Last week I flew to Salt Lake City ostensibly to shoot aerials. I am on my last day as I fly back tomorrow to be in town for the opening of Wild Thing at 555 Gallery on Saturday.

Let's see now: round trip flight, hotel, rental car, food, 2 charters totaling 2 1/2 hours, shipping (of the Kenyon gyro stabilizer I use): not insubstantial money to spend on a little over two hours of flying.Worth it?

You tell me:

btw: if you are looking at these on your new super wonder 47 inch monitor that cost more than what you drive then great. But if you only look at those three images floating above this text on your iPhone while you're riding the subway on your way to work while you're sipping your laté then I really have nothing more to say to you. Well, maybe just this; you should be ashamed of yourself.

I've written before about commitment. Well, sometimes commitment means more than that new lens you want or getting up early to catch the light. Sometimes it means travel.

Let's back up. Why am I out here on a one week trip to aerially photograph in the area of Great Salt Lake north of the city? Because, years ago, on a flight returning from the Palouse shooting wheat fields I flew from Spokane first to Salt Lake City on one of those odd right angle connections on the way to returning home in Boston. As we approached the airport in Salt Lake City from the north we flew over the lake and some evaporation pools with amazing colors. It's probably taken me 10 years to pull it off but here I am back out here with the specific intention to photograph those pools.  After two flights and shooting 600 or so frames I can say that for me it was worth it. Clear skies, plenty of light and sunshine and files of unparalleled quality.

A little tech: with this much light I had the luxury of shooting at ISO 400 at 1/1600 of a second anywhere from 5.6 on up to f11. 

So what else did I do while out here? I drove around looking for pictures. Mostly unsuccessfully but I will share some in my next post.

I've just posted on the site the first edits from the first flight. At 50 something photographs it's way too many but at least you'll get a sense of what it was like out there: here. 

Like another planet.

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If you're local, see you Saturday at 555. Can't wait. Exceptional coverage of my work in the show by Aline Smithson at Lenscratch: here and a preview by Elin Spring in her blog What Will you Remember: here. Thank you Aline and Elin!