Sur-Real Photography | Blog » Salt Lake City

Millcreek Mis-Adventures

Jeremy — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:20:52 +0000

Yesterday I wanted to get out and shoot something, since it had been a while since my last time. I was all pumped, ready to get out, capture some amazing photos, and just have an all around great time. I drove up the Mill Creek canyon located in about the middle of the Salt Lake Valley along the Wasatch Range (3800 South, to be exact). This is a small canyon, but as we all know… great things come in small packages, right? This is honestly one of the most beautiful canyons here in the Wasatch Mountains (that I’ve been in). Especially when you get half way up (you’ll pass a couple big gates), you notice the beauty. The road narrows, the vegetation thickens, and the temperature drops. It’s almost as if, when you pass through those gates, you’re driving into another part of the world.

After driving up and down the canyon a bit, I finally found a spot that looked good enough to stop and take some photos. I was still feeling great about all of this. Went to the stream, set up my shot, and started shooting away. It was awesome, despite me slipping into the water, several times. For some reason, those rocks were extremely slippery… more so than usual it seemed. So after shooting for about an hour (well, 30 min of shooting, 30 min of falling), I decided it was time for a new location. Packed everything up and started heading down the canyon. As I was driving down, I was looking around and up the mountain sides, and noticed quite a few trees were changing colors!! So exciting! Naturally, that just boosted my excitement by about ten fold. I was going to get my first fall shots, TODAY!!

So on a whim, I decided to head down to the Alpine Loop road that goes from the American Fork road down to the Provo Canyon road. Simply beautiful drive. If you’ve never done it, I highly highly recommend it. In the summer, it’s just amazing. In the fall… nothing can match it’s sheer beauty.

As I’m driving to the canyon, I start picturing all the amazing photos I’m going to capture. All the greens, yellows, reds, and oranges. An phenomenal combination of colors. One only nature can display in such awe. Well… I get down to Provo Canyon… with absolutely no photos. Yep, you guessed it. There were no autumn colors at all. At the most, there were probably just a handful of trees that had changed already. So, I guess I’ll just have to go down in a week or so. Hopefully we get a couple good cold nights so that they change.

When I get home, I’m still feeling pretty confident about the photos that I got from Millcreek Canyon earlier. I start transferring all the photos over to my computer, and can’t wait to look at them. As I open up Lightroom and import the photos… I can’t believe my eyes. No literally, I couldn’t believe my eyes. None of the images popped out at me. Did I really not capture one decent photograph?! What was going on? I was all pumped up, feeling like I was going to do great… and nothing?! Something can’t be right.

Often I find myself doing that. Feeling all excited about the photo adventure… and coming home with nothing like what I had imagined. Do I have too high of expectations? Do I judge myself too harshly? Both of those are correct. Let me show you why. Marc Adamus is my landscape photography hero. Every time I go out to shoot, I imagine his photos and want mine to look like his. But when I get home and see that mine don’t look anywhere near like his… I get disappointed. If you’re wondering why I feel this way, hop on over to his website and look at his gallery. They’re simply amazing. I can never get tired of looked at them.

Marc Adums

But, I guess all I can do is keep going at it. practice makes perfect, right? Another thing that I’ve thought about is maybe my gear isn’t holding up to my standards? So… starting today, I will officially be accepting donations towards my gear fund. Haha. You can donate via PayPal, or cash… I’m easy like that.

Anyways, enough typing, my hands are hurting. Here are the two photos that I got from my mis-adventure yesterday.

Thank you for reading and viewing.

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography

Midway Reservoir

Jeremy — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:52:20 +0000

A couple months ago I was extremely excited to get a 2001 Limited Jeep Grand Cherokee, to replace my falling apart Dodge Durango. Since my purchase, I have been driving anywhere and everywhere, wasting gas and exploring the mountains of Utah.

My Jeep: 2001 Limited Jeep Grand Cherokee

During my exploring, I have found some breathtaking views of the Wasatch mountains. Driven on some exciting off-road trails. And burned about 3 full tanks worth of gas. Haha. One of the first locations that I discovered was Midway Reservoir. I came upon this lake by complete accident, but I’m glad I did.

Midway Reservoir: Mist hanging along the edge.

One thing that was certain though… I definitely need some bug spray. The mosquitoes and gnats were unbelievable. It got so bad that I took an car air freshener and tried rubbing it all over my exposed skin, it seemed to do the trick, surprisingly. But I didn’t discover the makeshift bug repellent until I had already been out there for an hour, getting eaten alive.

Midway Reservoir at Sunset

Midway Reservoir just before sunset.

But over all, it was a great little trip. I drove the entire Big Cottonwood Canyon Rd, over the pass, down to Park City, down to Midway, then back up towards Big Cottonwood Canyon making one big loop. The drive from Midway to the Canyon was definitely a more scenic drive than the drive to Park City. Both were nice, but the Midway route was more scenic.

Thanks for reading!

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography

Salty Sunset

Jeremy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:06:14 +0000

Since I haven’t posted anything for a while, and never posted about this photo… figured I’d write a post about it!

A few weeks ago I went out with a friend to the Great Salt Lake here in Utah. The whole reason I wanted to go out to get some shots, was because it was a full moon, and the sun would be setting at the same time the moon was rising. And me and my infinite wisdom, thought, “Oh sweet! I’ll be able to get a full moon shot with a beautiful sunset!!” I believed that, till I was out there and waiting for the moon to rise as the sun was setting… enjoying the wonderful stench that spews from the Great Salt Lake. After a while, it hit me… D’OH!! Oh well, at least I got ONE good shot out of it, right?

Thanks for reading/looking/browsing/parusing/etc…

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography

Alexander Basin II

Jeremy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:07:27 +0000

Well, yesterday I was able to go hike Alexander Basin one more time, and I was pretty excited since there was a good looking storm brewing up. The hike up this time was a lot more treacherous because I had ALL of my gear with me; tripod, camera, 2 lenses, filters, water (more than last time), light jacket, and a couple other things that I always go hiking with. So I had a lot more weight to deal with, which made the constant climb a real pain in the… legs.

Once I actually got up to Alexander Basin, it was fine though. It had just rained so everything was nice and freshly cleaned… plus it smelled wonderful. As I was getting my stuff set up a few hikers were coming down from Gobblers Knob, which then left me to be the only one on the entire mountain. It was awesome!

And then as I was getting ready for the following shot, I looked up to see a deer staring right at me. I stayed as still as I possibly could and the deer would go back to eating, but then snap it’s head back up to look at me. Just couldn’t quite figure out what I was. Haha. After about 15 min of the same thing… it finally bounced down the hill to graze elsewhere.

I didn’t quite get the shots I was hoping to get, but all in all, I’m pretty pleased with this trip. I don’t think I’ll be going back to Alexander Basin though, time for a new trail to explore!

Thanks for reading,

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography

Alexander Basin | Millcreek Canyon

Jeremy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 18:10:49 +0000

Yesterday I decided to go on a nice little hike up my new favorite canyon, Millcreek Canyon. I had hiked Millcreek a couple times before, once a few weeks ago with some friends, and then again last Thursday.

Last Thursday I went and hiked up Mount Air. The trail for Mount Air is nice and lush with beautiful green vegetation and a nice blend of wild flowers scattered about. It really makes a tranquil environment. Great for clearing the mind… which you need since you’re hiking up hill the entire way. Haha.

Yesterdays hike, up to Alexander’s Basin, was a lot like the hike to Mount Air but with a lot more green vegetation and wild flowers. And also a lot steeper. The hike to the basin is about 2.5 miles, one way, and literally up hill the entire way. The hike up is nice though, you’re almost never in direct sunlight which helps with the heat, but you’re still able to get a nice breeze coming up the canyon.

Once you finally reach Alexander Basin you’re greeted with a wonderfully thick forest of white aspens (I think they’re aspens) with beautiful green foliage hugging their trunks.

Then as you continue hiking up towards Gobblers Knob it’s nothing but thick green ferns with a scattering of beautiful wild flowers that adds a perfect accent of color. That’s as you’re looking up while hiking. But if you stop and turn around, you’re greeted with a magnificent view of Millcreek Canyon and the surrounding area. I wasn’t able to get any real pictures of those views… but I’ll hopefully be going back this Wednesday and I’ll get some then. If weather cooperates with me.

Thanks for reading and make sure to check back for some photos of the majestic views overlooking the canyons.

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography

Great Salt Lake

Jeremy — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:30:12 +0000

I went out to the Great Salt Lake this weekend after seeing a spot that I thought would make a good photo-op later on.

After wading out in the smelly, retched, dirty, salt water to get to the optimal location… I set up “camp”. The wind was a bit strong, which made the water look great (specially for photos), but it also made it difficult to keep the camera/tripod perfectly still for some timed exposures. Thankfully the lake isn’t very deep, at all, so I was able to extend the tripod legs out and lower the center of gravity quite a bit to help reduce the overall shake from the waves/wind.

All of these shots were taken with stacked GND filters, a solid neutral density filter, and a polarizer filter. Then, I shot with the mirror locked up and a remote trigger with a 2 second delay. Unfortunately, with the wind and waves, I still wasn’t able to get a really sharp image. But, over all, I’m pleased with the results.

Here are two photos (the same one, obviously), just with different processing styles.

Thanks for looking,

Jeremy Davies | Sur-Real Photography

And here’s one I just edited.

And then here’s one shot, with a bit of a goofy processing to it. It wasn’t really raining… FYI.

Red Butte Garden | SLC, Utah

Jeremy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:15:15 +0000

Well, I finally got out with my camera. The weather has been pretty nice, and it’s supposed to be beautiful the rest of the week… which is wonderful! Yesterday I went out with a friend, David, to the Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City. The garden itself, is beautiful. They did a really nice job setting it up and making it look great. As far as the flowers go… well, I was still a bit too early. But, in a couple weeks I’ll be heading back there to hopefully see it in all it’s glory.

Here are a few shots that I liked from the outing. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to get a few more keepers.

Thanks for looking.

Jeremy | Sur-Real Photography