1942 Ferrari Race Car

"Hey, is that a race car? What kind is it?" shouts the man in a drunken near-stupor sitting on the bench outside ABG's bar in downtown Provo, UT. 

"It's a Ferrari!" replies Ryan Rudd, sitting in the right-hand driver's seat of his olive green motorized vehicle.

"What year is it?"

"1942!"

"Wow!"

In reality it's not a 1942 Ferrari Race Car, but rather a 1972 Skyline 2000 GT that Ryan imported from Japan. It's a pretty good ride for getting double-takes because the steering column in on the right-hand side of the car instead of the left, so people always see us cruising down the street and realize that something weird is afoot. Ryan and I got together for about 35 minutes this morning to hammer out a couple detail shots of his car for a web article that's being put together later today, so here's some of those images.

War Machines

You know, people sometimes get on my case about the fact that I don't like shooting weddings and senior portraits. But if they shot the same types of things that I shoot, they'd never want to shoot another wedding in their life. I mean, seriously, just think about this: given the choice between shooting an engagement session, or shooting at the top of a mountain, which is cooler? The mountain. Given the choice between a bridal shoot, and Apache freaking helicopters? Duh. Apache freaking attack helicopters. 

I've worked with my friend Weston Critchfield on several projects over the last year, and he's DPing a music video which features some footage of US Army choppers taking off from the airfield, and I was brought on for the shoot for one day just to shoot some video of the helicopters with my telephoto lens. Yeah, it was awesome. I'm tempted to join the National Guard just so I can make $20,000 a year and fly helicopters. Ok, so that's a lie, but you get the idea. I shot a couple of photos while we were there, but my primary concern was shooting cool video.

I can proudly tout the fact that I was the first UVU student to purchase an HDDSLR for the primary purpose of shooting video. I got my Canon 5DMKII in December of 2008, and since that time, several of my peers have joined the ranks of proud owners of an HDDSLR. For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about a camera system that is a single-lens-reflex still photo camera, and also an HD video camera built into the same camera body with the same sensor. Canon and Nikon both have three different models of camera that do double duty, and I've been shooting then entire Wasatch Podcast on my HDDSLR. One of the major benefits is the fact that you can throw incredible lenses on these cameras and get depth-of-field effects that can't be duplicated by prosumer HD camcorders. The Panasonic HVX has been the industry standard for independent video for the past several years, and has been pushed aside by video systems that technically have inferior color and image data, but the depth of field just makes it look so much better that people are willing to sacrifice on the technical side for the benefits on the aesthetic side.

There were five of us on the shoot that had HDDSLRs and it was fun to bounce ideas off each other and share lenses. I had a fun time shooting with David's 200mm ƒ/2.8 prime lens. I couldn't tell a difference between that lens and my 70-200 ƒ/2.8L IS USM lens with regard to sharpness at 200mm, but it was nice to not have a million pounds of lens hanging off the end of my camera. Much more compact and a lot lighter.

All the people at the base were so much more helpful than I thought they were going to be. I should have known better, considering my good friend Ryan is in the National Guard, but for some reason I thought the environment was going to be a lot more rigid and stiff, but it turned out to be very laid back and fun. Utterly stress-free, and just a rad rush of watching these incredible war machines, and the soldiers that spend their time mastering them, do what they were intended to do.

Family

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I saw Prince of Persia three times, each viewing accompanied by different groups of people. I really enjoyed the movie, and each successive time I felt a greater significance attached to the line spoken by the King to his adopted son Dastan: 

"Family; the bond between brothers is the sword that defends the empire."

Pictured above is the eldest of my three brothers Mick, who is twenty-two years old. In recent years I've felt a distance grow between my brothers and myself, and whether it be just part of growing up, or something I've subconsciously help construct (or perhaps something they have individually constructed), this is a distance I'm trying to shorten of late. Mick's lifestyle doesn't always mesh well with mine, and as a result we spend a lot of time apart, but recently we've been able to find a lot of middle ground where we can spend time with each other and both have a really good time. 

My second brother, Kory, just left last week for London to serve for two years as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, preaching the good news of the Gospel of Christ to the people of southern London. His passion for snowboarding over the past two seasons has allowed me to spend more time with him than the rest of my siblings during the time since returning from my full-time mission nearly five years ago. It is my hope that I can continue building a closer relationship with him while he's on the other side of the globe.

There is a large age-gap between Kyle and I, and as a result our schedules rarely work out, and we don't have a ton in common. He loves to spend his time exploring the limits of different video games and shooting pellet guns at his friend's farm, and hiking and snowboarding have little interest for him currently. In fact, nothing really interests him, including getting his driver license or a job, although he recently got hired on as an extra hand at his buddy's farm milking cows and doing odd jobs. It's tough to build a close relationship that is full of depth and meaning when you don't have a ton in common, but we've recently been able to have a lot of fun together and I feel like things are looking up across the board with my brothers.

 

Oh, what can I say? Elanor a spoiled attention seeker who loves to get her brothers in trouble by making a scene out of just about anything, but she still manages to put a smile on my face everytime I spend time around her. She's nine-years-old, and trying to grow up much too fast. Her recent obsession is text-messaging. When Kory left for his mission last Thursday, his cell-phone unwittingly fell into the groping hands of Elanor, and now almost daily I get a "How R U?" or a "Lol" from Elanor. She's definitely not satisfied with being nine, and I think nineteen can't come too soon in her eyes. Mick taught her to do a backflip on the trampoline a couple weeks ago, and now she's managed to do a backflip while holding the cell phone and probably texting with one hand at the same time. 

I love my family, and although we're kind of mess, whose family isn't? I submit that the moment the perfect family appears, the world will end. Until then, I'll keep mine. 

Lisa and Ben

I know what you're thinking: "Wait a second. I say, hold on there, just a minute; Parker doesn't shoot weddings!"

Now, that's not fair. Yes, it's true that I loath how most weddings (particularly LDS weddings) are celebrated, and feel that the manner by which most people carry out the tradition is silly and antiquated, but there is something on this earth that can get me to step way way outside my comfort zone and shoot the occasional wedding: food. And I don't mean food as in exotic or luxurious food. I mean food in general. I mean survival, sustenance, fuel. That's what happens when you're a flat broke photographer trying to scrape by–you end up doing things that perhaps you otherwise wouldn't do. Yes, it's true that I think most weddings are silly, but that being said, I do get hungry, and weddings pay well, so don't judge me.

All joking aside, I had a fantastic time in Coto De Caza shooting Ben and Lisa's reception. It was nice and relatively stress free because it was round two, so to speak, in the series of receptions, because they were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, UT, and had a big celebration in Utah the week before, then had an additional party in Mission Viejo, CA the following weekend for all of Lisa's friends back home. I've always been one of those guys that enjoys the occasional trip to California, but wouldn't want to live there. As the years go by, I find myself in Southern California more and more often, and my distaste for ever setting up shop there keeps growing, but it was a wonderful trip, regardless. Lisa and Ben threw a great party, and I made some friends that I hope will last a lifetime. Here's a bunch of photos from the reception. I'm not in the mood to give captions to them, so you'll just have to make up your own stories for each image. Feel free to click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

Moustache May!

I labeled it as the "Greatest Gathering of Moustaches the World Has Ever Known." Regardless of whether or not that's actually true, this year's Moustache May party, held on May 22, 2010, was a roaring success. The weather was not cooperating all day and I thought it was going to rain and ruin the adventures, but the clouds blew away, the sun came out, and people started showing up right on cue.

It was fun to see all the different moustaches that people came up with. Rob's wife made chocolate suckers that looked like moustaches, and Janna Mills definitely knew how to rock the chocolate. Men had moustaches, women had moustaches, children and pets had moustaches, and ultimately it was just an excuse for people to get together and have a cookout. 

Todd, Rob, and Denny lookin' purdy.

Tanner Mills, ladies and gentlemen.

The happy couple. Sporting the 'staches well.

I set up a white backdrop in the garage and my studio lights and for the first two hours or so I made it a point to take pictures of the guests, but somewhere along the way I lost interest and put my camera away. Ultimately I'm really stoked with how the party turned out. A bunch of my friends drove down from Canada and Idaho, as well as quite a few making the short trek from Salt Lake City to come party like it was 1988. We gave out prizes for what we considered best 'staches:

1) Most Creative: My sister Elanor, with her "Grass 'Stache." She won some Pringles.

2) Best Artificial: Jade Magnum Thomason for his Curly Cue. A copy of Borat.

3) Best Authentic: K for the Win. His creation was absolutely unmatched. Mr. Potato Head Prize.

Next year should be even better, so we hope to see many many more people make the trek and the sacrifice to enjoy a Moustached America. We at the Moustache May party do recognize that the current system is a disincentive for the clean shaven to enjoy the Utopia that we dream of, but we just need to start small. One moustache at a time.

No caption necessary.

Jade and Marcus making it happen.

Ze German girls.

Erin and I. Her moustache is bigger than mine.

Check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=428023&id=737705555

May the 4th Be With You

Here we are. The 4th is with us on Star Wars Day in Newport Beach, and Mick is found in his usual position, sleeping in, despite the noise and commotion four men can make in the same hotel room. I thought that for $46 a night we'd be staying in a dive, but it was actually pretty nice. The beds weren't the most comfortable, but it wasn't really that bad. Travelodge Newport Beach. Stay there. If you dare.

The mini-fridge took a typical look as well, filled with all the essentials of life when you're on a road trip. We spent Monday at Magic Mountain and managed to ride each of the roller coasters in the park, and many of them we rode several times. I had a really good time. I got sick part-way through the day and had to sit out a couple, but my brothers rode about 25 different times. Tuesday was spent at Huntington Beach doing some body boarding and throwing frisbees. But the highlight of the day was Roscoe's House of Chicken'n Waffles.

The syrup and the gravy both finer than wine. We went to Long Beach and made the magic happen. Then we went to the beach and took some sunset photos on Long Beach. It was lovely.