Scott O. Smith Photoblog

I was contacted over the weekend again by NowPublic.com to use the above photo for a story on National Taffy Day.

Interesting facts to add to your useless knowledge bank about taffy:

• Salt water taffy was “invented” in Atlantic City in 1883.
• Modern technology allows confectioners to produce 1,000 pieces of taffy a minute.
  • In one hour enough pieces of taffy are made to cover one third of the length of
    Atlantic City (about 1.3 miles).
  • In one day enough pieces of taffy are made to cover about 2/3 of the width of
    New Jersey (about 46 miles)
• The three most popular taffy flavors sold by Sweet Candy Company are
  peppermint, cinnamon and chocolate.
• America celebrates National Taffy Day May 23rd.

Canon XTi * Canon EF-24-105mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 200 * 1/50 second * f/4

I was contacted by www.nowpublic.com to have one of my pictures included in a story about how US Currency is unfair to blind people. They have used my pictures before in the past. It’s always a pleasure to help them out.

Canon 40D * Canon EF-70-200mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 100 * 1/1000 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * Canon EF-24-105mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 400 * 1/100 second * f/4.0

Today’s shot is of the new Frontrunner Commuter Rail that runs from Salt Lake to Ogden Utah (40 miles north of Salt Lake).

I’ve been riding this train to work for the past couple of weeks. It’s an adjustment for me not having a car but the benefits of riding outweigh driving my car, especially with the price of gas these days. One of the things I’m most excited about is the free time I have during the commute to read or work on my photos. They offer WIFI (spotty at the moment) with desks and outlets. There are sill bugs to work out but it’s better than fighting the traffic. You can find more information here.

Canon 40D * Canon EF-24-105mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

My wife and I spent our Saturday morning the other day on a photowalk at Temple Square. The grounds were filled with tulips and flowering trees like the one above. You can see my set on flickr here.

Canon 40D * Canon EF-24-105mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * Canon EF-70-200mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 100 * 1/1000 second *f/4.0

Today’s photo was taken in Smithfield Utah. I was driving around with my brother and sister-in-law scouting for locations to shoot. My brother spotted this sign and gave me the challenge to shoot it without getting all the buildings and abandoned cars to the side. The challenge was on, I was able to get the result by using my 70 – 200mm lens. I used a lightroom preset to add the vintage look.

Canon 40D * Canon EF-24-105mm f/4.0L lens * ISO 400 * 1/200 second * f/11

I’m a big fan of using presets in Adobe Lightroom.  Today’s shot is an example of one of Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom presets called Burnt Tone found on his blog Lightroom Killer Tips.

While on business in Seattle one morning, the light was reflecting off this building into my room. When I looked out and saw the morning fog and the steam from the building in the background I immediately knew that the Burnt Tone preset would make it look as if the building was on fire.  After a quick crop and basic post processing in ACR the preset was applied.  Be sure to check out Matt’s blog for new presets weekly.