Lets Visit Utah!

Posted on January 24, 2012 by jamiegall1930

In the Midwest no one talks about Utah.  It rarely gets brought up.  Las Vegas is talked about, California is talked about, and a lot of snow birds have vacation homes in Arizona, but there’s rarely a mention of Utah.

So when I drove from Minnesota to California to head to my new home I was completely blown away.  During our trip, there was a little fiasco of keys being lost, but 6 hours later we found them and were on the road again.  To this day I believe it happened so we could get a full view of the beauty of Utah because if it didn’t happen we would have driven through a lot of Utah throughout the night missing the true beauty of what is there.

One thing I truly want to do is go back to Utah and visit Zion National Park.   I feel you could walk the trails and the landscape and still not see all that is there.

One of the things I truly loved about driving through Utah as opposed to the Rocky mountains were that there was more foreground in between the landscapes.  The redness of the rocks were truly beautiful.  I had honestly never seen anything like it before.

When we drove through we had a small rainstorm which brought some pretty amazing clouds throughoutthe journey.

One day I also hope to visit Salt Lake City.  I have never been there nor am I too sure is to all that is there, but it is a place I’d love to visit.  Have any of you been there?

What are your thoughts on Utah?

 


Categories: Travel | Tags: , , | 11 Comments

5 Things I would have told my Younger Self.

Posted on January 24, 2012 by jamiegall1930

I’m linking up with “Moments that Define Life‘ today during her new linky, “Listable Life.”  Each week, there is a new topic that you can choose to list, or be a part of.  The moment I saw there was a list of things to tell my younger self, I knew I had to partake.

What I would tell my Younger Self.

1) Major in Business management.  That can be utilized in any job I went after.

2) Utilize college to learn who  you are.  Use that moment to try new things.  Take adventures you’ve always wanted to take.

3) Don’t be in such a rush to settle down with someone.  Turns out, it’s later in life when you truly know who you are, and what it is you want out of life making it easier to find the person meant for you.

4) Travel. You have a love for it so make it a priority.  Don’t put off a vacation if you can make it happen today.

5) You are beautiful.  Don’t allow anyone else to tell you differently.  Find your style, wear it proud, and be proud of who you are.

6) Take advantage of internships.  Every summer find one to do work for.  This is your opportunity to see what kind of different jobs are available to you.

7) Find your passion for writing earlier in life.  There are so many possibilities there 😉

8) Enjoy life no matter what.  =)

 

So I went above the 5 things I’d tell my younger self, but once you get going, it’s kind of hard to stop =) I’m not saying I have regrets, I just wish I would have known these things at a younger age.  But that’s life for you, right?


Categories: Life | Tags: , , , | 12 Comments

Downtown LA at Night!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jamiegall1930

Last week I went on a photography outing with members of my photography group.  It was the first time I went on a downtown outing that wasn’t informal.

We started by capturing the 2nd Street tunnel.  You know the tunnel, the one you’ve seen in Independence Day, some alien eske movies, etc.  A well known filming tunnel.  This is where I was finally able to capture some of my long exposure traffic shots.  I really liked how this one turned out.  Unfortunately, I forgot to crop out the other photographers in this shot.

I discovered that I really love to capture buses in motion.  It makes for some great light capture.  And well, utilization of a fence makes for great foreground.

We then walked towards the Department of Water and Power building.  There are blue light up screens along the path towards the building.  I decided to capture the city through the screen.

This was one of my favorite shots of the night.  I am a huge fan of capturing the sculptures around town.  The beauty of Downtown LA has a ton.

The city and glimpses of the Walt Disney Concert Hall are off in the distance!

We walked further along the street into the city, and ended up in front of the YMCA where there were some sculptures to take pictures of.  I love this photo above.  I title it, “Dancing around Downtown.”  I just love the buildings in the background.

This was another favorite of mine throughout the night.  A simple image, but with the gymnast on display with the buildings in the background, I just liked how it turned out.

But my favorite photo of the night is the one above.  I’ve been wanting to take a pic of this “iconic” freeway shot since I’ve first seen pictures of these.  I just wasn’t sure where to go, or even how to capture it when I first arrived in LA.  It is a reminder to me in how much I’ve learned about photography within the last year of meeting up with these other photographers.

In the end, it was a GREAT night, and was very much needed.  It had been awhile since I had gone out and shot anything.

 


Categories: Photography | Tags: , , | 15 Comments