Planet SLC

We're big fans of downtown Salt Lake City, and this is kind of a fun new take on it.  One of the challenges in making these stereographic projections is controlling for the large range of darks and lights, highlights and shadows that occur in any outdoor 360x180 setting.  In this case, the Church Office Building partially blocked the sunrise from fully illuminating the Salt Lake Temple.  Oh well - it was a fun image to make, and Tenny and I had a great time eating donuts and waiting for the sun to rise.

Beautiful West Virginia

Canaan Valley Creek

We're a few months out now from our fun West Virginia trip, and a couple things still stick out.  First, West Virginia is a lovely place, in a calm and understated way.  Second, we remain impressed by the number of vacant homes and buildings in the state.  We were in a couple cities where at least 70% of the structures were empty and crumbling.  One of our restaurant menus had a town history on the back that talked about how the town grew during the logging boom, shrunk when the trees were gone, grew during the mining boom, and then died when the mines were abandoned.  We think that the area's greatest natural resource is its beauty (oh, and the music), so maybe it's time for West Virginia to have a tourist boom - and maybe this time they can make sure not to deplete that natural resource in the process. It is a great place to get away.

Hudson River Rainbows

As I sat alone late at night at the end of a pier in Hoboken and gazed at the NYC skyline, I looked down and noticed the beautiful colored reflections streaking across the Hudson River toward me, and I then spent 30 minutes trying to capture it.  I made about 100 failed shots before I figured out how to expose this, and it still isn't perfect, but I'm happy that it at least gets close to showing how pretty NYC was on this particular night.

About a year ago we were eating dinner chez nous with Suzy's cousin Ryan and he spotted a rainbow cast on our wall by the light coming through a prism that hangs in our window.  Ryan told Tennyson that the rainbow meant that we lived in the "house of love," and every time since then that Tennyson has seen a rainbow he's excitedly labeled our location the house/car/park of love.  I'm sure if he had have been with me on that pier he would have labeled NYC the city of love.  And now we hope you've enjoyed this blog post of love.

Velma & the Way Cool Trip to NYC

At long last, we were finally able to break away to see our friend Danny's new musical in NYC.  It was a fast but super fun trip.  We decided to try something new, so we stayed in Hoboken instead of the city, and we really loved the views and the swimming pool for the kids.  Tenny really liked the ferry ride across the Hudson River into the city.

Taking your kids into Manhattan is itself and experience, because every third passer-by oohs and aahs about how cute they are.  Tait was striking the below pose in a diner where we had breakfast, and you would have thought he were a celebrity by all the comments we were receiving.  After a while, though, we started to feel like we were in a zoo -- on the wrong side of the glass.

The highlight of the trip was definitely seeing Danny's show (and Danny).  The show really was sooo good.  Tennyson was on the edge of his seat half of the time (the other half he was on the edge of the seat in front of him), and we've all been singing the catchy tunes ever since.  If you're in/around NYC and have kids, you should really check this show out in the next couple weeks.  It's way cool.

Longing for Zion

The Narrows

Stars Over Wyoming

I made this star trail photo last summer during the Stewart family reunion near Afton, Wyoming.  It's a one-hour exposure taken from 1 am to 2 am, but it looks like the middle of the day because of the light from a sliver moon and the nearby towns of Afton and Grover (pictured at bottom right).

Three Sentence Book Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

I should have read this in middle school - it's a really fun and easy read.  Will our hero Sherlock Holmes be able to solve the mysterious case of the devil hound that has been terrorizing the Baskervilles family for generations?  Of course he will; the fun part is figuring out how.

Tait is Eight (Months)

He's crawling, pulling himself up and standing, and saying "dada" in context.  He loves to eat, he's usually happy, and he's always super adorable.  He's in love with his big brother, and we're all in love with him.  And now please excuse us while we return to kissing his cute little dimples.