Sarah Ause Kichas | saussie.com »

That must sound odd coming from a photographer, but when you do it for a living, it’s too easy to let the “play photography” fall to the side. I get sick of carrying my gear around all the time, so when I’m not working, I don’t even bother half the time. Even hiking Signal Peak last weekend, I used Jim’s camera, because mine is too much of an ordeal on epic hikes like that. Anyway, I decided to remedy this problem by buying myself a point-and-shoot (but a nice one with manual controls… if you can call that a point-and-shoot). I’ve been playing with it lately (and loving it) and took it along yesterday when Molly, Antony and I went hiking in Lydia’s Canyon. While exploring the fall color, I also explored my new camera and found some snazzy settings that made me love it even more, such as this one that creates the “miniature” effect of a tilt-shift lens (while simultaneously amping up the color a bit too). It was so fun to play with, and so refreshing to be doing just that… playing. I also really think these photos are more in tune with how I actually see things… dreamy and fantastical. I felt like I was in a fairytale forest out there, and I think these photos show off what I felt and experienced – not just what I saw.

Unfortunately, the dream turned nightmare when I discovered my dogs completely covered in deer ticks after the hike, and by picking them off them, several were transferred to me. I didn’t even know we had ticks down here, but Lydia’s Canyon is much more reminiscent of Vermont than southern Utah desert. An emergency trip to the clinic remedied this problem (thank you, Frontline!) and all is well now. I even kind of want to go back now that the dogs are now guarded against ticks for a month…