Final Photowalk Details

The RJSnowPhotography Photowalk is coming up this Saturday at 10 AM!  The theme is CONTRAST. Here are the details.

• Meet Location: Let's assemble at the west entrance of Gallivan Plaza (download map). 
• Route: Main Street between 1st and 4th South Streets. 
• Parking: You can arrive at the plaza using Trax or by parking in metered parking stalls (free on weekends) on the streets surrounding the plaza. 
• Food: We will be eating at Gandolfo's located at 158 South on Main Street around 11 AM to discuss the our photos.  Bring a laptop if you have one.
• Check below to see if you are on the official list.  Please contact me if I accidentally left you off the list, can no longer attend, or if you would like to attend.

Rob and Julie S.
Andrea R.
Travis and Claudia G.
Eric B.
Dean and Holly O.
Deb J.
Jason
Dayna M.
Dayna's Friend
Tyson and Diane G.
Becca G.

UPDATE 10-24-08:  Gandolfo's is closed on Saturday.  We will be eating at Pier 49 Pizza instead.  See you tomorrow!!!!

Pain in the Butt

Ouch!!!!!

Last weekend we visited the Silver Reef ghost town in Southern Utah with Karen and Jake (Julie's sister and brother-in-law).  Julie was enjoying herself taking some photographs of the town and the rest of us were having a great time exploring when our fun was interrupted by a yelp of pain from Julie.  Moments later we learned that she had crouched down to get a photograph and sat on a cactus! 

As you can imagine this was a very painful and embarrassing experience for Julie (I really couldn't stop laughing, I'm bad I know).  The stickers were not too bad; however, it did cut our day trip short! 

Lesson learned: always watch where you stick your butt!

Foto Friday - Luminance

Isn't fire amazing? Who can't stare at a candle flame or campfire for any amount of time and not be blown away by its beauty? I've learned the science behind it (not that I truly understand it all that well), but just like so many other things on this earth, it truly attests to the existence of God. Only an almighty Father in Heaven is able to create such marvelous miracles.

This picture was taken a couple of years ago with our small Nikon point-and-shoot. I didn't really tweak anything except blacken out the background.

Sorry for the short post. We're still in St. George and might not return until the middle of next week. We'll keep you posted.

Handsome Nate

Here are some pictures of Nate captured with Rob's camera phone. See a trend? Yeah...cute...

Photowalk Theme

The RJSnowPhotography Photowalk is only two weeks away now.  We have about 15 people registered so we should all have a great opportunity to learn from each other.  I'm so excited!

Julie and I have spent a lot of time bouncing ideas about the theme or subject for the photowalk.  We had so many good ideas and thoughts but finally settled on "Contrast."

We are not going to expand on our theme in order to let your own minds feed your creativity.

We will be meeting downtown at 10am and will announce the route, parking suggestions, meeting locations, and where we will be eating a few days before the photowalk.   If you have any specific questions, please comment below or send an email to photowalk@rjsnow.com.

Foto Friday - Weathered

This post was accidentally deleted. I'll try to restore the text at a later date.

Welcome to Washington City

We are in Washington City (St. George), Utah for the next two weeks. Rob is working on a design for a lane addition to a bridge over the Virgin River. The kids and I were able to join him because I was able to get us into a rental home rather than a motel room. Definitely the way to go!

Nate has had so much fun exploring all the incredibly fun things to do here. We have an enclosed Nate-proof backyard with a water spigot and lots of landscaping rocks. He loves "swimming" in the large and deep garden tub and had a blast in the glass-enclosed shower. The kitchen faucet has a spray function that he loves to play with (I haven't dared show him that it extends!). The big-screen tv has a woofer on the floor next to it that he enjoys putting his juice boxes on. There are no toddler locks on the doors so he can go wherever he wants. The kitchen chairs have wheels so when Madeleine is in her booster chair, he pushes her around the floor. There are lightweight bar stools that he can carry wherever he wants to go in order to get into things formerly out of reach. The owners must have a grandson because there are a billion matchbox cars for him to "vroom" with. If only we could all be so happy with such simple pleasures!

Here's something that's weird. Rob and I have been down here a multitude of times, both separate and together, and it's always been kind of "eh." You know? It's just St. George. But this time we both are really liking the area. I'm not sure if it has to do with it being more developed than it used to be while retaining some "rural" qualities or the fact that now we have kids and see it as a clean, safe, and friendly place. Don't worry, we're not considering moving down here. The three main reasons are (1) The summer heat; (2) There are no equivalent engineering jobs for Rob. And (2) there is a house for sale one street over from where we are now. We looked at its flyer and found out it's a 3-bedroom home just a little bigger than what we live in now, but nicely updated and upgraded. It's selling for $337,000! Wow. That's a lot of moolah for such a little home. Oh, well. There aren't any kids around here anyway, only elderly snowbirds.

Foto Friday - Peace and Purpose

The best photos one can take aren't those that capture just a beautiful image, but one that captures beautiful memories and feelings.  As mentioned before, I worked for 6 years at the Church Office Building on Temple Square.  Almost every day I was able to walk on the stunning grounds in the shadows of some of the most beautiful edifices on earth.  I could be having a hard day at work and all I'd have to do is walk out the doors and I'd be in instant peace.  I could physically feel my body ease and my mind quiet.  

All seasons are beautiful there, but in late April and early May thousands of tulips and trees are in bloom, just in time for spring General Conference. The hustle of the tourists from all over the world, missionaries, and general authorities galore gave me and the work I was doing a sense of purpose and meaning.  It wasn't just another "job."  I was one of the many, many people giving their best to further the work of the Lord.  

I still miss it.  I have never second-guessed nor regretted my decision to stay home with my children. But I will never forget all the lessons learned, friends made, and special feelings I had while there.  Eventually, when I go back to work again, I have a hard time thinking I'll want to work for anyone other than the Corporation of the Presiding Bishopric.

I decided to just finish off my old Temple Square batch and put the last of the photos into a slideshow.  Who knew I'd get so much mileage out of one short shoot?  

Joseph, the Red Chair, Breanna, and Grandma Snow

Breanna (my sister), Gene, and Joseph came down from Boise a few times this summer.  We spent some time with them at the International Peace Gardens, at the Snow Household, visiting the Grandparents Snow, and rocking out at the Warped Tour listening to Kelly's Band (Poetica). 

Most recently we took a few pictures of Joseph in the famous red chair.  This is the same chair that my Dad used as a young child so there is a lot of good feelings and emotions surrounding this chair.  So much emotion, in fact, that it was very difficult to shoot Joseph in the chair. Hoards of grandparents and relatives congregated around the shoot location blocking out the light, blocking Julie while she was trying to light Joseph with the reflector, distracting me (shooting at the time), and completely distracting Joseph, only to get a few pictures on their cell phones of him sitting on the red chair.  Despite all this we still got a couple pictures that are cute.  You can see his other picture from the shoot here.  

Before heading to see Kelly's band play at the Warped Tour, we all had a good time visiting with Grandma Snow.  Grandma Snow has had a sweet and kind influence in the lives of her grandchildren.  We love her very much and I think this shot of her and Breanna is very cute. 

Stories For FHE

In the past we haven't been the best at having Family Home Evenings. We just plain forget or know that it will be impossible to keep Nate's attention. But a few weeks ago we made yet another commitment to do them.

So one Monday night I got a book out that showed a few different pictures of Jesus. We showed Nathan the picture of Jesus' birth, teaching people, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, hanging on the cross, and his resurrection. We didn't really have a lesson planned, we just talked about what happened in the pictures. To our amazement, Nathan was fascinated!! Okay, well, mostly about the bad guys hammering Jesus' hands and feet. But we felt pretty good about him even being interested in the stories.

Being encouraged, we decided to try again the following Monday night. This time, I didn't have any other pictures to really look at but Nate LOVES to watch Rob and I draw. So I decided we'd keep his attention by having Rob draw the pictures to the story I was telling. Hmmmm, what story?? I thought Jonah and the Whale would keep his attention and teach him about obeying Jesus when He asks us to do something. It totally worked!!

Last Monday night we did it again, only with the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den (teaching about Heavenly Father answering prayers). It worked yet again!

Moral of the story...Nate is totally game for FHE as long as we tell a violent story. Maybe in the upcoming weeks we'll teach him about Abinidi in the fire, Moses and the 10 plagues, or King Solomon threatening to cut the baby in half. Geez, there are a lot of fun "boy" stories to choose from!!

Yeah...We should probably try and tell nice stories, too...