Goin' back to Missouri

I still have to post some images from my last weeks in Provo, but right now this one -the only picture i took on my way back to Columbia- is the only thing I have on me. It was in Colorado, while driving through the Copper Mountain Pass in the Rockies. I was in a hurry, so I hadn't planned to stop to take pictures during the trip (so much so that my camera was in the trunk), but it would have been silly to turn down this gift from Mother Nature.

Llama Fest at the Krishna Temple

Kids always find ways to have fun that have nothing to do either with llamas or with Krishna...

Doomed Trailer Park

Isaac Ramirez looks out his trailer's window Friday, July 27, 2007. Isaac is one of nine siblings, of which eight live in the trailer at the park that will be dismantled to make way for the North Park commercial development in Spanish Fork.

501st. Legion, Alpine Garrison

Seriously, I'm enjoying being a newspaper photographer (ok, ok, just an intern) more each day. Not even in my wildest dreams I'd have imagined that one day I'd get to shoot Darth Vader & co. I enjoyed this assignment, using the lighting kit on location for the first time. I can't say that the members of the 501st. had as much fun as I did because it was 100 degrees out there and those costumes were not meant for this kind of weather. But the kids that were in the park at that time DID have fun...

Exhausted

Ashley Franscell has been working on a tough story for eight months. The subject of the story, 15-year-old Brady, is about to die. It's something worth reading and watching. It will be published by the Daily Herald in a 48-page special section. I'll put here the link as soon as I know it. For the moment, the only thing I can post is this image of Ashley totally exhausted at the Herald's photo department.

HAVEN'T POSTED PICTURES FOR A WHILE...

... so, I thought I could throw in some 4th of july stuff. These photographs were taken in dowtown Provo and at the BYU football stadium ("Stadium of Fire").

The hardest assignment (so far...)

Travis Landeen, the student body president at American Fork High School, was killed in a car accident. He had graduated just some days before. There was a counseling service at the school's gym. I felt like an intruder taking pictures of those kids crying the loss of their friend. The worst part is not just taking pictures but having to go up to them and ask, "could you please tell me your name?" Actually, these girls were very nice. The one in the center, Hannah Walker, was the student body vice-president and had worked closely with Travis. They not only gave me their names, but also told me some things about their lost friend. I know things like this one don't affect experienced photojournalists as much as they affect me. So, I guess I'll get used to them, but I hope I won't get a hard skin and become an insensitive man.

More fires, bike stunts and another pool pic

We've had a fire each and everyday over the past week (sometimes 2 fires on the same day). A couple of days ago, when I got back to the newsroom, people ran away from me because of the smell of ashes and sweat... Fortunately there haven't been human casualties, but all these wonderful landscapes around town are beginning to look like the moon's surface.

For Andrei

Hey gangsta,
I've been working hard on my flash and would like to know your opinion about the ratios this time. Thanks, pal.


This person was lining the streets of Springville with flags to receive a dead soldier's body (he was killed in Irak)


(self explanatory)

THERE WE GO!

That was a good class, man. I won't say "i'm gonna miss those guys" because i am already missing them.
For those of you who don't know them, let me do the introductions:
BACK ROW (from left): Josh Vince (currently shooting for the McAllen Monitor, in TX); next is me; Adrianne Bonafede (currently shooting in the mountains of North Carolina, in a musical place called Braveheart, Bereaved, Brownwoods, or something like that --sorry, Adrianne, I just never got it right); Bea Wallace (currently working as picture editor for Time in NYC); Magda Sakaan (Columbia Missourian ADOP, but not for long: she's about to move to Jordan --or is it Syria?); Aaron Eisenhauer (currently working for a newspaper, whose name I can't remember either, in Cape Girardeau, MO); Stephen Nellis (currently working for a newspaper somewhere in the California desert --could it be Barstow?); Andrei Pungovschi (working for the AP in Seattle).
FRONT ROW: Adam Wisneski (working for a newspaper in Tulsa, OK) and Brandon Kruse (working for the Courier Times in Philly).
There's one person missing, the one who took this picture, David Rees.
David, you should send us another one with you in it.
Cheers, guys.

4th WEEK IN PROVO

HEADS & FLAMES (a "Danish" look?... no offense intended)



IT'S HOT HERE
It was 100 degrees, very dry and windy... So, to celebrate it, we had a bush fire




NORMAN ROCKWELL
Jeremy, my boss here, was about to leave to shoot a flag retirement ceremony and he told me: "you can choose between going to a council meeting and come back with a headshot or coming with me and see what this flag burning is about.." Needless to say, I passed the council meeting. When we got there, I saw all those boy scouts and I felt like I was 50 years back in time, inside a Norman Rockwell drawing, and I quite forgot about the burning flags...



JEREMY HARMON

THIRD WEEK (or whatever)

Trying to look at graduations a little bit differently


Messing around with flash and exposure...



FESTIVALS

Utah Lake Fest



Scottish Fest & Highland Games (slideshow coming soon)



Mormon missionary training center

SECOND WEEK

Q: What happens when two Mizzou buddies come across each other on a golf course?
A: They forget about the golf open and start taking pictures of each other...
This is Chris Detrick, who works for the Salt Lake Tribune...




...and this is me (photos by Chris Detrick)


And this is what I was shooting when Chris shot me


Kids' car seats check
When I was about to take this picture, I remembered what Rita said about bouncing flash off a cement surface (there was something good about gray color). Well this wasn't cement, but it was gray anyway. And it worked. The only reason I include this pic here is to show my appreciation to her.



Provo Open




Buggy days... yihaaaa!





And, of course, more graduations...