Kill the Messenger

Vintage Lara is having a moment. 

I've been doing a deep archaeological excavation on myself, courtesy of my compulsion to document my life in journals, blogs and photos. I really used to put it all out there, or at least a very curated version of "it all." And in that spirit I think is why I am here writing on this old thing. 

Lately nothing makes sense. During a time when I should be settled, I am feeling unmoored. I always wanted to do life "right." (What does that even mean?) But I am struggling with who I am, who I used to be, who I wanted to be and who I would like to be. Is life just a series of realizations that everything you think you know is not true? Do we ever really know ourselves?

Maybe this is me hoping for a signal from the universe, recreating some of the magic I used to feel about the future. So here I am universe, send me a sign, hit me with a lightning bolt. 

P.S. I really miss the old internet, can we bring that back? How very aging millennial of me. 

Sometimes you gotta go beyond the (maintained) pavement

The Tour of Utah climbs Guardsman's Pass during Stage 5 of the race

It seems I've neglected this blog for far too long. I'm not sure what caused my photo-taking slump, and although I hate to admit it, it happened. Recently I've been feeling inspired to go out and shoot which has reminded me how much I love it. I have a few shoots in the works so hopefully I'll be posting a little more. Anyway, this was from this past weekend when the Tour of Utah came through Park City on Saturday for Stage 5. The race ended on Main Street but I had to work so I only snuck a peek; besides, Gaurdsman's Pass is a little more epic of a backdrop than Main street (at least in my opinion). I used my wide angle for this, which has become by far my favorite piece of equipment. I love just how much it captures, and when used as a semi-close up as in this photo, the effect is quite striking. 

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A few new pictures added to the site... a full update later

The road less traveled

The road less traveled (at 5am anyway)

A magic moose moment

A she-moose at Schwabachers Landing

Seeing double

Two shots of Mount Moran, two different seasons

Early Morning

Just before sunrise

In order to get a sunrise picture at Schwabacher's Landing we had to wake up at 4:30 to drive almost 2 hours. I could complain but I slept in the truck while Matt drove; boyfriends, useful for some things. Of course the weekend we did this it was rainy and there was a lot of cloud cover. However I did get some interesting shots. I like the one above because you can still see the moon and the pink of the sunrise is just visible. Click for more!

Cody Nite Rodeo

A lasso and tie competetor

Kids playing cowboy and cow

Bucking bronco competetor

Having never been to any rodeo I was excited to go to the Cody Rodeo since it's a pretty famous one in the circuit. As usual I was thinking of all of the awesome pictures I'd be able to get and not about what I was actually going to see. Now I'm no extreme animal rights' activist by any means; I oppose vegetarianism because I love eating meat so much. However, the rodeo disturbed me. Maybe I'm not used to farmer/southern/cowboy culture but I didn't like it, especially during the contest when you lasso tie and bind a calf. But I did get some nice shots so I thought I'd share. 

Catch up

Finally updated my website! Check out photos from Utah and Yellowstone at larabrucker.com

Wildlife Watch

Bear sighting near Lamar Valley

You never know when you'll get caught in a jam, be it a bison, an elk, or something more exciting like a bear. By now it's more a nuisance than an excitement to pass a jam, considering most tourists stop to look at bison and female elk like they're not EVERYWHERE in the park. But sometimes you get lucky, like this shot.

Mammoth Hot Springs

The boardwalk around Canary Spring

Lower terraces

On the road again

The Grand Tetons

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

On Saturday, May 12, Matt and I headed out for Park City to pick up is truck on the way to Yellowstone. Of course the only night we went out in LA was the Friday before. But you only live once and we made it in one piece, c'est la vie. 

We left Sunday for Wyoming/Montana around 1pm, making it to Jackson by evening. We camped that night in Antelope Flats, just outside of the Grand Teton National Park. I experienced my first bison jam, which was exciting and slightly terrifying (they're SO weird). Monday we drove through all of Yellowstone to make it to Mammoth, at the northern entrance of the park. I got my first glimpse of Yellowstone Lake, where I'll be spending my summer at Grant Village. All of it seemed a little surreal, had I really agreed to spend the next 5 months in the wilderness? Yellowstone seemed beautiful and strange, I really couldn't wait to explore.

And now that I'm semi-up to date I'll elaborate more on my time here so far in the next week. Until then!

La La Land

Artsy backstage shot from Mane Stage at Stagecoach 2012.

In between Park City and Yellowstone I spent about 3 weeks at home in LA. It was good to be back for a bit, I got to eat all of my favorite foods, have my mom dote on me, and play tourist with Matt. For the first week I was home the weather was not so typically sunny Los Angeles. But our luck turned around and I got some decent vitamin D while home. With Matt in town I had an excuse to leave the house and explore the city some. I am proud to say I have actually walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame now. We did so much I'm afraid he has no excuse to visit the city again as he's seen it all; hopefully I'm enough of a reason. 

Camp shots

View from our campsite at dusk

One of Caitlin's perfect fires

Calling all angels

The summit of Angels' Landing

View of Zion Canyon from the summit

If you know me, you know hiking is not my thing, especially climbing peaks. However, I was in Zion National Park, I was not not going to climb Angels' Landing. The 5 mile round-trip hike was the most strenuous thing I've done in recent memory. The last mile or so takes you across a sheer cliff with chain guides, with 1000 ft plus drop offs on either side. The view from the top was well worth the effort.

Oops...I did it again

Somewhere off of the Mirror Lake Byway

It's been a while. Oops, got caught up in life and forgot to write about it. It's about mid May now and I'm writing this from Los Angeles; I leave tomorrow for Yellowstone, but more on that later. 

The last month and a half of the ski season was brutal and wonderful all at the same time. Spring Break was pure madness, a different region of the country came each week (it made for some interesting new stereotypes). March actually started out promising with a big storm in the beginning of the month. Sadly, my last true powder day was during that first week. After the storm Park City decided it was summer and the weather turned hot. We did get some new snow but it would quickly melt and freeze with these end-of-days conditions. The slush was interesting to ski on and practically impossible to teach on. But hey, the kids are 6, what do they know?

The art of the fall

"If you want some cool falling pictures, shoot me coming down this"

These were from that first powder day at Deer Valley, thought I'd post something to keep up appearances. I have some more skiing shots to go through and edit, besides that though it's been work, work, Tuesday nights, work. 

Life's a chair

Empire Chairlift

Empire Chairlift

Thought I'd post some chairlift photos I had lying around. Just got off the 10 day Presidents' Day rush, gearing up for 3 weeks of Spring Breaks. Hopefully my third trip to the clinic will cure me of what seems to be a seasonal sickness. 

The Jumpoff: Chris

The photojournalist in me sort of took over the friend in me after this fall. Sorry about it Chris, but the ski tips in the powder make for a nice blooper.

The Jumpoff: Dace

Taken at Brighton a few days after one of our few big storms. That's Dace.