Wouldn’t you know it, the weather today was all but perfect.  Yeah, there were some big puffy clouds about, but otherwise the sky was sunny and blue and the temperature right around 90.  Would have been good hiking weather, but I got too late of a start, and decided to go for a Sunday drive instead.

When my friend Sra moved far away forever, she sent me a selection of guide books she had in her collection detailing Utah.  Since she’s in Oregon now, she felt the Utah books would benefit me far more than her, so they since have come to be in my possession.  These books have been the best gift I’ve received from anyone in a long time.  Not only have they given me a few more target mountains to climb before the year is out, they’ve also brought several wonderful places to my attention that I may have not heard about otherwise.  They are treasured items to me now.

One such new discovery was a stretch of road called the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway.  It’s in the Uinta National Forest, down around the Payson area, and extending into Nephi.  It’s only about 45 minutes from my place, so I decided to check it out.  It’s a great 2 (or so) hour drive through some of the prettiest country in Utah, and it covers a pretty diverse landscape ranging from tree-covered mountains to incredible cliff vistas to red rock formations.  I definitely had a great time with this, and I can’t WAIT to go back soon when all of the leaves start changing to see this place in the Fall.  It will be a thousand times more beautiful then.

This is just one of the many such views to be had.  Looking almost due East over a valley.

Mooooove out of the way, cows.  Photography enthusiast and well-known hamburger eater coming through.

Yonder peak is called Mount Nebo.  It is the tallest mountain in the Wasatch front, and is on my short list of mountains to be climbed.  Probably not this year, but definitely by next.  It is quite daunting, and this picture does not do it justice in any way.  This will be the biggest challenge ever.

One of the coolest places in the loop is “Devil’s Kitchen.”  It’s a series of red rock formations set against a cliff that predates the Wasatch range itself.  Sort of a miniature Bryce canyon.  It’s a pretty stark contrast to everything else around it.

One more shot looking out from Devil’s Kitchen toward the base of Mount Nebo.  An amazingly deep valley (once again, photography simply doesn’t give it the proper scale), and a sight to behold.

As I said, I’m going back in a month or so when Fall is in and all the colors will make this place truly come alive.  Anyone wanna come with?

1.  In January, my continuous employment of ten long years came to a very abrupt end.  I was terminated over the matter of a broken DVD case worth approximately $4.  This, after a decade of faithful service, running multi-million dollar departments and traveling the entire country for a corporate entity who cares little for it’s employees.  In the end though, this was a good thing.

2.  In May, I turned 36 years old.  There’s this sort of unspoken thing with men that says by the time you’re 35, your life should pretty much be on the path it’s destined for, and your career and love life and kids and education should be things you worried about in the past.  By 35, you should have achieved.  Well, I’m behind the curve.  Not only is my life pretty much a complete waste up until this point, but I don’t really have any prospects for the future.  There’s obviously something wrong with me.  This one is in the "bad thing" category.

3.  After seeing a video of a parade I marched in over the summer, I couldn’t help but stare in enraged astonishment at the bloated, disgustingly fat blob of flesh that I had let myself become.  Photographic evidence further supported this realization, and after thinking back on the tight, well-muscled frame I fought so many years to acquire in my late teens, I couldn’t help but feel sickened by my apathy towards my appearance.  To that end, I decided enough was enough.  I adjusted my diet and took up hiking as much as twice a week, and over the course of three months, I lost 25 pounds and gained a lot more energy and vitality.  I will never allow myself to become fat again.  This one is a good thing.

4.  I climbed a mountain!  If you’d have asked me ten years ago if I would ever physically climb a mountain, I’d have told you that it’s "on my list", but wouldn’t realistically expect it to happen.  Well, this past year my friend Sra and I accomplished what a surprising few people do.  We stood on the summit of a mountain, like gods, (it was Mount Olympus, after all) looking down on all that is below.  I am especially proud of this achievement, and I will take it as one of the highest points (pun intended) of the year.  Good thing.

5.  As a result of my unemployment, I decided to actually take time away from work and focus on myself for the first time ever.  I took the entire year off, and I will say, without reservation, that for the FIRST TIME EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, I get enough sleep.  This is no small thing, I am being sincere.  Getting enough sleep on a consistent basis is something that everyone takes for granted, and you seriously don’t know what you’re missing.  This is a good thing.

6.  I finally declared Atheism.  There are those who might think this is sad, but it is not.  I’ve been on the fence for about a decade concerning my stance on religion and God.  I’ve been on one side or the other my entire life and the revelation I received finally, is that only by opening your eyes and your mind will you ever be at peace with your faith.  God is a construct.  It’s a way for people to explain things they can’t understand, and mankind will never reach it’s full potential unless we finally give up on superstition and naiveté and see what is real and true.  If there is such a thing as fate, then let me say that my undefined purpose for moving to Utah was to finally come to grips with faith and religion, and it took moving here and seeing the differences and perversions in what should be constants for me to finally realize it.  It’s all imaginary.  This is my decision, and I have no doubts that it is the correct one.  This is a good thing.

7.  I lost a lot of money this year.  A LOT.  This is because of my decision not to work, and my failures at starting a home-based business.  I went from making roughly $50K per year down to making $0 per year, and my bank accounts suffered for it.  Even so, it’s still only money.  I can always get more.  Sometimes you have to get humble and climb down a few pegs before going back up.  Losing thousands of dollars is a bad thing, but gaining humility and perspective is a good thing.  This one is a wash.

8.  I discovered a passion for photography.  It also appears that I’m fairly good at it, and getting better.  One of the best things about my decision not to work is that I had plenty of free time to discover my passions, and photography was the big one.  It also helps to live where I live.  I like taking pictures, and more than that, I like seeing people’s reactions to my pictures.  This is definitely a good thing about this past year.

9.  Depression kicked my ass this year.  I’ve "suffered" from depression (I hate that term) since I was a teenager, and this past year has been especially difficult.  I’m thankful for some supportive friends that have helped a little, but depression is a personal issue, and despite what you may want to believe, there is no cure.  Not having an income, failing at business opportunities, and failing to see future prospects really wears on the soul.  I’m hoping next year can turn this around, but I’m not betting on it.  We’ll see.  Category:  Bad.

10.  It may seem anti-climatic to end with this one, but it’s a good one.  I found out something about myself this year.  I’m a writer.  Yes, that’s right.  I am damn good at writing.  Of course, there’s always room for improvement, but on the whole, writing, creating, imagining, articulating, and even things like spelling and grammar come incredibly easy to me.  And in truth, they always have.  I know this all sounds like a massive boast, but please forgive me this once.  I found something that I excel at and it makes me feel good.  It’s a single ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds of my psyche, and I intend to exploit it as best I can.  There are exciting things on the horizon in this matter.  I can hardly wait.

Another year down.  2008 was a curious one for me, and overall I can say it was a positive one.  There was good and bad, but there was balance, and that’s one more for the "good" side. 

See you next year.

My own photography isn’t quite to the thousands of dollars standard as of yet, but some of my prints are approaching the hundreds of dollars mark.  So I know what you’re thinking: “I can’t afford a print, and I like your pictures, but where can I get as many as thirty prints of your stuff for about a buck a piece, all in convenient book-size form?”  Well friends and faithful readers, wonder no more.

Just Beyond is my first photography book.  It contains sixty pages and thirty of my landscapes (32 if you count the cover and dedication page) and it’s available now in softback for sale through Blurb.com.  The price is $39.95 + shipping, but if you do a Google search for “Blurb promotional codes” you can find coupons for free shipping or even percentages off.  Not a bad deal I think.  I know these print on demand places are a tad on the pricey side, but I’ve done lots of research and careful preparation to assure you get a quality product for your money.  As far as profit is concerned, well… I only get about $5 per book sold, so it’s not really about the money for me.  I just want to get my name out there and see if people like my pictures.

So go on over and check out the little preview of the book.  See if you like it, leave a comment and tell your friends and coworkers about it.  Oh, and maybe you could purchase a copy or two so that I can feed my kids, pay my bills, support my coke habit, travel the world, buy expensive things, get my brand out there for the world to see, and maybe make a name for myself in the world of photography.

Thanks!

Oh, and don’t forget to check out my photo blog at worldsindigital.com for even more photolicious goodness!

Of course, like so many things in life, what sounds too good to be true always is.  The Fall edition of the magazine is out, complete with the article that the editor promised, but my picture is nowhere to be seen.  I suppose I should have gotten the clue when two e-mails that I sent were ignored.  You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now about trusting people, but it appears I haven’t.  Maybe I never will.

There are things that burn me up about it though.  Set aside the fact that I wasn’t published or paid for a second.  That’s fine.  It’s business, and I’m sure they had a reason to stiff me.  Or maybe my e-mails are in a spam filter somewhere, or maybe they got a better deal with someone else.  I certainly hope they didn’t actually pay for the picture they ended up using, because it sucks ass.  Let me show you.

Here is the picture they offered to buy from me:

This is, of course, the Spiral Jetty in northern Utah.  Kinda cool, isn’t it?

Here’s the picture in the magazine:

Isn’t it wonderful, in all of its glory, complete with massive amounts of digital noise, false colors, and bad exposure?

I don’t know who took this picture, because there’s no photographer credit on it at all.  I assume it’s been colored all funky for “artistic interpretation” reasons, but that doesn’t make it a good shot.  I’m not saying my picture is the greatest thing ever, but I honestly believe it’s ten times better than what they went with.  I mean, seriously.  At least I went through the effort of removing any digital noise I found.  Artistic interpretation aside, at least my picture was clean.

So yeah, I’m kinda mad.  I was led to believe that my picture was good enough to be published, good enough to have an impact on someone, and good enough to represent the focus of the article.  In a sense, I was being praised.  That made me happy.  Turns out I was simply being duped.  Maybe in order to actually be published, I need to shit-ify all my pictures more. I don’t know.  I feel a little betrayed I guess.  After all, would it have really been so hard for the editor to shoot me a quick e-mail saying that they decided to go with someone else?  I guess it was just simpler to ignore me.

Whatever.  I don’t need the Wasatch Journal anyway.  I know my pictures are good, and they’re getting better as I learn more and gain experience.  It’s only a matter of time.  I’ll just chalk up another lesson in humility and move on.

Lately my readership has been WAY down, and it’s kinda frustrating. I only get one or two hits per day now, when I was averaging 18 or so. I’m not sure what’s wrong, other than I don’t update as much as I should. I hope my content is at least somewhat entertaining. Maybe I need to rethink things. I hope that by adding some pictures people can see there’s more than one side to me.

Anyway, there’s only a couple in there right now, but I’ll be adding more. Please drop in and leave a comment and let me know what you think. You can find a clickie right over there in my sidebar.

Thanks.

Today I took a short hike up the modest hill that contains Ensign Peak.  Lately I’ve been getting more and more serious about Photography, and as such, I tend to drag my new expensive camera around everywhere.  I’ve taken a liking to panoramic shots, as evidenced by the botched picture above, which was completely out-of-focus in every aspect.  I like taking pictures, and I think I could be pretty good at it once my skills and my imagination actually meet up somewhere.  The focus thing was my bad, and the result of not setting myself properly before I pressed the shutter.  Not a mistake I usually make.

The thing about Ensign Peak is that it’s a super easy hike, yet my flabby, aged ass still has to stop every twenty yards to heave and gasp for air like a pack-a-day smoker after a flight of stairs.  Someone should have told me that all of Utah was uphill before I moved here.  I’m from Ohio, where things are moderately boring and flat,  like Keira Knightly.  Hills and mountains are pretty, and they look great from a distance, but walking on them is another thing all together.  I need to get into better shape.

I’m also still looking for a job.  If anyone knows of anything, let me in on it, ok?  I’m looking for something in an artistic sense, like Graphic Arts or writing.  I did long, long years in retail and I think I’ve paid my dues in jobs that I don’t like.  I’m ready for something else.  Something where I can actually justify getting out of bed in the morning.  It would be great to actually use my talents for something other than pandering to the unwashed masses looking for a “deal” on some gadget they don’t need.  Alas, this job has thus far eluded me.

What else.  I have an entire web site to build.  I volunteered my skills to the Mountain-Con organization this year as a webmaster.  Looking back, that may have not been the best decision.  Building a web site isn’t the problem so much, it’s finding the motivation to work on it.  I find myself goofing off, doing things like surfing around on the web or writing boring blogs instead of actually working.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m really cut out to be creative.  Seems like my head is full of so many ideas and inspirations that my energy and willpower can’t keep up with them.  Oh, for the simpler days of being a kid when there were no obligations and one had plenty of time and energy and enthusiasm.

So yeah.  That’s what’s going on with me, and why I don’t write as much as I should.  Laziness and apathy, my new best friends.

OK, they vary in type. Two are web cams, one is a cell phone cam, but still… a camera is a camera. They will all record an image that I can further manipulate and then print, e-mail, or whatever. I count them. One of them is also a camcorder. Even though the primary use of that device is moving pictures, it does take stills as well. Throw it on the pile. The other three are still cameras. One, my favorite, is a Canon 40D DSLR that I simply love. It cost me a pretty penny, but the images I’m able to get from it are stunning. I also have another digital camera, a point-and-shoot style Sony DSC-W1. It’s quite a camera too, and takes excellent photographs. The last (but not least) is an old Canon AE1 that I used in college. This is a classic film camera, and is considered to be one of the best of its breed. It was quite technologically advanced for the time, but still had all-manual controls that gave you all the education you needed in learning the basics of college photography. I loved that camera. Sadly, something is wrong with the shutter release and it doesn’t work properly. Ever since I made the switch to digital, I’ve never investigated the cost of repairing it.

Why do I have seven cameras? Beats me. I suppose I’ve just collected them over the years. Of the seven, I use the 40D the most, because it’s a pro level camera and the amount of control I have over the image is mind-boggling. I still use the little Sony sometimes as a backup as well. It traveled with me to Sundance this past year, because it’s small and light and easy to slip in a pocket. On occasion, I use my newer web cam. The picture of the Pringles can in my last post was taken with it. The other web cam is buried in a box of computer parts somewhere in my closet. The AE-1 is broken, although now that I’m thinking of it, I may look into getting it fixed, and the camcorder comes out with me for certain events that I record for the charity group I work with. Lastly, the cell phone camera is a gimmick and just stupid, so it never gets any real use at all.

So now I’m thinking, what other stuff do I have multiples of that I don’t necessarily use? Well, let’s see: I have three computer monitors. Honestly, I use two of them in a dual-screen setup (and once you do, you’ll never go back to a single screen again), so only the third one is redundant. Counting the one built into my computer, I have three DVD players. This is actually down from five a few years ago, so I’m doing OK there. I have two sets of computer speakers. One of those is sitting on the floor to my right, gathering dust, having not been used in a year or so. I have enough spare parts to build at least two, possibly three more severely outdated computers. I have two humidifiers for some reason. I don’t use either one, but I have one set up in my bedroom in case the need arises. The other is on the floor in my closet probably growing some sort of science project inside. Oh, and I have two copies of “Wizard and Glass” by Stephen King. One is a first-edition paperback, the other is a second-edition paperback. Why? Who knows.

I guess that’s not too bad all things considered. It’s not quite to the point of absurdity, but then again I did throw out 90% of my belongings when I moved here from Ohio three years ago. It’s just that stuff tends to accumulate out of nowhere. I don’t know why I own half the stuff I own, but I look about and there it is.

Yard sale anyone?

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