Earth friendliness...

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_13910908

I found this letter in the Salt Lake Tribune, and found it refreshingly wise. Indeed, we must be better stewards of the earth. We know that. But are we selfLESS enough to actually do it?

Saturday's portrait session

Latest Portrait Session

This is my cute niece, Whitley. She's got the best blue eyes, which totally pop in the right light. Hope you enjoy these. Let me know what you think.

Montana wolves update

http://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/story/988051.html
Update on Montana's wolves. This year's hunt is over....mostly.

Very useful information...

http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_498cb24a-d8a1-11de-ae4c-001cc4c03286.html

I've used this website (opensecrets) several times and it is quite informative. It can be very telling as to why certain legislators vote the way they do. It's worth a look.

Interesting news from today...(Abortion debate)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/opinion/25levine.html

I don't know how strong this argument really is. But I'd say anything which aims at reducing the numbers of "unwanted pregnancies," is a step in the right direction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/opinion/25levine.html

ksl.com - Utah GOP opposes citizens ethics initiative

ksl.com - Utah GOP opposes citizens ethics initiative

I'm going to try and start a new trend for myself; posting the most interesting news article I find each day. I read a lot of news: National news like CNN or international like the UK News, papers from Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau Alaska, one paper from MT, one from ID, and a few from Utah, including KSL. Even the NY Times every once in a while. Sometimes I may post more than one. Anyway, I hope to post the ones that maybe you missed.

The above link will take you to an article about the Utah GOP. I don't think ANY of our ELECTED leaders ought to be against a check and balance by the people who elected them. And if they are opposed, it probably means they're doing things they hope never come to light.

Arts and crafts for sale!

This one is knotty white pine w/mahogany stain. (Remember, I can stain them to your liking. Any color.)
This is a shadow box. They can be spruced up to fanciness if you'd like. This one is fairly plain. $16.00
This picture frame is made from knotty alder, to which I applied a mahogany stain. Alder will stain almost any shade you'd like, from it's natural light color to almost black. I have lots of it. On this one, I chose to use the molded side for nice framing lines, but I can use plain, flat wood, just the same. I also used a Roman-ogee router bit to trim a nice edge around it. $21.00.
This is a good example of a rustic barn wood picture frame. It is 8X10 in size. I added the rope to this one for my grandpa, the cowboy, but I thought it looked very nice without the rope. $25.00.
A nice frame from barn wood. A lot like the previous one from barn wood, just smaller-dimensions of the wood. It's also an 8X10. $20.00.

Not yer ma's kiddie candids...

I edited these photos a little further. I think they look better. What do you think?

Recent photo shoot

I did a photo shoot the other night. It was not the best, since I was sort of hurried by my work schedule. But I managed to get a couple of decent shots. One of Brynn's co-workers wanted portraits of her kids, which I was excited to do. But her daughter, a 4 year old I think, was just hysterically miserable. She was probably cold and tired, too much so for me to convince her to pose and smile. After an hour of trying, I threw in the towel. Hopefully her mom will reschedule and I'll try again.

Wonderful 3-Day Weekend

So I've had a pretty great weekend. I've been planning to hike Mt. Nebo nearly all year. And this week was my window of opportunity. I took Friday off from work, since Saturday was going to be the opening day of the Utah deer hunt. (I try to avoid being a target, unintended or otherwise.) I didn't really research the hike, other than hiking a bit of the trail from Bear Canyon back in June. After than, I decided to take an easier/flatter route, especially since there is now snow up near the summit. Not realizing the existence of a couple of other choices, I decided to hike it from the Monument Trailhead, right off of the Nebo Loop Byway. I had prepared myself for the worst; backpack full of boots, extra socks, energy bars, gatorade, thermal underwear, jacket, gloves, snowshoes and, most important, the camera and extra lenses.

I headed down the trail, just before 9AM. It was beautiful. I never did put on my jacket or gloves. And I hiked in my trail runners all day. After hiking south between 6 and 7 miles, I began to get frustrated, wondering if this trail was ever going to ascend to the summit. To this point, it had just skirted along the bench, up then down, then back up again. But mostly just taking me south. I finally decided to get off the trail and just start climbing a buttress, which looked like it may get me up near the cliffs. After about 20 minutes or so, I realized that this wasn't going to get me to the top, at least not without a significant chance of falling or worse. Then, I realized I had access to a modern-day convenience--my cellphone. You get cell coverage most of the way. I began calling EVERYONE I could think of who may have hiked Nebo before. Out of the 7 or 8 people I called, about half of them had hiked Nebo. However, NONE of them had hiked it via the trail I had taken because, "it's the longest, most difficult route to the top." Oh, nice one, Wade. It was about 1:00PM by now and I figured I had at least another 2 miles to go south before the trail would climb to the summit. But that meant it was highly unlikely I wouldn't have time to summit and then make it back out by dark. So, feeling a little defeated, I sat down, had some lunch, and took a few pictures. (This place is amazing for photographs. I highly recommend it if you're into that sort of thing.) Anyway, after my little break, I headed back north, toward the trail head and my van. I had hoped to find some wildlife to capture with my camera. Sadly, I didn't see much; Just a yellow-bellied marmot, a couple of sage grouse, and 2 deer, none of which were worth digging my camera out. It was a tough hike out. My left knee had begun to feel the stress of the 30 lbs of gear on my back. And I was drained of energy, not having eaten anything but energy bars that day. One bad thing about that trail is at the end of the day, when you're completely zapped of energy and strength, you'll have to climb upward for about the last mile to the trail head. I thought I could make it OK, but I actually had to sit down and eat 2 more energy bars and another gatorade during the last 1/2 mile.
At the end of the day, this was an amazing hike; A beautiful adventure, and something I hope to do again and again.
I had actually begun to catch a cold Thursday night, and it had fully set in by Friday morning. But I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to take that hike. And by Friday night, I felt sort of terrible. I didn't sleep very well. So when Saturday morning came, I got up early and drove up to the top of Payson Canyon to try and capture sunrise on Nebo Peak. As you can see from the photo, I missed it by about 20 minutes. Oh well; Still a decent photo. On my way back down, I ran into 3 flocks of wild turkeys, the 3rd of which were outside a restroom at the picnic area. Pretty awesome. Sort of made me think of Thanksgiving. I don't know why.

A Mormon vs. The Mormons

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13546968

I'm not a huge fan of Harry Reid, though I respect some of his political stances, this being one of them. I hope his criticism of the LDS stance on CA Prop. 8 was not taken in offense, but well-received.

The wolf saga continues...

http://www.idahostatesman.com/531/story/933932.html

One of life's highlights

I mean, seriously, after having been on Sesame Street, is there really ANYTHING else for which Mrs. Obama can hope in this life?

Yellowstone Grizzly bear status update

http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/907951.html

It's all about whether or not we care about them; whether or not we value "beauty." I'm glad someone is advocating responsibility on the part of humans, to take care, and not just to carry a gun "just in case."

Latest portrait session.....

Here are a few photos from Thursday night's family portrait session:

Team Unbreakable Fights in Spanish Fork

Hey Everyone. This upcoming event is going to be great. More important, it's for a good cause. A couple of months ago, Coach Aaron Garcia lost his 3 year old son, Maximus, to a tragic drowning accident. It was a terrible blow to the Garcia Family and to the team, as Maximus is sorely missed. This event is for charity; All proceeds from the fights will go to help pay for the funeral costs, as well as hospital and emergency service costs. So please come out and support a great cause. All ages are welcome.


I'm pretty sure that Damian "The Hunter" Nielson will be fighting a tough opponent, and not just a yellow smiley face.
The Main Event of the evening is going to be a clash of the titans. Drew "Big D" Daniels, from Salem, UT will be fighting a much more experienced Hank "Lord Vice" Weiss. Both of these guys are tough. They're the type of guys you just can't hurt, so it will be a great match up.

It's all taking place Saturday September 19th, from 7:00PM to 9:00 PM at 2000 N 300 W Spanish Fork, UT.

Tickets are available through Coach Aaron Garcia @ 801-691-4035, or at Sequoia Motorsports in Salem, and The Deerhunter Pub in Spanish Fork.

President Obama's speech to the future of our coutntry; our kids.

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/obamas-remarks-for-school-address-as-prepared-for-delivery.php/

Recent portrait session..

J-walking in downtown Payson.
I didn't think I'd love this shot like I do. But then I thought, what parent doesn't want pictures of their kids at their happiest? And she was just a ham for the camera.
Their older son was the only one who didn't seem to love the camera, or maybe the photographer. I wish I had all of his curly hair.
Had to get their little boy doing what boys do best, playing in the dirt.
Like mom, like daughter. (Yes, I've used this location before.)
This is a great looking family. Made my job easy.

Thanks you guys for letting me do this. It was fun and I can always use the practice.

We DO have an impact.

http://www.adn.com/news/environment/warming/story/921418.html

Whether you believe global warming is human affected or not, may I just say this: There is NOTHING wrong with doing a better job of taking care of Mother Earth.

Random Acts of Kindness.

I thought this was the best idea. People need love. They need to love and to be loved. And what better way to accomplish this than through random, but sincere, hugs...for free? I really liked this video.

Just a quick update...nothing amazing

Well, we spent the day at Mona Reservoir with our friends the Broadbents, as well as some of their extended family. And we had an amazing time.
This was my first time wake boarding. Was surprised I got up. I have to give all the credit to my friend Jami, who jumped out of the boat, swam back to me and the wakeboard to help me figure it all out. So much fun.
I recently did this project for my brother-in-law. I'm calling it a "man-cave." It's built into a corner of his larger than normal 2-car garage. I built the entertainment system onto the wall. He had some cool wood I used for the wainscoting and crown molding. And I had some left over alder for the nosing on the shelves.
Was messing around today after Brynn put this cute fisherman hat on Jericho. I really liked this look and decided it looked best in black and white.
So blessed to have such a happy little boy. He is the light in our lives.

So, there you go. These are a few of the things I've been doing lately. Peace out.