BYU vs. New Mexico – Too Tight

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Two awesome plays that didn’t pan out from last week’s BYU vs. UNLV game. I was way too tight on these, shooting with a 400 and 1.4x teleconverter for a grand total of 560mm (or 728mm if you count the 1.3 sensor crop). Don’t worry if none of that makes sense. It’s all physics and math so you can just tune it out.

First was this really nice touchdown leap by UNLV quarterback Mike Clausen:

Ouch. That would have been a nice loose horizontal. Next up was this:

BYU wide receiver O’Neill Chambers was running the ball upfield and did this wild running leap over a UNLV defender. To see what could have been, check out Mike Terry’s blog. He nailed it.

BYU Special Teams

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Trent Nelson

I’ve been working this scene all season long. I know there’s an even better photo, but here’s the closest I’ve got.

Provo – BYU’s Michael Alisa (48), Bryan Kariya (28) and Jordan Pendleton (27) attempting to block a punt by New Mexico’s Adam Miller.

Which Fan (Or) Are You?

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Trent Nelson

BYU fans in LaVell Edwards Stadium, BYU vs. New Mexico, Saturday October 11, 2008.

I look through the fans in the photo above and instantly know which one would be me. It’s the guy in the tan jacket with his back to the game, staring at the snow falling in the mountains. I just can’t imagine sitting and watching sports. Without a camera my mind would be elsewhere. I’ll get to that at the bottom of the post.

If you came looking for photos of the BYU game, I apologize. I’m trapped inside this frame, looking for characters I can blow up into pixelized goodness. Like these:

So do you have to be a sports fan to be a great sports photographer? The answer to me is clearly, “No.”

When I’m photographing a game, I don’t care whether the blue team or the red team wins. This is to my advantage because when the game gets close and tight I’m not worried about my team scoring the winning touchdown, I’m focusing on my photography.

After the Jazz lost their second shot at the NBA Championship in 1998, Sports Illustrated ran a double-truck photograph of Michael Jordan’s championship-winning shot. It was a brilliant photo, full of detail. You could see every face in the crowd and along the baseline. We immediately scanned the photo for the photographers we knew and noticed that every newspaper photographer but one were watching, not shooting. Only one had his camera to his eye, shutting out the emotion of the game, to capture the shot. The others were all staring in awe at the play like sports fans, missing the shot.

For the record, it was the Tribune photographer code-named “Cobra” who was shooting.

Okay, one more fan photo. I just noticed that this fan needs to get his zipper fixed:

BYU vs. Utah State Football – Sack

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Logan – BYU defensive lineman Brett Denney (92) sits on USU QB Diondre Borel after sacking him. BYU vs. Utah State University (USU) college football Friday, October 3, 2008.

I’m getting way behind in posting, so here’s a quick one until I put up something else.

BYU vs. Wyoming Football- Action!

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Over a week later, my edit…

Brandon Bradley brings down Devin Moore

David Nixon, Shawn Doman, Russell Tialavea bring down Devin Moore

Fans watching Max Hall in action

Andrew Rich and Shiloah Te’o lift Josh Biezuns and slam him to the turf

Brandon Howard watches Greg Bolling pull down a reception

Wyoming players shove BYU’s Fui Vakupuna

Neill Chambers leaps over Tashaun Gipson

After a hard hit, a Wyoming player vomits

BYU – Startled Salad Man

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Sorting through 1300+ photos from the BYU vs. Wyoming football game last weekend, I noticed a few things. Like when David Nixon returned an interception for a touchdown. It was a tough shot from where I was, but Trib photographer Rick Egan had the good angle so all was good. The sequence is filled with colorful characters standing on the sideline in the background.

My favorite is obviously Startled Salad Man. Let’s enjoy the closeup:

I’ll do something serious (or not) about the game shortly. Right now I’m going to get a slice of pizza.

BYU vs. Northern Iowa College Football – 16-35mm

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Since so few football photographs are made with wide angle lenses, they really stand out. You never know when the action is going to come too close for any other lens to work. And since it doesn’t happen often, most photographers keep their wide angle in the bag until the game ends.

These shots were all made in RAW mode, which takes up more card space, but allows for higher quality in the post-processing phase. Since I use the wide angle sparingly, I’m able to shoot that camera in RAW. For the telephotos I’m stuck with JPEG just to keep things deadline-manageable.

Vic So’oto leads the pre-game Haka. Look at cameraman Pete wade in there, fearless.

There’s a clue to how I got the camera up so high elsewhere in this post. For those of you who can’t figure it out, I was able to talk one of the men on the cheer squad to let me stand on his shoulders. Luckily I have the balance of a dancer.

All words in italics are lies.

BYU quarterback Max Hall gets a hand from fans as he heads to the locker room. I’m on the cheerleader’s shoulders for this shot, too. We were running all over the field, chasing down Max Hall.

Trent Nelson | Photojournalist

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