Memorial Day Weekend in Moab

So... if you can't already tell, I hate winter. I have no motivation to trek through feet of snow in below freezing temperatures to go out and take pictures. That's mainly why I have been MIA for a few months. However, now that the weather is nice again, I am a lot more motivated. My dad and I decided to head down to Moab/ Arches National Park for a few days to watch the meteor shower on Friday night. As we were driving down there was a huge thunderstorm that we were afraid was going to conceal the night sky. Instead of worrying about it too much, we decided to walk around and find things to take pictures of. This picture was taken right after the storm, you can see the big puddle in the background.

We also saw a pretty fast-flowing river in the red rocks. My dad was able to take long-exposure pictures of the river that makes the water look blurry, or like it is moving. One day I will have the right equipment to be able to take them and post them on my blog, but for now, you'll have to head over to his if you'd like to see them (boggedbefore.blogspot.com).

Later that night, around midnight, my dad went out to check if the clouds had cleared out so we could see the stars. To our luck, they did! The night sky was perfectly clear and we headed back into Arches. It is amazing to see the stars in Southern Utah. You are able to see a lot more stars because there is a lot less light pollution. We headed out to one of the arches and my dad set up his camera while I found a "comfortable" rock and laid down to look up at the meteors. We only were able to see a few, but my dad was able to capture some amazing shots of the Milky Way... while I may have dozed off. Again, you'll have to head over to his blog to check them out.

They next day was absolutely perfect. We just drove around Arches, stopping where ever we felt like it to take pictures. I loved taking close ups of the flowers. It's beautiful to see the desert in bloom. Below are just a few that I snapped. 

Such a short trip, but definitely worth it. Just one of the many reasons why living in Utah so great.

Teapot Lake

A few weeks ago, my dad took me up to Teapot lake and taught me how to take long-exposure pictures. We woke up at 4 A.M. to get these shots. Hope you like them!

Joanna Part II

A few weeks ago, before Joanna moved to Denver, I took her up to Park City to snap some pictures of her and the aspen trees. It's only been a few weeks but I miss her!! Although, it does give me an excuse to go to Denver....

Hope you like the pics!

Chrissy, Ken and baby!

Chrissy, Ken, (and baby) let me snap some pictures of them the other day. Glad that I got a few that they liked!

Aspen Trees

A few weeks ago, my dad took me up past Sundance to teach me how to do a few basic things on my camera.  We spent a lot of time taking random test pictures to see the differences when I play around with my camera's settings, so most of the pictures are boring. However, when we were driving back, I saw this beautiful spot that the sun was shining on. I really wanted to capture the color of the plants when the light was shining on them. Here are a few shots that I was able to capture:

Basic Photoshop

Both in high school and in college, I took a few different Photoshop classes.  I recently got Photoshop from my dad and I was so excited to get started again. By no means did I think I was an expert in the matter, but I felt like I knew my way around the program. Apparently, after five years, you don't remember anything! I was completely lost!

Luckily, my dad is a member of NAPP or photoshopuser.com. If you are a member, you get access to amazing tutorials and online classes. Lately, I have been watching some of the tutorials on the site; mostly the basics. Hopefully I will move on to more complex tutorials soon, but these past few days I've had a lot of fun practicing the basics.

Here are a few that I have messed around with. I've included the before and after pictures so you can see the difference that Photoshop makes. Enjoy!

Before

After (I love the light that I added to her eyes)

Before

After

Before

After

Zion National Park

This weekend my grandma took us down to southern Utah. We went to the Best Friends Animal Society. They are absolutely amazing. It is one of the largest no-kill animal sanctuaries in the world. Click on the link to donate, adopt, or find out more.

On our way there, we drove through Zion National Park. It is one of my favorite National Parks. The rock formations are stunning and they have tons of different hiking trails to explore. Below are pictures from our short trip.

I loved the reflection of the mountain in our hotel window.

It started to get cloudy and rain while we were there. It definitely helped us cool off!