T.L. Mair Fine Art Photography

                                                    Split Mountain Sunset Recently we had to opportunity to visit the Uinta basin near Vernal Utah, I have been to Vernal several times in my life, but always to visit the dinosaur national monument, and never took the time to look around the area and those places are worth seeing at least once in your lifetime. On this visit though I was on a photographic mission, we had considered going to canyon lands in southern Utah, but upon finding that every other person had the same idea, we could not get a motel room, so my wife suggested Vernal, we hadn’t been there for quite a few years, don’t know what could have changed, it’s just dinosaur bones, and rocks, right? On our way out of Vernal the morning after we arrived I noticed a bunch of billboards that said things like “Split Mountain Motel” and such, which got me curious about what is Split Mountain, so I started to search that out, come to find out there are a lot of thin

. The Beauty of Nature Here is another example of a file that could have easily been deleted, we are just now getting to the end of autumn in my area, but this is not an image from a month ago, this image sat on my computer hard drive for 11 years, each time I looked at it I wondered what I was thinking, then decided that I must have been thinking something, but what? As we learn new techniques it opens up new possibilities, but new techniques is not enough, perhaps our vision changes, we see new possibilities for old subjects. I think this is one of those old subjects, we have not had a real vibrant autumn for a few years, some years when it is good the colors only last for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, other times it lasts for a month or longer, and who knows why. Back when I did a ton of portraits autumn was always the hot time of year, everyone wanted their portraits done in the fall colors, I would spend hours scouting locations that would work for different sized

Timp over Sandy Baker Pass It was cold when we left the house, even colder once we arrived at the parking lot high up in the Wasatch mountains of Utah. My sons and I had planned on doing a morning elk hunt,  we packed what we needed, and only what we needed, because of that I decided to leave my tripod at home, never a good idea, but one it seams that is always made when you know you’re going to be hiking where the air is thin, and the hills are steep. We made our way in the dark up and around  a short section of the Great western trail, suitable only for foot traffic, and mountain bikes, not even elk use the trail as it turns out. I will admit I had to stop several times along the hike to rest and catch my breath. Yes it’s steep, and I am not as young, or in shape as I used to be, oh the ravages of time, once near the top, and almost on what is known as “The Ant Knolls” we stopped to take a break, I guess the hike was wearing on all of us by that time. As we sat

The Old Bull\ A few years ago my son Jason, and I took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park, we loaded up my old 1974 Chevrolet Corvette, which as it turns out isn’t the most comfortable car to travel in. Our plan was to take a tent, and sleeping bags, and stay at KOA campgrounds as we went, after all we had done this in the past riding on motorcycles. The first night we stayed in Victor ID. We got there, found the campground, and set up our tent, went into town to find something to eat, and returned to the campground, expecting to get at least some what of a good nights rest. It was terrible! The only thing we could figure is you get beat up a lot more traveling in a 1974 corvette, with those hip hugging seats than you do riding on a motorcycle, we never slept well, and everything hurt. The next morning my son called his wife, and had her book a cabin at the next stop which was in Cody Wy. Our plan was to travel through Yellowstone from the south entrance, go out the

Wall Street Subway Station Last year my son and I took a trip to New York , hoping to see the fall colors. We waited until the end of October since that is when we read the fall colors came on, turns out last year was a late year for fall colors, plus we got there right in the middle of a hurricane. We never had to stay indoors, but we got rained on every day, and the sun never shined, cloudy, and overcast when it wasn't raining. and the light was way to flat for good photography. We took the subway everywhere we went, then walked to the various locations we wanted to see. The subway system is very efficient in New York , almost as good as the system in Washington DC . The only complaint I had about the subway is in Queens , where we stayed someone had made the elevator to one of the stops their private restroom. Even though the weather was bad, the light was bad, and the elevator restroom experience was bad, I loved New York , it was a trip I wouldn't

Calm Waters On the last day of our Washington trip, my wife and I stayed at a hotel in Seattle so we could be near the airport for our flight home, we decided to take a drive along the Alki  Avenue to Alki beach, the avenue, runs along the south side of Elliott bay, from this highway you can get a decent view of the Seattle skyline. Once we got to the beach, and found a place to park the car, we got out and started to walk, and check out the beach, and surrounding territory. It is a nice beach, with cement steps that lead to the bay, I would imagine so people can go wading, or perhaps swimming, there was neither of those things going on because it was a little cold, we had gotten to Washington in the middle of a drought, but with the exception of a couple of days it rained the entire week that we were there. The wind was blowing, and the water was a little choppy, I set up the camera, and waited for the light to start changing, as I was waiting a local came by and talked

Timp First Light Mount Timpanogos, considered by many to be the "jewel of the Wasatch" looms large over the cities of Alpine, and Highland on the Wasatch front, and the beautiful Heber valley on the Wasatch back. Part of the Wasatch mountain range of the Rockies as they run through Utah,  Mount Timpanogos raises to a height of 11,752 feet, it has several peeks, North Timpanogos, South Timpanogos, Forgotten peak, and Razorback Ridge, it is truly a majestic mountain, it even sports it's own glacier, the only one in Utah! Timpanogos has several hiking trails, and can be accessed from several different locations in Utah, along the Alpine loop, if you are ever in the area in the summer months you owe it to yourself to take a drive along the Alpine loop, you can either access the loop from Provo canyon just above Sundance ski area, or from the American fork side of the mountain. I have taken several photographs of  "Timp" but this is my favorite, t

Three of a Kind - American White Pelican Three American White Pelicans (Pelicanus erythrorhynchos) drift silently by on a secluded pond in the river bottoms near Midway, Utah . I watch and followed a large pod of these beautiful birds for several days as they took up residence in the valley for the spring. Finally I was able to catch a colony of them on this secluded pond, I thought it was interesting that they had landed on a pond that was not very deep, and as far as I know, contains no fish, but here they were, thinking they were hidden from the world. I watch them for several minutes, then decided I had to get closer to them to get a decent shot. As I crawled, in full camo, through the muck of the surrounding swamp, trying to keep my camera gear from getting wet, and muddy, I noticed that a small group of them had separated from the main colony and were drifting lazily on the far side of this small pond. As I got closer the colony began to break up and these