NATHAN SWEET PHOTOGRAPHY

Preview: Senior Pictures - Allie Jost

2011-11-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Family Portraits: Shew Family

2011-10-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year again for family portraits. Must say the Shew family grandparents are awesome!

A Few Good Hits

2011-10-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

During the last Utah football game against Arizona State University there were two hard hits in the game.

Equipment: 7D in the shop

2011-10-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend i found myself running around trying to shoot soccer and then volleyball right after at the University of Utah. In my quick haste I left the 7D on the 400mm lens and put it in the passenger side of my car shutting the car door. 5 minutes later i found my 7D pinned against the door and a cracked screen. the next weekend I was shooting the anti-wall street protest down town SLC the 7D game me an err 70 half way through the protest. Away to Canon it goes with no warranty to cover it because of the crack screen. Prime example of why every professional photographer should have backup equipment for everything.

cracked protecter screen and err 70 on the 6 month old 7D
Nathan Sweet Photography

Portrait: 50 years teaching at the U

2011-10-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

I've been working on a photo essay at the Ballet department at the U which has helped me learn a lot about myself and interacting with people. I've also been shooting assignments and sporting events for the Chronicle. Yesterday I had the honor to photograph a professor who has been teaching at the U for over 50 years. Listening to him share his experiences over the last 50 years having traveled, working for large companies and still staying at the U to teach you can feel his sense of pride in the teaching he does. He cares for his students to learn real life lessons in the classroom.

Larry DeVries a Distinguished Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at The University of Utah has been teaching at the U for over 50 years. Still grading every test himself saying "learning is and should be an experience." Behind him is over 100 thesis's former students of his have written, "its always a great feeling watching my students graduate"

Nathan Sweet / The Daily Utah Chronicle

Larry DeVries a Distinguished Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department has been teaching at the U for over 50 years. When asked if he had any special memories while teaching he said, "its always a great feeling watching my students graduate"

Nathan Sweet / The Daily Utah Chronicle

I used the same setup for both shots, just a beauty dish to the right or left of the camera, low power only 20watts or so. I love the fall off of the shadows you get from the beauty dish. I also really like the light stand with 2 legs, thanks Scott.

Portfolio: Dance

2011-09-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Dance might be the most fun and enjoyable subject to photograph. Capturing the art with art, dare I say the word Organic? Katie and Rachel from Utah Ballet came down the the studio this morning to do some dance photography. Its great working with them because they are open to creativity and experimenting. Failure happens all the time but sometimes we get the best of the best. The take away from today's shoot is to be okay trying new things and being proud of what you do. You can tell the passion these two girls have in their lives for dance. why do photographers hide their passions behind their lenses. be bold and share it with others.

Video: BTS Capoeira shoot

2011-07-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

The last month has been full of video work! A few weeks ago I filmed a Behind The Scenes video for Mike Tittel, It was a great time with the entire crew! Mike just put the video live on his site Sunday which means I can share it with you now! There are still 2 other video projects I've worked on in the last month which I wish I could share with you but will have to wait for another month or two. Until then enjoy the BTS video of the Capoeira shoot.

Check out the photos from the shoot at www.miketittel.com

Equipment used:
Canon 7D for video
Canon 5D mark I for time laps
Canon 17-40mm f/4
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
Video Rode Mic w/ dead cat cover
Zoom H4n audio recorder
GlideCam Pro 2000
Glide Track 3 ft long
Manfrotto tripod w/ fluid head
32 Gb card
16 GB card
4 Gb card
Mac Book Pro
Final Cut Pro

UPDATE: 7/18/2011
Video landed on www.blog.sekonic.com

UPDATE: 7/21/2011
Video was just posted on www.fstoppers.com

Portfolio: Road Biking

2011-07-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks Devin for taking an afternoon out of your schedule to get some great shots!

Portfolio: Golf Portraits

2011-07-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to focus my photography into stylized athlete portraiture. Here is the latest work for my personal athlete portraiture portfolio.

Thanks Katie for making these possible!

Video: ASUU Commercial

2011-07-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

Summer started up a while ago and I was bored to say the least, maybe why the recent personal portfolio shoot with Paige, or all this recent Video work I can't actually show anybody until after the extreme makeover team produces the TV show for Utah! Another project has been a spotlight commercial highlighting what ASUU does at the University of Utah for freshman orientations starting in a little under a week.

The commercial was formed out of collaboration with the Marketing Director and the Marketing Board in ASUU, a planned clean look for one of ASUU's campaign for the year to come. We interviewed over 25 people in one day, hair and make up stylists were there to make sure all the volunteers being interviewed were looking there best for the camera. We used over 4,000 watts of hot lights to get the look and feel we were going for. We used two Canon DSLR cameras and a ZOOM H4n audio recorder. over 170GB of raw footage was shot to from this 3 min 45 sec commercial.

Portrait: Kyle McFarland

2011-06-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend it rained hard in SLC so climbing outside turned into climbing at the gym. Climbed with my friend Kyle and talked about doing a portrait shoot later in the evening. here are the results.

SETUP

Im not going to keep my lighting a secret, anybody with a trained eye could look at my setup and tell you a general idea of what I did.
2 rim lights - strip box w/ grid
1 fill light 47" octabank

Tennis and Baseball: Paige and Alex

2011-06-17T01:34:00.000-07:00

Shooting personal portfolio work is one of the must fun things ever! Mike Tittel has been a large influence in my life to push for shooting personal work. I've always been shooting assignments/jobs always having to worry about getting a shot you think your client wants you can focus your full attention to what you want to get, and it takes a lot of stress out of everything. Before this shoot even started I wanted to just have fun during the shoot and i think you can tell that in the photos bellow.

A while back I posted a blog about focusing in on what I want to shoot, this is definitely more my style with sports, well maybe not the water. Publicly announcing personal goals for your work is scary but I want to say it now, in one year I hope to be shooting for an athletic department for a college and/or taking assignments for college focused magazines.

I need the help, and its more fun that way!

2011-06-17T01:13:00.000-07:00

Just finished up a Tennis/Baseball shoot at the Salt Lake Tennis Club with Paige and Alex "check back tomorrow!" this post isn't about the main photos from the shoot its about who you don't usually see in the pictures. A good helping hand is hard to find these days, probably because most people want something out of it for themselves. well Dave Brewer "bellow" and I have been working on projects and jobs together for the last couple months and we have become a great team.

Dave Brewer / photo by Nathan Sweet

the team is the driving force getting the job done, and its not for individual gain, its for the gain of the team! Dave and I have helped each other out on several different portfolio shoots, video shoots, jobs and so forth but we have always found the respect of each other, I think this is because we want to see each other do well and advance in each others work. I will never be the first to do a fashion shoot but if Dave needs a hand doing that I will help him out and give him the best helping hand possible. tonight Dave went the extra step and helped me out big! worthy of a blog post none the less. so check him out, www.davebrewerphoto.com Check back later for the pictures from the actual shoot!

Two Rivers Coffee

2011-06-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

The few days I was in Colorado I was able to spend a day with my a great family friend Eric who owns a coffee shop called Two Rivers Coffee. They brew some of the freshest and best coffee I know of, its almost worth the 8 hour drive to get a 12oz cup of joe. stay tuned for a video of the place, until then enjoy the photos.

Senior Pictures: Sarah Zuehlsdorff

2011-06-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just wrapped up taking Senior pictures for Sarah Z. great time in Golden Colorado! Enjoying the time out in Colorado for a few more days.

Weddings

2011-05-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

I never have really advertised my wedding photography and I dont plan to but if someone asked me if I will shoot their wedding I likely would love to. I've been asked by a few different photographers if I would help shoot a wedding as a second shooter or taking video footage. The first wedding im shooting this summer is today, Taner and I shot the rehearsal dinner last night. The setting was amazing, hosted in a beautiful backyard with tables just bellow the deck.

Stay tuned for more pictures from the big day!

5A High School Soccer State Championships

2011-05-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Felt like I haven't shot much sense school got out so I went down to Sandy to shoot the Mens High School 5A State Championship soccer game for fun.

Portfolio: Trail Running

2011-05-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Editing Process

2011-05-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

I think there needs to be an understanding between photojournalist editing and commercial editing in today's world. This also brings up the subject of editing technique which I'm curious to hear if anybody cares to see my editing techniques? I've learned all my photography skill though asking others and photographers with an open source mind set, but I'm still questioning how this fits into my work when it comes to giving back to the community.

Canon 7D, 400mm f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 1600

The Image above is from the last RSL Soccer game I shot and lays out the 3 different images I walk away with after I'm done editing the picture.

1.) The camera Raw file with no edits, this is the picture I would get with all the manual settings I'm using on my camera alone.

2.) The Raw edit, I take the picture into Raw and do simple editing, WB, Exposure, Contrast and Cropping. This is the picture I will send to the News Paper

3.) The picture I would use for my commercial and advertising portfolio.

Would anybody care to hear/see the reasons I'm shooting with the settings I am in camera, the editorial editing work flow and the commercial and advertising work flow?

Real Salt Lake vs Monterrey

2011-04-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

On assignment for The Daily Utah Chronicle.

Grand Kerfuffle 2011

2011-04-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Shooting for ASUU, the Grand Kerfuffle featuring Chiddy Bang and Mike Posner. The amount of prep time for shooting a concert like this is considerable. I had a couple meetings with Tom the marketing director of ASUU to make sure we knew which shots we wanted to get. I also had a quick meeting a week before with Brian who was in charge of hiring security for the event to make sure I knew how much "ALL ACCESS" really meant. On the day of the concert I met with John "head of security" and walked him though what i needed and was planning on shooting during the event. Meeting John early in the day was crucial for the open communication I would need later though the concert when power to one of my lights went dead. John got 3 people on it and fixed it in a couple of minutes! I had Taner be my assistant/2nd shooter which helped because he got more pictures of the front crowd than i did... we had a great team and everybody with ASUU are great to work with! O ya, the music was pretty good too.

ASUU: The Onion

2011-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Some great speakers have come to the University of Utah to speak to students about their work and how it got off the ground running to where it is today.

Last night The Onion came to give some examples of their favorite work sense they started. Its been great photographing these events for ASUU, next big event is The Grand Kerfuffle!

Talks: Steve Jobs - Your Future

2011-04-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

photo by: Albert Watson/business pundit

Sometimes you read things that can change your perspective on life right after reading it. I got an email from a coworker today with a link to the speech that Steve Jobs gave to Stanford's graduating class in 2005.

"I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?... It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on."

I highly encourage everybody to read the talk HERE. Next time you think you could never do that or be that person I hope you realize you are in control of your own life and you need to take the auto pilot off to live. You will never be who you are meant to become if you don't start living the life you feel you need to live starting now.

ASUU: Nicholas Sparks

2011-04-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

I usually don't blog about the work I do For ASUU at the University of Utah but i think its to good to pass up. ASUU brings in different speakers to students to listen to every year, last night was Nicholas Sparks the writer of the Note Book and many other popular books.

He talked about how he got started in writing and how doors opened up for him in the most random ways. It was really interesting to hear how he got started even if you aren't interested in the romantic books.

Passion 2011: Texas

2011-04-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is a post for the parents I feel like, I'm currently on an unexpected trip in Texas at the Passion Conference. God is showing up in my life so randomly and powerfully from the beginning of the trip. I really shouldn't be on this trip because I wasn't planning on going until 4 hours before the van pulled out of SLC. I'm here though and God is moving through all the speakers, musicians, small group families and each of us on the trip. Its a wake call and a reminder as to what has happened in my life in the last 4 years sense moving to Utah. Enjoy the few pictures I got to take before they noticed it was professional gear, at least I wasn't escorted out like last year :)

O ya, and my computer screen got cracked on the road trip out here so its a little jacked up.

Finding the Passion, Finding the Focus

2011-03-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

just over 2 years ago I decided I wanted to focus on photography for a career. I started this blog to record my progress and give all of you readers insight into what I was doing. The last two weeks I have spend 10 days the road in 3 different states, photographed 17 NCAA Devision 1 basketball games, 1 NCAA Gymnastics meet, and 1 gymnastics profile picture. with that said I want to do it again because it was that much fun! I think I have found my love and focus in photography shooting sports.

When out shooting the MWC I was talking to a student photographer from UNM and he mentioned a Sports Shooter Academy workshop in California. A workshop style instruction designed for sports photographers to get experience in the field with professionals helping you while shooting NCAA events. After the day of shooting you come back to the hotel and edit pictures with instructors by your side getting their input on your work. It sounds like a dream come true to find an affordable workshop like this. I'm planning on attending the 2 day Sports Portrait Lighting Work Shop in April if everything works out.

Tell then, I guess I will be trying to shoot as many Utah athletic events as possible. Today I photographed the Ute's football team at practice for The Daily Utah Chronicle.

#11 Luke Matthews runs down field after receiving a pass during practice

Mountain West Championships: Cut The Nets

2011-03-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

The games are all over at Mountain West Championships. 16 games in total were played to determine the winner of the men's and woman's NCAA basketball teams for the Mountain West Conference. The University of Utah woman's team takes the win against TCU and San Diego State's men's team wins against BYU.

Head coach Anthony Levrets from the University of Utah cuts the net at the 2011 MWC.

Head coach Steve Fisher from San Diego State cuts the net at the 2011 MWC.

Mountain west Basketball Championships: Day 1

2011-03-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Got into Las Vegas yesterday, after getting media credentials, talking to the media coordinator about where we can shoot from, and setting up the laptop in the media room It was time to shoot.

I was able to shoot 2 of the woman's games yesterday. Because a lost game in the tournament results in elimination the teams have a lot more emotion!

Meixandra Porter shoots a 3 pointer at the end of the game against Air Force, CSU lost to Air Force 63-66.

Today I'm shooting a men's game Wyoming vs TCU at 2pm, our woman's Ute's U of U vs Air Force at 4:40pm, and maybe woman's Wyoming vs New Mexico at 7pm.

Portfolio Work: Janelle

2011-03-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

Currently out in Colorado, spent some quality time with a friend last night and was fortunate to line up a photo shoot with Janelle early this morning.

Latest: Video Work

2011-03-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

I've fallen deeply behind in editing and posting sports pictures from shooting at the University of Utah sporting events. Im still shooting them and just started traveling a little to do so. last weekend I went up to Logan to photograph the Red Rocks Gymnastics team and ended up getting snowed in up there for a night. After I finish writing this quick post I'm driving to Denver to photograph some editorial work and some personal work in Boulder.

The main reason I have stopped editing pictures right away is because I've started doing video work as of December 2010, first I was the director, cinematographer and editor for 3 short student bio's at the University of Utah for ASUU. you can find these videos at asuucareeradvantage.com.

I also did a few behind the scenes video's for commercial and outdoor sports photographer Mike Tittel. The last video we did landed on fstoppers.com today.

I've also been assisting for Dave Brewer Photo on a video shoot for Day Break Housing Development in Utah. I also assisted for him on a fashion shoot for Black Chandelier Clothing over the weekend.

I'm getting so much experience right now and I would say it's from an open door, helping each other out and collaborating on projects together. I'm learning so much right now about talking with other people and working together, but thats for another post! Maybe one last thought - its not really about you the photographer/cinematographer, its really about the people in front of the camera.

IM OUT, NS

Head Shots: Becky Palmer

2011-01-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

My Ballet Dancing friend Becky Palmer will be graduating from the Dancer department at the University of Utah in may this year. She needed head shots to send to different dance companies around the United States and she asked me to take them for her. Good luck Becky Palmer!

Hinckley Institute staff Picture

2011-01-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

2011 Hinckley Institute staff picture

The Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah asked me if I would photograph their staff pictures last week and we finally got around to taking it today. The staff at the Hinckley office are great people and I would encourage anybody at the U reading this to go in and ask about their internships!

Assisting - Dave Brewer Music Video

2011-01-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday night Dave Brewer was asking around on facebook seeing if anybody knew of a location to shoot a video that was brick exposed and industrial feeling. I started chatting with him and hopped on to help him out for the evening. I took some behind the scene pictures of the night.

Dave found some gloves while cleaning off the elevated floor.

There were a couple more of these bird skeletons laying around the floor where we were shooting.

getting the audio all set up next to the stair way opening that we didn't want to go down and see what was bellow us.

the room was so long! and it was all covered in bird shit and the dead birds that dropped the droppings.

Dave finding time in-between breaks to play some music himself

2 years later

2011-01-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

It's been 2 years sense I started documenting my journey of photography though this blog. I've been looking toward the future so much that I feel I have forgotten about the beginning stages of it all.

taken 2 years ago while having fun with friends

Sense I started photographing I have taken pictures for the following:
- The Daily Utah Chronicle
- University of Utah Student Association
- Utah Sports Properties
- Dead Point Magazine
- Mad Rock Climbing
- Momentum Video Magazine
-Momentum Indoor Climbing
- Capital Church
- The Hinkley Institute
- Global Artisan's non-profit
- weddings
- Ballet Portfolio's
- portraits
- head shots

the pictures in this post were taken in January 2 years ago with a canon 10D "6mp" camera and a soft box. Its a good reminder to focus less on the gear and more on the creative side of it all. It might also be important to mention the relationships that you can have with the people you work with. Don't pass up creating a relationship with your subjects that could last a life time. Get to know your subjects before, during and after a shoot. I haven't seen Ross in awhile but we still stay in touch randomly.

Profile - The Ladies in Red

2011-01-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

read the article in The Daily Utah Chronicle about these 4 ladies who play piano at the same time to raise money for kids in low income situations so they can learn the art of music.

Basketball U of U vs BYU

2011-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

U of U Rugby: Player Profiles & Team Picture

2010-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to get asked to photograph the University of Utah Rugby Club Team. They needed a team picture and a profile shot of every player on the team. Sorry coach if you thought this would be a quick picture taking experience. 50 people in all got there picture taken, 2 min a piece - you do the math, O and don't forget about the team shots! It was a lot of fun, thanks Ata for helping me out!

Gymnastics: Preview Meet

2010-12-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

This meet was a preview meet before the season begins, this meant no judges so I was more at liberty to experiment and move around.

Profile: Will Cylburn

2010-12-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

simple light setup, DIY reflector with a shower cap with a TCO jell to warm it up. the light is center with Will, on a boom arm so i could shoot underneath it as well.

Work: Mad Rock Climbing

2010-12-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back I went out with Steven Jeffery to Little Cottonwood while he was climbing for a short movie.

Steven said we should get some pictures of him in the new shoes for Mad Rock because they were looking for new content. I was excited to see my picture being used on their site today.

Special Thanks to Laron for being my human light stand during the shoot. Also a special thanks to Kacey for helping me though talking with the client.

ASUU: Student Debt Shoot

2010-12-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

The last shoot I did for ASUU was a brain stormed team effort within the office and the communication adviser Tom. ASUU wanted to get the word out to students about a new program at the U to help students with money management and the effects their choices now will effect their futures. We realized student debt was one of the larger issues students worry about so it would be a key statement. We also wanted a feeling that students fell pressure with money management and its a real problem. We wanted the image to say it all with little added wording. The end result of a 2 day brain storm session was a student being crushed by a bag of student debt. Once we had the idea they asked what I would need the office put things together for the shoot.

image we used for the poster, before all the added design/information.

Website banner picture

behind the scenes getting by making the bag.

Football: Utah vs BYU

2010-11-30T18:21:00.000-08:00

quick post of a key moment in the game over the weekend, not time for dessert. enjoy - Nathan

Football Profile: Boo Andersen

2010-11-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

On assignment for The Daily Utah Chronicle photographing a profile of Boo Andersen on the Ute's Football Team. Super nice guy, really awesome to work with!

final picture

How much time do I get with the athlete? The answer for me is as little time as I need to get the shot, NOT the time the PR person tells me I get. The athlete didn't ask the paper to send a photographer to take their picture, the paper sent me, Im on their time, they are the client and I try and respect that as much as possible! Bellow is a screen shot of the contact sheet from the photo shoot.

I had a shot in mind "inspired by Dustin Snipe's photography" these are the first 5 pictures of Boo, the last 6 pictures are my backup pictures incase something didn't work in the first shots. You can notice on the last 2 shots I moved the light a little more on axis just incase the edgy style of lighting wasn't lighting up enough of his face. The back light is the bare flash bulb hitting across the rocks in the background and rim lighting Boo. Total time shooting, under 3 minutes from telling Boo how I wanted him to pose to telling him thank you for his time. Read the full article here, The Daily Utah Chronicle.

- Nathan

Personal Work: Motor Cycle - Richard

2010-11-21T13:40:00.000-08:00

Found some time to do some photography of my own. Richard was excited to get some pictures of himself with his baby so we found an hour of free time and made it happen.

I would love to hear feedback-critique-advice-likes-dislikes!

Basketball: Remote Camera

2010-11-18T08:38:00.001-08:00

remote camera triggered with a Pocket Wizard

During the last mens basketball game I put a remote camera on the support of the basketball hoop, Because it was low to the ground I was able to move it to the other end at half time. It was a nice change to get a different shot of the action.

Super clamp, with the Magic arm

The transmitting Pocket Wizard was on the hot shoe of the camera I was shooting with in hand. The delay is noticable between the shot above and the shot I took with the camera in hand.

Another shot from the game.

Mens Basketball

2010-11-13T15:09:00.001-08:00

The Basketball Season has started up at the University of Utah, no big games yet but some great plays! Its always fun shooting basketball, it reminds me how my photography career started last year.

Will Clyburn dunks after a break away against Grand Canyon /11/12/2010

U of U Football vs TCU

2010-11-07T12:55:00.001-08:00

shoot tight, dont crop

2010-11-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the first home game for Mens Basketball at the U of U. I shot 95 percent of the game with the 70-200mm lens. I also took along the 400mm lens because I have it for the TCU vs Utah football game. Notice the big difference between cropping down the 200mm picture compaired to shooting tighter with the 400mm to start. the Depth of field is so much smaller giving the best image we go OOO and AAWWW at!

Please note I'm not using the best shots of the coach from the game, but rather showing you visually the difference between 200mm cropping and shooting it with a 400mm.

all the camera settings were the same: ISO 1600, 1/640 @ 2.8/f
the pictures were quickly edited in raw before exporting to jpg.

Ballet: Photo Shoot

2010-10-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Lately I've gained more interest in dance photography, not sure if its from the news assignments i've been getting recently or going to every ballet showcase at the U of U sense 2008.

Becky - Ballet student at the U of U

I've been friends with Becky for about 3 years, last week we got together to do a photo shoot. A mutual Friend Shawn helped out a ton with standing in as a focus mark and creating ideas for poses.

setup: I under exposed the sky within sync speed creating the outline of becky. The light source was an alien bee light with a 47" octabox, this gave the light a nice soft look. The light was positioned at a 45' to becky and myself. the lighting changes quickly during sunset, lesson learned is to start shooting at 1/200 or so for ambient light, if it starts getting darker just lower your shutter to compensate, that way you wont need to change your power settings on the strobe.

Personal Work: Street Portraits

2010-10-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to photographing some personal work today. I drove around down town for a little bit and saw a vendor selling tie die shirts, I introduced myself to Scott and asked if I could take his picture... he was down. For the record, everything I learned to make these pictures was self taught through the internet and trail and error. Why I'm in college, I don't know.

Football: U of U vs San Jose

2010-09-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

Concert: Redfest

2010-09-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

Enjoy the pictures from Redfest, an annual Concert Series put on by ASUU at the University of Utah. A detailed post will follow shortly on the making of the pictures.

Portrait: Hannah - Goal Keeper U of U Soccer

2010-09-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

I've had this picture in my head for awhile. Asked the photo editor at the paper if we were doing any profiles of soccer players soon and he asked the sports director. They found a story of one of the players and we found our player for a profile article.

Canon 5D: 1/200 sec @ 7.1, ISO 50

I think I got lucky with the weather, a few hours before I was doing test shots in my backyard with direct sunlight seeing if it was possible to do the shoot in the middle of the field or if I would need to find shade again like the Volley Ball profile shoot last week. The stormy clouds under exposed by 2 stops gives a nice dark POWER effect for the backdrop.

Thanks Hannah for being such a great person to photograph! Hannah has one of the most cheerful personalities and was great to work with. It was almost impossible to have her look serious while taking pictures - truly a joyful person to be around.

Portrait: UMFA Executive Director - Gretchen Dietrich

2010-09-08T22:46:00.001-07:00

This assignment was to photograph the Utah Museum of Fine Arts Executive Director, Gretchen Dietrich.

Gretchen Deitrich - Executive Director of UFMA

STROBIST INFORMATION:
in my attempts to share my assignment work with you I want to explain my workflow on the shoot.

step 1.) scouting - every assignment I look for interesting locations that help build a connection between my subject and the story trying to be told. For this assignment I needed it to say Utah Museum of Fine Arts. simple enough right, well I actually spent over 15 minutes trying to find a good angle to use the sign as the background.

Step 2.) Lighting - once I had the visual idea in my head I needed to use all the light around me to my advantage. If I had the subject turn almost perpendicular to the sign her entire face would be in the shade. PERFECT! I didn't want any sun hitting my subjects face or there would be harsh shadow lines, she is being completely back lit by the sun. Set the camera to "manual mode" I first set ISO to 100, then I set my shutter speed to 1/200 of a second. I want to have the ambient light "sun" 2 full stops bellow normal for a dramatic effect, so i changed my f/ stop accordingly in this case to f/11. at this point I haven't even set up the flash yet!

Step 3.) Flash - recap really fast, my camera is set at ISO 100, 1/200 @ f/11. The light I'm using is an Einstein mono-head that can give 640 Watts/sec. with a DIY battery pack and a 15in DIY soft box/dish/shower cap. yes a shower cap as the diffuser! Okay, I know from past experience playing with the light if my subject is 6ft away from the light I can shoot at full power on these camera settings and drop down all the way to f/22 so I don't need to use full power, I set it to 1/4 power to start.

Setup Shot

Step 4.) - Client has arrived - introductions are made, I told her I wanted to take her picture with the UMFA sign in the back ground, then told her where I would like to have her stand. I said I needed to take some test shots to make sure I had everything correct so she could just stand there and not worry - were not going to use these. up to this point everything has bee business, the next 30 seconds while your making sure you have everything set correctly is the MOST IMPORTANT as a photographer!!! you need to make your subject feel comfortable with you! right after I say I am just doing a test shot, I take one shot lower my camera to my side and ask a question about them or what the do! while they are talking about themselves you can change what you need to "work" while having them be in control of the conversation. Its almost like tricking your subject into making them feel like they are in control, simple but important!

step 5.) photograph - with Gretchen, our conversation lasted all the way through the shoot. I stopped shooting several times to talk with her about the museum, her job, how long she has worked there, where she is from originally. Also during this shoot i actually was focused so much on framing the shot that I wasn't looking at Gretchen but rather what was behind and around her. once I had the composition correct I would ask her to smile or count down 3 -2 -1.

In the end we got a great shot that we were both happy with, I like to take several shots, find one that I like and then show the subject what it looks like and say something like, I just want to take a few more or these are great let me try a different angle.

Volleyball: Portraits

2010-09-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

I've heard it said that you should shoot every assignment like your shooting your dream job. This is my dream job... I want people to know me as a sports, portrait, and commercial photographer.

Morgan and Mckenzie Odale - U of U Woman's Volleyball Team

Here is the run down of the portrait session
Step 1.) scouting for the location - pure panic almost, the coaches took down the nets right after practice, so the gym was out. I made a quick dash into the hall way to find a brick wall "bla" then i went outside, saw some stairs but didn't think it said power... and these girls had power in their game! Once I made it outside I started looking for shade, and found a bushy garden behind the wall. LOCATION FOUND!

Step 2.) get everything set up and wait - the news writing and a team manager brought the two girls outside so i could photograph them. I knew they had a long interview with the writer ahead of them and they probably wanted to get back to their friends as well so I tried to be quick.

Step 3.) Once the girls arrived I told them the basic idea i had for the shot, told them where to stand and how i wanted to them to look. I find it helpful to explain the visual idea in full to the subject that way they can get into "character" making the shot more interesting.

Mckenzie and Morgan Odale - U of U Woman's Volleyball Team

step 4.) Create - After a few shots that I knew would work for the paper, I asked them if we could do one more shot, had them step back closer to the wall while I moved the light closer and changed my lens to a wider angle. I got low, but not to low making sure the background surrounding them was the grey wall and not the sky. Now they were closer to the wall their shadow appeared giving a more dramatic effect. the result was the shot at the top of the post.

Tomorrow Im doing a portrait of the new Director of the University Museum of Fine Art. I don't plan on being nearly as rushed as I was with the volleyball players so I'm excited for creative time before/during tomorrows shoot.

What do you want to read about in my blog posts? Behind the scenes? stories of the shoot? editing process? I would love to hear what your thoughts are!

Capital Church CD

2010-09-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

The CD is out, the pictures are in. 2 months ago I photographed a live recording concert at Capital Church. I just found out this week that the CD is in and for sale at the church. AWESOME! Here are some pictures of the CD cover and fold out bellow.

Soccer: U of U vs Sain Mary's

2010-09-06T00:15:00.000-07:00

The Ute's soccer team has not had the best season this year, with another game at home lost 0-2 making their record 0-6. During the game I just shot with the 300mm @ 2.8/f trying to keep shots night, even if I couldnt fit the entire player in the frame I still practiced following the action. This actually let to a lot less cropping in post editing. Next soccer game I will most likely go for the 400mm lens.

I'm also looking to buy a second 5D body or a mark IIn if anybody knows anybody selling one please let me know! I got a few ideas I want to try but need more camera bodies. can anybody say remote trigger?

Soccer: U of U vs Loyola Marymount

2010-09-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

University of Utah Girls Soccer had their first home game 9/3/2010, with a loosing streak on the road the Ute's continued their unlucky streak unable to pull off a home win with a final score of 0-2 against Loyola Marymount making Utah's record 0-5.

Football - U of U vs Pittsburgh

2010-09-03T15:20:00.001-07:00

First game of the season and The Ute's are looking good, read the full report of the game at The Daily Utah Chronicle

Here are my favorite 4 from the game.

Portraits - future project?

2010-09-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Playing around with new ways of interacting with people to get a more natural smile lately. The last two years I have found it hard to get people to be relaxed in front of my camera, well until now. The new technics have been working great, I really feel like I captured Dave's joy in life with his portrait. Pablo, well I have one of him smiling to but nothing says Pablo like his "serious" look.

There are a few new editing technics I've been playing with while editing in black and white and I'm really pleased with the results.

David Budge

Pablo Stein

I have been wanting to do a project for awhile involving people, portraits, and their roles in the world. These were kind of simple test shots to help me become more comfortable interacting with people while taking their picture. I want to brain storm/journal ideas, make a game plan, find funding and proceed with the project for 2011. For now, taking these kinds of pictures is fun!

The Game Plan!

2010-09-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today is the first football game, the first sporting event of the school year. I plan to do something very exciting to me and hopefully to you too. I'm going to make a post sharing every sporting event I cover this year. Behind the scenes, experiences, setups, and the final images.

the idea behind this is simple and I have posted about it before. Two years ago I drove over 500 miles to hear Chase Jarvis give a talk about creativity and how as an artist you need to proceed with getting more work. watch the talk HERE

Step 1.	CREATE, if you have a vision you need to go out and photograph it - document it. nobody will hire you if you don't have any work to show them! so go out and create it! whatever it is, if you want to shoot portraits do it, fashion - shoot it, commercial work - yep start shooting it now, life style - go find it and shoot it, sports photography - .... you get the idea.
step 2.	SHARE, here is where my plan comes into play! I plan on photographing at every football, basketball, gymnastics, and soccer game this year. I also hope to photograph the less covered sports such as, track, cross country, water polo, ping pong? How can I effectively get my work in front of people, well this blog is one way, a good friend gave me some other way to get my work out there, and a teacher gave me another outlet as well, hard work is the name of this game.
step 3.	SUSTAIN, there is no glamour to this idea. we all have a minimum financial need to live life, so for me I work at Starbucks, clean a climbing gym once a week, and work for a news paper. I make the minimum amount needed to live on my own, pay for everything and go to school full time. once you make the minimum start creating again!

Hopefully you realize this is a cycle, keep doing this until ideally you no longer need to clean toilets at night because you are making enough money off of your photography. people will want to pay you for the work you like to shoot.
~ sounds nice right ~

New Site!

2010-08-22T04:36:00.000-07:00

The new website is up! You probably noticed the change already.

Its now all about UrbanFotoArt.com

you can still go to my blog by going to
NathanSweetPhotography.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy the new site, there will be more gallery's shortly including portraits, gymnastics, and football.

NEWS: ASUU Photographer

2010-08-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I mentioned I was working on some bigger "projects" with my photography. Today I would like to announce one of them, I'm officially the photographer for the Associated Students of the University of Utah aka ASUU!

Canon 5D: ISO 200, 1/200 sec, @ f/7.1 - one Einstein, one Ultra Zap 1600

Canon 5D: ISO 200, 1/60 sec, @ f/4.5 - one Einstein, one Ultra Zap 1600

Yesterday we did two photo shoots for ASUU. Be on the lookout for some new ASUU pictures to pop up around campus!

Being the Photographer for ASUU is giving me the opportunity to be imaginative and create the picture I'm thinking of while still needing to produce the picture ASUU needs.

Little details become important
moving furniture is inevitable "sorry Union staff"
lighting needs to be spot on
posing people became natural "weird"
capturing a story in one picture = hard work

I Personally feel blessed to have gotten this opportunity with ASUU, being able to do photography while working with such amazing people! I can't wait to see how I grow as a person and a photographer through the year.

The school year starts soon - GO UTES!!!

Wedding: Mr. and Mrs. Wolff

2010-08-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

Twilight Concert Series

2010-07-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday I was working on some homework in the news room, Richard "the photo editor" came in and asked if I wanted to do a shoot later in the day at pioneer park. I told him I had work but asked what it was anyway. Turns out it was the Twilight Concert Series; free concerts every Thursday night during the summer time in SLC. A few quick phone calls and I got my work covered to shoot at the concert.

The media pass for this event gave me access to the area between the stage and the crowd for the first 2 songs, after that I had to get out of there. I got the heads up about that from Richard before I went down there, giving me time to make a game plan for the concert. stopped by the office after class and grabbed the 300mm f/2.8 IS lens.

THE GAME PLAN:
step 1.) get to the front of the stage before the concert starts
step 2.) get a wide angle lens out and dial an exposure quick
step 3.) shoot like hell and done look at the LCD screen to see if you got a cool pic. " you only have 2 songs to get the shot!"
step 4.) leave the front of the sage "times up" get to a safe area and change lenses to the 300mm
step 5.) walk around from one side of the stage to the other, taking pictures of individual members in the band
step 6.) once on the other side, switch to a wide angle lens and repeat step 5
step 7.) run into some frineds/co-workers from the gym, hangout, and enjoy the free show!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
- take a mono-pod and a remote camera trigger to get a higher angle "with a wide angle lens it would have made for a nice point of view"
- the concerts are called the "Twilight" series because the bands always play during the last hour of sunlight! no correlation to the Twilight movies. I was so confused at first!

The Results:

Quick Lesson on Angles "point of view"

2010-07-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

For the last two year now I have been hearing people say "work the subject, and work it some more" But in Journalism photography that's almost impossible, you cant just tell your subject to tilt their head a little, or look over there. I used to find journalism harder than normal photography because of this. Now however, I have been noticing that I have unknowingly been working the subject without interacting with them. ANGLES & point of view!

These pictures were taken at a U of U gymnastics meet last year, while transitioning from events i snapped a shot of a gymnast getting her ankle taped up. the BLA shot.

walking a little bit around to get her face in the shot, took a picture, 2 frames later i got on the ground HA! and got this last shot before getting run over by her teammates. The low Point of view from the ground makes a viewer relate to the subject. This is one of my more favorite shots because it shows her frustrating with her ankle problem.

Being a photographer is about making sure you are in the right spot to get the right angle at the right time for that one picture.

Next time your at a sporting event, take a quick second and play "where's the photographer." You will notice that we are always positioning ourselves so that we'll get the right angle. Its hard work, always on your toes, anticipating your subjects next move.

When you look at a photograph, think these questions:
- what lens did they use
- where are they positioned
- why did they pick that spot
- anything special with lighting

If you take a moment to think about these things before you take a pictures guaranteed you will get better results from your camera.

Cheers,

Nathan

Climbing: American Fork

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Wedding Preview: Mr. and Mrs. Wolff

2010-07-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

Portfolio

2010-06-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a printed portfolio to show my work to a perspective client.

Lessons learned from making the portfolio:
1. Costco prints are almost as good as professional lab prints but one fifth the cost.
2. Work hard, and then work harder

All Pictures

2010-06-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Capital Church CD Recording

2010-06-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

The event starts in 5 minutes, but a quick post from practice. should be a great night here at Capital Church in SLC.

2010 Bouldering World Cup Championships

2010-06-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

I'm home in SLC for 3 days now after being in Vail Colorado at the Teva Mountain Games. The United States hosted the 2010 Bouldering World Cup Championships for the 3rd year running. After editing through over 2,400 pictures its hard, almost impossible to narrow down to a top 20 let alone 100 pictures. Im wondering what's the most effective way sharing the pictures from the event to get my name out there. any thoughts? here is one of my favorites from finals.

Finals 2010 - Daniel Wood's - USA Climber - Men's Champion

I was able to accomplish a mini personal project while shooting at the Teva games this year. I hope to share that with everybody later. For right now I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep, my cell phone dropping service, the AC in my car going out, and all this editing. With that aside this years Teva Games was a great experience for me and I will not forget it any time soon. Thanks Bret for coming with and hanging out again this year.

I'm amazed to be a part of such an event like this and look forward to the year to come! what's next? U of U football, basketball, gymnastics, soccer, softball, tennis, Chronicle news assignments, Climbing Comps, weddings, portraits, personal projects, and next years Teva Games.

Salt Lake Climbers Alliance: Black Diamond Fundraiser

2010-05-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Black Diamond hosted their first annual fundraiser to help the SLCA.

"The SLCA exists to promote climbing opportunities, preserve local access and encourage stewardship of the environment." - SLCA

Check out the SLCA and get involved in what they are doing to keep the doors open for climber in the Wasatch Mountains.

Color Checker Passport

2010-05-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

For the last while I have been wanting to lock down my color management in photoshop, i started with buying a screen calibrator x-rite eye-one display 2 from Pictureline. This made my life 95% easier when it came to printing. I still felt there was a missing gap between the color in my pictures vs the color pros were producing when looking at the color range and vibrancy in the pictures.

Yesterday I purchased the x-rite Color Checker Passport giving me the ability to give my camera a profile in my Photoshop Raw work flow. Every camera sees things a little bit differently making colors not appear as they should in your image, a camera profile alters the image colors to produce accurate colors for your camera.

The Passport gives me a precise white balance with the given white balance squares for warmer skin towns or cooler landscapes. The Card also gives what's called clipping squares on the bottom row of the chart to use with Levels in Photoshop. Levels gives you the i-droplet option to select the true white, gray, and black in the image which will give you a more vivid color making a flat image become dynamic with a full "true" range of tones and color. One you have created a level layer with the chart you can apply the layer to other pictures taken in the same lighting conditions.

Bellow is an example of the image changes with every step used. This card just made my life so much easier in my pursuit to reproduce accurate colors and basic tweaks to images to get the results I want.

Preview: Andrew & Ariel Gonzales Wedding

2010-05-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Joe's Valley, UT

2010-05-04T15:43:00.000-07:00

Its been a few weeks sense posting anything, I've been busy shooting but keeping it on the down low.
Over the weekend I've been shooting bouldering with some friends in Joe's Valley Utah, the picture bellow is a wide shot of a setup for some portraits of Kyle.

LOCATION: some where in the middle of no where between Joe's and Price

Utah Ballet

2010-04-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

On assignment for the school newspaper last night, this was the second time I photographed ballet. UTAH BALLET performs this April 9th, 10th, 22nd 23rd @ 7:30 PM, and April 10th @ 2:00 PM so go check it out and buy your tickets at the door. The pictures bellow are a preview of some of the performances, I must say some of the pieces are very moving as the show case is focused on taking a look back into history. I left early and I heard that i missed the best piece of the show, I guess this means I have to go watch the show.

I learned some "better" post editing in photoshop over the weekend, not so much anything new technique wise, just a way to see and have control of the range of light and darkness in the image.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments, so please leave one at the bottom of the page! Thanks, enjoy.

Climbing: LCC Session

2010-03-30T00:48:00.000-07:00

My class got cancelled Monday morning so we went out to LCC for some rope climbing/picture taking adventure. The day started out good warming up on some slab, tent climbing w/ "Robin aka Bob" belaying. Then the day got hard when Tim and Trent got on some really hard cracks. Unfortunately we didn't get a rope up for the pictures so it became a relaxing day for me at the rock, minus the ticks.

Trent on Leggo My Eggo 5.10a

Climbing: LCC Boulder Session

2010-03-24T23:22:00.000-07:00

First time bouldering in LCC this year! Some great temperatures made for some good climbing in the lower part of the canyon.

The Setup for the picture above: I wanted to get rid of the shadows from the trees on the rock so I knew the flash would have to be the main light in the pictures. dropped the ambient 1.5 stops or so and adjusted the flash accordingly. flash was around 1/2 power, ISO 100, 1/100 @ f13

A different boulder problem, mike sending one of his projects. The flash is in the lower left corner acting as a fill light with sun as the main light. Flash was around 1/2 power, ISO 100, 1/200 @ f9

Where is Journalism Going?

2010-03-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks I have been hearing and reading that news journalism is dying and a new form of journalism is beginning to form. I predict newspapers to be gone in 10 years, mainly because of new technology like the IPad, giving you the news digitally while keeping you connected to the rest of the world. Video is also becoming a new foot forward in every day life, if we hear of a story we first search google for the video footage of it. Magazines are becoming more advertising than quality stories. The last issue of Climbing Magazine I flipped through and counted 31 of 64 pages totaling all advertisements. The jobs and budgets for news media outlets are going down.

My big question is where does this leave a photojournalist? will the job title even exist in 5 or 10 years?

Everything is and has gone digital and is now trying to find its way to effectively combine words, pictures, videos, and advertisements into one page so the viewer will find it worth their time.

SIDE NOTE: Don't forget about Augmented reality, where does that even fit in all this? - if you dont know what it is i highly suggest you check out this link - General Electric "smart grid" -

the reason I bring this topic of journalism up is because I believe that news journalism will be turned over to the general public in the near future. I was reading through some Facebook statuses this morning and came across this link of how YOU can get YOUR breaking news pictures to the news sources "and get paid" click here to read about it. I'm not saying this is bad, maybe we should even embrace the idea. However it does make me wonder why I'm thinking of studying Mass Communications emphasized in Photojournalism. I might begin to learn a career that wont exist in a few years after i graduate college.

Not to completely controdict what I just said above but right now there still is a need for a photo Journalist. Someone to get the job done while nobody else can.

David Gilkey - NPR Photographer - Photographing Haiti

Maybe I'll I'm trying to say through this scatter thought post is, I'm confused about what I'm doing right now. Im asking myself the questions, why do I want to study photojournalism? Do I want to be a journalist? Am I really helping anybody if I do become a photojournalist? Am I going to live a life or document one? Big questions that can change my life if I answer one way or another.

U of U: Red Rocks Gymnastics

2010-02-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

University of Utah @ BYU in Provo Utah

Published: DPM... and some personal thought

2010-02-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

Freak out moment! Its official, 2 of my pictures got published in the Latest issue of Dead Point Magazine. Small - yes, paid a lot - not nearly as much as you think, cool to see - you bet.

The two top pictures are mine, not the large ad for Organic Crash Pads, which are amazing by the way!

Special thanks to Kacey Hyer for letting me borrow the lighting gear, and to Rich Legg for letting me borrow lighting gear in the past so i knew what I was doing this time around. I hope i can take this as a reminder that a lot of hard work and planning helps make things happen. I also realize the excitement of this is ending, and i need to move forward with other projects and ideas.

If I can take moment of your time and talk personal for a minute. I have been worried for the last few weeks about the content of my blog, if it is becoming an outlet for me to boast about my work. I have talked to a few people who follow my blog and asked them if they think this is the case, as much as they reassure me it isn't I would like to make my intentions very clear to everybody stopping by and checking out the blog. This Blog was never meant to boast about my accomplishments as a photographer but to rather journal my experience and personal learning of photography. I know in the last few months it has turned more into a blog about where my work is ending up. This is very exciting for me to see the development of my photography and I want to document it so I have something to look back on. I do NOT mean for my blog to be a soapbox for me to boast about my work. Rather I want it to be a place where I can share my experience in developing my photography career with people. So with that in mind I feel justified in sharing things like the picture above with you. Not as boasting, but so you can share in my career development with me.

Thanks for listening to my rant, Nathan

Head Shots: Nicole

2010-02-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

I find it extremely enjoyable when presented with a challenge of shooting something new! Nicole asked me awhile ago if I would take head shots for her, we finally got around to it and we had a great time! I'm really pleased with the results and I'm hoping I get the opportunity to take more head shots for people in the future. Good luck Nicole in your pursuit in the acting world!

The Last week of Sports at the U of U

2010-02-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

This last week I photographed at the Mens Basketball game vs New Mexico and at the Gymnastics meet vs Utah State.

Portrait: Mark Matheson

2010-02-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

photo: Mark Matheson, an English Professor at the U of U

Last week I got an assignment to take a portrait of an English teacher making a difference at the U of U. After sitting through the interview I could tell he loves people and makes and English as well. He wanted the picture of Martin Luther King to be visible, I like how it gives his office character.

Setup:
Large window behind on a cloudy day and office lights up above "all lighting were at 5500K yes!" I first took a shot 1 stop under to see Mark was being back light from the window just enough to get some separation. Added in fill light i put a speedlite bouncing off a white umbrella, a few shots later I dialed in the power for the speedlite and we were in business.

New Job, The Daily Utah Chronicle

2010-01-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

at the beginning of 2010 I set several goals for my photography. Thinking it would take me awhile to accomplish these goals I started working on them fast! College took a back seat for half a week to shoot a climbing competition last week, maybe i tried a little to hard. One goal of mine was to be a photographer for the University of Utah's newspaper. Yesterday I shot my first assignment, the U of U Woman's Basketball game vs Wyoming.

I normally put a link so you can check out the full article, however my picture got used on the website for the story of the Mens Basketball game vs Wyoming, an away game. Two Pictures did get published in the news paper this morning with the running story of the girls game. Congrats the the Woman's Basketball team for Pulling off a 54 to 47 win against Wyoming!

SCS Nationals 2010: DPM

2010-01-26T11:58:00.000-08:00

The National Sport Climbing Competition took place in Salt Lake City Utah over the weekend. I have been planning for this event for the last month and I am happy to say it was worth every minute of ditching classes and not getting much sleep.

Dead Point Climbing Magazine is going to be using a few of my pictures in their February publication. to check out the online article about the OR Show and the SCS Climbing Comp click Here

People: David Farmer

2010-01-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

A project I did a few months ago was documenting the life style of my friend David Farmer. Dave has lived off and on in his truck for over 3 years. Unfortunately we ran out of time and I couldn't live the life style with him in my own car. He has a dog, and rightfully so this first picture he called his family portrait.

from my surprise living out of your vehicle is not that much cheaper than paying for rent some where. After gas, storage costs, maintenance, and other things it only saves you a couple bucks.

welcome to the living room.

need a closet? anybody say back seat?
don't ask for privacy with this life style, the door is always open.

looking for the kitchen sink, hows 5 gallons of water sound?

"this is where i put the rest of my stuff" - David Farmer

Utah Vs TCU

2010-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Another game, and a few more angles than before. Getting the right angle can take more work than work. what? I felt like i was training for a sport with heavy expensive camera gear as training wait. Running up and down stairs, around the court, back to the floor, all for a good angle. a few of the results are shown bellow, different wide angle shot, a unique coach shot, I didn't feel like sharing the pictures from the noise bleeds but I got them.
Anyway enjoy.

Passion 2010: Worship

2010-01-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Just spend the last week in Atlanta Georgia with a few good friends at the Passion Conference. We were going to write an article for several news papers in Utah about how this was the largest number of people ever assembled from Utah to got a Christian Conference like Passion. We got cleared to take pictures the morning of by the head media cordinater, however while I was shooting we ran into a lot of problems with the volunteers saying I couldn't take pictures. 7 volunteers, 3 staff, several phone calls, a back stage walk around, a press booth, and an unresolved situation after 2 hours made us not go forward with it. With all that said i would like to say that I thought passion was an amazing learning experience and will be attending it again when its back in America or Canada?

So here are a few of the pictures i got off before/while volunteers were saying they would confiscate my camera. HAHAH seriously people, don't tell me you will take my camera. pusha.

Engagements: Jordan and Stacie

2010-01-02T13:37:00.000-08:00

I finally got to meet my sister's fiance over Christmas break! Before I left for Atlanta Georgia "where I am now" we shot their engagement pictures.

SCS National Championships 2009: RECAP & The Future

2009-12-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

It's about that time of year again! Momentum Indoor Climbing will be hosting the Sport Climbing Series Open National Championships for a 3rd time running! Last years Comp. was a great success for my personal shooting. This year I've been brain storming how to shoot the comp differently.

Utah vs Oklahoma

2009-12-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

This is the second game I've shot for the University of Utah, and I'm starting to ask myself, how can I improve the my work?

Looking through last games pictures vs these game pictures they look about the same to me. To get different shots I'm thinking to myself different questions.
- do I need to shoot from different angles?
- have a wider angle lens?
- Use a more powerful telephoto lens?
- What am I missing during the game?
- Should I know more information about the Utes basketball team?
I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this!

Quick look: U of U vs Oklahoma

2009-12-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Just sitting at a coffee shop before my day gets busy again, taking a quick look through the pictures from the game. Im happy to say i got a few good shots with the remote camera setup. It almost got killed by a size 14 shoe within the first 5 minutes of the game! I will post tomorrow with pictures from the game!

Video: Gear Setup for Basketball

2009-12-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

You asked for it, so here it is. This is a short video on my camera gear setup for basketball games. It also happens to be my setup for about everything else except for lighting gear. Check back tomorrow for pictures of the Utah vs Oklahoma Mens Basketball game. Enjoy!

Utah vs Michigan

2009-12-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

What an awesome year this has been, and its not over yet! During the UTAH vs Louisville i ran into James who works for the University of Utah. A few weeks ago James asked if i could photograph at the Mens basketball game for the advertising department of the athletics department. Some of these images will be used, others are just great shots! enjoy.

Concert: Josh Rosenthal - Day 2

2009-10-31T23:49:00.000-07:00

I finally purchased a pocket wizard triggering cable for my camera! This allowed me to set up a camera on the stage behind Josh to get a unique view of the concert.

Ben Robie opened for Josh on the second night of the concert.

The main event, Josh Rosenthal.

Concert: Josh Rosenthal - Day 1

2009-10-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

I few days ago Josh asked me if i could set up some lighting for his concert this weekend. Josh has an amazing talent playing music from his heart, check out his work joshrosenthal.net. Tonight he is having his last show and ill be setting up a remote camera while enjoying his music with friends in the audience.

For anybody looking for a nice relaxing night come to Mt. Olympus Presbyterian Church at 7pm to watch Josh's concert, $15 for tickets at the door.

Sports: Physical Sequence

2009-10-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

the TCU game had a lot of physical action! I felt one photo from this sequence wasn't going to explain it fully.

Soccer: U of U vs TCU

2009-10-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

This last month i have been photographing sporting events. I have gone to a few University of Utah girls soccer games which happen to be at night. Nothing like fine tuning my night sports photography. I first thought it was going to be hard to photograph soccer with only a 70-200mm lens but after thinking about it, you have the full sideline to walk up and down, the only person that might get in your way is an innocent ball girl. This involves a lot more physical work than just sitting at the end of the field with a 300 or 400mm lens but you will get different angles and the work will show it in the end.