Updating

I recognize I don't log into blogger as often as I should.  I am updating and re-arranging things on-line and off.

One of the biggest areas I am re-arranging is my hiking pictures.  I do hike a lot.  Right now I've logged over 400 miles of hiking since January 1st of this year which means I have a lot of photos not posted or processed and a few pages filled in the log book.  I am also studying log distance hiking.  One of the items on my life goals (bucket list) is to hike the Appalachian Trail.  I'll dedicate a post strictly to the AT at a later date.  What I am learning from this study in the intern is life is a series of short term goals played out over the long haul.

Second place of re-arranging is where I am keeping my images. http://preyingjaws.zenfolio.com/ is were I've posted most of my images since my 'pro flickr' account expired.  Zenfolio allows me to host event photos for private viewing and for general audiences.

Enjoy.

SkiLink

This is my letter of petition concerning the SkiLink proposal set up by Rep Rob Bishop.

June 17, 2012

Dear Representative,

I've been following the SkiLink initiative on the news and on the Save Our Canyons website. I do think this is a bold initiative for the development of the Greater Salt Lake/Summit County Region. In the theory that is expressed by the proposal H.R. 3452 and S.1883, yes it will work (for a select few). However, looking at the principles by which this initiative came about violates the very constitution that sets up due process in protecting the governance of the State of Utah, the people of Utah, and the resources of Utah.

I am one who stands for a government for the people and by the people. When a government meets the needs of the people by the set forth process then, yes, the initiatives need to proceed. With SkiLink the process was not followed. It was by passed by representative Rob Bishop acting out of his region and actively promoted as being good for the people with no input by the people. If SkiLink is so good for the people, why wasn't it promoted by the people? If it were good for the people why was is promoted by a foreign entity, Talisker Development Company, and not brought up by the US Forest Service that manages the region SkiLink will cross?

Save Our Canyons has been working with a large number of groups that promote outdoor recreation in developing a plan that will protect our diminishing resources of the Greater Salt Lake/Summit County Region while actively encouraging outdoor usage. These groups working together over the last few years is due process, multiple public hearing were held and proposals going out to the respected groups constituents. The increase usage through preservation of our canyons will bring about a greater economic boost to Utah's economy then by promoting a select few points of interest.

If you want to develop the resource of transportation between the ski resorts of Salt Lake and Summit Counties please look at developing the bus infrastructure and or paving Guardsman's Pass with an emphasis on year round bus shuttles. By developing the bus transportation this will allow for greater flexibility between points of interests which in turn means more people are likely to spend more time enjoying the region either in private resorts or by using public lands.

Sincerely,

Brian K Jaworski

An active user of the Wasatch Range.

Ref: http://www.SaveOurCanyons.org

GOYA

As the Presidential race begins to heat up, I want to express my political stance here amongst my hiking references. I am part of a movement I hope will catch on.  I call it GOYA.

GOYA is simply Get Off Your Ass.  I like to think of this as all people included: voter or not; Democrats to Republicans to Indies to Un-named etc; US citizen to Visitors; etc etc. If you call this or any country your home YOU have the right to participate & are encouraged to do so in the political arenas of where YOU reside.

If you doubt the power of your one vote or expression of concern just look at the race between Bush Jr & Al Gore especially for the state of Florida a few races ago.  Also examine the local races. One vote makes a difference, because together they add up.

In my local area the last local election drew an amazingly small 10% of the voter population. It's estimated that less then 3% of the overall population took part in choosing the next leaders. 

With this small of numbers it's no wonder why people bitch about things not getting done & about why people think we have so many professional politicians.  It's easy to become a professional politician, all one needs to do is run in any race where the incumbent is looking to get out or is no longer popular. Once in all one needs to do is learn to work the system and BANG instant PP.

If you want to bitch, Get Off Your Ass.  Do something, write a politician about one of your concerns, write a fact supported commentary, VOTE.

As the United States of America begins to race for electing or re-electing her leaders & for the office known as 'the most powerful man in the world' remember YOU have a guaranteed Constitutional right to voice your opinion, gather together peacefully, & VOTE.

PARTICIPATE

VOTE

Be the voice & voter that makes a difference in this & all elections.

GOYA

Invitations to charity events are always fun.  I enjoy getting out to see what is capturing the hearts of people.

Miles for Water is a University of Utah student charity.  They want to promote and raise awareness for access to clean water in the horn of Africa.  Though I visited and worked in West Africa with Mercy Ships, I find the continent always tugging at my heart.

I took the time to head out on a breezy afternoon to join a few dozen runners.  After the event I hung a kite in the sky for a while.

Sugarhouse Park is the first place I ever shot a running event close to 5 years ago.  I learned that it's beneficial to shoot people shots in RAW format while shooting high quality JPG's for the run.  This balances out performance with details.  

The D-90 shoots 4 frames per second but can only take 3 seconds worth of images into the buffer when shooting RAW before it has to dump into the memory card.  The dump can take 20 odd seconds which in sports can mean the lost 'money' image.  Shooting JPG's allow for smaller file sizes and thus more seconds of shooting with faster dumps.

If you use any of the provided images please give credit to PreyingJaws.com and send me the link or a copy of the publication, thanks.

SoJo's St Paddy's 5K Run

A couple of friends invited me out to South Jordan's St Patrick's Day 5K run.  I'm an outdoor's kind of person but not a runner.  I came anyways to support them and to chill for a while.

I met the friends of my friends and since I couldn't remember their faces I decided to take pictures of everyone as they neared the finish line.  There are over 750 images so please don't expect to see all of them in the few seconds you are taking to read this post.

Enjoy.

Just a little hiking adventures, this slideshow does not encompass all of the hiking I've done lately. It covers just a few of my favorite places.

These are a few more images from the AmFreeKaren.com shoot I did with Duy, Stephanie, & Lyssa two weekends ago. The beanies are curtsey of AmFreeKaren.com. Please check out Jaime's site & see how you too can help out this group of displaced persons in Thailand.

AmFreeKaren.com 

Duy introduced me to the work of Jaime a few months ago when we took time to shoot outdoors with a classic Caddy & a friend's motorcycle.  The beanies are knitted by refugees living in an orphanage in Thailand.  Jaime lived and worked in Thailand for near two years and brought back a lot of these simple and classic beanies.

I grabbed Duy and told him before you leave for Africa to build an orphanage we've got to shoot one last time.  He grabbed a couple of our friends and we went out to find graphic backgrounds.  In SLC there are a few if you know where to look.  I like driving around aimlessly on Sunday mornings so I've found a few.

Here Stephanie is showing off one of the simple beanies provided by AmFreeKaren.com  Please visit and support the work of Jamie in Thailand.
Thanks

Time flies when I lose the habit of writing at least once a week.  Today seems to be a great day to write due to the cold wet weather outside.  If I had the gear and the wheels to get me up the canyons then I'd be there hiking.

Over the last 3 months I've spent nearly every weekend hiking one of the many trails in either Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon.  My goal, hike every major side canyon in these two canyons before the snow flew.  I about flaked out on Mule Hollow because it's a minor pull off in Big Cottonwood until I read it has a mine about half way up.  I decided that it needed to be hiked.  Of all my hikes this is the least of the hikes I'll redo for it is steep, rocky, and tight all the way up following a stream bed.  It takes the stubbornness of a mule to get up it.  This image is taken with a phone and shows the old cart tracks disappearing into the collapsed mine hidden in the brush.

Salt Flats

It doesn't take much to twist my arm to head out to an exotic Utah location to do a little photography.  My friends, Tiffany and Monica, asked me to join 'em with Preston (another awesome photographer) to come out to the Salt Flats near Wendover UT.

The salt was a little muddy but workable to walk on.  We did have to wash off our feet upon returning to Preston's car. The Salt Flats should be dry by Speed Week in mid-August, until then please don't drive out on the salt.  When we got there someone was getting towed out of a a hole.

One of the magically things about this location is being able to see the curvature of the horizon without leaving the ground or climbing up a mountain.  I played a little with this with some tilts and angles.

Hope you enjoy the show.

Walkin'

Walkin', originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

I've been absent from the posting scene for a while because of computer issues. I'm back up and processing. I do thank everyone for their patience while I get moving again.

This shot is from a recent location scouting trip (to some in my group it's to the family farm). Amanda is wonder full to work with, even when she's the only model and there were three photographer's pointing a lens in her direction.

Mobsters in the mirror

Mobsters in the mirror, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

The shoot arranged by Mark Slater of Salt City Bombers - aka the Bombers - held at Kaysville Cherry Hill RV park was awesome. I brought in an old friend Duy Beck and caught up with Lisa Goeller, whom I met on Friday. Another friend, Monica Grindstaff, brought in a few of her friends as well.

The other Bomber photographers didn't need to worry about subjects or models. Mark's friend brought along his restored 50's era Cadillac, Mark's dad brought in his Willie Jeep of WW2 era, and Doug Sims' showed up on his new ride, the motorcycle.

Though the wind took control our ladies' hair and our reflectors, the clouds provide great passing shade to work with. Heather Casper, my Bomber boss (wink), worked as my assistant. She managed the 42 inch reflector like a pro, putting light right where I needed it. I kept telling her let go if you start to fly away. I can afford to loose the reflector. I can't afford to loose a great assistant.

This is the second shoot I've worked with Duy on. He's such a cheese when it come to making cool become cool. You may think he's spent a little to much time looking at GQ and in the mirror. If you think so then you haven't heard about his heart for East African Orphans. He runs a non-profit organisation providing educational opportunities for Ethiopian girls, please see http://www.coeef.org/ for more info.

I'm looking forward to doing similar shoots in the future working with Lisa, Monica, Duy, and the others. Everyone worked hard and put forth a valiant effort in this shoot. Now I've got some work a head to sort my images from this event and the two others I covered Thursday and Saturday.

-about this image-
Lisa leans back on the handle bars according to Doug's direction. I arranged the group seen in the mirror. I'm shooting over Doug's shoulder.

Deva's and Bombers

A while back I said I'd get information about the Chrome Devias and the Bomber's charity event when it came available. It's available please read the image.

Bombers Homepage

Liberty Romance

Liberty Romance, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

After a photo set out at Black Rock, I recommended we head past General Aviation. The Liberty Belle, a B-17, is in for the weekend. Since I was driving, this couple didn't have much of a choice. We spent a few minutes gawking at this flying piece of history.

I later returned meeting up with another friend. The day was ideal for portraits where ever one was at today in the greater Salt Lake area. The portraits taken at the airport are turning out fantastic. I'm really having a hard time culling out the great ones from the good ones.

The geese are comming to get me!!!

The geese are comming to get me!!!, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Brendan seems to have a fear of geese. That's okay, we were on a farm, the historical Wheeler Farm. He played upon this the entire shoot. I honestly don't know if he is afraid of geese or not though he says he is.
We met up with Monica and Shannon to do a little mid morning photography session. The two ladies wanted to get some 'modelling' in before the Earth Jam Festival at Liberty Park this weekend. I wanted a little couple action to practice at a very popular spot for couples to come for engagement's and families for portrait sessions.
I do like Wheeler Farm. It's easily accessible from the freeway. It's a petting zoo for many kinds of farm animals. It also has a small wooded area on the property. There are diverse background settings like this one, the back of the ice house to an old Box Elder tree across the creek.
The photos from this shoot may be available for viewing in about two weeks. This weekend I have a Hugs For TUGS run (Saturday morning), Earth Jam Festival (Saturday & Sunday), and Granny Starr Foundation (Monday).

Links:
http://www.wheelerfarm.com/index.html
http://www.earthjam.org/
http://www.hugsfortugs.org/
http://grannystarr.org/

Pink Rubber Boots

Pink Rubber Boots, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Shannon, in the pink rubber boots, happen to be out with Skyler, a musician, updating his head shots at Black Rock UT. This high school senior knows photography. I've taken a look through her Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whimsy-Photography). She uses quite a few muted pastels in her works. I like the style.
She was one of many photographers taking photos of people last week. Black Rock and other areas around the Great Salt Lake have a limited bug less season. Right now the weather is less then admirable however foul it might be it creates some stunning sunsets and with out the bugs.
A few years ago one would be alone out here. Today it's a different story. Shannon was one of 4 or 5 single shooters while there were 2 groups hanging out. These groups were the Salt Lake Photo Club (http://www.slcphoto.com) and Salt Lake Photography Meet Up Group (http://www.meetup.com/SLC-Photography-Workshops-Learning-Group).
One thing about sunsets, don't leave once the sunsets, stay for the colors. In SLC Photo we pulled out the Steel Wool and Glow Sticks for a little light painting. Check the galleries...
Later
Brian J

Ball's in the Glove

20110411-Softball-102.jpg, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Her grounder unfortunately is hit to first base. She runs strong any ways, a hit is always worth an effort to run. Welcome to spring and the first game of City League Softball.

Since I last played softball (17 years ago) the rules changed slightly. The addition of a second first base (see the orange bag?) and a second home plate (Mr Yates could have used that when he slid home and broke a few ribs). The rules are essentially the same other wise. I can't think which to say is first put, fun or safety.

I'd like to encourage everyone to head to their local parks. Get out meet a neighbor or make a new friend. Support your local Parks and Recreation to put your tax dollars to work for your pleasure.

Have fun. Enjoy the images.
More are at http://preyingjaws.zenfolio.com/softball
or watch the slide show here...

Bombers Fashion Show

Warning, this post contains many "in text links" to various organizations.  Please follow the links for more information about these organizations.

Bomber's Entertainment put on a Marti Gras Fashion Show on behalf of Earth Jam on March 19, 2011.  Earth Jam is more then stereo types who want to heal the Earth.  It's an organization that is focused on helping others promote the good stewardship of our planet.

The Bombers are a fun creative group who want to promote events and raise awareness for local events.  This is one of the groups I enjoy photographing and hanging out with.

Up coming events with the Bombers include working with the Chrome Devias (Utah Chapter of Female Motorcyclists) to raise awareness for Volunteers of America (VOA) later this spring.  More information will be posted about this event at as the date approaches.

Coming up quickly is the Earth Jam Festival at the end of April.  The Bombers will have a booth and will be available for photos.  I'll be around snapping random event pictures.  If you see me say hi.  If I have the big lens on and your close, your safe.  However, if you see me with the short lens on...  I can pretty much tell who wants a photo taken and who doesn't.

Enjoy.

Updates:
April 8
The Bomber/Chrome Devias event with VOA will be on June 11th.  Come down get your RIDE washed and your picture taken.  I'll be there.  Proceeds will benefit VOA's Homeless Youth Resource Center.

Beloved not Forgotten

Beloved not Forgotten, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

My friend Monica, right, came up with a concept of light gore at a local cemetery. A group of models and photographers met there and worked the concept into our personal visions.

I enjoy working with Monica so I accepted the concept presented. I saw this as an opportunity to use flash in a vertical constraint as the night grew dark while in the late setting sun I caught light off of sword play. The other photographers took a different approach to their vision.

What I really enjoyed from this shoot was the balance of photographers to models. There were more models then photog's. We could shoot individually and as a collective without leaving someone feeling left out. While shooting as a collective, as photographers, we took turns giving direction to the models. In other shoots I've been to recently the photographers were competing for the models' attention.  I'll present the concept of taking turns in future group shoots.

With the setting sun and the models facing the light, and perhaps with an added reflector, we let the models close their eyes. When the directing photographer thought the models were ready and positioned, he'd count down to the opening for their eyes. This gave them relief and gave a more natural look. It also allowed the other photographers to make an image at the same time.

I chose this image to display on my blog for the illustration of flash use, Monica's make up, and also in memory of lain to rest.

Burr...

Burr..., originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Headed up to the state capital with a group of models and photographers last Friday. The capital is a wonderful place to shoot for the variety of textures and lighting.

In this image Jakki takes refuge outside by one the secondary access below the stairs. I adjust the levels bringing the blacks way up and bumping up the mid levels.