends from Westmini invited me on a last minute camping trip to Joes Valley. While taking long exposures a friend knocked over my 40D and the LCD cracked. Put the card in another camera and it still took pictures. I shot that weekend and the next couple weeks with no LCD. It gave me the chance to perfect my manual shooting. No hard feelings.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7329/1...326e29fa_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2830/1...46c85f29_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3749/1...b9dda917_c.jpg

It snowed in september so naturally we had to go for a ski. Maybe 7" at the top of Guardsmans Pass in Big Cottonwood.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/1...2bae0f4a_c.jpg
The seasons felt confused
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5540/1...0e3fec47_c.jpg
After that day I could officially say that I've skied every month of the year, not consecutively though, still working on that one.

Was planning on spending buying some more skis but that changed and I bought a Canon 7D. By this time I had sold the first lens I bout and now had a 17-40 f/4 and a 50 f/1.8.

At the U we have a random week off in October. Not wanting to go home I hitched a ride to California with some friends.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5521/1...7b1aa178_c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7361/1...f58a4832_c.jpg
Took some portraits for a friend while out there
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2806/1...152b8d01_c.jpg
One of my personal favorites, this was on I-80 at about 80mph
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/1...29220b70_c.jpg

Trailsright behind campus
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3804/9...12cae01a_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5545/9...d703cd77_c.jpg

It snowed again in October so we hiked Alta, my favoirte shot from that day.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/1...ace6e4b5_c.jpg

Snowed again in November so we skinned up Alta, left the dorms at 3:30 and made it to class by 9:00
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/1...63783694_c.jpg

Like I said the sunsets out here are killer, borrowed a friends flash for this one
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7410/1...2eb3d69f_c.jpg

They let abunch of balloons go during a football game, I feel like this should be a pre loaded phone background
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5533/1...8d2f4480_c.jpg

I flew home for thanksgiving and took this while taking off in Chicago
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3694/1...740bd853_c.jpg

I bought a 70-200 f/4 in time for Snowbird to open.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3692/1...93ea06c3_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2871/1...967ab4ba_c.jpg

Learned it's easy to fake a pow shot when there isn't much snow around.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7411/1...f6276fc0_c.jpg

More early season fun
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3710/1...e4165b77_c.jpg

Shot some photos for She Jumps on International Woman's Ski Day
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3800/1...1a8cd966_c.jpg

Back home for winter break, got to explore places I was familiar with but put my own twist on them
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5521/1...9d9883bc_c.jpg

32 second exposure under a full moon and some help from headlamps
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3694/1...1244d09a_c.jpg

Got my first star photos
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3678/1...d1a4ca41_c.jpg

Back in Utah shot the first college race of the season at Park City, Pat Miller Invitational.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2815/1...1da0513b_c.jpg

This guy finished his run without having to hike.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3696/1...453e3394_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5514/1...55198aa7_c.jpg

Walking around campus
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3776/1...3f59f81c_c.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5533/1...6ea5fe6f_c.jpg

It started to snow again. This is one of the few shots of myself I have this winter. I've since realized that fat skis are over rated and sold my 196 Bodacious
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5497/1...31e8d777_c.jpg

Some friends from NH followed me out, conditions are just a little better out here
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/1...f1e5c576_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3667/1...5ac7910b_c.jpg

Crushing windlips on The Cirque
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7449/1...8e34cd4b_c.jpg

Now I get to shred with friends who I worked with out at Hood at various times who have moved out here too.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2832/1...884aee5f_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2856/1...a4904423_c.jpg
Was unbelievably stoked when I looked at my camera after getting this one
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7382/1...bacbc3f5_c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/1...0b3ef02e_c.jpg

Like I said it is easy to fake a pow shot
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3823/1...91832afc_c.jpg

Rock jibs
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5517/1...48fda2fa_c.jpg

It's a small world, I bought boots from this guys roommate, met him on my own and then found out they lived with some friends from Hood. A few people moved out and a friend from NH moved in.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5511/1...4ffe9406_c.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7393/1...b60acf5a_c.jpg
Fresh snow with dodgy light on Tiger Tail
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/1...35d59101_c.jpg

Seriously Snowbird is huge, its hard to go back to NH and ski there.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/1...2074ecca_c.jpg

It snows a lot out here. I realized when shooting on powder days you have to be close to the subject otherwise the snow messes with your shot.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2861/1...8821224f_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3823/1...eaf8a6b8_c.jpg

Made our way to the Candelabra tree, lots of rocks getting in and people ended up following us. Some of them cared about there skis and weren't too happy but the snow below it was killer.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3794/1...e5cf728d_c.jpg

More skiing on the gad side of The Cirque
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7352/1...df61078a_c.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3701/1...625bc688_c.jpg

Missed the focus on this one thinking he was going to drop the cliff not launch off it.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3833/1...ecf608ff_c.jpg

Hiking Baldy to get fresh turns the day after the storms
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3691/1...5df1419e_c.jpg

Back at the candelabra tree
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5535/1...8088a860_c.jpg

Needless to say the past few months have been incredible. Besides the inversion it is great out here. So many places to adventure in. The snow is amazing and it snows a lot. With no moisture in the air it never gets too cold out here. It also amazes me how many people have lived here their whole life who don't explore the awesomeness that is around them. Ill keep updating this thread as life goes on.

Comments, critiques, and criticisms welcome.

Thanks for taking a look!

Nice shots! Much better than a GoPro.

So a bit of an overload there, but really good. I can see the progress. Keep it up.

Nice work skibum220! Glad to hear that the 40D served it's purpose (RIP)

Nice pic dump. Keep em coming.

Nice 220. Thanks for posting.

Damn... nice shots. I hope you've been shooting for a while and didn't just pick up a camera and get all these! If you did, I hate you. ;)

Good stuff. Enjoyed the compilation.

If this is the first time you've taken pictures seriously, then damn, you do have a good eye! And a great life to document as well!

Looks like you've picked it up pretty quickly. nice pics!

Agree with everyone above.... lots of pictures, but I looked at them all and you can definitely see the progression since you first got the DSLR. Keep 'em coming!

Great job man. Can definitely see the progression.


I wish I had a decent camera in college--or that they even had inexpensive DSLRs then.

Thanks for all the feedback! I've shot pictures on my iPhone and various point and shoots from time to time but the 40D I bought this summer was my first real camera. I've always wanted to get into more serious photography but never wanted to go through the learning curve. Now that I've learned the basics I'm glad I did.

Only having classes two days a week gives me the chance to ski a lot and I bring my camera up every time I ski. I like to ski and shoot photos, not stand around, so its usually hanging from my neck and in my jacket ready to go. This limits my time to line up shots and prep who I'm shooting but I get to ski more and get to go shoot more locations in one day which ultimately is much more fun. Shooting every ski day has been a huge learning experience in what makes a good ski photo, for every ski shot up here there are hundreds of shots that got trashed. I look back on many of my shots from earlier this year and wonder what I was doing. Lots of people advise to get out and shoot as much as possible so that is what I've done and I think it is truly the best advice I've gotten or for anyone who wants to get into photography.

shouldn't be on page
anything but 1
type stuff
and representation of the moniker
is most worthy
thanks

This is particularly good. Well composed. Unique even

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/1...29220b70_c.jpg

Props dude.

Real nice, buddy. Makes me wish I was still up at the U skiing and running around Utah again.

They had inexpensive FSLRs back in the day...

Good work, man! Lots of good shots here and it's cool to see your improvement throughout.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LeeLau

This is particularly good. Well composed. Unique even

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Thanks, this is a personal favorite. 1/6 F/22 at 80mph gave it the real cool blur effect.

A few from the past couple of days

Like I said earlier, sunsets out here are routinely amazing. Shot from the foothills behind campus.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5502/...3101c4cc_c.jpg

It's been storming in the Wasatch and the skiing has been great.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7416/...402dbcf5_c.jpg

Also making for soft landings
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3766/...9d88b191_c.jpg

Good shit. Hope you realize some of the kudos you've gotten in this thread are from pros (not me.) Keep up the good work!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skibum220

Thanks for all the feedback! I've shot pictures on my iPhone and various point and shoots from time to time but the 40D I bought this summer was my first real camera. I've always wanted to get into more serious photography but never wanted to go through the learning curve. Now that I've learned the basics I'm glad I did.

Only having classes two days a week gives me the chance to ski a lot and I bring my camera up every time I ski. I like to ski and shoot photos, not stand around, so its usually hanging from my neck and in my jacket ready to go. This limits my time to line up shots and prep who I'm shooting but I get to ski more and get to go shoot more locations in one day which ultimately is much more fun. Shooting every ski day has been a huge learning experience in what makes a good ski photo, for every ski shot up here there are hundreds of shots that got trashed. I look back on many of my shots from earlier this year and wonder what I was doing. Lots of people advise to get out and shoot as much as possible so that is what I've done and I think it is truly the best advice I've gotten or for anyone who wants to get into photography.

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Really enjoyed your shots, and sounds like you're having a great learning (and skiing) adventure. Keep it up! :)

You've got talent!

Some shots from a storm the other day and a last minute climbing trip to Moab.

Had to shoot still life for a class
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2604/1...c3f25150_z.jpg

Campsite under an almost full moon
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3698/1...921f688a_c.jpg

Woke up at 5 to take a leak, got to see the moon set and the milky way come out before the sun came up
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3694/1...08838355_c.jpg

Sleeper storm last tuesday
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7278/1...13111838_c.jpg

I've got some friends that go big. The highest diving board on Carbonite under Gadzoom at Snowbird.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7084/1...45153d57_c.jpg

Cool.......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skibum220

This is pretty much a life report from when I bought a camera in June to present. Warning absolute photo overload.

Last June I bought a canon 40D from Cascadianwarrior. I had little knowledge of photography but have always been interested in it and felt like I had a decent eye. I picked up a 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 to go along with the body. I work at Mt. Hood over the summers and spent the summer trying to figure out how to use the thing while getting tips from friends and campers who knew more than me. Towards the end of the summer I was able to get it out of sport mode and start shooting in manual.

My first week at Hood it snowed and we ended up making laps off of ZigZag all day.

I'd hit this cornice many times but never with fresh snow.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7411/9...ac95b841_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5550/9...d59a1ccb_c.jpg
Getting out of it there where a few rocks, you could either navigate in between them or jump them, or do this.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5454/9...ca5dec1f_c.jpg

Oregon has to be one of my favorite places and was the perfect setting for learning how to use a camera. I started to understand depth of field
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7284/9...dd8ede48_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3673/9...1fe43403_c.jpg

Saw my first bald eagle
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/9...0217d9af_c.jpg

I made it up to Timberline for the super moon, admittedly I had no idea what the camera was doing at the time, simply set it to AV and held it steady on a table
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3770/9...17000774_c.jpg
Happy campers
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7396/9...71c364e4_c.jpg
The whole area is beautiful
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5543/9...0a7a5f10_c.jpg

Shot lots of racing
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3675/9...cd0dcd64_c.jpg

Messing around in the High Cascade lap park
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7281/9...73afca75_c.jpg
Really wish I knew how to use my camera for this one, believe it or not, wasn't planned
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7413/9...e8ba3190_c.jpg

Got to hike one of the hills behind the camp lodge for sunset. Got to the top right at sunset and ended up bushwacking our way down in the dark.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7307/1...1e923587_c.jpg

I now go to The University of Utah and did my orientation trip rafting on the Green River in Flaming Gorge. At this point I understood how to use manual controls much better.
Went on a hike to the "U" behind campus the one night we stayed in the dorms
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/9...9dafe7f7_c.jpg
View from outside the tent at orientation
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3798/9...ca6888af_c.jpg
Getting artsy
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/9...c1979cc9_c.jpg

I went home for two weeks then back out to Utah in the end of August. I quickly realized the sunsets here are consistently amazing.
My first trip up Little Cottonwood Canyon
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5476/9...6ed046c0_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2888/9...ae03214f_c.jpg

Slacklining by the dorms is very common
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2861/9...a87677fa_c.jpg

Some friends from Westmini invited me on a last minute camping trip to Joes Valley. While taking long exposures a friend knocked over my 40D and the LCD cracked. Put the card in another camera and it still took pictures. I shot that weekend and the next couple weeks with no LCD. It gave me the chance to perfect my manual shooting. No hard feelings.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7329/1...326e29fa_c.jpg
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2830/1...46c85f29_c.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3749/1...b9dda917_c.jpg

It snowed in september so naturally we had to go for a ski. Maybe 7" at the top of Guardsmans Pass in Big Cottonwood.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7295/1...2bae0f4a_c.jpg
The seasons felt confused
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5540/1...0e3fec47_c.jpg
After that day I could officially say that I've skied every month of the year, not consecutively though, still working on that one.

Was planning on spending buying some more skis but that changed and I bought a Canon 7D. By this time I had sold the first lens I bout and now had a 17-40 f/4 and a 50 f/1.8.

At the U we have a random week off in October. Not wanting to go home I hitched a ride to California with some friends.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5521/1...7b1aa178_c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7361/1...f58a4832_c.jpg
Took some portraits for a friend while out there
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2806/1...152b8d01_c.jpg
One of my personal favorites, this was on I-80 at about 80mph
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5488/1...29220b70_c.jpg

Trailsright behind campus
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3804/9...12cae01a_c.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5545/9...d703cd77_c.jpg

It snowed again in October so we hiked Alta, my favoirte shot from that day.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7443/1...ace6e4b5_c.jpg

Snowed again in November so we skinned up Alta, left the dorms at 3:30 and made it to class by 9:00
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/1...63783694_c.jpg

Like I said the sunsets out here are killer, borrowed a friends flash for this one
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7410/1...2eb3d69f_c.jpg

They let abunch of balloons go during a football game, I feel like this should be a pre loaded phone background
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5533/1...8d2f4480_c.jpg

I flew home for thanksgiving and took this while taking off in Chicago
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3694/1...740bd853_c.jpg

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wow these are really good .................