A Documentary

This semester I took a documentary photography class at the U from Craig Denton. In the class we were required to do a documentary about a subject of our choice. I at first considered talking to the hockey team and doing a documentary about them because I like to shoot hockey and I know the team manager. I have also done work for him many times before. My friend Jarad Reddekopp was in the class too and he said to me, “You’re doing yours on hockey, aren’t you? You always do hockey.” This made me realize that I should try a different topic.

A few days before this conversation, I got mug shots for all the candidates running for ASUU office and met Patrick Reimherr, Jon Hayes and Madison Warren. The candidates and I had fun while they were having their mug shots taken for the paper. I thought that if they would let me come to all their meetings, I could do a documentary about the campaign for student government office.

I shot just under 1,500 photos for the documentary. During that time I was faced with many challenging situations. There was one situation that stands out in my mind.
The Focus party hosted a house party for candidates, supporters and volunteers. There was a dance floor in the basement where members of the Focus party danced along to music. It was one of the best parts of the party and I needed to take a picture of it. I tried to take a picture without a flash so I would not ruin the atmosphere, but it didn’t work.
I finally gave in and used a flash, but with the flash it was hard to see that the people were dancing. The picture made it seem like the dancers were frozen in place.
Next I tried to use a slow shutter to capture movement blur. I ditched the flash again, hoping the long shutter would give me enough light, but no such luck. I finally got tired of holding the camera and moved the camera too much, which gave me streaking lights in the shot.
I took the flash off my camera and flashed it in my left hand as I held the camera itself in my right hand. This worked, except that I moved the camera in between flashes and the walls looked like they were moving with the dancers.
I finally got one picture that worked where the walls were still. The people moving seemed like they were dancing and it all came together. This picture was taken while I was still holding the camera by hand. I used the door frame for some help but it was mostly successful because of my steady hand.
I did get a tripod to use, but at that point the party had died down and it did not help at all.
One of the party members, Pace Johnson, used some of the photographs I had taken to make a video. Check it out.


At the end of the semester I had to do a magazine layout for my documentary. This is the final lay-out for my project.

Red and White Football

Last Saturday, I was scheduled to shoot the end of spring football practice, the annual Red and White game. The day was filled with activities for Ute fans and featured a MUSS and an Alumni game before the football team took the field. I went early to shoot the MUSS game in case we needed a feature photo for the paper on Monday, and to try to get used to the difficulty that came with focusing the 400mm lens. At golf I used manual focus because golf is not as fast a sport as football is.

When I arrived, some players were warming up so I started to get test shots and actually got one fairly interesting photo. It would have been better if the guy in the fore ground had not been there, but it was only a test shot after all.

Then I focused on the MUSS game. Flag football was different to shoot than tackle football. There is not as much contact or interesting tackles and photo opportunities, but I did get a few good shots when people would fall. I learned to watch for those moments that lead to some interesting pictures.
During the Alumni game I did not get any really good shots. They were having fun rather than playing to win. The one shot I was looking for came a few times during the game. The White team center would hold the Red team center’s head down, but I never got a clear picture of it. I tried to move with the play, but it was difficult to get positioned quickly enough.
Then the game started and the crowd began showing up. The Utes draw a fairly large crowd for their spring game. This year they had approximately 4,500 in attendance. To put that into perspective, Nebraska was expecting a full house of just over 80,000 for their spring game and the tickets, with a face value of $10, were being sold for over $100.

During the game, my goal was to get file photos of some of the important players and train two new photographers who had never shot football before. I focused on the freshman quarterback DeVonte Christopher, Brian Johnson and Coach Whittinghamn. I would have captured a good photo of Bo Hikila if it wasn’t for a hand that poked into the frame. There are a lot of great sports shots that have a hand or foot ruining the picture.
Former Ute and current San Diego Charger Eric Weddle returned to coach the White team and became a big part of the story. To get a photo going along with the story, this last set of pictures are when I try to find a good shot of Weddle. None of them turned out great because I accidentally cut half of the picture off when I was taking pictures of him.

The White team won and RJ Rice took the opportunity to rub it in the Red teams’ face.

My first experience shooting golf

Last week, for the first time in my short career, I shot golf. Tony Pizza, the Daily Utah Chronicle sports editor, told me that the golf team would be playing in the Cougar Classic in Provo. Tony thought it would be good to get some shots of the team when we had the chance, especially since most of their time is spent playing in Southern California and Arizona.

So I began preparing for a trip to Provo, which is not my favorite place in the world. I checked out where I needed to go and found out the tournament was being held at Riverside Country Club, a private club. I read about club and discovered that it is home to more than 500 members and has been part of the city since 1960 when it opened. After this, I had a nervous feeling because of the uppity attitude Country Clubs are reputed to have, and because this club was in Provo, known to many U students as enemy territory.

Upon arriving, I found my fears about the members to be accurate. I stood out like a sore thumb because I was one fourth the age of every member I saw. They avoided looking at me, and the only person that would say anything to me was a janitor. After making my way through the club, I got on the course and found the players to be more friendly and inviting.

I was worried about shooting golf because of rumors that photographers ruin the player’s swing and other techniques. Tiger Woods has complained in the past about photographers taking pictures in his swing. I was timid at first and worried about moving around to get a better angle. Because I hung back, all I got were boring shots like these.
After the first hole, I loosened up a bit when one of the golfers from UVSC chatted to me and I found a groove. I would shoot on one hole and learned where the hole was. I would watch as the balls landed on or near the green so I could move into a prime position before the golfer got there. I would do the same during tee shots and ended up leaving the game with a variety of shots.
At one point I actually got a shot with the golfer and the ball in it.
My biggest challenge was to know who was who for cutlines. To solve this problem, I took a lot of shots of bags to keep track of names.
Before I went to the shoot, there were two shots I was looking for: reactions and bunker shots. During the round, the Utes shot around par. There was not any big reactions either way except for one picture, but it was not a very good photograph.
There were only two shots of golfers hitting the ball out of the sand, but I missed the ball the first time and was in a bad spot for the second.
All in all, it was a good experience and I look forward to shooting my next golf game.