RICH LEGG
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
I'm a photographer working in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is where I share my work on a regular basis.
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After spending the last week or so traveling around the west, we are headed back to Utah. Did you see the movie Cars? If so, then you probably remember the scene where Mack (the race hauler) makes funny faces at himself in the reflection of the tanker truck he's following. Here's my version of that scene (it was a monotonous drive yesterday).
We spent time yesterday in Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of central California. It was quite amazing to go from the relatively barren valley floor to the forest canopy created by these giants in such a short period of time.
In the area of the General Sherman tree, the world's largest living object, there is a cross-section of a fallen tree that is estimated to be between 2,200 to 2,700 years old. Today's capture is of the core of this cross-section. Just imagine what the world was like at the time this tree was a seedling.
This colorful capture was created by placing my camera inside a string windsock hanging outside a gift shop. I frequently take shots from odd angles without looking through the viewfinder.
I classify these as my "hey I wonder if this will work?" shots. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Thankfully, this one did.
Suicide rock, in Idyllwild California, is a famous rock for rock climbers. The rock received its name from the legend of a Native American Princess who threw herself off the rock with her lover rather than being separated as the Tribal Chief had ordered.
We spent time climbing the area that can be seen between the trees on the far right of the capture. The granite slab, relatively mild weather and the remote location made for a great day.
For more info on Idyllwild, visit www.idyllwild.com.
Although most of the hotel rooms were booked as we passed through Mesquite last weekend, we did not have to stay in the Desert Palms Motel. Thankfully I had previously made reservations at a rather nice hotel, which is something I cannot say for several exasperated travelers at the check-in desk when we arrived.
I captured this street scene while on a late night ice cream run.
Tahquitz, also called Lily Rock, is a rock climbing area near Idyllwild-Pine Cove, California. It has easy-to-difficult multi-pitch climbs on great rock on the way up San Jacinto Peak. Tahquitz has a tough approach hike leading to a roughly 1000 foot (300m) face. The downclimb is dangerous, especially at night. A second popular rock face, called Suicide Rock, lies across the valley.
It is named for Takwish, a mythological figure of the Cahuilla. A Cahuilla legend recounts how tribesmen chanted over the body of their fallen chieftan Tahquitz, or Takwish, who had been possessed by an evil spirit and killed his sweetheart. Suddenly his body began to glow like fire, and he rose and settled on Idyllwild's Tahquitz Rock. According to the legend, Tahquitz is trapped beneath the rock with a rattlesnake and a condor for company, and when the mountain shakes and trembles, it is not an earthquake, but Tahquitz up to his evil tricks on Lily Rock.
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahquitz
What a world we live in! As I type this, I am sitting in a small cabin in Idyllwild California. The cabin is lacking in many of the items that we consider required in our daily life: phone, air conditioning, shower, etc. However, when I booted up my Mac to transfer some photos from my camera, up popped a wireless network connection.
So, here's a post from Idyllwild. To learn more about this wonderful mountain retreat, visit www.idyllwild.com.
We're hitting the road today for a trip exploring the west. With planned stops in Idyllwild California, Sequoia National Park, and other places to be determined, we're sure to pick up some great captures.
Since I am not too sure of what type of connectivity (if any) I'll have for my MacBook, I'm posting this in anticipation of it being my latest update for a week or so.
Have a great week everyone - see you in August!
Yesterday, a couple of events occurred that help me feel validated in this game of photography I play.
The first has happened a few times before, but New West Network once again selected one of my captures to use on the front page of their website (link). Even though they have done this before, it is always flattering when they ask to use one of my images.
The second thing that happened is that a local design company contacted me about one of my images. They asked if I would be willing to sell them the rights to use the photograph as part of an advertisement for a national restaurant chain that is moving in to Salt Lake City. We agreed on the terms and they will be using this photo.
As I might have said before (probably numerous times), I stepped away from serious photography for nearly 15 years before returning to it last year. What I found in returning amazed me - the truly worldwide photographic community that the Internet has created, plus the ability to easily share my work.
Today's featured capture is a self-portrait I took to use as an icon on my blog, flickr, and other web communities. The effect added to the photo in post-production was to match my blog's color scheme and create a bit of artsy feel to the shot.
While I was reviewing the captures taken during last weekend's hike/climb/rappel in Southern Utah, I noticed this one of an unintentional optical illusion. In reality, Pete and Matt are approximately the same height. Yet in this shot, Pete looks like he is MUCH shorter due to the rock Matt is standing on. It made me smile.
This alleyway entrance to a bar in Park City proved interesting to me with the lighting transitioning from daylight near the street to incadescent at the rear. The lighting implies that the shot was made at night, even though it was captured mid-afternoon.
The texture of this hook and chain caught my eye as I wandered around a recently deserted dairy farm near my office. The farm had been there since 1931 and moved away to make way for future development.
I had the opportunity to spend some time hiking and climbing in southern Utah this past weekend. It's been a several years since I've spent time in this area, and I had nearly forgotten just how stunning the color and formation of the rock is.
This photo was captured during a break between two of the rappels our group made as we followed a creek winding down through the rock. It is just amazing to see, how given enough time, the creek will carve its way into the mountain.
Today's featured capture was created on a recent evening while driving through Riverton, Utah. This 30 second exposure was made with the camera sitting on a tripod in the back seat of my wife's car. Two of my favorite aspects of the shot are the glowing iPod near the bottom and the blue western sky in the distance.
A couple of months ago I posted a capture I made of Travis Barker, the drummer for the band Blink-182. At the time I took the photo, I did not know who he was and had to ask (original post). Of all the photos posted on LeggNet's Digital Capture, that image of the popular Mr. Barker is routinely among the most viewed.
Since he is such a popular guy, I decided to browse my archives and present another of his images on the blog. Today's capture is one of Travis looking directly at the camera as I made the shot. He was extremely friendly and approachable to his fans that wanted to be photographed with him or get his autograph at the sports car event.
I just thought he was an interesting looking fellow.
Just a simple capture of four ice cubes melting away on the top of a cooler. Ahhh, summertime.
I paid a price in capturing this photograph of a wheat field.
I was bending down to compose this shot and thought that I could get a better angle on the wheat against the mountain in the background by sitting down. Without taking my eyes away from the camera's viewfinder, I sat fully down on the ground. It was at this time that I became immediately aware (ouch!) that I had just sat on ground that was literally covered in thorns and those little spikey ball things. I quickly made the capture and then hopped up and spent the walk back to the car pulling thorns out of the seat of my pants. The ride home in the car allowed me a chance to experiment with creative ways to drive without fully sitting on the driver's seat.
Lesson learned: Look down before sitting on the ground when photographing (or anything else for that matter).
It's been just over six months since I began LeggNet's Digital Capture. After speaking with a friend yesterday (hi Sonja) about my blog and the visitors who frequent it, I took some time last night to dive into the site's log files. Some of what I found was quite surprising to me.
In the first six months of 2006, LeggNet's Digital Capture:
- Has had 23,052 unique visitors who have viewed 33,145 pages
- Has received visitors from 105 different countries (that's over 1/2 the countries of the world)
- Saw the single busiest day on March 27th, with 669 unique visitors
- Found that Internet Explorer was the most popular browser with 46% of visitors using it. Firefox was close behind with 41% followed by Safari (Yay Macs!) with 6%
To put an image to these words, today's capture is a screenshot of a map showing the past 100 visitors to the blog and where they came from. I am continually amazed at the truly international representation of the viewers of my photography.
I wish to pass along a sincere Thank You to everyone who views this little site. It is an honor to present these photos each day.
-Rich
What better way to celebrate Friday then with a splash of orange soda?
Have a great weekend!
Today's capture of a roller coaster was made on the Fourth of July at a local carnival. In place of a typical roller coaster photograph, I opted for a more human touch. This is a capture of the ride attendant's hand as he carefully secured each car before the ride began.
My nine year old daughter and I set out to create some photographs of Color this past Saturday. She gathered up numerous colorful items in the house as I prepared the camera equipment and we went to work.
This is one of my favorites from the photo session. We originally took this photo with a white background, but felt it could use even more color. To add the additional color, we spread out a box of crayons around the pencils and used a very shallow depth of field to create the blur. This created the colorful background we were after.
This capture has quickly became my most popular photograph of the nearly 1,000 I have on Flickr. In the past 5 days, it has been viewed over 1,600 times and 78 people consider it a Favorite.
Here in the United States, today (July 4th) is Independence Day - a day set aside to honor the founding of our country. In recognition of this event, I arranged some of my wife's beads to create today's capture depicting the American Flag. I have had this idea flouting around in my head for the past few days and finally took the time yesterday to set up the photograph. Surprisingly, it took less time than I expected.
To everyone in the U.S., please have a safe and happy 4th of July holiday!
Today (July 3rd) is my brother Dan's birthday. He passed away in 1999 and would have been 42 years old this year.
This capture (scanned from a 4x5 photo) was taken atop Phoenix's Camelback mountain in January of 1989. In the capture Dan is overlooking the city of Phoenix. He moved there in 1982 to attend college (Arizona State) and never left. Dan loved Arizona.
Happy Birthday Dan.
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and text copyright 2005-2010 Rich Legg, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction or redistribution in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
