Inspiring Paths

Ponder your own paths in life.

I believe the path’s we take in life lead us to meet exceptional individuals. There have been countless people who have greatly influenced me in my life. One particular friend, Garrett Smith, who I wish I knew longer, inspired me in photography, my love of life, and the outdoors. Garrett recently was the victim of a tragic avalanche accident .

Garrett’s photos capture nature’s distinctiveness in a fascinating way.

We may never know how big of an impact we can have on those who stumble upon our own paths. Thanks to all whose influenced me on my path-knowingly and unknowingly.

(Foot-printed Path on Grandeur Peak)

A Colorful Way of Life

Spring has official begun now that the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork has successfully drawn the largest crowd in America to celebrate a tradition Indian holiday, Holi-The Festival of Colors. Hare Krishna! Being dowsed with powdered color chalk is always an exciting way to spend a Saturday-try it sometime.

Enjoy a few other colors from recent photo adventures.

I love experiencing new unique places to savor food. JCW’s, Good Eats, and Pizzeria 712. Great local joints-Thanks L!

Dot. Dot. Dot...

Yes it has been a while... My apologies... Busy year… But no excuse, I should do a better job at blogging...

Anyways, what a relief... the stress of editing, creating, submitting, waiting, the anxiety build up, but all for some great news of being accepting into the world renowned BYU Advertising program!!!

Celebrated by enjoying good food, good company, good powder up in Sundance and Snowbird, good 5.11a climbs…

Which reminds me about some of my few new firsts I’ve experienced as of late. Fist blog post of 2011... Climbed my first 5.11a-and now how several under my belt, my first accepta

nce into a major program at BYU, finished my first full length practice LSAT, signed up for my first relay race-as well as first time bailing on a relay to go boarding instead. (So worth it)

This is a very rough overview of the past few months so sorry and improvement is on it's way...

Enjoy a photo of the semi-frozen Donut Falls, up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Celebration of the Mountains

This weekend I will be attending the 4^th Annual Hammer Inc. Art Festival: A Celebration of the Mountains. A friend of mine is hosting the festival and I recommend and invite all to attend. It takes place this Friday 12/3/10, downtown SLC on the NW corner of 100 S and Main St. from 5-10pm. Prior to gazing at all the impressive mountainous views these artists have portrayed; I plan on taking advantage of all this new snow by exploring the mountains of Snowbird. This will be the first boarding adventure of the season and I can’t wait!

I have a new goal to make it up to Alta for the first time ever (with the help of a friend of course), and yes that means I will be attempting to ski again. It has been over 12 years since I have last skied down a mountain so stay tuned for updates.

This is not a pipe

I am currently taking an art history class this semester, and we have already covered centuries and centuries of magnificent artwork that has impressed me. I’m amazed of the immense talent and creativeness found in the great artists who have constantly been evolving art over the years. This week my teacher put up a slide with a particular work of art that I had seen several other times, but I wanted to share it on my blog because it reminded me of a type of print advertisement one might see.

Rene Magritte started out as an advertising designer until he received sufficient funds to become a full time Belgian Surrealist painter.

The Treachery of Images, 1928-1929 ->

When the image came up I thought how this work of art we are studying in my art history class could also be used in an advertising class to teach print ads and copy. The simplicity and very creative copy catches people’s attention and could easily pass as a print ad for a pipe or tobacco company. Translated the copy says, “This is not a pipe”. Surrealism is when you take an ordinary object and place it in an unusual space or context. It is not an actual pipe but an image of a pipe, genius!
I have gained more appreciation for fine art while taking this art history class. Through this intro to advertising class I have also seen how advertising can be a very creative form of art. Why not blend the two together?
What are your thoughts, do you think this would be a decent print ad?

Spry Canyon

Located within the beautiful Zion’s Nation Park is a canyon called Spry Canyon, which was the main attraction this weekend for our group of adventure connoisseurs.

Canyons in Zion’s have been carved deep in colorful sandstone rock and are famous for their narrow slots. The canyons have slowly been eroding away providing canyoneers a unique place to discover the wonders of the earth. Water of course is the main contributor of consistently shaping the canyons, as well as posses some of the most dangerous threats and obstacles when exploring in narrow slot canyons. During the hot summer the majority of people enjoy being able to cool off from the heat by wading through pools of water found in the slot canyons; most canyoneers just plan on getting wet through their journey. Even in the spring and fall, those planning on going through a canyon where you can get wet will ether wear a wet or dry suit. Not us. We are frugal college students who don’t want to rent an expensive dry suit, and would rather spend our money on new gear… So doing Spry Canyon (a canyon with several water pools) in November, without a wet or dry suit only added to the adventure of the journey.

Everyone was layered up from head to toe for protection from the cold and ready to experience some breathtaking rappels and views. The hike to the canyon provided some great insight to what lied ahead, we found ourselves crunching through frozen ice sand. Seeing water ice and sand all in one place is rather interesting and hard to believe, but it does exist.

Parallel to our first rappel of 165 feet, a small drizzle of water froze creating an icy sandstone cliff, starting our legit canyoneering experience in Spry Canyon.
As soon as we approached any water in Spry with no way around it, we were forced to get creative. Only two members of the group of nine had wet suits and so they were able to get wet if needed; to ether set up zip-lines for those who didn’t want to get wet and catch hypothermia or even helped carry people across.

My favorite rappel consisted of a 90 foot free hang rappel into a narrow slot canyon of maybe only 7 feet across (See Pic).
The drastic change in scenery was amazing, especially when you were at the bottom staring up at a sliver of sky being surrounded by sandstone.

During our canyoneering adventure in Spry we had the opportunity to experience all that you would expect to in a technical canyon: from stemming 20 feet above the water covered canyon floor, creating make shift zip-lines, enjoying a dozen rappels, great bonding moments, and unfortunately a group member who sprang their ankle off one of the rappels.

Those who appreciate a good adventure, I recommend Spry Canyon for you.

Let the Tweeting Begin...

I have always been a bit skeptical when it comes to Twitter. Several times I have seriously thought about signing up for my own account and letting the world experience my very own tweets. Every time I have found myself on the actual website thoughts come to mind about how Twitter looks confusing and complicated, as well as the idea that I already have a Facebook and why do I need another social media website to influence my life.
I was very impressed with the personal example Prof. Hadley shared on his experience to successfully publicize an entire event on Twitter. Being able to reach such a large audience through connections on Twitter is a brilliant idea to create buzz about your product or service, or in Prof. Hadley’s case, his unique CoWork Utah, Orem Tweetup.
So the other day, I caved in and decided to finally created my very own Twitter account and have SLOWLY been figuring out how it all works. I would definitely consider myself a noob to the tweeting world but would love any insights and pointers. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @robmwitt. I need to work on expanding who I follow....
I am already pleased with what I have observed in my short time on Twitter. Just like Facebook you are able to take advantage of special sales, coupons, and offers if you are connected with specific companies. I like the idea of people simply sharing what is on their mind, and being able to search words and see what people are saying; which is extremely helpful for companies to see what is being said about their brand.