Wheelchair Basketball III

This was one of the opening inbound passes. Nice thing about shooting a game like this is that the ref will basically let you go where you want, get as close as you want and no one really cares. Of course, there was no pre-game meal or nachos at halftime either.... unless you count that bag of popcorn I bought on the way out for 50 cents.

Wheelchair Basketball II

I couldn't help shooting a motion blur shot.

Wheelchair Basketball I

I was able to cover a pretty cool event which pits some able bodied athletes from Hill Air Force Base against those who are confined to a wheelchair, only the able bodied guys had to sit in wheelchairs also. It was hilarious watching the HAFB guys stumble around, shoot far short of the hoop and fall out of their chairs. In this photo, a HAFB team member gets a little help from one of the Wheelin' Wildcats.

Halloween Faces

Here is a little collection of all the kids faces that passed by us during Halloween. We first dragged Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman and Princess Leia to the neighborhood "Trunk or Treat," but that wasn't enough. We then followed them all past every street within walking distance until Buzz was spent and wouldn't move another muscle unless I carried him. It rained lightly as we headed home where the Mommy Monster promptly paid the kids $10 each for their bags of candy, which has now become piñata filler for one of the upcoming birthday parties.

Mr. Sports Shooter

This is Scott Winterton. And this is a pose you will find him and many other photographers in more often since newspapers are testing the waters of video content for their websites. This was not a hard photo to capture since he was reviewing one of his videos and seemed frozen in this position for a while.

Aside from producing videos for DeseretNews.com, Mr. Winterton is one of the most amazing sports photographers around, especially this football season. Like BYU and Utah, he has definitely brought his "A" game this season. Every time I feel like I have a good shooting day, I will start looking over his shoulder at his final takes and realize the reasons he is at every big game. You can view his images at DeseretNews.com or check out his blog address in the Quick Trick Blog Stack here------>

Weber State Football II

This photo looks a little more dramatic than it really is. The ball had already bounced once. Although, I was still happy to get the shot.

Weber State is rolling up the charts this year and they are currently ranked number 8 in their division polls, which means they are definitely in the playoffs. Now that's something you don't hear very often; the words "Weber State Football" and "Playoffs." I hope it becomes a common practice. Mac truly is back.

Weber State Football I

As I was going through my October archives, I realized I had missed a few for this blog. Here is a couple of my favorites from the Weber State game against the University of Northern Colorado.

BYU UNLV II

Here is another of my favorites from the UNLV game. It's kind of like where's Waldo. Can you find the guy in the pink shirt? Easy. How 'bout the guy on his cell phone? No? Well, what about the girl with the red bracelet?

BYU UNLV I

I went to another BYU game this week and got a few nice photos but a colleague of mine, Scott Winterton, kicked my butt. He got some amazing photos during that game, many of which were the same shots I got, but from a much better angle, with tighter crop, cleaner backgrounds...etc. You can check out his blog at the right from the Quick Trick Blog Stack ------>

This photo actually ran in today's Deseret News for a feature on Fui Vakapuna

Union Station

I know it seems like I post a ton of photos of kids on this forum. This blog was set up to help me get out of a creative slump and on days when I don't deliberately get out and shoot stuff, I tend to revert back to pic's of kids. This photo, however, I was hired to shoot for a Union Station commercial which is scheduled to air on KBYU's PBS Kids. If you haven't been to Union Station and your kids like trains, this is the place to come. And if you live in SLC, it's just a quick 50 minute ride on FrontRunner to the Ogden Station. You have tons of trains to climb around on, a great restaurant called Union Grille, and boat loads of shopping on the adjacent 25th Street. (I know, I sound like a commercial, sorry)

Imagine Ballet

One of the best kept secrets in O-Town is that you are able to get some first class ballet tickets but some very entertaining dancers at a reasonable price. All that is thanks to the hard work and thankless dedication of one, Raymond Van Mason of the Imagine Ballet Dance Theatre. They are having a performance this weekend on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7-8 that your shouldn't miss. I just shot a dress rehearsal and I felt like I should pay for a ticket.

This is Jessica performing one of the pieces.

Early Halloween/Brithday

This is what you might refer to as a birthday gala. Every time one of our good friends puts on a birthday party for one of her children, it's not just a party, it's an event, specifically aimed at making sure the children are happy. This was one of those times. And not only was this one aimed at the children, but there was a seven course meal also waiting for the grown-ups. It was amazing. (of course, photos of the adults stuffing their faces isn't nearly as cute as kids and birthday cake)

Kindergarten Award

We got a letter from E's school awhile back stating that he had won some award at his school and that we were invited to attend a little ceremony/assembly. We arrived and were informed that he had won some good character award for helping out other kids, cleaning up tables and other random stuff. Nice job little man.

Cowboy Jim

This is a portrait I shot of Jim Koertge, owner of the Prairie Schooner steak house in Ogden, some of the best steak in the business. He is active in Ogden and has a lot to do with the success of the Ogden Pioneer Days.

Vinyl Records Coming Back

I was fortunate to cover a story about the increase in interest in the old vinyl records your parents used to listen to. We went to Randy's Records for a $1 per record sale. They had some great music playing and I put together a slide show with audio. You can give a listen here.. It made me wish I still had that old turntable I used to store in my house with nothing to play on it.

Car Jacking

Today I was sent out on a car jacking case in which three people stole a car, dropped off the driver of the car, were followed by police and ended here in West Valley. The driver was defiant and must have presented a threat to police and he was killed. You can see the shattered window in the white car on the left. The other two cooperated with police and were taken away. Moral? It's best to cooperate with police.

Utah Baskeball

Here is a photo I was able to shoot because a friend of mine was out of town. He would normally shoot this but was off covering a BYU football game or something. It's kind of a static photo but I liked the contrast of their red uniforms and the deep blue sky.

Pumpkin Patch

Only about 24 hours from the last photo, the snow was gone and we were off to pick up some pumpkins for the purpose of mutilating beyond recognition. After getting them home, we decided that wasn't a good idea and we would just paint them instead. What's the point of cutting them all to pieces anyway?

First Snow of the Year

If you remember back on October 12, the snow hit hard and fast and where we live, it dropped about 7 inches on the ground. We quickly made use of the new white stuff and built this snow person. The princess wanted it to be a snow woman and E wanted it to be a snow man. The monkey didn't care. The snow person didn't last long and tipped over before dinner, along with tons of heavily laden branches in the neighborhood.

Wedding Weekend III

Last from Wedding Weekend. This is a fellow photographer, Nate Caulford who shoots a bunch for US Figureskating and has plans to start up a studio specializing in children and babies.

BYU vs. New Mexico II

Here is my favorite shot from the BYU vs. New Mexico game. Good action, ball in the air, decent expression, bodies flying... I love shooting football.

BYU vs. New Mexico I

I got to cover the BYU vs. New Mexico game this weekend also. (October 11) This is a photo of Austin Collie making a big run for around 50 yards early in the game. Cougs won it.

Wedding Weekend II

Another from the wedding weekend. Not all weddings can produce this type of photo but these kids were great, and not bad jumpers either.

Wedding Weekend I

Shot a bunch of stuff this weekend, including a bridal portrait and two last minute weddings. It's nice to be busy enough to worry about your charged batteries and whether or not you have enough memory.

Di$neyland Re$ort II

Here are the youngsters at the happiest place on earth. Don't they look happy?

Di$neyland Re$ort

More from our vacation in SoCal. This is the famous tea cup ride at Di$neyland.

Laguna VI

Once again, this image is probably quite common on the streets of Laguna but I liked the colors and the composition of this photo.

Laguna III

Here are some kids on a shiny park bench after have been beaten up by the high tide. We headed to our favorite So. Cal eatery, Ruby's Diner, for some shakes, fries and turkey burgers.

Laguna II

This is another photo from Laguna Beach. This pack of cyclists locked up traffic on the PCH for a couple miles.

Laguna I

Following the marathon, we zipped on down to one of our favorite spots, Laguna Beach. I'm sure to those who live here, a guy riding his skateboard to the beach with his surfboard in hand is a common site. I thought it was unique.

St. George Marathon

This is the finish line of the St. George Marathon. My wife admittedly has trouble getting the action shots at the finish line of races. I appreciated the motion blur in this one since it LOOKS like I'm going real fast.

Snow v. Hurricane II

Here is another photo from the Snow v. Hurricane game and this guy in the green was amazing. His name is Adam Timo and he plays quarterback, running back, punter and kicker. If he could throw the ball high enough, I'm sure he could play QB and receiver on the same play. Trouble is, he had a bull's eye on his back the whole game and Hurricane defeated Snow despite this one man wonder.

Snow v. Hurricane

I went down for the St. George Marathon and to prepare, I decided to eat some pasta, drink lots of water, stretch my legs and shoot a football game. A natural choice. The last time I tried this technique prior to a marathon, I slept in and missed the first five miles of the race. (which I went back and made up at the end) But this time, I left the game early, got enough sleep and made it to the bus with time to spare.

Anthony the Traceur - October 1

So I was introduced to a guy who identifies himself as a Traceur. My wife posted an entry on her blog about this very thing. A traceur is a title for someone who actively participates in Parkour, (and I mean ACTIVELY) which is a sport of urban running, climbing and flipping. This Anthony the Traceur made some very nice pictures for me. Here is a link to watch this art form in action.

Halloween Early

This is an RN at McKay Dee who's job it is to train other nurses. She dresses like this to make the training classes more memorable. This was shot Sept 30 but since it's Halloween today, and I'm a month behind, what the heck.

Another Wedding Photo

Here is a second photo from that wedding.

Cake Eaters

One of my favorite events at weddings is the whole, cut-the-cake-and-shove-it-in-each-other's-face photo. I know what they say, "that's how you will treat each other through the whole marriage." Whatever. My wife and I were very respectful during this ritual at our wedding. Some couples are like that, and some have a full on cake wrestling match. The messier they are the better the photos.

On a side note, I LOVED the design of this wedding cake. Very fresh and original. Nice choice.

Stein Erickson - Take III

Here is a quick experiment using Lex and flowing water as a subject. This was commissioned by Stevo who wanted to see the water blur.

The topic, shutter speed.

If you know any of the basics of photography, you will understand how a camera shutter works. The photo on the right was shot at 1/15th of a second at f/22. The one on the right was 1/4000th of a second at f/2.8.

Stein Erickson - Take II

More swimming from a safer, less watery position.

Stein Erickson - Take I

We spent some time with some friends at the Stein Erickson Lodge in Park City. Luckily, it was beautiful weather and great for swimming, which seemed like all we did.

Field Trip to the Farm

I took a field trip today with my daughter to a place in Logan called the American West Heritage Center, also known as the Jensen Farm. It's a living farm where they use mostly all the same type of equipment and techniques they did back around the year 1916. It was a bit of a wake up call thinking about how many things we take advantage of these days.

Before refrigerators, they used to cut ice out of a pond in the winter and store it deep in the ground in the summer to keep it from melting. Every week, like the milk man would do, an ice wagon would drive around and deliver chunks of ice you could use in the ice box. What a huge difference 100 years makes.

Of course, my favorite photo of this event wasn't anything from the farm but the ride up. There were several classes on the trip and this is one of the teachers, Mrs. Benson

Elementary School

I don't remember much about my days as an elementary school student but I do remember that we always had the flag displayed for the Pledge of Allegiance. Well apparently, this classroom hasn't yet installed a flag pole/bracket. I thought it made an unusual photo.

Grandma's Toys

My wife has really missed seeing an occasional post of one of the kids on this blog the last few weeks. This is an image that made me proud since one of the little guys seems to be into using a hammer. Maybe if I train him well, he can do the house repairs instead of me.

Logan Mascot

Logan mascot getting knuckles from a fan. This guy (grizzly bear) was voted Mascot of the Year this year. Nice work Grizz.

Logan Football

Finally another post. This is from the first football I've covered this year. It's Logan vs. Highland, Id.

From the Archives - Chariot Racing Story

This is the team and the horse after a day at the races. To me, this seemed like a whole lot of work involving several people, just for a quick race which probably lasted less than a minute. However to them, this was something they prepare for all year. It was exciting to watch and be a part of this culture of cutter racing that seems to culminate here in Utah. The National Championships AND the World Championships are held here, although most of the teams are from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and other western states. I covered these races several times since this first story and will hopefully have the chance to follow another team someday.

From the Archives - Chariot Racing Story

The quick minute or so of actual competition.

From the Archives - Chariot Racing Story

This is the main caretaker who is responsible for the horses. I thought this was a nice moment between the two of them.

From the Archives - Chariot Racing Story

Here they are tapping the horses legs for protection.

From the Archives - Chariot Racing Story

Here are five images from my first attempt at a photo story. It's about this team of cutter horse racers who were preparing to compete at the races at the Davis County Fairgrounds. Enjoy.