Tough Call

Last Thursday I was faced with a tough choice of what to do on Friday. After talking to Kim I had the chance to shoot the gymnastics National Championships, only one problem I was scheduled to work at Sports Imaging shooting Taylorsville baseball. As with any decision in my life I spent a long time thinking about the consequences and benefits of each choice. Two seconds later I decided I was going to shoot gymnastics. No disrespect to Sports Imaging, (I’m about to disrespect Sports Imaging) this job is fun and I love working there but when it comes to a National Championship in any sport or a Sports Imaging shoot I’m shooting the National Championship hands down (Sorry Ken).

The event was awesome after eating a roll and a brownie in the press room Kim and I made our way down into the Huntsman Center. Once we got in the feeling in the air was AWESOME it was so loud as the announcer introduced the Utes the lights were out and I could not see how many people were in there but once the lights went up I could see the building was packed it was so much fun.

The Utes stared with a bye so I got to sit back and take everything in for a minute. After that I started to shoot the other teams. I did not feel like I was getting that much even when the Utes took to the floor I was not feeling it. After the Utes finished the vault I went to get a good spot to shoot the bars this change in location helped a lot.

Again at this point the Utes had a bye so I shot Nebraska on the bars. The air was tense and that was evident on the Nebraska coach’s face when talking to one of his gymnast. When he leaned in to say something in her ear I got a shot that I felt shows the intensity. Also during the Nebraska bar routine I noticed their team was cheering on their teammate’s right next to me.

When the Utes took to the bars I got a few shots but I was excited to use a wide angle to get a celebration or yelling shot it worked well when I had the lenses zoomed out at 17mm but during the biggest celebration I realized that I left it zoomed in at 40 mm so I missed the shot.

During the beam I tried to get another celebration shot but it did not happen because it was obvious they were not going to win. Postell and Ford said it perfectly in this picture. I did get a cool high five with a wide angle looking down on ford it was a nice angle to get a high five picture I think.

Over all the national championships were awesome a lot better than Taylorsville baseball. I shot a ton of shots this was the first time I can remember filling up a card and I did it twice I filled up two 512 cards the last one was a killer I tried all night to get a shot of the shirtless fans they had come down and were standing over me and I got two shots when the card filled I had no time to get a new card before they were gone, but I think this one works.

Congratulations to the Utes on their second place finish! It was a good season with a lot of good pictures, Thanks! GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please Help

I have only been doing this blog for a short time but I have this feeling that it is lacking something a serious blog needs I did not know what is was until Wednesday. On Wednesday I realized I needed to get behind a cause that benefits those less fortunate than I am.

When looking for a cause I discovered a cause that needed all the help they could get. It is called Violent Angry Baby and they are leading the fight against baby on baby violence. Each year thousands of babies are killed at the hands of other babies. A baby is too helpless to help themselves so they need our help. When a baby kills another baby that baby has difficulties functioning in a baby society they have a need to kill again. We have the technology to stop this urge if the baby gets help.

You can do your part by sending a donation to www.violant-angery-baby.org another way to help is to spread the word. Below is a poster to raise awareness and collect donations please take the time to print it out and hang it in your office or anywhere to raise awareness for our cause thank you.

Cougar Toss

Today when I went into the papers office I had not planed on doing any work I was just going to check in and then go get to work on my final paper for one of my classes. when I got there Lisa and Kim said I should go get some shots. I did not have my camera with me and I did not want to take one from the office so I was not going to go but when Kim offered her camera I put off the paper again and thought what the hell. I was kinda lazy this assignment I just used the aperture value Kim left her camera on instead of the manual mode I always use.

The assignment was to get a shot of the event the Mechanical Engineering department was putting on for Jr high kids. The kids built a catapult and tossed cougars across the Union Ballroom. At first I was looking for a wide shot of the Cougars flying though the air but that looked bad. I ditched that fast. The next shot I went for was a shot of the guy measuring how far the cougar went he was a U student so it had that student angle. That worked but I was not feeling great about it. At this point they ended the long toss and started the accuracy toss they kids had some practice time to prepare this time was good shooting. The kids from Kearns Jr high were doing their final practice shot when I got a shot of a Kid looking to the sky before releasing their cougar it was a shot I felt good about.

After the practice was over I was watching the tossed and the kid were giving great reactions of both excitement and disappointment but I was having a hard time getting a good spot to get a good reaction shot on the last shot I was set up on the side next to some parents I was right next to the catapults hoping one kid would look back at their team giving me a good celebration and the Elk Ridge team gave me the shot I wanted. It was over I had the shots I needed. When I got back to the office and started to edit the pictures it saddened me to find out the celebration shot was a little soft but I was happy to find out another shot I had not given any credit to was actually good. At first I did not like it because the other girls got in the way but on the computer it looked cool to have the hug framed by the other students so that made things even. In the end I had a lot of fun shooting this it is good Kim and Lisa talked me into it.

NHL Playoffs

The NHL playoffs are about to close out the first round. It will be at an end when the last 8 min tick off the clock of the Vancouver and Dallas game 7. Each year I love to look at all the pictures the playoffs produce. This being one of my favorites this year thus far. Each year players fight for months and all that hard work goes down the drain as soon as the buzzer ends their playoff life. That is all captured in a split second by David Duprey of the AP. Just the photo reminds me of the sense of complete failure I feel after lousing a game. It is never a good feeling.

A Good Day?

How do you know it is going to be a good day? I knew Friday was going to be a good day when i rolled off of I-15 and was turning into the parking lot of the Sports Imaging office and saw The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile across the street! I went into the office picked up a camera and got my picture taken with it.

The only thing that made it better was that Ken (my boss) made a magnet out of the picture so I got to go home and give it to my mommy. She was as happy as she was when I gave her a picture of me for last mothers day. It was sweet.
This is Ken on the left and his wife Rina (She is also my boss) with The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile!!!

Real Salt Lake

I would of posted this last night but I had a quick paper to do so I'm doing it a day late. I shot Real Salt Lake soccer last night for the second time but this game they SCORED!!!

This game also gave me a nice injury shot. This is one of the biggest problems i have with soccer is the amount of fake injuries. Enough soccer bashing on to the photos.

This game I wanted to get a good goalie shot, goalies need some love and I often focus on the offence to much. After a shot form a KC player the players all parted and gave me a clear view of the goalie.

Even with my success at getting my goalie shot I felt the night was a failure because the game went in to OT tied at 1 and Real got the game winner in the second half of the over time but I was moving around and missed the goal and did not get much of the celebration but i did get i shot of the yellow card given because of the celebration the MLS must be trying to be like the NFL and not allowing any fun in the game.

The Night was not all a wash i got two good great shots in a short sequence. A Real player and a KC player were chasing the ball, as they ran they were pushing and shoving to gain position. That lead to the Real player taking a spill right in front of me it was the best shots i got that Night so i was excited.

In the end I was happy with the game I got some good stuff and it did not rain or snow that was the best part of the night

My First Time

Well I guess it is time to start a blog I have been putting it off because I have not felt the need for a blog but reading blogs of co-workers and talking about the blog world in my new media class I think this will be fun and I’m kinda excited about now.