M. Draper Photography

Lake Powell - 2012

2012-06-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

The Mountain Pulse

2012-03-22T06:53:00.005-07:00

A local Jackson Hole, WY website called The Mountain Pulse contacted me a while back to ask if they could use a couple photos of mine from the annual Jackson Hole hill climb. They came across my photos from flickr.com. I was honored to let them use the photos and thought it was pretty cool they asked for permission. Here's the link...

http://www.themountainpulse.com/2012/03/2012-world-championships-hill-climb-preview/

Cancun

2012-03-13T09:05:00.003-07:00

Sledding At Monte

2012-03-05T05:23:00.003-08:00

This was a rare opportunity to ride some semi-decent snow this year. I know, heck of a year to buy a new sled as I am approaching 60 miles. Just depressing... I was able to pull out the still camera for some fun shots of some great riders.

Here's some fun pics of me :) Credit Ricky 'bobby' Bangerter.

Nate & Amanda Wedding

2012-01-20T16:15:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the family Nate! Some fun wedding shots of my sis-in-law at her big day.

FYI, you need a marriage license to get married ;)

Somehow they pulled it off.

Cary Family

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm a witness of miracles. What a great family, and to see miss Jane doing so well makes me smile. My Mackay and Jane are the same age and it's fun to see them hangout with each other.

LV

2012-01-20T15:50:00.001-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2011-12-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

My Fam

2011-12-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd post some fun pics of my family. Love this little lady and 3 doh heads more than I can describe.

Cowboy Dream...

2011-12-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

My favorite rodeo family needed some shots done. This is my style, with red $@#! kickers, flannel shirts and dinner plates for belt buckles - oh yes my style. Can't wait for the day to move to a small town and have me a farm to take care of. You and my wife might think I'm joking, but I'm pretty dang serious. This is a great group of peeps.

Photo's With Santa - 2011

2011-12-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

Thanks for coming to our annual 'Photo's with Santa'. Thank you to the Judy Allen Team at Prudential Utah Real Estate and Doug Jackson from Legend Financial Services for sponsoring this event. Please click here to learn more about these great people and their services.

Here are the directions to download your photo.

Click on the following link...

CLICK HERE!

After you find your photo tab, click on the photo and it will bring up a bigger version of your photo.

Click on the photo one more time and it will bring up an even larger version.

At the top right corner of photo it say 'View All Sizes' Click on this link...

It will then give you an option above the center of the photo to 'Download The Large Size of This Photo'. Simply click here and save. You will now have a digital high res file of your photo that will be perfect for printing or blog sharing. Enjoy!

Please let me know if you can't find your photo or have troubles downloading, I'll be more than happy to help.

Snarr Family

2011-11-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

Girls night out with the Snarr's - 3 generations strong!

Mackay Is 2

2011-10-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

My baby is now 2. Can't believe it. Love this buddy so much.

Yellowstone

2011-10-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

A trip that I look forward to every year is our family trip to Yellowstone / Island Park. Always a fantastic time as I get to combine 2 of my passions in life, my family and wildlife photography. 7" of snow in Island Park couldn't even slow us down. All of the animals in the park were pretty active. The elk were rutting pretty hard and all the other animals were on the move. It was fun to see the whole family involved and I must say they are good sports considering I get them up pretty early and drag them around until the sun has set. It makes for a long day but the memories made were priceless. We were able to see every major specie of animal in the park except for moose. I have now officially traveled every square inch of road in the park as we traveled through places I hadn't been before. My boys were on mission to see a grizzly bear and I was not going to disappoint. As it got later in the evening I started getting nervous and frustrated. I learned that we had just missed a mother griz and her cubs as they were hanging out less than 100 yards from the road. We finally found our griz though, and it was the closest we've ever been. We were 80 yards from this magnificent animal. This time of year the bears are pretty active as they get desperate to get fat for the winter. They will spend the entire day eating. This guy spent hours digging in the dirt and I believe he was either eating some sweet roots or insects. Mase was beside himself with excitement - and that, my friends, is worth everything to me... Till' next year :)

An HDR shot of Mammoth Springs

Here's my Mason watching every move of his griz through his binoculars.

400mm, f5.6, 1/200, iso400

In this pic you can see whatever he is eating hanging from his mouth.

U of U Homecoming

2011-10-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

The anticipation and expectations were very high but the outcome of the game was anything but desirable... I guess this is what you get when you play with the big boys in the PAC 12. It did make me miss the MWC days when we'd smoke anybody that stepped on our field. Still a blast hanging with 2 older boys and fantastic friends. The best part of the whole experience was the half time entertainment ;) I got to see my smokin' hot wife dance her guts out with the U of U alumni dance team - what a treat. Brought back some fond memories I have of watching her perform at the games...

Stadiums seem to always scream 'wide' so this is where the 10.5 fisheye goes in my pocket. The sun had set and the clouds had formed perfect. I didn't have a tripod so I shot hand held. With some help from Lightroom's lens correction I was able to straighten out the field lines to avoid the fisheye look.

Wild Flowers

2011-09-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Plenty of water throughout the year has lead to some pretty flowers and plenty of feed for the horses of Strawberry Ridge.

Urban Wedding

2011-08-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

My beautiful sister in law and studly future bro in law are getting married this November! I twisted their arms to let me take a couple engagment photos for them. They wanted to stick with a cityscape background. I had this vision of what I wanted for a while and I have to say was pretty happy with what we got.

Bavelas Farm

2011-07-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

Some photos of a recent shoot at the Bavelas farm. This place has a ton a crusty stuff that always makes for some interesting background. This is my brother's family. I was pretty excited with how this turned out, had to get down and dirty to get this shot.

These are mine... I love these punks!

This was love at first sight... Trust me :/

This is one of my favorite families in the world. Each one of these kids have a special place in my heart.

Lake Powell Trip

2011-06-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

Every year we look forward to LP. One of our favorite corners of the world. Plenty of family time, swimming, food, hikes, laughs and photo opportunities. Every evening you can look forward to breathtaking sunsets and vistas. Sometimes within a .5 mile hike away.

This is where I ran out of shade... We were on a long hike and one of the boys forgot to bring sandles and it was the hottest part of the day. It got to the point where you couldn't walk bare feet without burning your feet. I ended up giving Mason my shoes and staying back. I had about 18" of shade along this wall, so I laid down to take a nap while the rest of the group continued hiking. This was my view as I laid on my back.

Go All Macro On Me.

2011-06-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

Found this guy at Lake Powell. I'm kind of mad that I didn't take a different picture to put his size in perspective. Let's just put it this way, he fit on my pinky finger nail - He was tiny. I caught him and held him in my hand while I ran through the house boat trying to find my macro lens. Ever tried changed lens' with one hand, always exciting. The family was worried about me and mentioned they have medication for people like me, but I didn't pay any attention to that. I used the Nikkor Micro 105mm VR lens.

Back Against The Wall

2011-06-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Need to post. Summer is full bore now. RickyBobby and I wanted to get a sweet shot of double arch. We had to hike high to the very outer wall, attach my 10.5 fisheye super wide angle lens and I literally had to put my head against the wall to fit everything I wanted. I went with a 9 exposure HDR on this because there was SO much variation in light. It was actually quite dark where I was and very light at the openings. The 10.5 FE will explain the curvature of the earth in the photo, but I don't mind it one bit.

Head Above Water

2011-05-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

This time of year is absolutely crazy. With my real job, Miss Mo's dance, photography and kids sports, it pretty much keeps us busy till about midnight or later every night. I was able to snag some shots of my middle boy Max as he is turning out to be quite the baseball star and doesn't mind the attention...

Powder Mountain Hill Climb

2011-04-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

I jetted up to Powder Mountain Saturday to try to take in some of the snowmobile hill climb competition. I wasn't there as long as I would have liked to have been due to the SL 1/2 Marathon I ran in the morning, nor was I prepared as I should have been (one 4 gig card - c'mon) but I was able to pick a spot and get some fun captures of some professional riders. Here are some of my favorites...

This is Keith Curtis, #711. He is Polaris's new allstar and let me tell you a very classy, down to earth guy. I got to talk to him a bit after the rounds and was impressed with his humbleness and attitude.

Well, the above were my favorites. Too see a ton more click here...

Dead Horse Point - Canyonlands

2011-04-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

Dark and dreary skies has been the story for me lately. I watched the weather for weeks before our trip, anxious to have beautiful weather. It was looking good until about 5 days before the trip and the forecast took a turn for the worst. It seems whenever we go somewhere that is supposed to have epic photo opportunities it is gray and over cast. I really shouldn't complain too much because we really lucked out. It was snowing the whole time back home in SLC and we just had cooler temperatures and wind. I try to make the best of it and keep a good attitude. When conditions are crappy I usually turn to HDR (high dynamic range) photography. This is a process of capturing multiple pictures in the same place at different exposure values. You need to capture at least 3 frames but it can be up to 9. Later is post, these images are placed on top of each other and with the help of software it can provide an almost surreal result that can be quite pleasing to the eye. When lighting is bad and everything is flat and lacks dimension I like to experiment with this. Some people like - some people hate. I happen to like it but I like it with caution as it is to get carried away with results sometimes and can ruin an image very quickly.

This is at Dead Horse Point state park - near Canyonlands National Park. Both of these pics were 9 exposure HDR shots.

Maxie n' Mackay

2011-03-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

My middle and youngest boy. These were shot with one of my favorite lens, 17-55. It was shot wide open at f2.8, 1/60. I love me some contrasty black and white. I love these boys...