Blog entries

The Virtues of Project Work

Jeff Beck — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:07:52 +0100

All images: City Creek Canyon Nature Preserve, Utah

As mentioned earlier one of the goals for my foothills project is to create some greatest hits. In a sense I don’t have control over this. I can increase my chances by spending more time in the field, but only time will tell if an image becomes a greatest hit. The idea is that the surest way to create stellar individual images is not by searching for those ...

Butterflies in Flight

Jeff Beck — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:23:45 +0100

Whites in Flight, City Creek Canyon, Utah

Following are a few of the parameters of my Foothills Project

I’m defining the Foothills as the geographical area making up the north east corner of Salt Lake County; the area runs from City Creek Canyon on the north to I80 in Parley’s Canyon on the south, with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail creating the western boundary, and the Salt Lake County l...

Chasing Butterflies

Jeff Beck — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:27:49 +0100

Western Tailed-Blue, Killyon Canyon Conservation Preserve, Utah

My foothills project is taking on a life of its own. What started out as a deeper exploration into the foothills landscape with an emphasis on the diversity of wildflowers has turned in to a full blown project. At least that’s my excuse for spending several hours each day rambling along foothill trails. This project has already been quite re...

Backyard Bounty

Jeff Beck — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:48:49 +0100

White Iris Detail

I spent a half hour photographing irises in my back yard the other day. It must have been the first time I’ve ever photographed an iris, if not it might as well have been; I’ve certainly never photographed an iris like this before. With a 1.4x converter behind my Nikkor 70-300mm lens and the Nikon 6T close-up lens on the front end, I was able to go inside the flowers. I photographed...

Foothill Wildflowers

Jeff Beck — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:00:23 +0100

Clockwise from top left: Starry Solomon Seal (Smilacina stellata), Foothill Death Camas (Zigadenus paniculatus), Dog Tooth Violet (Erythronium grandiflorum), Western Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata), American vetch (Vicia americana), Shortstyle Bluebells (Mertensia brevistyla)

Even a short hike in the foothills can be very productive photographically as many species of flowering herbs are now i...

Fairy Tale Moon

Jeff Beck — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:34:48 +0100

...the heart has its seasons its evenings and songs of its own...Robert Hunter

This image is one of my more personal photographic expressions. Captured in the foothills near the mouth of Red Butte Canyon, it doesn’t really say that much about the specific location but rather speaks of a place in the inner self, some universal geography of the heart. The image’s simplicity is amplified by the...

Foothill Dreamscape

Jeff Beck — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:22:07 +0100

Please help me decide on a title for this image.

This is a new image from last Friday, captured about an hour after my previous post, in the foothills just west of Dry Fork. Although I’d been out hiking and photographing for more than five hours and was eager to get home for dinner, this scene stopped me in my tracks. I spent about ten minutes making fifteen exposures of three different compositions. This i...

Digging Deeper

Jeff Beck — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:01:28 +0100

Russian Olive Silhouettes on the Shoulder of Little Black Mountain, Salt Lake City Foothills, Utah

Every year I plan on spending more time in the foothills. Those rolling ridgelines, grassy slopes, and stony outcrops north and east of Salt Lake City, from City Creek to Parley’s Canyon and east to East Canyon. I’ve always felt there was a ton of potential to make some really personal and compelli...

Limekiln Gulch

Jeff Beck — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:55:10 +0100

Pioneer Limekiln in Limekiln Gulch, Salt Lake City Foothills, Utah

I hadn't been here since I was a teen. I had a vague memory, but had forgotten the exact location of this Limekiln until a few days ago when I spotted it from the ridge-line high above. Thought it was about time for a visit. The next morning brought light rain and brooding clouds that I thought would be perfect for a photograph. Originally built in t...

Decisive Moments cont.

Jeff Beck — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:23:53 +0100

Wildflowers at Sunset, Mt. Timpanogos Wilderness, Utah

A single image does not necessarily indicate the amount of time required to create it. This is not to say that an image doesn’t have to stand on its own merits regardless of how much effort went into its creation, but in landscape photography some images may take years to coalesce. The idea for an image may be there, but Mother Nature does thi...

Decisive Moments

Jeff Beck — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:12:16 +0100

Mint and Clouds, Albion Basin, Utah

Time is a component of every image, but not every moment is created equally. Timing can be as important in photography as light. Legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is well known for applying the idea of the decisive moment to photography. His candid images of people combined the meticulous organization of visual elements with the culmination of the moment.

...

Urban Landscapes and April Snow Showers Revisited

Jeff Beck — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:41:50 +0100

April Snow on Crabapple Blossoms, Salt Lake City, Utah

Another one from last Friday. Spring is prime time for nature photography in Salt Lake. Flowering fruit trees have been catching my eye all over town the past two weeks. This tight composition conceals the fact that this tree is in front of an apartment building in my neighborhood. This image is a testament to how nature enriches our lives right in our ow...

Waterpocket Fold in HDR B&W

Jeff Beck — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:32:01 +0100

View from Chimney Rock Overlook Trail, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Sublime landscape combined with a mind-blowing cloudscape. Photomatix HDR brings all of the detail out of the shadows, and because it's in black & white there are no wacky colors. Black and white photography is able to be highly manipulated without raising objections. The same degree of manipulation on the color image looked...

Juxtapositions

Jeff Beck — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:37:23 +0100

Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah

I spent a few hours last Friday morning experimenting with my Lensbaby. This was one of my favorite images from the set. What attracts me to this image are the juxtapositions; juxtaposition between organic and constructed, spring and winter, life and death, dark and light. Here again, the Lensbaby allows me to simplify the composition and at the same time a...

April Snow Showers

Jeff Beck — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:43:22 +0100

Redbud, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah

I made this photograph this morning with a Lensbaby Composer and Nikon D300. The exposure was 1/2000 sec. at f4 ISO 200. I love how the Lensbaby not only isolates the snowy Redbud branch, it allows me to express the emotion of the scene, something I wasn't able to do with another lens.

KISS

Jeff Beck — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:18:46 +0100

Simple Composition: Moonrise, Salt Lake City Foothills, Utah

I think most people are familiar with the acronym KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Okay, the stupid part may be a bit harsh, but there is no doubt this principal applies to photographers in at least two ways. The first is the gear we choose to bring with us in the field. Some photographers are wrestling with so much equipment that when an actual op...

Urban Landscapes

Jeff Beck — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:52:03 +0100

Blazing Sunset, Salt Lake City, Utah

Parks, gardens, and green spaces can offer amazing opportunities for nature photographers without having to leave the city. Of course, given the choice, when photographing nature I prefer to be as far from civilization as possible. Being out in the wilds isn’t always possible though, oftentimes life gets in the way. This doesn’t mean you have to wait fo...

Cirque View

Jeff Beck — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:31:09 +0100

Primrose Cirque View, Uinta National Forest, Utah

Clearing storms often create the most exciting and interesting conditions for landscape photography. The old axiom about bad weather equaling good photography is indisputable. Combine storm light with vivid fall foliage and an imposing landform and you’ve got a recipe for a successful image. Here, fog and spotlighting work to create a sense of mood as ...

Fire in the Sky

Jeff Beck — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:06:35 +0100

Sunset Panorama, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Every photograph is made in the context of infinite creative possibility and limited time within which to work.

Pot Hollow

Jeff Beck — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:53:08 +0100

Aspen, Pot Hollow, Uinta National Forest, Utah

This image represents one of those rare instances last year when a composition just knocked me over the head like a hammer. I was dropping back to the Deer Creek campground in Wasatch Mountain State Park, through Pot Hollow, at the end of a long hike. I had been looking for graphic compositions all day and not really finding much. I was zipping down the tr...