Kelley's Trip to Utah - Day 4

Monday morning, Marti and I left early to head downtown Salt Lake City.  This was another morning for hot air balloons.  :)

We said goodbye to Park City and all of the cool old houses nestled into the mountainside.

She really wanted to go to the Mormon Tabernacle for their Sunday service. The building was amazingly humongous.

With tons of speakers and lights to maximize the experience of listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing.

More lights and opera hall seating.

Afterwards, we took a tour and went up to the rooftop.

There is the original Temple, but we weren't allowed inside.  We asked and were told "Only the worthy are allowed in the Temple."

They had quite the garden on top of the roof, complete with trees.

View of the state capitol building.

We were told these skylights are normally covered up when they are broadcasting the service.

This 'field' was over an acre on top of the roof.

Cool grate for a drain.

They had many succulents up on the roof, too.

Once we were back on street level, we walked past the Temple to find a Starbucks.   We saw Joseph blowing his horn on top.

The Temple was absolutely massive!

The trolleys are now trams and they whiz down the street pretty fast.

When we got back to the car, we realized Marti had locked the keys in it.  She needed to photograph them lying on the front seat so she could blog about this adventure when she got back.

We played with our self-timers while we waited on the locksmith to arrive and break into the car.

We made it back to the airport with barely enough time to get to our gates before our flights took off.  I was sad to say goodbye to the Rocky Mountains.  I miss them so much living on the Eastern side of the US with no real mountains around us.

Kelley's Trip to Utah - Day 3

Day three started with hot air balloons in the valley.

And a newborn who came to us for practice.  Notice the phone under the dish?  That's playing white noise to keep the baby fast asleep!

Tyler hammed it up on the sidelines while we waited our turn to photograph the sleeping baby.

He was a good sleeper!

Then we drove out to Heber for two different photo shoots.

The first was with Holi Powder.  Our models didn't show, so Wendy, Tyler and several of the workshop participants threw the powder at each other.

I used my long lens and stood far away so the powder wouldn't get in my camera!

Once the powder was all used up, it was time for the second shoot with a few kids and a petting zoo that came to us.

The bunny was better at posing than the kids were.

Mandy is a farm girl at heart and in absolute heaven holding the piglet!

Sandi had had a fro earlier in the day, much like this duck.

The day ended with glow sticks and dancing in the dark back at the workshop house.

So much fun was had this weekend while learning new photography techniques, building my portfolio (that wedding shoot was AMAZING!) and receiving confirmation I'm on the right track!

Kelley's Trip to Utah - Day 2

These are some of the Park City ski slopes we could seep from the upper deck in our house.

We sat around the house for a Q&A session in the morning.   My camera was being used to demonstrate setting a custom white balance for the rest of the photographers.  All but one of the photographers at this workshop were Macs.  :)

Chris was our only guy in attendance at the workshop, other than Tyler of Blue Lily. He lives in Kansas and works for a subsidiary of Hallmark and does a lot of philanthropic work for the Hall family.

This was the view looking back from our first ski lift.

 

Then we hiked to another ski lift.  Thought it was sweet that Wendy and Tyler hold hands wherever they go.  Reminded me of my honeys, who is always quick to hold my hand.  :)

These shoes do ski lifts.

Looking back down to the bottom of the second ski lift.

The aspen trees have eyes.

Apparently an important reminder for skiers.

After we got off the second lift, we had another little hike before we got to the top of the mountain.

This sign named all the different mountains and ski resorts that can be seen in the distance.

We lined up to take a picture of Wendy and Tyler taking a picture of us.

These big boards help with reducing sound waves from traveling over the peak and eliminate avalanches.

Gorgeous view of the valley and lake at the bottom of the mountain!

There were a lot of mountain bikers cruising down the slopes.  Their bikes went up the lift one car behind them.

The rooftops had wires to melt the snow during winter months.  Good thinking!

Thought it was pretty neat that the ski lift poles were numbered.

Once at the bottom of the two ski lifts, we relaxed and ate snacks before getting on the road for a 1.5 hour drive to a cool lake for a wedding shoot.

We stopped here for a bathroom break.

And to rent a canoe for our bride and groom.

Good to know.

The canoe following along behind us.

We had to stop and buy parking passes a few miles before actually reaching Mirror Lake.

When we arrived, we saw a family of Moose wading in one part of the lake.  It was fun seeing how they submerged their heads underwater to eat the better grasses.