A PARTY!!! In Provo???

Ok after putting this off for over a month it is time to write this blog. Me and Lennie went down to Provo early because we wanted to shoot the Utes tailgate party before the game against byu. The party was awesome and was the best time I ever had in Provo what provide the most entertainment was when the lot emptied so the fans could line the streets and great the Ute buses.

After the buses passed the Ute fans moved back to the tailgate but a few stayed on the road and were yelling at passing y fans when one came and stopped in the middle of the road, and proceeded to climb on to the top of his car.

The Ute fans got a hold of his car flag and well…

After that it was time to go back to the stadium home of the saran wrapped cougar.

As for the game it was not so fun and it is still hard to talk about but all I have to say is that the refs sucked ass and the calls were horrible. I know Wilson felt that way at the end of the game.

In the end byu still sucks.

Three days in F***ING PROVO!!!

First things first my apologies to Clayton for missing the deadline he gave me to do a new post but hey this is a good post like all my post are;)

At the Chronicle we put together a Rivalry Guide before the big game, well this year the Daily Universe did not contribute to the guide so we had to do it all this meant we needed pictures from Provo so I took on this task. I was so luck that I got to spend 3 days in Provo.

DAY ONE

The first day was not actually for the Rivalry Guide it was to shoot the Mountain West soccer tournament it was actually my first Utes soccer game of the season but it went well I got some good shots.My favorite was this shot of Lauren Hair.
DAY TWO

The Utes soccer team won their first game against Wyoming so they had a match with top seeded UNLV so I shot that game during my second day in Provo. Again I had some nice shots I wish I got the ball in the first shot but I think the patch of grass is a good substitute to a ball.
For my second assignment on day two was the TCU @ byu football game. I had some time before the game so I thought I would go out and shoot some tailgating at byu because I loved the tailgates at Utah but to my surprise I could not find any! Well I saw the Maverick and GMC ones but that is not fun so I went up to the press box. To be fair it was a Thursday night.
So my main focus was to get shots of the big players like Hall and Unga and of course Cosmo.
In addition to that I got some shots that I like because they are just funny in my eyes. One of my favorite was this yawning cheerleader. He got so bored with the game he could no longer hold it in.My next one is a sequence of two images of Cosmo. In the first image here a woman shows up with a little couger/human baby, this is the first time Cosmo has see this baby.
In the second frame Cosmo plays off the knowledge of his illegitimate cub with a shoulder shrug always a good choice. My last shot was not a funny one it is what I think is my best football shot of the year my only problem with it is that it was a shot of byu instead of Utah but hey a good shot is a good shot I guess. It makes me feel good that I can make a bad team look so good in my pictures;)

The Final Day DAY THREE (Thank GOD!)

Day three was a full day of shooting. The first thing was to go down to Provo with Lindsey and Tony we were going to go on to the byu campus to see how we were treated as Ute fans on their campus and have some fun when we were down there. It started with some fun at the cougar in front of the football stadium. We had drug along our Cosmo so we started by feeding little Cosmo to big Cosmo and Lindsey got on for a ride. Then Tony got on for a ride of his own!
We continued along our way hit up the bookstore and along the way we were getting some looks because we were in red but no one had said anything to us. From the bookstore we went to check out the Daily Universe to see what their news room was like. Well on our way there we were asked by a student “are you lost?” well we joked with him asking, "yeah how do we get to Salt Lake? "

Then the conversation got serious and he wanted to know where we were going so we said to the Universe office so he told us how to get there but he had to be an ass hole about it. He said “this is the Joseph Smith building that is where religious stuff happens. You will want to stay away from there.” We were stunned!
So after we got past the “Religious Building” and were almost to the paper we saw a couple kissing in front of the building I thought this was an honor code violation even if that was not I’m sure the guys next move was. So they started to go their separate ways when the guy reached back an slapped the woman’s ASS! It was funny I don’t know why this is allowed on their campus but it was.

Now we had made it to the paper and the first thing I saw in this very nice office was the photographers desk with a simple rule for the photographers. Anyway before we left campus I needed to get a shot to show how we were treated because almost everyone would give us looks so Tony and Lindsey sat on a bench was I tried to capture the scorning look we got and it worked beautifully. After we got some food we went to cover the Utes and byu volleyball game. Like soccer this was the first game I covered this season. It took me only three shots to get one I loved.
The only problem with it is that they went on to lose so it did not work as well as I hoped it would.

During the game I saw one fan with a dry erase board. I’m a fan of signs and smack talking but this is going a little far.
People being forced off of their land is always hilarious.

Half way through the volleyball game I had to go meet up with Clayton Allyand Carlos for a night on the town in Provo so they had already got some ice cream and we were now going bowling but it was an hour wait so they just did some interviews and I tried to get some shots but the it was so full and badly designed I got nothing I’m proud of.

After that we went to a dance the school was holding at the gym after the volleyball game. I did not have a flash with me but lucky for me they keep lights on so I could get some kinda cool stuff.My favorite was this shot of the security
I thought it was just a joke but there was two guards watching for dirty and close dancing!

At one point I was shooting Tony doing a dance so he came over to tackle me but I keep shooting so I got this shot of Tony that I love. My last dance picture was when Clayton and Ally were trying to get kicked out but we did not fit in at all so security knew we were not from the y and so they let them be. After the dance we went to check out make out point above Provo and to our surprise there were a ton of cars up there! All in all it was a fun time.

Back at our office we needed to get a picture of our new Cosmo we got at their bookstore for the contest to find him. I took this shot it was a little big for the paper but it is a nice end to part one of two about Provo. Post two is game day!

The MUSS

I got this picture at the game yesterday and it speaks for it self. I love The MUSS!

Speed

This semester I’m taking a photojournalism class and we had a project to shoot a story or a photo essay I was having a hard time finding something to shoot for this project so I sat down with Jim Fisher one day in the photo office at the Chronicle and he helped me find my idea.

So I’m a big hockey fan and in speaking to other hockey fans we agreed that one thing that makes hockey great was the speed of the game. So I decided to shoot hockey with a slow shutter to show how fast hockey is.

It proved to be hard to shoot but I got better the more I shot with a slow shutter. In the end it turned out well. Go ahead and judge for yourself.

Get ready for some football!!!

Ok like always I’ve been meaning to do a post but I’ve put it off and put it off well now is the time for a football post and instead of doing a lot of little ones I will do one big one with all the football games I have shot so far.

My first game was the Utes first home game against Air Force, there was some serious questions surrounding the Utes after we lost Johnson and Asiata in the Oregon State game but it I was still excited about my first game. At first I was a little too excited I was just shooting everything and not thinking it through. As the game went on I got settled in and started to shoot better. I got a few good shots.

The Utes were inches away from tying the game but could not get through the Air Force line to score it was a disappointing end.

I was offered the chance to shoot the game against UCLA but thought they will get their asses kicked and I need to watch a game from The MUSS so I declined the offer, HOW STUPID!?!?!

So the next game I shoot was against UNLV in fabulous Las Vegas. This game I started to find my zone and really did better than against Air Force wish the same could be said for the Utes but whatever.

The MUSS came down to Vegas and so we had Swoop the cheerleaders and the band it was almost like a home game. As I said I had a big improvement during this game and I got a sweet shot of a sack from Martail Burnett.

After the game in fabulous Las Vegas I shot the Utes vs. Utah State in snow socked Salt Lake City. Despite the snow and the rain a number of hardcore Ute fans took off their shirts and painted their stomachs.

It was hard to shoot with bags on my cameras but I managed to get some really good shots If I do say so myself.

I was happy with the stuff I got when I looked over them at the office, but on Sunday morning I felt even better about my stuff when I looked in the Trib and saw Trent’s picture it looked really familiar so I pulled up my shoots an saw this one.

It was the same moment Trent had captured the only difference is that Trent was 10 or 15 yards up the line so it had less of the feet on the bottom right which is why I’m still learning but it makes me feel like I’m doing something right when a I can get a shot that is similar to a picture from a great photographer like Trent.

Ok this post is getting kind of long but this is the last game I have to write about so let’s get this over with. This time the Utes took on San Diego State and the weather was much improved. The Utes looked good again in their win over San Diego State and again I got some good shots as I continue to improve. My one of my favorite shots was when the Utes ran a fake field goal and Louie Sakoda threw a pass to Bradon Godfrey. I could see why Louie is a kicker to be fair he is a AWESOME kicker.

Like in the Utah State game I had a picture that was the same moment as one that was in the Trib on Sunday this time it was one of Rick's pictures. Rick and I that were sitting on the side of the end zone and we were hopping the play would come our way and it did.I got that shot with a 75 mm the smallest lens I had out and I loved it. Rick had a wide angel that looked great to but it was the same moment so at least I know my timing is as good as Trent’s and Rick now I just need to improve in my other areas.