August Miller Photo

Recent Photos in Southern Utah

2011-08-16T00:51:00.001-06:00

Just thought I would share some photos from a recent photo shoot in the red rock desert near the town of St. George, Utah. I just love photographing in the red rock country of Utah, with it's spectacular scenery and otherworldly rock formations. For the gear heads. Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105 f4 lens. Alien Bee Einstein 640 lights, light modifiers, 32 x 40 softboxes with 40ºgrids, all powered by Vagabond Mini Lithiums....

more to come.....

Recent Portraits

2011-04-10T23:33:00.000-06:00

Just a quick blog post to put up some recent portraits I have been working on for a project. I will blog about the lighting and how I shot these in an upcoming post and put up a few more photos...so until then enjoy the photos.

more to come...

Utah Jazz Charity Leapn' Leaners

2011-04-01T21:35:00.000-06:00

Just had a chance to take photos at the annual Utah Jazz Leapn' Leaners and Low Tops fundraiser for Larry H. Miller Charities. Part of the fundraiser gives fans the chance to get an individual photo taken with their favorite Jazz player and Coach Corbin. It's a fun event and a way for the Utah Jazz and the community to help raise money to help those in need.

It's also a chance for fans to mingle with the players when they aren't "working on the court" and get to see them in a different light as they often attend the event with their families.

My favorite photo of the night was when one family brought their newborn baby and had a photo taken with their favorite Jazz player C.J. Miles who actually held the baby for the photo. When the kid grows up his parents can show him the photo. I'll post that photo along with a few others from the event.....so enjoy.

Paul Milsap and fans.

Andrei Kirilenko and fans.

C.J. Miles and fans, including one very young fan.

Mehmet Okur his wife Yeliz and their daughter.

more to come........

David Hobby and Joe McNally Flashbus 2011 Tour Salt Lake City Review

2011-03-21T15:45:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I got a chance to travel down to attend the Flashbus 2011 Tour stop in Salt Lake City. For those not familiar with the Flashbus Tour, it's the photographic equivalent of Lady Gaga and Madonna going on tour together, but replaced by two middle aged men and a room full of photographer geeks instead of screaming fans.

And no, David Hobby of Strobist fame, didn't arrive inside an DIY egg carried on the shoulders of four photo assistants, and Joe McNally the last full time staff photographer for Life Magazine and National Geographic, Sports Illustrated contract photographer etc. didn't ride in on a white horse in commander mode surrounded by ten assistants holding 40 Nikon SB900 speedlights.

They just walked in the room, with a refreshingly lack of ego, climbed up on the stage and taught with humor, patience, fun and a sense of giving back to the photographic community that has given them so much. And their "show" lasted much longer than a Gaga Madonna concert----all day if fact.

David and Joe, both of whom are "The" two biggest names in photography education working today, decided last summer with an idea that came from Joe McNally's Studio Assistant, to take on the rock n' roll lifestyle and get on a bus and tour around to 29 cities in 6 weeks and teach as many photographers as they could, how to remove the flash that most stick on top of their cameras and put it on something else and make beautiful photographs.

They enlisted the support of a bunch of amazing sponsors such as Manfrotto, LumiQuest, Rosco, Spyder, Tethertools, Peachpit Press, NIKsoftware, Lexar, PocketWizard, Thinkthank photo, Frio and Adorama and others who helped pull the tour together and headed out with the first stop on March 11th in Seattle. The sponsors put together a great swag bag of items that was an added bonus to the show. The tour ends on April 18th in St. Louis, Missouri.

We hear that most of the shows are sold out, but here's the link to the Flashbus 2011 Tour site if you want to find our for yourself.

The format for the one day seminar is a morning session with David Hobby followed by lunch, and afternoon session with Joe McNally and then a brief question and answer session with both of them on stage at the end of the show.

The morning session started off with David Hobby teaching in easily understood language, the basic building blocks of off camera flash photography. His approach is to use camera flash in primarily manual mode with the occasional need for TTL (through the lens). Manual mode is where the photographer takes control over the creative lighting process by using their flash in manual mode only. The photographer tells the flash exactly how much light to send out and for how long. TTL is where the photographer uses the flash in an automatic mode where the camera measures the light that comes in through the lens and relays information to the flash telling it how much light to send out to the subject and for how long.

(A bit of a caveat for TTL. It's not exactly 100% automatic....just point your camera and it will make your bed, do your dishes, take out the garbage and cook you dinner. No the photographer still needs to give the computer in the camera some basic information to get the TTL mode on the camera headed in the right direction, and that big ball of light in the sky called the sun is still tricky enough that it can fool even the best computer inside of the best cameras made today).

He taught those in attendance to start with the ambient light, add fill light, key light and as he says "season to taste". David is a wonderful teacher who boiled down some very complicated subject matter to the level that was easy to understand for just about anyone with a camera in their hands.

The most enjoyable part for me about David Hobby's part of the show was just how humble and down to earth he is. He seemed to easily make a connection with everyone in the audience. And you could see he was really passionate about helping others and showing them how to be better photographers. The three hours seemed to fly by as he interacted with those in the audience answering a multitude of questions in a humorous and informative fashion.

He has some great DVD's called "Lighting in Layers" that just came out in conjunction with the Flashbus 2011 Tour that I would highly recommend for anyone wanting to make that leap from taking boring snapshots and moving it onto the next level. You can order them from Adorama by clicking here.

The afternoon session with Joe McNally kinda of got off to a rocky start as computer gremlins messed up his tethering system he uses to throw the photos he takes during his live demonstration up onto the screen so he can teach how he solves problems as he lights a photographic situation.

While technicians and his staff worked feverishly to solve the problems. Joe who is also another great fountain of photographic knowledge and down right wonderful teacher, took the situation and made it into a teaching moment for those in attendance by not getting upset or flustered and explaining to all that many times taking photographs is simply about problem solving.

After a couple of false starts and switching out of cameras and computers the show was back in gear. Joe was a whirl wind of information and creative genius. His approach is mostly TTL with some manual flash thrown in to solve problems and situations where TTL just can't get the job done.

He taught the details of TTL to everyone by using live models from his crew and people pulled from the audience. He showed how he use strobes and reflectors to shape the light on his subjects to achieve the results he was trying to get. And as everything was being done live. He let us in on his thinking/problems solving process and everyone got to see how he fixed things when they didn't work and most importantly got to see that its OK to make mistakes as we work towards making a good photograph. In fact the big take away for me was exactly that. Making mistakes IS part of the creative process.

Joe is a legend in the photographic world with many books to his credit that should be on the shelves of every serious photographer working today. He also released a new set of DVD's in conjunction with the Flashbus 2011 Tour called "The Language of Light" that should be on the must buy list of every photographer out there of if you have an understanding spouse, a great birthday or Father's or Mother's day gift.

In the end I think we all wanted to hold up our lighters and try for an encore, but Joe and David needed to roll onto the next stop of the Flashbus 2011 Tour!

Recent Editorial Work

2011-03-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to put up a quick post as I have been busy for the last few days with a couple of assignments for editorial clients. The first was to cover Utah Senator Orrin Hatch for a day as he met with constituents from his home state. The second was at the opposite end of the spectrum when I was asked by a client to take photographs of the classical music group the 5 Browns at their first Utah concert after their father had plead guilty to sexually molested the group's three adult sisters -- when they were children.

Both these assignment were challenging due to the fact that they would need to be shot almost exclusively with available light, which is not usually a problem, but in both these situation it was extremely low-light situations. The kind of light that is so dim that it makes you sweat just thinking about it.

It's hold the camera steady, and nail your exposure so that you don't have to lighten it up in photoshop as all this will do is make the digital noise in the files the size of boulders. And while your at it remember that you have almost no depth of field, so focus will have to be tack sharp.

This is where all that running on the treadmill comes in handy. Hold real still, exhale, and squeeze the shutter, just like a marksman shooting at a target. Being in shape, keeps the heart rate lower and when you are shooting in these types of situations you need every bit of help you can get.

Yes I know that today's digital slr cameras have great high ISO capabilities, but sometimes even high ISO doesn't reach quite high enough and the old school techniques can really help you out getting the final shots.

So here are a few images from these two assignments to let you see how they turned out.

more to come......

Intrepid Christmas Card Photo Shoot

2011-01-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for a while now to post this incredibly fun commercial photo shoot I did back in early December. I was asked by the award winning Utah based Intrepid Public Relations and Advertising agency to take photos for their yearly company Christmas card. Every year they do a theme based Christmas card where all the employees pose as characters from one television show or movie and then act out different scenarios which are then photographed for the card. This years theme was the Fox hit TV show "Glee" . These are uber creative people mind you who do this sort of thing for a living, so I was really excited to see how everything came together. Hat's off to everyone over at Intrepid. They were so professional, fun and enthusiastic and really knocked it out of the park in front of the cameras. So now that the holiday season is over and the Christmas card has been mailed out to all their clients, set back and enjoy a few images of Intrepid's ode to Glee.

more to come......

A Little Off Topic

2010-12-10T15:57:00.001-07:00

Normally I use my blog space to talk about my passion for photography. But every once in a while I read something or something happens that causes me to write about something else. Today is one of those days. A couple of things happened today which caused me to think. #1. Elizabeth Smart's abductor and tormentor Brian David Mitchell was found guilty on all counts for his role in the abduction, rape and torture of Elizabeth Smart. The prosecuting attorney's the witnesses at trial, the police officials and the jurors all stated what a remarkable women Elizabeth Smart was. How she had been able to handle herself and testify in such detail and in such a calm and succinct manner about what she had been through was a key to the proper justice being delivered in the verdict that was announced today.

Then I read an article in the New York Times entitled "The Women's Crusade". written by By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF and SHERYL WuDUNN which was originally published back on August 17, 2009. It made me think about how much better off we would be as a nation and as a world if more was done to empower women. Elizabeth Smart was exploited by an evil man. Many, many women are tortured, abused, mistreated, exploited and pushed down every day by evil men. Yet many women rise above this cesspool of repression and do so with character, humility and strength.

Just to be clear, I am not "man bashing" or "man hating" as I am man myself. The oldest of eleven children. I have six sisters and four brothers younger than me and I have a wife and three daughters, so you could say that I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by women my whole life.

So here is the opening couple of paragraphs of The New York Times article which made me deviate from my normal talk of photography.

IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.
Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. “Women hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from theWorld Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism.

Did you get that. Focusing on women and girls is the MOST effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. I want to carry this a bit further. In my belief. In any government, country, religion, theology, corporation, or home that marginalizes women, that doesn't give them an equal voice and equal power then just plain bad decision making happens. Just for thought, let's think about all the recent chaos and bad decision making that took place on Wall Street that plunged our economy into the worst recession since the great depression. I wonder how many of these decisions were made by women in executive positions? How much input did women get in economic decision making by the Federal Reserve, Banks, Insurance companies and other corporations? What about other areas in our government? How many women set on committees or chair committees at national or local levels? How many women get a chance to run for political office as Senators or for Congress? Only 17 of the 100 Senators in the U.S. are women, yet 50.8% of the U.S. population is women. In Congress we have 76 women and 359 men.

And what about the heads of corporations, banks, or military commanders? And religion? How many women are given a voice or a role in the leadership of major religions around the world. Would certain religions be as prone to extremism or the problems as divisive if women played a more prominent role?
As a father of three daughters at the same time as I worry about their future I am also encouraged by those who have recognized the importance of equality of power for women. I have always encouraged my daughters to take advantage of educational opportunities and to empower themselves with knowledge. My hope is that the world will continue to evolve and that it will be a place where all women, including my daughters will be given an equal voice in politics, economics and in their own homes.

View from my back porch

2010-11-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

We recently moved to Logan, Utah where we are basing our Wedding, Portrait, Commercial and Editorial photo business. Some people have asked me why we wanted to live in Logan, Utah. We'll I took a few photos from my back porch last night and a couple of photos from a walk we went on in the late afternoon yesterday, just a few miles away from my home so you could see for yourself.

Aside from the natural beauty of Cache Valley, with the internet and the ability to travel and work from just about anywhere we decided that Logan would be a great location for our family. So far we like the schools much better than where we lived before and my daughter is raving about the school lunch at her middle school. She comes home excited about the menu and how good the food tastes in comparison to her last school where the district used food that was prepared ahead of time at a centralized location, distributed to all the schools then warmed up.

The town seems to have a vibrant and quant downtown with a plethora of small shops and dining spots that are thriving despite the encroachment of all the big box stores on the outskirts of town.

And the commute time to clients up and down the Wasatch front is less than the commute time I used to have going to work in St. Louis or a typical rush hour commute in Los Angeles. And If I need to hop on a plane to get to a photo shoot location, the Salt Lake International Airport is only about and hour and 15 minutes from my doorstep.

more later.........

California Vacation

2010-08-09T12:30:00.001-06:00

Just a quick post from my recent trip to California. My 81-year-old mother-in-law has wanted to go to Disneyland and the beach for the last five years with some of her grandchildren. We finally were able to take her down to California for what will probably be her last major trip due to her age and declining health. It was a short quick trip of just a couple of days but the weather was nice and the trip was enjoyable.

Here are a few photos, all taken with a Nikon point and shoot digital.

more to come....

Mary Norman 15 Holes in one

2010-07-15T10:12:00.000-06:00

Mary Norman, a 69 year old golfer just recorded her 15th hole-in-one and I was asked to take a portrait of her to go with the story.

I met her at the club house at the East Bay golf course in Provo. A very humble, nice and gracious lady. she was kind enough to pose for me on the practice green behind the clubhouse.

Lighting was done with profoto D1 air system.

Here is the portraits I came up with. I liked the one where we threw 15 balls in the air to represent her 15 holes-in-one.

more to come.....

Dennis Dahle

2010-06-03T12:43:00.001-06:00

The last week has been very hard for me personally and especially for my wife and our children as my wife's brother Dennis was killed while working out his races horses when the horse he was riding was startled and reared over backwards on him.

Last Saturday all Dennis' horse friends took his two horses that he had been training up to Pocatello, Idaho for the featured race. My wife and her family asked me if I could come and take photos of the race to include in a DVD of images that would be played at his viewing. I have known Dennis for over 26 years and I was honored that they would ask me.

Thanks to Keith Johnson who volunteered to work my photo edit shift on Saturday night I was able to drive up to Pocatello and cover the race.

I have photographed a lot of horse races in my day, but this race was like none other. Dennis had two horses entered in the last race of the day, a ten-horse field. One horse Royal Rumbo was a 25-1 long shot and the other Corona Light was an 8-1 listing.

The jockey on the favorite horse fell off coming out of the gate.

In a stunning upset, Dennis horses ended the race in a photo-finish 1st and 2nd place, with Royal Rumba just edging out Corona Light for the win. Prior to the start of the race, as he was a long time regular at the track, the stadium announcer acknowledged Dennis and told of his death just a few days before.

After the race all the jockey's and family gathered in the winners circle at the finish line hugging and crying at the amazing results. Dirk Crane, the winning jockey said, "I have won a lot of races in my career but I don't think I will ever have another race like this," "The feeling during the race and how the horse ran was something I will never forget".

For me personally all I will say is it is really hard to take photographs with tears streaming down your face.

To my wife, her family and my children and all those who knew and loved Dennis, may we all find peace and comfort in all the good memories and times we shared together.

Dennis was taken by horse drawn carriage to the Lewiston, Utah cemetery where he was laid to rest on Tuesday June 1, 2010.

Rest in peace Dennis.

Corona Light, far left. Royal Rumbo second from right.

Dennis Dahle December 31, 1953 to May 26, 2010.

For all the jockey's who have asked for photos here is my email address: august@augustmillerphoto.com

Also for a nice article on the race in the Idaho State Journal click here.

HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park

2010-06-02T23:44:00.001-06:00

HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship is the largest, fastest, most exciting and competitive motorcycle racing series. Last weekend they held their only race in North America at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. The featured races were held on Monday Memorial Day. Here are a few photos from the event, where Max Biaggi of Italy had a good day winning both races after the pole winner and race favorite Carlos Checa had engine trouble in both races and had to drop out.

As it was Memorial day and Miller Motorsports Park had a big field of American Flags near the club house corner I headed over there during the second race to try and get a photos of the race leader with the flags as a backdrop. Here is what I came up with.

Max Biaggi leads the race

Max Biaggi pumps his fist after winning both races at Miller Motorsports Park.

Max Biaggi gets congratulated by his team mates after winning the first race.

Max Biaggi leads the race through the turns known as the "Attitudes" at Miller Motorsports Park.

Max Biaggi rounds the last turn and heads for the finish line and a checkered flag in the second race of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship races at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

more to come...

Ethan Stacy Viewing and Funeral

2010-05-22T20:11:00.001-06:00

I was asked by my company to fly to Grundy,Virginia to cover the viewing, memorial and funeral for Ethan Stacy, a cute little 4-year old boy whose body was found in a shallow grave near Powder Mountain in Utah. His mother and step-father are being held in jail in Utah, under investigation in his death. It was a tragic and difficult situation for everyone involved.

I was asked Monday afternoon to catch a 10 p.m. flight that night. We flew all night with three layovers and a 2 hour drive and arrived in Grundy at 11:00 a.m Tuesday morning. With less than an hour or so of rest, or as much as one can get in an airplane seat, we checked into our hotel, quickly changed and went to the funeral home to see if we could meet with the family at the private viewing for Ethan.

The people of Grundy were some of the kindest, nicest people I have had the pleasure to work with during my many years as a photographer. Under such trying circumstances when others would have been rightfully less than accommodating to a bunch of outsiders, who had travelled all the way from Utah, they went out of there way to be respectful, helpful and kind.

Joe Stacy, father to the deceased little boy Ethan, welcomed us with all the manners of a southern gentleman and allowed us to document this emotional time. I can't say enough about how difficult it must have been for him to lose his son under such trying circumstances; and yet to be so poised and gracious to everyone who descended on this small town nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia is a testament to his character and upbringing.

I want to share with you a few of the images I was privileged to make as I documented this tragic story. I will be forever grateful to Joe Stacy and his fiance Becky Elswick, the owners and directors of the Grundy Funeral Home, Curtis Mullins and his father T.J. and the people of Grundy and Richlands, Virginia for their grace under such trying circumstances.

In these type of situations all you are trying to do is document these events for the thousands of people who have followed this story around the country. You work hard to be respectful to those whose story you are trying to tell. None of these photographs were taken without their approval. There were several moments that were not photographed, at their request.

Ethan was laid to rest in Richlands, Virginia on the highest hill top of the Clinch Valley Memorial Cemetery overlooking beautiful lush green hills and valley's stretching eastwards. My hope is that all those touched by these tragic events can find a measure of peace and comfort and that time will bind up and heal their wounds.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

rest in peace ethan.....

Politics is Definitely a Contact Sport

2010-05-10T18:05:00.001-06:00

Here are some photos from last Saturday's Utah State Republican Convention.

Delegates cheer as Senator Bob Bennett is ousted

Senator Bob Bennett

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz

Congressman Rob Bishop

Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert

U.S. Senate candidate Cherilyn Eagar

U.S. Senate candidate Mike Lee

U.S. Senate candidate Tim Bridgewater

U.S. Senator Bob Bennett speaking to delegates

Mitt Romney endorses Bob Bennett

more to come.........

Good photography is about problem solving: Fashion & Portrait

2010-04-19T14:07:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago I was called upon to do a quick fashion shoot. I had 30 minutes to photograph a features cover on spring fashion and that included setting up and taking down the lights so I could make it to my next assignment. I did not have the chance to do any prep work, scout the location or wait for the time of day when the nice light starts to appear.

This happens all the time to just about every photographer. So what do you do? Whine and complain.....as fun as that sounds it's not really going to help us get good photos. So what we really do is "problem solve".

Sometimes as in this photo shoot, I really had very little time to problem solve. so I gathered small and big lights and a few extra light modifiers and quickly drove to the location. From experience of being put in this type of situation before, I also came prepared with a couple of extra extension cords that I always keep in my trunk, gaffers tape, and a few extra light modifiers.

When I first get to the location, in this case a small clothing boutique type store, I look for a power outlet for my lights, and I definitely needed the power cords, and then I look for any natural light coming in from windows and what type of artificial light is in the room.

Based on this, and the time of day I knew I could use a mixture of east window light coming in the shop and a softbox and snooted head on a set of profoto lights.

I wanted to get a couple of different looks, so I varied between using the softbox and available window light and a more complex combination of the afore-mentioned setup.

Also, thanks to our model Kamile Jensen here is three of my favorites from the shoot.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 left, window light right.

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 right, profoto D1, umbrella, left

Chimera softbox, profoto D1 main fill, front below camera, window light, right, profoto D1, camera left, snooted for face.

Sometimes the problem is lack of time, other it is the location itself and the time of day. I had a recent portrait shoot of an emerging novelist that I needed to take at her home. The location was very small, wonderful and intimate, but didn't leave a lot of room for lights, I didn't want to use small lights for this as I wanted to get a more defined softer look to the portrait, so I set up a profoto D1 left and used a large white translucent sheet of fabric to soften and diffuse the main light. I then placed a second profoto D1 with an umbrella reflector outside of the house on the porch and aimed it into the house to mimic the window light of a different time of the day.

Here are three images from that portrait session.

Just remember, "Good photography is about problem solving"......more to come...

Vegas Vacation

2010-04-13T13:43:00.001-06:00

Last week I escaped the cold and snow of Utah and drove down to Las Vegas to golf, lay by the pool and relax. As I work way too hard for my money to donate it to the Las Vegas Casinos, I spent most of my time seeing the other sights around the area. Took the family to Hoover Dam, which I had never seen before, did a lot of shopping for clothes and spent time at the Desert Hills Golf Club, which was really nice by the way and just relaxed. But of course I couldn't resist taking photos. So here are a few of my favorites from the trip.

Mariah on the tour of Hoover Dam.

Stormie and Mariah at Hoover Dam

Mariah at the place we stayed while in Vegas with her new hairband she bought while shopping

Photos from the LDS Las Vegas Temple

more to come....

Favorite Photos from Butler vs. Kansas State

2010-03-31T21:25:00.000-06:00

Just a few favorite photos from the NCAA men's basketball tournament game between Butler and Kansas State.

Butler's unrelenting defensive....

Winners........

and those who didn't...

More to come.....

Right in front of us

2010-03-31T20:19:00.001-06:00

Sometimes we are so busy we forget to look at what is right in front of us. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas taking photos of all the games. I looked up during a time out and saw this. I couldn't resist taking a photo.

more to come....

Leopard Gets a Root Canal

2010-02-17T14:15:00.003-07:00

Sometimes as a news photographer we get chances to take photos of stuff that is really cool. Last Saturday morning before heading to Provo to photograph the state 5A swimming championships, I had the opportunity to swing by Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah and photograph a veterinary dentist giving one of the resident leopards named Vladamere, a root canal. Even though we were separated by a wall and had to take photos through a plexiglass window of the surgery, it was amazing to see this beautiful animal so up-close and personal.

For the safety of those performing the surgery and that of the animal itself, the big cat is sedated during the procedure.

Here are a few photos from this.

more to come.....

5A State Swimming Championships

2010-02-15T22:29:00.004-07:00

Last week I photographed the 3A and 4A State Swimming Championships. This last Saturday I got the chance to photograph the 5A State Swimming Championships. It is alway so much fun watching all these athletes perform.

Just as last week I had the chance to use the new Canon Mark IV camera which is very good in low light conditions such as those at the Richards Pool at BYU where this event took place. For the techno's reading this. My exposures were ISO 2500 1/640 of a second shutter @ f 2.8 aperture.

I used three Canon lenses. A 400mm f 2.8, 70-200mm f 2.8 and 16-35mm f 2.8. I also used a Canon Mark III on some of the images, but shot @ ISO 2000 using 1/500 at f 2.8 as it is not as good in low light as the Mark IV.

Here are some of my favorite images from this event.

enjoy.........

400 mm lens

70-200 mm lens

400 mm lens

16-35 mm lens

400 mm lens

70-200 mm lens

400 mm lens

more to come....

High School State Championship Swim Meet

2010-02-08T22:13:00.008-07:00

I got a chance to photograph the State 3A and 4A high school Swimming Championships last Saturday in Provo, Utah. I really enjoy photographing high school sports as there is a pureness to it that doesn’t seem to exist at other levels. I saw a lot of acts of good sportsmanship and came away feeling hopeful and impressed.

Here is a collage of images I made from all the jubilation plus a few more that I liked.

enjoy....

more to come.....

NaSCAR 125 and Bear Lake boating vacation

2009-08-10T00:06:00.003-06:00

I've been really busy and then took a week of much needed vacation time so I'm a little behind on my posts, but here's a few photos to show you what I have been up to lately....enjoy!

The week before I went on vacation I got a chance to shoot some photos out at Miller Motorsports Park of Hershel McGriff, an 81 year old race car driver.

Hershel McGriff

I got a nice portrait of him and then some nice photos of him racing at the track last saturday. A spot of bad news with a flat tire on the last lap of the race dropped him down to a 19th place finish. But hey at 81 years of age and driving 175 mph around a race track is pretty darn spectacular in my book.

Hershel talks to his crew chief prior to the race.

Hershel racing at Miller Motorsports Park

But the winner Patrick Long had the best car all day and blew everyone away after every caution restart.

Patrick Long racing at Miller Motorsports Park.

I also got a chance to shoot a quick and dirty portrait of him a couple of days prior to the race. I used a combination of natural light coming into the garage from a door and a little fill light with the Orbis ring flash. Here's the portrait below.

Patrick Long

Here are a few more photos from the NASCAR 650 horsepower circuit race.

Patrick Long celebrates his victory with his crew.

Patrick Long has a champagne fight with his crew to celebrate his win.

Paulie Harraka catches a little "air" driving the NAPA AutoCare/Adaptive One Brakes Toyota to a second place finish at Miller Motorsports Park.

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My next adventure was to go to beautiful Bear Lake, a large fresh water lake which spans the boarders of Idaho and Utah in northeastern Utah. We spent the day kicking back and relaxing with my neighbors and good friends James and Stephanie Andrews and their children Braxton and Lexie on their boat. But me, being me I drug along my Mark III and a 70-200 with a 1.4x and shot some fun photo of them and two of my daughters Mariah and Stormie having fun on a tube being pulled by their boat. We finished the day with pizza and sandwiches at Bear Lake Pizza and ended the meal with chocolate covered raspberries, a Bear Lake specialty. Not a bad day. Anyway here's the photos.

James Andrews catches a little "air" on beautiful Bear Lake in northeastern Utah.

James wife Stephanie wake boards at Bear Lake.

James enjoys wake-boarding on a sun-drenched day at Bear Lake.

(from left) Mariah, Stormie and Braxton have fun on the tube as it is pulled by the boat.

more to come.....

Civility in the Age of Anonymity

2009-06-29T13:55:00.008-06:00

A recent blog entry by Salt Lake Tribune photographer Trent Nelson, got me thinking again about civility. Trent wrote about the lack of a calm, civil dialogue in the comment section of stories that had run on the web site where he works at the Salt Lake Tribune. And how he felt that people would be less inclined to let us as journalist's document their lives and stories as a result of the insulting and demeaning comments made whenever a story runs.

I agree with, him. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this as of late. Especially as I have read the comments on our website at the Deseret News, even with our policy to delete many of the more outlandish, mean spirited, off-topic and profane comments from our comment sections that follow our stories, it is still difficult to restore a bit of civility to what is left.

I don't know what the answer is, but when I lack for present answers I try to look at the past to see if bits of wisdom can be gleaned from those who have trod the path before.

I remember my grandfather telling me as we worked together to build a room on the first floor for my great-grandmother who could no longer get upstairs to her room "to always measure twice and cut once". He told me I would make less mistakes that way and learn patience. So when it comes to comments on the web and email, I think we should read everything we've written twice, send once. Maybe this will reduce the impulse to fire off our cyber-mouths before we think about what is actually coming out of them.

Another thought comes from the oft' heard quote, "The character of a man is most often found in what he does when no one is looking" I am not sure who should be originally credited with it, but it is sound advice.

In this age of anonymity, especially on the web, people often say things online in comments and even emails that they would never let slip from their mouths during face to face conversation. Our country seems polarized in it's politics, economics and socially. Society is a dynamic thing, times, language and people do change, great strides have been made in medicine, science and health, things that have made our lives better and more productive. But sometimes these same things that help us can also be a two-edged sword, ready to cut, hurt and maim if used improperly.

As a photo editor and photographer, I look at photographs, I love them as they record the exact time frame wherein they are taken. They are a reflection of what was going on at that time, the hair styles, the clothes, the technology, etc. When I look at them, I am old enough to realize that as much as things change, they also come back. Perhaps now more than ever we need to be reminded that some things should never go out of style, civility for example is something that is sorely needed. It should never be hung in the closet only to be brought out on occasion, but rather snugly fitted around our shoulders every time we set down at the keyboard of our computers or pull a blackberry from our pockets.

New Talent- Julie Best Parsons

2009-06-10T22:50:00.006-06:00

This is part three in my series of highlighting new photographic talent on my blog.

I first met Julie Best Parsons when my wife Becky and I were asked to chaperon a high school dance. At the time I was looking for a photo assistant and a second shooter for an upcoming freelance assignment taking photos of dance students.

I had used several other photographers in previous years as assistances on big jobs but had not been very happy with some of the effort. So I was in the market to find someone else.

I was looking for someone who could work quickly and efficiently. This assignment had a lot of large groups and limited shooting time. What I needed was someone who could quickly establish rapport with the student, pose and execute the set-ups needed. We only had about 2-3 minutes max with each student. I also needed someone with high-energy, as these photo shoots usually are an all day affair going from early dawn until well after the sun goes down.

As I rotated through the chaperon stations I had a chance to watch the group of about 6-8 photographers that were taking student's photos at the dance.

I noticed one who immediately stood out from the rest. She worked quickly, immediately establishing a rapport with her subject and took command of the shooting situation in a good way putting her subject at ease, while moving them where she wanted to get the best pose and moment out of each situation.

I told my wife Becky and we both spent a minute talking to her and introduced ourselves and we asked her if she would work as our second photographer.

I found out that she was the mother of two children with one on the way; A tri-athlete and a dancer with bundles of energy, enthusiasm and a lot of raw photographic talent.

She has her own small (but growing ) studio in her home in Clinton, Utah where she keeps herself real busy with three small children and a husband. She is one of the local "up and coming" portrait photographers whose work you should take a look at.

Here, in her own words, is how she came to be one of us, you know one of those pixel snapping, lens zooming geeks we lovingly refer to as "memory freezers" or "Professional Photographers" to the rest of you.

Julie Best Parsons

My journey in photography began as something I enjoyed and somewhat of a hobby. Three years ago as my family and I were moving back from living in Colorado an opening come up at a local photography studio that my sister loved. The job was for an office assistant, five days a week. Just having my second child I found myself not being interested in such a position. But after meeting the owner I found out she was looking for an assistant photographer. I showed her some of my work and I was hired. I shadowed her for a while and learned the art of taking newborn and maternity photographs. Soon I was taking my own appointments and began to see the beauty of what I could create behind the camera. I joined the IPPA and began taking any and every photography class I could find. After working for a while at that studio, I began at another on the weekends taking school dance pictures.

After working for a while for other photographers I decided it was time to open my own small studio in my home. Being a mother of three small children I wanted to work from home and start taking pictures for myself. My studio is small but growing everyday, and I love what I’m learning and doing. I’m inspired by finding new ways to make people look beautiful and giving them something to treasure for a lifetime.

More of her work can be found on her website by clicking here.

Great Photo websites and photographers_Robert Seale

2009-05-08T12:26:00.007-06:00

This is in the first of several blog entries where I plan to talk about and showcase talent, both more experienced and up and coming photographers that I feel people need to see and learn from.

I wanted to kick this off with Houston, Texas based photographer Robert Seale. Robert has been recently profiled by Adobe as an Adobe Success Story and is a much honored and well known portrait and sports action photographer.

Robert's Website:

When I found out recently that Robert Seale, had started a blog. I felt compelled to let people know.

Robert's Blog:

I know that another photographer starting a blog is not a big deal as there are a lot of them out there in the blogosphere, but when someone of Robert's photographic talent and stature feels he has something to say or offer via a blog, I think photographers, young and old need to take note.

I believe that so much of what we do in life depends on our interactions with other humans, I feel the best way we can learn and grow in our personal and professional life is by giving back, teaching and sharing with others. Those people who do this, never seem to lose that creativity and passion that keeps them at the top of their respective professions.

I was fortunate enough to be a a photo editor at the Sporting News while Robert was a staff photographer and I can tell you that he is an exceptional portrait photographer. He will downplay his other photographic skills such as sports action, but having been his editor I can tell you he is no slouch at sports actions and I have no doubt would be successful in whatever aspect of photography he chose to pursue. But it is his portrait work which he clearly enjoys and which I want to focus on.

What Robert does so well and which is a common trait among great photographers is that he is a "problem solver". He figures out through, planning, preparation and hard work how to execute his photographic ideas. This planning and preparation allows him to simply fine tune things during the shoot and to overcome obstacles that will inevitably arrive as the shooting process progresses. The old saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is true. Those photographers who plan and prepare have a much greater success rate than those that don't.

Click here to see his thought processes where he took an idea that had been kicking around in his head for several years and finally put it to good use when the opportunity presented itself.

Another aspect of good photographers is that many of them have what I like to call an "idea log" For some this is a more formal list that they write down, while for others it is a list they keep in their heads. But either way it is the pathway to good photographic execution. For example the great Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Ioos keeps a journal of "unique" backgrounds that he sees in his travels, backgrounds with interesting texture or color etc. and then when he has a portrait shoot he will try and match up the subject with a background that he feels gives him the photographic vision he is looking for on that particular shoot.

Robert had a lot of ideas as well that he catalogues. When you do this, it makes it easier for things to come together when you are trying to come up with something unique. It also helps as you try and get your vision and idea/content of a photograph across to those viewing it.

Sometimes the ideas are put to use and sometimes they don't work out, but it is important to always have them catalogued in some fashion to increase your odds of success.

I remember an idea the Robert had to photograph major league pitcher Dontrelle Willis, currently with the Detroit Tigers, and at that time with the Florida Marlins. Dontrelle has this really high kick during his windup, when he pitches and Robert had this idea to photograph him standing on one leg in his high kick stance with a flock of Pink lawn flamingoes standing on one leg. It was a great idea and would have made a great portrait, but as I remember , (correct me if I'm wrong, Robert) the idea was nixed by his agent and the team who didn't like the idea of their star pitcher being compared to a pink flamingo.

But you get the jist. Catalogue those ideas, write them down, record them or whatever it takes to remember them. Ideas are fleeting and sometimes come at weird times. But they are incredibly useful later on when you suddenly need them. Personally I'm still waiting and hoping to see how the flamingo idea will present itself in some future Robert Seale portrait.

Also another way to grow, and get great ideas is to look at the work of others. Writers, directors, artists and photographers all have great ideas we can all learn from. I frequently encourage young photographers and many of the staff photographers that I work with to look at other photographers work. I tell them, it will refresh your batteries, re-charge your idea bank and most importantly you might just actually learn something you didn't know.

So do yourself a favor and hop on over to Robert Seale's website and blog and see what you can learn. Follow this link.

Also Robert and his good friend Brad Mangin recently visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where they were asked to speak at the first annual “Baseball Photography Education Day.” They gave two different presentations during their visit to the museum: a presentation on the history of baseball photography through the years, and another program, delivered together, of their work.

Below are a couple of Robert's baseball images and here is a link to a slide show of these and other baseball images. check it out here.