In the Field at Courthouse Towers

March 29, 2013 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Photographer Tom Kelly at Courthouse Towers

There’s something magical about being in the desert at sunrise. The unobstructed view to the east gives you a tell tale glow in the minutes before the sun peeks over the horizon. Soon blades of light sweep their way over the tops of the redrock.

One of my favorite places has become Courthouse Towers in Arches National Park. While other photographers crowd into position at North Window, I’m alone on a slickrock shelf looking at ripples in the desert sand as the towers capture the morning light.

I’ve come to know every rock and grain of sand. But it’s never the same. Each time the light and sky work together to create a new image.

Soon, it’s all over. The golden glow of first light gives way to daylight. The the desert comes alive for another day.

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Sassolungo Sunset

February 20, 2013 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Sella Ronda

Since seeing the Italian Dolomites on my first trip to Europe in 1979, I have always been captivated by the craggy, rocky peaks of the massifs west of Cortina d’Ampezzo. They are quintessential mountaineering peaks and form landmarks for skiers exploring the 500+ lifts of the Dolomiti Superski.

I had an opportunity to ski the fabled Sella Ronda, a lift-served route encircling the huge Sella Group. Our route took us from Arabba in the morning to Corvara and on to Selva before traversing the snowfields en route to Passo Pordoi and back home. Along much of the route we used the three peaks of the Sassolungo, or Langkofel, as our guide.

After an amazing day skiing some 25-30 lifts, I decided to take one quick detour with the Audi A6 to run the twisty, turny mountain road up to Passo Sello for one final look at the Dolomites. The sky was overcast so photography was unlikely. But as I neared the 2,239 meter pass, the sky began to break. All around me was this stunning landscape suddenly being painted with golden hour light – reflecting off the rocks and the snow. The wind began to howl and it became a very foreboding environment, but the imagery all around me was just too spectacular to leave.

It was virtually impossible to go with a tripod. I threw on my North Face GoreTex gear and stabilized the Nikon D300 as much as I could. This particular image came as the sun was setting over Sassolungo using my Nikkor 10-24 set at 13mm, f10, 1/400th at ISO 200.

This was one of my many favorites out of that truly memorable 30 minutes of photography on Passo Sella.

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2012 Faves: Desert Towers

December 30, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Desert Towers

I love wandering around Arches National Park. As many times as I’ve been there, I continue to find new places and photographic angles. This past May I was out one morning for sunrise and decided to hike back behind the Courthouse Towers. What a completely different world!

It’s a short hike but a challenge to stay on rock and not damage the soil. Once back there, the entire desert opened onto a slickrock bowl with this wonderful bank of pristine desert sand stretching up to the base of the towers. It was completely aglow in the morning light, with wavy, rippling patterns formed by the wind.

This image is one of my favorites of the year, captured on a tripod with my Nikon D300 and Nikkor 10-24mm lens at about 12mm. Exposure at ISO 200 was 1/50th at f25.

This image is one of my favorites for 2012. You can checkout more on my Flickr Photostream.

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2012 Faves: Fallen Redwood

December 27, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Fallen Redwood

California’s redwood forests are a magnificent ecosystem. Walking through the broad avenues in a redwood forest is a spiritual experience. Your imagination runs wild when you think about the explosive crash when a 300-foot giant falls to earth. And you marvel at the new growth as a veritable forest grows out of the remnants of a redwood.

This fallen redwood likely fell just a few months before we stumbled upon it in a forest along Avenue of the Giants near Scotia, California. It’s stump formed a stairway up to the massive trunk and a platform for my tripod. Using an exposure of a full second, I captured the near perfect lines of wood stretching out into the forest using a Nikon D300 with a 10mm lens.

The brilliant, fresh redwood lied in stark contrast to the brilliant green growth in the forest around it. Small sprouts, though, were already popping out as a new ecosystem developed in the fallen giant.

This image is one of my favorites for 2012. You can checkout more on my Flickr Photostream.

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2012 Faves: Delta Sunset

December 26, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Sunset on a Delta 737

While there’s nothing exotic about this window shot from a Delta 737 flying high over eastern Utah, to me it represents the peace and calmness of flight. I have been fortunate to travel a lot. And while much has changed with air travel since I first boarded a commercial aircraft at age 21 (that’s right) to fly to the NCAA Hockey Tournament in Boston, I am still enraptured watching the landscape pass by from 35,000 feet.

This particular image was created with my Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 10-24mm lens at about 12mm. I just love images like this on aircraft with winglets as the wing tip pointing skyward creates a nice element to the composition. The glow of the near-sunset light on the starboard engine nacelle breathes live into the image as the sun sets over the Utah desert.

This image is one of my favorites for 2012. You can checkout more on my Flickr Photostream.

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2012 Faves: Life in the Tube

December 25, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

Life in the Tube

It’s fun at the end of the year to look back at photographs that had a special meaning for me personally. No ranking this year, just sharing an image a day.

Carole and I had a wonderful experience at the London Olympics. We spent much time in the London Underground or Tube, which had a life and culture all its own.

On this particular day, I experimented by setting the camera on the handrail and blurring the walls. This English gentleman was an unwitting model for what was one of my most memorable images of the our time in London.

This image is one of my favorites for 2012. You can checkout more on my Flickr Photostream.

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St. Mary’s Holiday Art Sale

November 13, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment


Burning Treetops, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.

I always look forward to the St. Mary’s Christmas in the Meadow Holiday Boutique as an opportunity to catch up with friends and share my landscape photography! It’s coming up this weekend, Nov. 17-18, at the St. Mary’s White Pine Canyon Church SR224 coming into Park City.

This year I’ll have over 75 unique images for sale in sizes ranging from notecards to large wall prints.

Burning Treetops is one of my favorites of the year, captured as the sun set on a blazing row of aspen along the Mirror Lake Highway. It’s one of many new prints that will be available for sale.

It’s the perfect spot for your holiday shopping where just $30 will buy you a framed, signed original print!

Here’s the details:

St. Mary’s Christmas in the Meadow Holiday Boutique
Sat. Nov. 17 – 9 am – 5 pm
Sun. Nov. 18 – 10 am – 3 pm

I look forward to visting with you!

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Power Turn on Lac Courte Oreilles

October 15, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment

I love photographing kids. Especially with some unexpected action and three totally different responses.

We had enjoyed a wonderful early fall evening powerboating on Lac Courte Oreilles near Hayward, Wisconsin with our grandkids. Ben was at the controls of the MasterCraft and just about sunset decided to throw a water spraying power turn – catching Naomi, Abby and Henry off guard.

It was fun to photograph with on-camera flash providing the main light set against the backlit spray from the boat – using a Nikon D700 with a 24-120mm zoom fairly wide.

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Soldier Hollow Sheep Dog

October 15, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment


Soldier Hollow Sheep Dog, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.

The first time we went to the Soldier Hollow Classic years ago we had no idea what to expect. Sure, we had seen Babe. But this was the real deal. The intelligence of the border collies is mind boggling.

If you haven’t seen a sheep dog event, it goes like this. A border collie starts at the bottom of the hill, running up to greet five sheep. The sheep dog then leads the five sheep through a series of gates – in sequential order – before ultimately splitting the group into two (three and two), bringing them back together and into a pen. Whew, can’t imagine doing that myself.

In this photograph, the border collie has his sheep on the run, heading for the next gate near the bottom of the course, all in near perfect unison.

It’s a fun event to photograph. This image was made with a Nikon D300 using a 70-300mm lens. It’s part of an exciting sequence with the sheep dog hot in pursuit of a record time.

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Sheep Dog in Action

October 15, 2012 by tomkellyphoto | Leave a comment


Soldier Hollow Sheep Dog, originally uploaded by tomkellyphoto.

The first time we went to the Soldier Hollow Classic years ago we had no idea what to expect. Sure, we had seen Babe. But this was the real deal. The intelligence of the border collies is mind boggling.

If you haven’t seen a sheep dog event, it goes like this. A border collie starts at the bottom of the hill, running up to greet five sheep. The sheep dog then leads the five sheep through a series of gates – in sequential order – before ultimately splitting the group into two (three and two), bringing them back together and into a pen. Whew, can’t imagine doing that myself.

In this photograph, the border collie has his sheep on the run, heading for the next gate near the bottom of the course, all in near perfect unison.

It’s a fun event to photograph. This image was made with a Nikon D300 using a 70-300mm lens. It’s part of an exciting sequence with the sheep dog hot in pursuit of a record time.

Posted in Blog