New Adventures

I don't recall exactly how much sleep I have had in the last 72 hours. It's definitely somewhere in the single digits. At the tail end of streak of insomnia, I find myself once again on the European continent. In Hamburg, Germany.

Departing Salt Lake City for France

Besides feeling extremely tired, I am excited for what is coming. In the upcoming days, I get to meet with and play for some of the world's greatest horn players. I am extremely fortunate to have this opportunity and these experiences will forever be cherished. Now I need to focus on some other things, like trying to get some slee... some.... sleeeee..... ... zzzz........

Light up the Sky

It is monsoon season in Tucson and the lightning shows have been absolutely spectacular. I have taken some time to capture a little bit of these storms the past few weeks and thought that I would put up my favorites for all to see. Enjoy!

This was a composite of two different lightning strikes into one image.

That made it a little more interesting.

I thought about superimposing these images, but liked the collage better.

Each were too beautiful on their own.

I was really excited when I captured this one.

I opened my shutter and saw this flash and knew it was going to be amazing.

I still can't stop looking at it.

Looking at lightning in still images has been quite fascinating. I love the unique paths that each bolt takes across the sky. I guess this could relate to life in some way. Everyone takes a different path. Each is beautiful in its own way. If all lightning strikes were straight lines between the sky and earth, that would be dull. Likewise, if everyone's journey through life was the same straight line from A to B, we would all be dull human beings. But we all have unique paths. We all have unique characters and personalities. We should all respect that about each other. With this in mind, I believe we could all find greater peace and joy in life.

The Night Sky

About a week ago, I was asked to go up to a girls camp and be the night watch. I travelled up to Camp Zion, about 30–40 minutes from Tucson and made sure that I took my camera, just in case I had a chance to take a few night pictures.

Well, as it turns out, I had tons of time to get some pictures and further experiment with long-exposure photography. The only thing that stopped me for a moment was chasing a skunk out of camp. I must have been pretty intimidating because we never saw each other again.

Astrophotography is pretty cool. Here's a few of my favorites from my skunk-fighting adventures.

In case you have been wondering...

If you have been reading my blog lately (which you probably haven't given my posting frequency), you might be wondering to yourself, "the silent 'h' in Zach has been a little too silent lately. What's going on in his world?" Sometimes I even wonder about the same thing.

The biggest, life-changing event of the recent past has been the birth of my baby girl. She is now 5 months old, in case you were wondering.

5 months! How did that happen? She is the cutest and happiest little person I know. She is also channeling her little dinosaur friend's energy this Halloween (tomorrow).

I'm breezing through the last several months. Anyone that feels they need more info, just hold tight and I'll try and keep you more updated. Besides, there will definitely be more things to come about with this little dino.

This Fall, my wife, 11-week old girl and I bravely moved down to Arizona. I started a DMA in Composition at the University of Arizona. It has been a while since I have been completely immersed in musical activities. I jumped on the Electroacoustic music class in my first semester and have loved getting back into this unique musical and compositional world. Below is a quick, little music concrete piece that I composed. Enjoy!

The Newest Additions

This Christmas, I introduced two new members to my photography collection. First, I would like you to meet my new tripod, in all of its carbon fiber glory.

I have been wanting a tripod for a long time, ever since the last one that I stole from my parent's ancient camcorder broke. And it's carbon fiber!!! What's not to love about that?

The next member of my photography collection is very special to me. I have been eyeing new lenses for years now, just to be disappointed by extravagant price tags. I think that Canon felt my long draught in purchases and decided to take corrective action. I give you the EF-S ultra wide 10-18mm IS STM.

I absolutely love how much I can fit into a picture. This lens came just in time for me to take some pictures of some of the other things that I love. See for yourself.

(Mmm.... Jaguar F-Type. I need to fit one of these in my garage. The crackle that comes from the exhaust during a downshift is such a heavenly sound)

(Audi A7. My personal favorite sportback. I'm going to need a very large garage)

Into Infinity

I have always wanted to mess around with night photography, particularly, with trying to photograph the stars. This last time my wife and I were in Delta, I remembered to give some photos a try. Here's the result.

I really, really wish that I had a wide-angle lens to really get a more encompassing photo of the sky. Despite not having one, there are still so many stars! That's one of the interesting things that I pulled from these photos. There really is so much more in that sky than we can see with our own eyes. It's a bit overwhelming thinking about the endless number of stars there are around us.

I can't wait to play around with this kind of photography some more.

It has almost been a year

It has been a while, my friends.

I promise that many amazing and awesome things have been happening.

I'll try and fill you in.

Here is the main event of this past year.

That's about where I left you off a year ago.

I did get married and it has been so wonderful.

I also managed to finally graduate from wizardry school.

These are the major bookends of the last year.

Many more adventures and details will surely ensue.

I'm Still Here!

Sorry I have been away so long. What have I been up to? Well, I'll post a couple of pictures that might give you an idea of what has been going on.

Yep. I asked a pretty lady to marry me and she said yes! I was a little worried but I think the ring helped sway her decision in my favor. :)

Fireworks

Weekend in St. George

This weekend, I did something that I have never done. At least, I can't think of a time that I have ever done it. I ran away for the weekend with a group of friends on a little road trip down to St. George. And by group of friends, I mean, I knew one person going and I became friends with the others along the way. Had this opportunity come up 5 or so years ago, I probably wouldn't have gone because I did not know anyone that was going. Thank goodness we can all change! I had a blast down there with all of them.

While we were there, there was a half Ironman going on. It's pretty cool to see so many people fight their way through this race which really pushes the limits of the human body, and it was only half of the real race! Human body is capable of amazing things and this just proved that to me again.

We would cheer on random people and see them put a little more power into their stride and push harder knowing that someone was behind them. We even saw a crazy man running the race in a fireman's uniform. He was nuts! And it definitely wasn't cold outside.

We walked along the route checking out the things that downtown St. George had to offer. There were tons of vintage shops and an awesome retro candy shop. I'm pretty sure they had some candy straight from the 60's. Harder than a rock, but very, very cheap. All soda was in glass bottles and the candy was spread out in glass jars.

The vintage shops just had lots of random things. They made for some artsy-ish opportunities.

As we were walking along, I saw a cool building that I decided to take a picture of. As I looked at it more, the clouds above it were different colors. Rainbow clouds! I've never seen this before. 

I don't know how that works, but it was one of the coolest things that I saw that day.

I love meeting new people and sometimes I forget that. I don't know why exactly. I just get so caught up in my routine and going about life as usual that I never branch out. I'm really glad that I could make some new friends. We had some good times.

We later went to a park which had this amazing view.

It was so perfect that I could resist getting a picture of it. The St. George temple just looks so stunning, especially with the red sand and rock surrounding it (you can't see any red rock here, but just imagine it! It's beautiful). It was just the perfect time to be down there. Flowers were in full bloom. The weather was gorgeous. Triathlon excitement. Good company.

Now, the main reason that got me down to St. George was a man with a really long mustache. He is one pretty cool dude.

Actually, he just had a funny mustache and I tried to get a picture of him. It took forever for him to turn around. It wasn't until they asked all of the veterans to stand that I finally got him. Protecting our country, one rocking mustache at a time.

The real reason was this man.

Brian Regan. He was performing over in Tuacahn and he definitely did not disappoint. It was the perfect end to a weekend. Lots of hard laughter. It cleared the soul and removed all stress and worry. The best medicine? Absolutely. I haven't found anything better.

Untitled

Life has been busy.

When is it not busy?

I'm scrambling to finish my Master's.

I spend far too many hours watching Top Gear and dreaming about cars.

I miss playing with my camera.

(taken in the beautiful fog from this evening)