The Leica and 21mm continue to give me unique angles…
Assignment: Mitt Romney meets with Weber County Commissioners
Assignment: Women’s March
Category: Best of the Week
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2019 Week Three
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Upset community members attend a meeting over worry that a ban on big trucks on Legacy Parkway is about to expire, unless the Legislature extends it. Residents raise their hand in support of not raising the speed limit on the Parkway during the meeting at Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake on Wednesday Jan. 16, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Senator Mitt Romney meets with Weber County Comissioners in Ogden to discuss the ongoing government shutdown on Friday Jan. 18, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The 2019 Women’s March on Utah at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Saturday Jan. 19, 2019.
Lunar Eclipse -
2019 Week Two
Assignment: Vigil for fallen officer
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Family members listen to Officer Alex Felsing speak at a candlelight vigil in Provo on Wednesday Jan. 9, 2019 for Officer Joseph Shinners, killed Sunday morning while trying to arrest a fugitive.Confession
For thirty years I kept things pure. Now I have done the unthinkable: I have mounted a non-Leica lens onto a Leica M.
I will never speak of it again.
Yeah,
we’ve all done horrible things butthat was really bad.I have a 21mm again. The distortion is nearly non-existent. I am blown away, as I expected to be.
Driving South
Santaquin, Utah Cedar City, Utah Assignment: Cedar High Redmen
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Mohey Tawa, the Cedar High drill team, performs at halftime of a basketball game vs. Canyon View.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
A water tank above Cedar City with the Redmen mascot of Cedar High School. The school is considering a change in the name of its mascot, The Redmen, Friday Jan. 11, 2019.The Long Drive Home
Zion National Park 
Red Canyon Day Off
After working all week and being out of town for three days there is finally a day to spend together. We’re together on the couch when the phone rings – Possible active shooter at a shopping mall. You need to go.
I’m trying to cup the phone so she doesn’t hear. That’s what you do these days, try to hide the news you’re hearing, seeing, and reading so that all the everything-awful doesn’t get to her.
The week began with the vigil for the fallen officer, where I stood next to his family and listened to their loss. And now I’m supposed to drive toward what could be a mass killing. I grab my kit and start the car. It’s only fifteen minutes away this time.
Assignment: Shooting at the mall
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
People evacuate with their hands aloft after a shooting at the Fashion Place Mall in Murray on Sunday Jan. 13, 2019.Luckily it wasn’t a massacre.
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2019 Week One
Assignment: Gymnast Kari Lee
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah gymnast Kari Lee, Wednesday Jan. 2, 2019. I find myself momentarily monumentally bored with the SLR camera.
In its place I have taken to using rangefinder cameras. This move opens up my vision while at the same time causing me to miss moments, at least until I re-tune my rangefinder skills to their previous levels.
It’s a tradeoff I’m making in order to be more creative
, and I want to see exactly what I’m getting.The cool kids will tell you that equipment isn’t important, that gear talk is lame. As if equipment choices don’t have a huge impact in your work.
Each item you equip drives you down a specific creative road, and yet we’re not supposed to do gear talk.I will tell you that the sameness of old gear puts you in a rut. And I can say from experience that once you lose confidence in a piece of equipment – a lens that after banging around for a while now seems soft, a camera that seems off – you will rarely be able to restore confidence in that piece of gear.
The ultra-fast 50mm with EVF on the Leica M is a dream. Things look good.
OldPeople who hate having their picture taken look good. It’s a fresh look.The look comes at a cost. Shooting at f 1.1 comes with a razor thin margin of focus -> manually focusing is challenging and slow, requiring the subject to remain as still as possible. And the EVF puts me into live view with its many delays. With this setup there is no deliberate catching of moments, it’s strictly up to cruel fate.
But there are successes.
In this new world the SLR remains on my shoulder for telephoto work, and also, to reassure people that I’m a real photographer. The big lens is part of the costume.
.:.
Assignment: National Guard Deployment
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Captain Tyler Boyle embraces his daughters Avery, right, and Alexis in Draper on Wednesday Jan. 2, 2019. Tyler is one of eighteen Utah National Guard soldiers who are deploying to Fort Meade, Maryland, for 400 days to conduct cyber protection operations. 
