2021 was the year that I put photography on the back burner for a bit so I could achieve a goal I've had for 20+ years, to be an architect.
That doesn't mean I stopped altogether, but there were a couple long stretches where I didn't even pull the camera out of the bag. This means it should be easy to pick a few favorites from this year right? RIGHT
Highway to the Milky Way
I had just taken, and passed, my 4th of 6 architectural exams when we had a chance to escape to Bear Lake, Utah with my family for the weekend. On our drive up to the lake I was talking to my wife about where I'd like to get a milky way photo, and as we passed The Sinks, I thought this would be a cool spot with some car trails driving off into the milky way. The milky didn't line nicely with the valley until around 12:30 and I knew I would want to get some car trails during blue hour so I sat in this field by myself for several hours waiting for the milky way to align and the clouds to clear.
Dancing with the Stars
In late July I had finally passed all my exams and all I wanted to do is some photo shoots for me. I had been chatting with my long time friend about doing some dancing with the stars photos, but we just kept having bad luck with smoke and then timing with the new moon. It took about a month for us to finally connect and get to shoot. We originally planned three separate shoots but only ended up with time to do two.
The first one was at the top of a rock cliff that overlooked the great salt lake.
This second one was at Knolls recreation area, and it happened to be Labor Day weekend so there was a lot of people camping and driving ATV's and dirtbikes around until late into the night. That made it a bit of a challenge because they had lights all over the background. This also happened to be my genesis NFT drop on Foundation
Pole Dancing with the Stars
The following week in September I had lined up another dancing with the stars, this time with some pole dancers both named Summer (Somer). You can read more about that shoot here, here, here, and here.
Here's a photo doing a little doubles pole.
Studio Portraits
I was able to do some portraits in a studio for the first time in almost 3 years. It was quite enjoyable, and I look forward to shooting more in a studio...if I can find one.
Last but not least, searching for Owls
I got a message from a friend about going out shooting and looking for some short eared owls nearby. Read more about that adventure here and here. Since I already shared those photos I'll share some different ones here.
As we were driving back to my car, we came across some fog, trees and some pretty pastels leftover from the sunset. I yelled at my friend to stop the car. We got out and took some photos of the these trees.
Then these owl photo from my "redemption" day.
