This one is fresh out of the can. Ray King, of Twigs, a flower shop in Sugar House, says that next to Mothers Day, Valentines Day is the second busiest time of year for his shop. King says he’s been putting in 10-12 hour shifts assembling flower arrangements. Mary Ann Davis, also working at the shop, says, “When there’s a bunch of stuff on the floor you know we’ve been busy.”
The call from an editor said to rush up to the state capitol, where the House Ethics Committee was about to announce their decision on allegations against Rep. Greg Hughes. Then there was a lot of waiting. I found out where Hughes’ office is and lined up a shot (above). He’d have to walk down this hall, and I liked the exit sign symbolizing the end of this story. In this case, it looked better through the viewfinder than on the screen.
Hughes and his wife, Krista, walked past the other media.
Hughes went inside the committee chamber, and Krista waited with us for a few minutes until the meeting was opened to the public.
When an officer opened the door I walked into the room first, quickly calculating where the best position would be. Spying the windows along the right wall I went to that side of the room, knowing that I wouldn’t want to shoot into the window light. While a couple of other photographers paused and asked permission to shoot from behind the committee (denied), I simply took a seat up as far as I dared, acting like I belonged there. Now I could shoot Hughes’ reaction from a little bit in front of him.
I kept my 70-200 lens trained on Hughes and his attorney, Thomas Karrenberg, not wanting to miss any reaction. As the “verdicts” were read, all going in Hughes’ favor, he looked over to his attorney and smiled.
Once I had a good shot from in front I moved to a seat behind Hughes. This angle gave me the committee behind him, and I had a shot in mind for the end of the meeting
More reaction, this time tight.
I had initially moved behind Hughes because that’s where his wife was. And when the meeting adjourned, I got the moment I anticipated. Hughes seemed to get a little emotional has he embraced his wife.
They quickly left the room.
Hughes then went back to his capitol office down the hall, where he and his entourage celebrated behind closed doors. We could hear them laughing and high-fiving and see blurry silhouettes hugging.
I decided to wait and get some kind of shot as they left the capitol. Looking at it now, I shot it with the wrong lens: it’s too tight. I should have gone wide for this one. Anyway, here’s how my work was used on today’s front page:
I’m ignoring the big picture by noticing too many small details. So instead of posting a bunch of photos from the East vs. Provo soccer playoff game, I’m sitting here thinking, What does S.O.T. mean?
Salt Lake City – Utah Jazz guard Ronnie Price (17) goes up for a slam over Gabe Muoneke. Utah Jazz scrimmage Saturday, October 4, 2008.
Kind of weird to photograph Jazz basketball in a nearly empty arena. Just felt different without the usually atmosphere.
The great news for the upcoming season is the new lighting. The ambient light will be twice as bright this year. Looks pretty good to me.
Got to Utah’s home opener the other night to try out some angles. Since I wasn’t shooting game action I had a little freedom to get creative. The Utes came out of the locker room to gather in this little inflatable tent thing.
Coach Kyle Whittingham came out. He’s a little soft in the shot, only because I don’t use the center-spot autofocus when I’m using the camera on a monopod (which lets me hold the camera as much as five feet up over my head). I switch it the mult-spot AF mode, since I never know where the center of the frame will be. Am I the only one who has noticed that there is so little depth of field with digital? This was shot at 16mm, which means everything front to back should pretty much be in focus. At least, they were in the film days. Maybe it’s just that patented Canon softness.
Before the team took the field, I put myself in what I thought was the best position for an overhead of the “run-out.” But as you can see things weren’t quite as organized as I had hoped. Not to judge, I wasn’t as organized for the first game either. I’ll be back to get it right.
I didn’t notice this photo until today, as I edited through Friday’s take from the Salt Lake Bees playoff game vs. the Sacramento River Cats. It’s the crowd reacting to a home run by Sacramento’s #17 (the roster’s in my car, and besides— it’s not like printing his name here would mean anything to anyone). Shot with a 400mm lens from the 3rd base photo well.
The game was pretty lousy. Salt Lake gave up 13 runs on 17 hits, and this is Salt Lake pitcher Jeff Kennard feeling it in the ninth inning (above).
There’s an old saying in newspaper photography: If you don’t want them to run it, don’t send it in.
But every once in a while I lose my common sense and send in a photo that has no business being published, like the one above that ran on an inside page. I’ll not make excuses. I had better stuff.
This is the sports front with another of my photos from the same play, with Matt Brown looking frustrated in a tough loss. Oh, it’s the photo to the right of the football.
I would have nailed this in the manual focus days, right?
A large ceremony today to dedicate the new Utah Law Enforcement Memorial, in memory of the 126 officers who have fallen in the line of duty.
The light was harsh, the angles tough, and the small spot was crowded. It wasn’t until after the ceremony that I found a photograph I really liked. Terri Morris and her son Wyley crying into a flag that stood in memory of Terri’s uncle, Sgt Lauren Dow, who died in 1975.
As a young photographer I remember looking up to the guys working at the big papers and imagining how exciting their jobs must be. I was right, the big paper job is much more exciting than the little paper job. But not like you’d imagine in some photojournalism fantasy, where we’re shooting black and white contest-winning documentary essays of the poor and afflicted for weeks on end. The job is mostly quick-hit bread and butter assignments, peppered with those occasional exciting assignments that you dreaming of.
My assignments Wednesday were nothing to dream of. The day was a perfect example of what the job really is— Three assignments that took me all over, on a timeframe that forced me to find a usable, if not great, photograph quickly. Here’s the day, approximated from memory.
- Show up at work to pick up lighting kit for my first assignment, a portrait of a high school quarterback in Logan.
- Start driving north.
- Quick lunch at Bajio in Centerville.
- Arrive in Logan.
- Scout the location.
- Twenty minute skateboard session at the Logan Skate Park (basically my lunch break).
- Photograph QB Jeff Manning throwing passes in practice drills (16 minutes of photography).
- Portrait of QB Jeff Manning with strobe kit (2 minutes of photography). This portrait session was made during the team’s five minute water break, forcing Manning to forgo any thirst-quenching.
- Drive south.
- Gas for the car, chocolate for me.
- Photograph northbound commute traffic on I-15 from 6th North overpass (10 minutes of photography).
- Edit and send traffic photos from my car.
- Drive south.
- Arrive in Copperton for last assignment.
- Photograph Apollo Pazell addressing the town council (This happened fast. Just one minute of photography).
- Edit and send Pazell photos from car.
- Arrive home with 15 minutes left on shift.
- Realize I haven’t edited the quarterback photos.
- Edit and send quarterback photos.
- Off duty with three minutes to spare.
Total miles driven: 236
Total shift time: 8.5 hours
Total time spent photographing: 29 minutes
Total time spent in the car: Don’t want to think about it.
So there you go. One day in August working for the big paper. That’s often how the job is. Three assignments that, while not thrilling, are important. You get what you can and you move on to the next. The real magic of the job is that tomorrow’s another day. Everything resets and you never know where or what your next shoot will be.
