(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The evening sun flares the lens as BYU fan Troy Beagley watches BYU host the University of Utah, NCAA softball in Provo on Wednesday May 1, 2019.(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The setting sun flares the lens as Utah’s Ally Dickman walks to the dugout. BYU hosts the University of Utah, NCAA softball in Provo on Wednesday May 1, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Pastor France Davis speaks at the University of Utah’s commencement ceremony, in Salt Lake City on Thursday May 2, 2019.
Second Place x3
Second Place, Spot News Photograph: Top of the Rockies. Second Place, Best News Photograph: Utah Press Association. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A plane dropping retardant on the Dollar Ridge Fire is dwarfed by smoke, in Duchesne County, Tuesday July 3, 2018.Second Place, Best Sports Photograph, Utah Press Association. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lehi vs. Desert Hills, 4A State high school basketball tournament at Utah Valley University in Orem, Thursday March 1, 2018. Lehi players rush the court to celebrate their win.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Ben Abbott, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Ecology at BYU, takes measurements and samples at the Benjamin Slough on Thursday April 25, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Dancers from Ballet Folklorico perform at Hillsdale Elementary on Tuesday April 30, 2019. The West Valley School celebrated Children’s Day, a national observance in Mexico.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The groundbreaking ceremony for Pamela’s Place Apartments in Salt Lake City on Wednesday April 17, 2019. The development, named after Pamela Atkinson, a Utah-based humanitarian and advocate for people experiencing homelessness, will serve as a 100-unit permanent supportive housing complex by combining affordable housing assistance with voluntary support services to address the needs of chronically homeless people.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Wayne Hill walks alongside a road covered with water as he prepares for possible flooding at his home on the banks of the South Fork Ogden River east of Huntsville on Monday April 22, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Samantha Taylor embraces her husband, Specialist Alex Taylor, as almost 100 Soldiers from Utah Army National Guard’s Echo Battery, 1st Battalion, 145th Field Artillery, “Big Red” return after a 10-month Middle East deployment, on Tuesday April 9, 2019 at Wright Air Base in Salt Lake City.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and the ACLU of Utah hold a news conference on Utah’s pending 18-week abortion ban, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday April 10, 2019.
Assignment: go out and find something
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Workers on a high-rise at 1300 East and I-80 in Salt Lake City on Thursday April 11, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
A kiss received during the morning session of the189th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Sunday April 7, 2019.
Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Church Leadership
Church leaders. The189th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Sunday April 7, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Liz Adeola sings a song at Heart & Seoul Karaoke, a new business in Salt Lake City that has private karaoke rooms that people can rent for singing fun. Tuesday March 26, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Hot dogs at Weinerschnitzel in Orem on Wednesday March 27, 2019. Business students from Brigham Young University are competing in a national advertising competition to change public perceptions of the much maligned hot dog.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
LaToya Mack talks about her daughter, Cindreia Simone Europe, in Murray on Friday March 29, 2019. Europe was run over by a Unified Police Department officer in a Millcreek parking lot on March 5 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
New Mexico State Aggies guard Clayton Henry (5) on top of Auburn Tigers guard J’Von McCormick (12) as Auburn faces New Mexico State in the 2019 NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City on Thursday March 21, 2019.(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
New Mexico State Aggies forward Johnny McCants (35), Auburn Tigers forward Anfernee McLemore (24), Auburn Tigers guard Bryce Brown (2) and New Mexico State Aggies guard Trevelin Queen (20) as Auburn faces New Mexico State in the 2019 NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City on Thursday March 21, 2019.
Assignment: Spring Weather
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
With snow powdering the mountains, a pair of joggers run in Salt Lake City’s Sugar House Park on a sunny Monday March 25, 2019.
We lost a true champion of our children this week. A friend who had made a difference in many lives, especially those of my two children. Heather we will never forget you and the kindness you freely gave.
Heather Bennett performing a math wiz ceremony in a 3rd grade class, November 2006.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Miranda and Valerie Kemeny hold signs as students gather to call for action on climate change at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday March 15, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Jason Harris at a press conference in Salt Lake City on Wednesday March 6, 2019. Harris was charged with possession of a controlled substance after being found with medical cannabis. The charges were dropped.
I’m getting a lot of practice taking photos of people choking up at press conferences.
This week on xxx xxx: wrong information, vague directions, unclear guidance. Nothing I didn’t already know, but I would have been better off playing it conservative instead of trying to outwit reality. None was serious but then when you work alone you overanalyze it over and over.
The rules I remind myself of: don’t trust or pass on any information unless you check it out, don’t settle for incomplete direction, and why did you xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx didn’t you just shoot from the public street?
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) celebrates a three-pointer as the Utah Jazz host the Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Monday March 11, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) as the Utah Jazz host the Milwaukee Bucks, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Saturday March 2, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45), drenched on the court during a post-game interview as the Utah Jazz host the Milwaukee Bucks, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Saturday March 2, 2019.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, speaks at a news conference on the current status of House Bill 252, Electronic Cigarette and Other Nicotine Product Amendments. Wednesday Feb. 27, 2019 in Salt Lake City.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Planned Parenthood Association of Utah and supporters gathered in a silent protest in the Utah State Capitol Rotunda Friday March 1, 2019, while a 12-foot birdhouse art installation broadcast statements from Utah constituents.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) dunks as the Utah Jazz host the New Orleans Pelicans, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Monday March 4, 2019.
Thinking about how using the Leica has made my vision health more creative… Manual focus has been a good thing. Rephrase – Manual focus with the 21mm has been no problem at all. Manual focus with the 50/1.1 is challenging and I’m not using that lens enough to master the physical aspect of focusing on moving subjects.
The 35 Summicron hasn’t been seeing a lot of use, but focus-wise muscle memory is good. Not to where I was before, where I could dial in focus without looking, but not to a point that I’m missing moments.
The missing moments happens after I’ve focused, dialed in exposure, and am watching the scene ready to fire. The figure is in perfect pose, the dog’s head is distinctly looking left, or the drop of water on the icicle swells as it begins to fall. I trip the shutter and there’s a fatal pause as the moment passes, then the shutter clicks. The resulting shot is maybe 1/8th of a second late.
So the slow process of composing and focusing increases the creativity dramatically. But the fatal flaw of the slow operation results in FAIL. To be fair To put the blame where it belongs, it only happens with the Visoflex, which is needed for the 21 (and also the 50 at f1.1).
Too many words.
The rangefinder view is something I grew to love, but I’ve clearly moved on to great EVFs, which give me an exact version of the final image in the viewfinder. I set my EVFs to monochrome, which brings a crisp emphasis on line, shape, and pattern.
Tracking through the past five or so years of my work, or even further back, there is a pattern of rebelling against the equipment required by the job of a newspaper photographer available to a newspaper budget.
When we went with the Nikon D1H and its 1.5x crop sensor, I felt like I was staring at everything through a straw. In reaction, I began to expand the frame by shooting huge composite images made of dozens or even hundreds of frames.
Then it was the EOS 1-D Mark II and an array of lenses that weighed more than anything I’d ever carried around. The reaction to that was to move to a series of small cameras that were clunky and unnatural, though lightweight.
At this point, after nearly a year back with the Leica M, I’ve turned on the smaller, low quality cameras. I don’t use them anymore. And I’m being drawn toward glass of the highest quality.
Maybe there are two years left in my career. I ask myself, Why take a photo with anything but the finest lenses in the world?
(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.
(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…
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.
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 CapitolRocky RidgeLa Sal MountainsBowtie ArchGrandstaff Canyon
(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.
(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.
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.
(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…
(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.
(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.
(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…
(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) 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.
(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 ParkRed 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.
(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.
(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.
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.
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.
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.
