Blog

  • Insane Clown Posse at Saltair

    Insane Clown Posse at Saltair

    Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune
    Insane Clown Posse performs at The Great Salt Air (Saltair) Thursday, October 1 2009 west of Salt Lake City. violent j, shaggy 2 dope
    Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune
    Insane Clown Posse performs at The Great Salt Air (Saltair) Thursday, October 1 2009 west of Salt Lake City. juggalos
  • First Snow, Fall Colors

    First Snow, Fall Colors

    Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune
    A layer of snow on pines at in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest Wednesday, September 30 2009 in Farmington Canyon.
    A layer of snow on pines with fall colors on aspens and others at in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest Wednesday, September 30 2009 in Farmington Canyon.
    Here’s a beautiful photograph that was never published. Every fall newspaper photographers are sent out to capture the changing of the season. I got the call one day, with the reminder that, “It’s got to have people in it!” I drove up Farmington Canyon after a light dusting of snow and there was not a soul in sight. But there was this beautiful scene as the sun snuck out through the foggy clouds. I was unaware that another Tribune photographer had also gotten the fall colors assignment. His photo ran in the next day’s paper. Was it because there were no people in mine? No. His shot had no people in it, either.
  • Excellence, Commitment To

    I had a great experience today. I can’t say much about it until the story runs in a few months, so I’ll just tell you what I can. Sorry, no photos this time. I was sent to a small business with an international reputation for its commitment to excellence and hard work. (No, it wasn’t the Oakland Raiders.) This company does not advertise and does not accept walk-in customers. It succeeds by being singularly focused on perfection and quality. It is so high-end that even its clients are at the top of their respective fields. At this business there are no excuses. Only hard work that pays off in tangible results. That really fired me up. Their mentality was infectious and I jumped right into it, starting to shoot. I cleared my mind of everything but the process, putting all distractions aside. I didn’t check my e-mail, I didn’t answer my phone, and whenever my aging equipment caused me to miss a shot I simply moved on to the next moment putting aside anything beyond my control. When it was over I walked out feeling… no… realizing that anything is possible. For the first time in a while I waded into the edit taking my time and looking at each photograph as if it had the chance to be a masterpiece. I wish you could have been there to see these people who take life by the throat and never compromise or surrender. I left the place feeling invigorated and refreshed, and ready once again to focus on quality over quantity. Let’s hope my regained sense of pride in the craft can survive exposure to the real world. I guess that’s up to me, isn’t it?
  • The Busiest Liquor Store

    The Busiest Liquor Store

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    You know that photo on the front page of the newspaper? Sometimes this is how it comes together… The assignment: The busiest of Utah’s state-owned liquor stores. Time of shoot: 10:30am on a Tuesday. I’m wondering, are people buying a lot of booze early Tuesday morning? I walk in and introduce myself. The clerks go, “This isn’t the busiest store!” I look around and sure enough, the large store is empty. Concerned, I call in. An editor: Don’t worry about the busiest store angle. The story’s about a report on liquor sales. You’ve got time to work it. It’s for the front page. The phone in the store rings ten minutes later. It’s someone from the newspaper calling to let them know that a photographer would be coming in this morning. We all laugh. One of the clerks won’t be photographed so I’m down to one subject. I start following her around working every angle I can think of. As often happens when I show up somewhere to photograph busy, it’s eerily slow. She says, “It’s usually busier than this.” The office calls. Something has come up and they need me downtown pretty soon. Since this one was for the front page and there wasn’t much to work with I send in eleven shots. Way more than normal.
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    The story goes live on our website with five of the eleven photos in an automatically-generated photo gallery.
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    No one at the paper notices that all five photos in the gallery show the same clerk stocking the shelves. Only the angles are different. A reader left this hilarious comment:
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    And another:
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    By the time those comments appear on our site I’ve already been rushed through two other assignments. More and more that’s the way it is.
  • The Foto Shoot

    Tribune photographer Chris Detrick was doing a photo shoot in the studio yesterday so I picked up the iPhone and shot 462 stills to make a time lapse video.