Tooele as you never see it.

2009-04-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day to be knee deep in brine.

This was for a story on the environmental state of the Great Salt Lake. The dudes in the photos were way more prepared and way more patient than I was. Here's links to Scott Stringham's Flickr sight, the guy in the main photo. Now I'm just hoping I can get the smell out of my favorite pair of flip flops.

2009-04-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

High School softball and baseball sliders.

2009-04-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Prom

Yep it's that time of year again when you can't go to a decent restaurant in Salt Lake without seeing a pack of pouffy dresses and boys in tuxes. Anywho, we've gone gallery crazy here at the Transcript so zillions of prom photos are found here.

2009-04-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Silver Sage Emporium, Vernon UT

Add this place to your list of places to eat when you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. They are also on twitter.

2009-04-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a winner... my mom says so. and now so does the UPA.

Won best photo page, I mention this because most of the photos that were taken for the page were taken right after I got hit by a cow at a kids rodeo... maybe I should get hit by cows more often. I also took third in sports photo, maybe if I had been hit by a wrestler I would have taken first.

cow revenge

2009-03-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Food bank food drop

A freezing morning at deseret peak complex photographing giant lines of cars and volunteers scrambling to organize the mishmash of food that had shown up on the truck that morning. Cilantro, beets and some lemons among some dry goods, I joked with the bread sorter about the odd salsa that could be made.

story here

2009-03-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

runners running- with a race car tilt

2009-03-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

Old Stuff...
State Swimming

2009-02-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

2009-02-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

#%@*!!!! auto focus

2009-01-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

The Shaker Lady

My new years resolutions are usually pretty half baked, they range from being more organized to attempting to drink more water the one that I am really trying to stick with this year is improving the photography in our feature section. Shooting everything for every issue of the paper has resulted lately in everything melting together, and the feature section just blurs in with the rest of the paper. In order to have it stand out a bit more I have been trying to focus on a stand alone portrait of the person and then add some detail shots, less newsy more enviro portrait stuff.

The Salt and Pepper Shaker lady worked out really well, she has collected shakers for years and years and now is the proud owner of over 3000 sets. The first shakers she bought are the ones she is holding, its a toaster with the salt and pepper shakers as the pieces of toast.

2008-12-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

Gville ballroomers

December is synonymous with rehearsal out here lately, I had a limited time to shoot these guys and found my self saying to myself think like Chris, think like Chris. thankfully it kind of sunk in.

2008-11-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

depressed, fat dog cosmo

2008-11-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

Things they don't teach you in J school: shooting while on horseback edition.

For a recent story about hunting dogs I ended up shooting a portion of the story on horseback, the dogs run long distances and are very fast so there was no way of going on foot. I've ridden before so I wasn't very worried about that part. But this was the first time I had more than a point and shoot camera on me while doing so.

1. shooting while on the move= blurry photos and a sore nose. with one hand on the reins and the other on the camera it was just enough stability at a slow trot to hit myself over and over again in the face with the camera.

2. larger shadow to keep out of the photo.

and not to mention you've always got a horse head in your view...

overall though the page turned out well. here's a few that did run.

springy dogs

my last suggestion for anyone else who ventures to try this with expensive dslr camras is that make sure they are the papers cameras and second tie your reigns together

2008-10-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Month Une... a protest against color correction.

ok so all of these really did run in color. but I couldn't make myself re-color correct them for RGB. also disregard the spots, I know I need to clean my sensors.

Landfill cats get rescued.

The back story is one of our reporters gets a call from an office manager at the county landfill who says that the landfill is being overrun by cats that people are dumping off and that the landfill workers can't keep them at the landfill and they are running out of friends to adopt them. here's the story if you are interested. Sarah did a really nice job on this one and after the story ran it was picked up by a few other media outlets which resulted in a few different agencies stepping in to get the cats medical attention and get them adopted. I really wanted to adopt all of the cats when I was out shooting these stories so I'm really glad that someone has adopted them.

boy cheerleaders- powder puff football game.

empty food bank

THS's dismal football season lately.

Goat guard.

more on goats later.

My nemesis volleyball... its getting better slowly.

2008-10-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

pretty camera bags...

so I've always wanted a camera bag with a shoulder strap that isn't made for man shoulders, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind for a camera bag made for women. I am intrigued to find out if it can even fit a camera body and a 200 in it at the same time.

2008-09-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

I am finished with being the freelance work beast's bitch. And as in freelance beast I am not talking of just the Transcript in particular but the idea of making a living off of freelance in general. Most people who read this know I have done a lot of work for the Transcript, but that until this upcoming Monday hasn't been a full time position. I have been a contributing photographer, which is a fancy way of saying lone stringer, freelance, contract worker bee. Not any more. As of Monday I finally have the big girl job, I'm taking over Troy's duties, whether or not my title will be Photo Editor is yet to be seen, we'll have to wait until the business cards come out. So after a year and seven months of freelance hell I have finally made it to a full time job with insurance and someday paid vacation time.

Now to all aspiring photographers, high school students with cameras, former and current chronicle staffers with cameras and other people just amused by me who read this blog. I will tell you the secret to my rise from lowly chrony photog to mediocre editor and photographer at a bi-weekly paper.

First off, I'm only dispensing my story as a cautionary tale for those of you who are on the fence on whether or not this is the right field for you, this is only my version of a tale that can be told many different ways... if you sit down with any photog for long enough they too will have some version of their rise in the photo world; some are more gory and some a lot more glorious than mine. Second I can't emphasize enough how mediocre my photography is compared to some people that are my age and younger. But what got me a full time job rests partially on the decision my parents made to move to Tooele when I was in school and a single-mindedness to get a job as a photographer. so the best photographer doesn't always get the job.

Singlemindedness doesn't even really scratch the surface though, it was more like a year of paranoid, obsessive, antisocial behavior (for six months I was in school, so I count that as a more well adjusted less antisocial time, but in reality I was just spending a lot of time driving between the U and Tooele doing two things half assed). When I say paranoid and obsessive I mean both to the full extent, every photo taken I partially believed would be the last I would take at the paper, afraid that someone better or someone offering their services cheaper would come along and I'd be back working as a secretary in no time. I put countless other things onto the back burner while jumping at any photo assignment that came by including relationships, vacations, birthdays, and national holidays to name a few. I lived (and still do live until my first few checks come in) at my parents house rent free on my freelance intake I could not afford my student loans, car payment, credit card,cell phone and rent.

So what is my word of advice, student loans are the devil, the less debt you have for the first few years the better. Your top ramen years are far from over. Never saying no to an assignment was advice that was given to me while I was in college and it has paid off for me so far, so be prepared to be married to the paper you work for. Second know lighting, natural and strobe, there are people out there who know it all... and they will kick your ass if you don't. Know DAM,code replacements, and how to write a decent cutline. Never submit anything that 'might' be able to be fixed with the unsharp mask, and find out how to color correct- magenta is your enemy in Caucasian skin tones. Take other newspaper peoples dark newspaper-apocalypse views with a grain of salt but don't ignore them, keep a back up plan (ie 3-6 months of bill money in savings) when you are making pennies its hard but it might be your saving grace some day. And finally, learn what you can use as deductions on your taxes, if you don't know hire an accountant-it could be what saves you from getting screwed in January.

So here I start on the new adventure as a photo editor, I'm scared as hell, but the only thing I can do is take it one day at a time and keep my six months of back up plan money in savings. I am still paranoid and obsessive, but my new worries circulate around how to light a high school gymnasium delta center style with some vivitars and a few pocket wizards by the time basketball season rolls around and have it easy enough to take down every game and transported to four different schools.
(I'm open to suggestions on this one) but I am glad for now to know that there won't be a shortage of photo assignments coming my way.

2008-08-27T00:48:00.000-07:00

Horse Show 08

this was also an event in the fair, the paper ended up running the photo with two riders, I kind of like and dislike the other one equally. It kind of looks like the loch nes monster wearing a cowboy hat in a way.

2008-08-27T00:09:00.001-07:00

Fairs, Fires, NASCAR and one damn cow.

If there isn't enough going on usually during the Tooele County Fair this year there was also a NASCAR race, a tennis tournament sponsored by the Transcript, and a fire. I can't say that I haven't wished for things to go up in smoke on some of the more boring weekends but this just became a giant stress while I was covering everything else. Plus it was burning down the area I usually hike in which was a bigger let down. At least I got a good redish sunset out of it though.

The fair, was a fair, thankfully they limited the lame bands and had a rodeo which is where I met my new enemy, a cow that lives in Erda. Why do you ask am I picking on livestock? because it picked on me first, I was minding my own business shooting the kids portion and next thing I know I'm getting knocked over by the money cow... yes the money cow got me. I'm fine, cameras are fine, pride not so fine. its embarrassing to have most of the town of Erda and half of Lake Point ask you if you are ok. so take this as a warning fellow photogs, even the money cow can get you.

2008-08-27T00:03:00.001-07:00

home on the range

it seems like someone would have uncomplicated this whole extra large photo deal by now.

2008-07-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

What some people will do for an Iphone.

I'm no longer an 801 girl. I've held on to that number since my first semester in college and now one fowl swoop I'm a 435 lady. So yeah I have a new number, if you haven't received my new number email me and I'll send it to you.

website is coming along...

more rodeo via our new photo page on the Transcript website.
its under columns if you go directly to the transcript site. I don't know why.

photo page here

2008-07-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

So everything is kind of on a rinse and repeat cycle right now; you know the shoot, edit, repeat until crazy. But here's something from last weekends Rush Valley Rodeo. I produced a slide show for it that I'll link to if the Transcript ever gets their new website functioning properly.

2008-06-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

World Superbike, LeMans and AMA

ah what can I say about these two races...
1. lots of press.
2. lots of male press.
3. makes for very smelly press room.

the end.

2008-06-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

State Javelin.

Ok by now most of you all know what happened at the high school state javelin competition... if not an intern from the standard examiner placed himself in the position to become a human shishkabob and did. thankfully he's ok, and was back to work within hours. While talking to some people in the news room the next week about it someone mentioned a photo taken of a cameraman about to be maimed by a mob who was still shooting... and said wouldn't you sacrifice yourself to get the shot. honestly I would never sacrifice myself for high school sports. going into the middle of a javelin field not a good plan, I have enough piercings and I don't want any new ones. and good luck to those covering the state track meet next year, the days of roaming free are over I fear.

2008-06-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

graduation 1 of 4 for the year.