Category: Core

  • 2019 Week Eight

    2019 Week Eight

    Assignment: Opiod Press Conference

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kelly Howard, who lost her son Billy Perkins, 26, in the opioid epidemic, at a news conference in Salt Lake City on Wednesday Feb. 20, 2019 where Intermountain Healthcare announced a reduction of 3.8 million opioid pills prescribed in 2018.

    Looking back the week was weak photo-wise, bookended by a press conference and a February football game.


    Assignment: Stallions v Hotshots

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Arizona’s Jhurell Pressley (26) is brought down by a herd of stallions as the Salt Lake Stallions host the Arizona Hotshots, Alliance of American Football in Salt Lake City on Saturday Feb. 23, 2019.

    UNPA Contest Results

    Had a good showing in the UNPA contest this year. Seven awards…

    1st Place, Feature Photo
    3rd Place, Feature Photo
    1st Place, Arts & Entertainment
    2nd Place, Sports Action
    Honorable Mention, Sports Action

    2nd Place, Photo Essay – FLDS Evictions


    2nd Place, Photographer of the Year

    Peace to those who allowed me to document their lives in these photographs. I hope I was able to honor your joy, your sacrifice, your loss, whatever it was at the moment we stood together under the sun.

  • 2019 Week Seven

    2019 Week Seven

    Corona Arch

    Ideas Projects

    Been wondering what to do about UNPA – it’s time to put out a call for entries and yet we’re still waiting on some results from last year.

    One morning this week I had an idea for one of my vacant domains, where instead of a contest I could have all the photographer friends send in their favorite photo or project they did in 2018 and make a beautiful site showcasing each photographer and their work. It could be a monthly update, grow and grow, on and on…

    I got so psyched up about the idea that I was going to call a photo editor across the way and pitch the idea, to ensure that the photographers working for them could participate without any issues.

    Within a couple of hours the mind slowed down and the idea was thrown on the stack of ideas that are going not to be done. I still love it, though. Fifteen years ago we could have done it.

    All week I’ve planned to resign from UNPA. I have a draft email from last year ready to go. Nineteen years of volunteer work on that project is something to be proud of. Someone else can take up the reins.

    Then again, the industry is so much diff than it was. The community connection… I’m not sensing it.

    Then again.


    The week covered a lot of miles. More photos than text.

    Utah Capitol
    Rocky Ridge
    La Sal Mountains
    Bowtie Arch
    Grandstaff Canyon
  • 2019 Week Six

    2019 Week Six

    The banality of the First World

    Idiots at Work

    You can laugh because no one gets hurt in a YouTube video.


    Assignment: Encircle LGBTQ center opens in SLC to combat youth suicide

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Encircle: LGBTQ+ Family and Youth Resource Center opens its second location, in Salt Lake City on Friday February 8, 2019.
    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Stephenie Larsen is the founder of Encircle.

    Assignment: Utah Jazz v San Antonio Spurs

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) goes for the steal but San Antonio Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan (10) holds onto the ball as the Utah Jazz host the San Antonio Spurs, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Saturday Feb. 9, 2019.

    Jazz won…

  • 2019 Week Five

    2019 Week Five

    Utah Capitol rotunda

    Write your own joke: To get a press media pass from the Utah Legislature you’re required to take Workplace Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention Training.

    Someone tells me the training is supposed to stop lobbyists from going after the interns. Of course, the benevolence and lack of judgment toward others as taught in the training isn’t always apparent in Utah lawmakers’ proposed legislation.

    Assignment: State of the State

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A full House Chamber stands and applauds families who lost loved ones in law enforcement, military and public service as Governor Gary Herbert delivers his State of the State address at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday Jan. 30, 2019.

    Ran into someone who used to be a XXXXXXX. There was no need to talk about details, we both know the math and how it probably works out on a chalkboard for the next two years.

    Woke up in the night and thought over and over about the situation. Finally got bored with it and went back to the book I’m reading, On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin. No matter how bad your problems are, reading about Saddam hanging people over a fire until their legs slowly burned up…

    Not really.


    Assignment: Utah v Oregon

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Oregon Ducks forward Kenny Wooten (14) flies over Utah Utes center Jayce Johnson (34) as the Utah Utes host the Oregon Ducks, NCAA basketball in Salt Lake City on Thursday Jan. 31, 2019.

    Waiting for the Governor to speak and a guy comes up, Is that a real Leica?

    We go on to have a great conversation racing through the past forty years of photography – shooting sheet film, Hasselblads, photographing bombs exploding and missile engine tests with high speed cameras on the proving ground.

    It’s the kind of thing that happens when you carry a Leica.


    Photographing birdwatchers. Is that a Leica?


    Shawn’s dog Bella

    We lost Shawn this week. At 35. Just a boy. He had a loving family who gave him a fitting sendoff. I’ll always remember photographing him and Scott in a fountain thirty years ago.


    Assignment: Utah v Oregon State

  • 2019 Week Four

    2019 Week Four

    Snow at sunrise, Westminster College.

    Images > words this week.


    A few from a new ongoing series taken with the Leica and 21.


    Finished the week off by installing Pi-Hole. Everything looks so clean now. After two hours, 756 queries blocked, 23.9% of traffic. Brilliant.


    Assignment: Selection of New Salt Lake County Mayor

    (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Stone Fonua speaks as members of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party’s central committee gather to choose a new county mayor from a field of four candidates at Corner Canyon High School in Draper on Saturday Jan. 26, 2019.

    Posting the most interesting, not the most popular.

  • 2019 Week Three

    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.

    The Leica and 21mm continue to give me unique angles…


    Assignment: Mitt Romney meets with Weber County Commissioners

    (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.

    Assignment: Women’s March

    (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

    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 but that 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.

  • 2019 Week One

    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. Old People 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.
  • May 24, 2018

    back to work after a week in NYC. lots of photos to edit.

    lots to write about from the past month. we went 8 photographers -> 4 photographers and many friends affected by layoffs.

    on the other side, so many positive events and much hope and positivity sent out from friends.

    .:.

    long day, but much sarcastic thanks to the person who stole L’s iPhone and turned if off immediately so we couldn’t track it (yet). hey Apple, why not make it so you can’t turn off an iPhone without a fingerprint, face ID or passcode? that way we could at least track the thing and a thief couldn’t simply turn it off to go invisible.

  • April 23, 2018

    Reflecting on a design committee I was part of last year… We followed a pattern that now seems like a legacy pattern: section off stories into subject blocks like Technology, Environment, Sports. Each department has their own space to list several stories. People on the committee probably felt good that they were claiming territory to show off the work of their teams. I did.

    However.

    I’m thinking that this sorting behavior will/has reduced reader engagement. If I am reading a site and see five stories in a box labeled Sports (or whatever), I can decide not to read any of those five stories simply by my reaction to the label Sports (or whatever). If I am not interested in the category, I won’t even read the headlines within the category’s box. One decision eliminates five stories.

    My idea is that you should present your best stories to your audience on the front of the site. Give them the headline, maybe a tag that indicates and draw them into the story. There are great Sports (or whatever) stories that non-Sports (or whatever) fans will – and should – read. By blocking content into categories, a lot of it won’t be seen.

    That said, categorization and taxonomies are very important to every site I build. I want the data to be sortable, searchable, organized. But you put that in for yourself and the small number of people who will drill down into it. Most of your readers will not drill down, but the ones who will are important visitors to your site and their attention is important. If someone is interested enough to drill down to a sub-cat, reward them.

    I saw this link this morning, and I want to dive further into it. Cards and Composability in Design Systems. I’ve been using cards on fovi8 for a long time.

    All of this thought is going into how I’m redesigning my own sites. Trent.Photo now has a front page that brings up 16 of my best photographs and GIFs, randomly chosen from 1988-2018. There’s a headline, a date, and a catgory label. Since I’m presenting images only and the cards themselves only link to a single post, I’m leaving the category label on the cards for now.

    On this site I am in process of figuring out exactly what I want to do. For example, as of this typing I still have my media diet broken into categories on the front page. I need to change that so it’s pulling x number of recent entries, with category icons next to each entry. Again, I’m only listing the title of a book or film, so the category isn’t stopping anyone from reading the entry (and it’s not like the content is critical to humanity). Also need to change Media to Recommended or something similar.

  • April 10, 2018

    You ever get a call from a friend who wants you to come to their office because they’ve “got something for you”, and you go and they hand you a Leica M camera? And you get to keep it?!

    That actually happened to me last week.

    I walked out of the office holding the camera in box. At the elevator, my car a few levels below, I was so stunned I hit the UP button.

    I’m still in shock.

    This friend has done so much good for me and my family. I could never repay the debt, even before they handed me a Leica.

    My deepest, heartfelt thanks!!

  • March 9, 2018

    I started a post a couple weeks ago as I started a two-week binge of photographing high school basketball games. I had been editing photos from February tournaments from the past decades and realizing the many shortcomings in the typical newspaper photographer (a slur) approach to basketball. The idea I took going into the first game is that I would create an algorithm for covering the games, a system that would maximize the odds for creating memorable work.

    The initial algorithm didn’t survive the first game, and I will eventually finish that post with more detail. But building on the idea that there would be an algorithm for how to photograph a basketball game (what lenses you use depending on the score, time remaining, etc.) – I’m learning a ton from looking trough my work, photos that are both below and above average –

    And thinking back to early in my career when it was easier to stand out visually – and people would say they could tell which photos in a mediocre small daily newspaper were mine.

    This, then: Why not create a visual style guide? It’s something that is already wired into my approach, after years of professional experience. But how could you define, in writing and systems and equations, a way to photograph that produced the most interesting work?

    For example, couldn’t you say that in photographing a

    wait, not that,

    couldn’t you work out a style

    just like writers use the AP Style Guide to have standardized grammar and naming conventions, a photographer could take common situations and create an approach that was repeated and adhered to (while at the same time improved upon after each use).

    Common situation: head shot or close portrait of single speaker, interview subject, etc.: Fill frame with face, lighting where possible, crop from top of head instead of chin.

    “But everything would look the same.”

    But if it was interesting, and excellent.

    More on this coming, as it all processes.

  • March 6, 2018

    From Lens Blog this morning, a fantastic piece on legendary photographer Ralph Gibson (link below):

    “I wanted to make photographs you could look at for a long period of time, photographs that were not ephemera, photographs that were made to last and could support a great depth of content,” he said. “That’s the opposite of working for the media.”

    As I’m continuing to edit the photos from my career, these words ring very true. Closing in on mid-March I am realizing that a lot of photos are making it through because I’m thinking about the people in the photograph, and the idea that somehow they will find it, it will part of their life’s history, or something like that. But then, these aren’t always great photographs.

    The answer might be to create a sub-category of photograph that denotes less important work, and then lower the visibility of that content.

    Is the project a portfolio or a retrospective? Should it be expansive or select? I’m leaning toward select in many cases.

    It’s becoming clear that if 2018 is the year I get everything posted, 2019 will be the year I refine the edit.

    [contentcards url=”https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/lens/the-surrealist-photos-of-ralph-gibson.html”]

    .:.

    Here is a fun question – if you were coming out of some kind of drama situation, which of these two outcomes would be preferred:

    A) you get everything you want, but feel a lack of respect.

    B) you don’t get everything you want, but you feel respect.

    .:.

  • February 10, 2018

    “Let’s just pretend it never happened…

    and what would we create?”

    —Kathleen Hanna. The Punk Singer..

  • February 5, 2018

    You are a creative, a photographer, a writer, a producer of content. My thought is this:

    Last night I photographed a local event where a lot of really cool things happened. Women gathered and over the course of three days, learned to play instruments, write a song, rehearse, and put on a live concert.

    I met and photographed a lot of great people, unique characters, tender moments, and really, high points in people’s lives.

    Let’s use that scenario as a setup to my thought.

    As I was editing the photographs, I found myself saving several photographs of certain moments (even though there was always a clear “best” shot). I also found myself saving mediocre photos because they might have been the only one I had of a certain person I met. I was saving those mediocre photos not to ever show anyone, but in case I might someday cross paths with these people again.

    My thought is this – when editing photographs I should be thinking, Is this photograph worthy of having my name under it?

    In other words, and less narcissistic, I should only be showing work that is excellent.

    But the thought, Is this photograph good enough that I will put my name under it, seems like it could be a clarifying rule for editing.

    Most photographers mentally attach their name to every photo they take. My thought with this entry is that I will reserve that designation until the editing phase, at which point many and most of the photographs I take will never receive my name on them. They will be destroyed in an effort to keep my body of work as strong as my abilities will allow.

    In continuing to edit my archive of decades of photographs, it is apparent that my work,

    Enough about me and my work. Use this for yourself.

    This thing I’ve just created. Is is excellent? And if not, why would I ever put my name on it? Why would I ever release it into the public?

    Nike (I know, I hate Nike).

    Vans doesn’t release every new shoe design they come up with on a daily basis. To myself in year’s past: Why do you post every photo, every attempt at greatness, that you make?

    It’s now part of my editing process – the question: Is this photograph good enough to have my name under it?

  • January 31, 2018

    I stopped in on a photo exhibit the other day. Amazing portraits done in some sensitive situations. One thing missing: the photographer’s name.

    Later today there’s an event for the exhibition. In the event announcement on the venue’s blog? No mention of the photographer’s name.

    And here in my writing, something missing because out of my control: the photographer’s name.

    A travesty.

    .:.

  • January 30, 2018

    You need to take on projects that are

    It’s become

    Big projects. Taking on large tasks. That is where I have ended up. Do something every day for a year. Completely remodel the web presence, removing (deleting) content that is weak. Adding content that is strong.

    Every day I am posting photographs from the past thirty years of that day. Which means I’ve got to edit at least thirty days of photographs daily. The January edit is complete, the posts soon to be live.

    Biggest lesson in all of this, one month in, is to walk away when it stops being fun.

    .:.

    The most beautiful thing one of our children’s teachers said to us the other day, “We want our children to thrive.”

    Yes. Anything that gets in the way of that will be eliminated ignored.

    .:.

    I watched the film Faces Places yesterday. If you give in to this film, and are lucky, you will be brought to the verge of tears by the beauty of everyday humanity and a love of creativity. Such goodness in this film.

    .:.

    Photos from January 30th

  • January 16, 2018

    January 16, 2018

    If my wife’s job went like mine today, she would have spent most of her day teaching to an empty classroom. Teaching – like still giving the lessons that she’d prepared – to empty seats. She would have been talking all day, with no audience.

    Soul crushing.

  • January 3, 2018

    Thinking a lot about an offhand comment someone made about templating making things all look the same. The trade-off is productivity. Templates save a lot of time. But true, you need to use the saved time to continually refine and improve the template, and develop the next version.

    My version – build a template or workflow and immediately begin producing product.

    The alternative – talk a lot.

    .:.

    Sad to see a bunch of design work I did last year go unused today in a huge news story. And the response when I point out that it could still be used was, “see what we can do.”

    Didn’t I just barely resolve to stay positive?

    How do you, in a positive way, address a mistake, or point out an improvement?

    The answer can’t be to swallow your concerns/ideas and not say a word, even when you’re on vacation all week and aren’t necessarily interested in logging in to fix something.

    How do you say nothing when your work is thrown on the floor and ignored? You really shouldn’t. The realization is that more and more, um, that’s about all I’m going to type right here…

    .:.

    Thinking of moving everything back to a WP multisite config. Maybe.

    .:.

    I also started thinking about this year’s UNPA contest. Never mind that we still haven’t announced last year’s winners. Never mind that last year was full of drama. Never mind that I had planned to follow a friend’s advice to walk away from the gig and not “take that kind of sh*t from anybody…”

    I was thinking this morning that, in my 2018 positivity, it would be easy to stick with it and put together a crazy cool photojournalism competition where everything from entry to judging was transparent.

    I’m always about to walk away or run a marathon.

    Hard to give up 17 years of tradition that recognizes the best work in the state.