Howdy Y'all, Las Vegas Style-Part 1

Hey y'all! It's rodeo time, live from Las Vegas. The super bowl of rodeos, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, started this weekend in sin city. Ten glorious days of buckin' broncos and wrastlin' steers. Cowboy boots, check....cowboy hat, check....official Wrangler NFR 2007 cowboy shirt, check....what am I missing....oh yea, my camera! Okay, now I'm ready to get down and dirty and dodge some bulls. Here's a few shots from the first weekend for you to enjoy.

The main reason we are down here is to cover our local guy, Cody Wright, of Milford, Utah. He came into the NFR this year ranked first in the world in the saddle bronc competition. Here he is hanging out after his ride in the third round:



Here's Cody in action during the third round:



Jason Miller of Lance Creek, Wyoming wrestling down a steer in the third round. He came out with the top time that night which put nearly $17,000 in his pocket. Not bad for 4 seconds of work:



This steer seemed a bit confused after Lee Graves of Calgary, Alberta took him down to the ground:



This cracks me up, the lady in the front row felt a little uncomfortable as Jesse Bail of Camp Crook, South Dakota came a bit close to the wall during his bronc ride. Although her date didn't seem to concerned:



Here's some team roping action as footer Patrick Smith of Midland, Texas approaches the steer (the footer is the guy who ropes the back end of the steer, his teammate is the header):



Saddle bronc rider Jeff Willert of Belvidere, South Dakota is taken out of the arena on a stretcher following a bad fall off his bronc. He ended up with a broken right femur and is out for the rest of the competition. Who said rodeo life is easy:



Here's a few fan shots outside the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV:




And what rodeo would be complete without a country music legend performing before the competition. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Charlie Daniels:



I'll be back in Las Vegas for the action on Thursday, Friday, and the final round on Saturday. So if you happen to be watching the NFR on ESPN2 next weekend, look for the good looking cowboy with a camera. Yee-haw!

A Saturday Off??

This past weekend I had Saturday off, absolutely no assignments on the schedule. So what did I do with this rare opportunity? Well....
I took pictures.

Two very good friends of mine were married on Saturday, and although I was not the "official" wedding photographer I decided to bring along my Nikon D2H and a 50mm 1.4 lens and grab a few snapshots (A relative of theirs photographed it for them, I know, I gave them a hard time for not hiring me).

I love using the 50mm fixed lens. It's fast and sharp, two great qualities of a lens. For those of you who don't know much about lenses, the 50mm fixed lens does not allow you to zoom in or out and is said to give you the closest perception of human vision, so it really makes you search for defining moments of an event. In other words, it does not allow for the distortion aspect of a wide angle lens or the compression of a long zoom lens.

So here are a few of my favorites from the wedding:

Beau and Krista, the kiss:



Kyle, the ring bearer:



Sammy, the flower girl:



Krista, the bride, changing into more "comfortable" shoes:

Cry, Cry, Again....and Again

So many emotional photos, so little print space. Our local high school, Pine View, suffered their first loss of the season....too bad it was the state championship game. Wasn't exactly a close one either, with Timpview winning by a score of 50-7, extending their winning streak to 28 and claiming the state title in 3 of the last 4 years.

By the end of the first quarter I was already looking for my storytelling photos, which at that point were most likely going to be non-celebratory photos, in other words, I was looking for the criers. I ended up finding plenty of them at the end of the game. Now was the hard part, which ones to send to print. So, which ones would you choose?












It wasn't all tears, I did still manage to get a few good action shots also:

Time to vote!

Editors note: It is my birthday today, and normally it would be a day to celebrate. But for some reason the college students that I teach believe me to be in my mid-30s, even though I am actually in my mid-20s. So now I am left wondering, "Am I really aging that badly?" Long story short, I may have to fail them all on their mid-term exams.

It was time to vote again today, and it was my job once again to illustrate the act of voting. It is always somewhat difficult to make an interesting photograph from people standing at the polls. One angle I decided to take was that of an interesting reflection I noticed near the polls. Here's what I came away with:


That worked out okay, although my paper may not find it suitable to run as a centerpiece photo. So I always make sure I gather plenty of different angles at an event in order to tell the entire story. This photo may make for a more accurate centerpiece:

I managed to get some decent interaction from the subjects in the photo while still keeping in mind my composition at an interesting angle.

I'm getting too old for this....

Weekend Football

Couple big games, couple big losses. Our local high school, Cedar, had their second-round playoff game Friday night and Southern Utah University was attempting to end their school-record 15 game losing streak. Both lost. Made some good images though!

Here's a few shots from the 0-9 Thunderbirds matchup against Cal Poly. They did manage to score a few touchdowns, this one coming from a jump ball in the corner:


Here's their running back running all over the T-Birds' defense for a touchdown, they just couldn't stop him:


Can't quite stretch far enough to make the catch:


The T-Birds were trying everything to make a tackle:


Now for a few shots from the Cedar High School playoff loss. Who says high school sports aren't rough?


This one got a little too close for my comfort, it took some dodging on my end to avoid a visit to the emergency room, but I still made a shot out of it:


Finally, the coach, Todd Peacock, glaring at the scoreboard for the final time this season, watching the final seconds tick off to put them out of the playoffs:

Backboard Cam-Attempt #1

So I decided to try something a little different this basketball season....a backboard cam. For those of you who don't know exactly what this is, it's when a camera is rigged to the backboard of the hoop and triggered from the floor either wirelessly or by hard wire. I decided to go hard wire (mainly because it's cheaper) and made a trip to Home Depot to build my rig. Here's what it looks like to the players:


After pre-focusing before the game, during the game I sit underneath the hoop with a trigger in my hand, and wait for the action to come to the camera. Here's a few shots that I liked.

Here's our power forward Tate Sorenson taking the ball to the hoop for a layup:


Although I think I like the next frame a bit better as a vertical:


Here's a shot of Oralndo Griego during their scrimmage a couple days before, from the other side of the hoop:


So, as you can see, it makes for an interesting angle on an otherwise ordinary game, although there are still some issues I need to work on. For example, there is a nasty reflection from shooting through the glass in the corner of most of the photos:



With some black cardboard and some tape, that should be a quick fix. There are other problems: 1) My 17mm lens just isn't wide enough for this angle. 2) There just isn't enough light in the arena to get the shutter speed I want, which means I would need to add strobes (extra lights) to the arena, but that costs too much (for myself and my paper). 3) I have to use my best camera for the remote, therefore I'm depending on my backup cameras to get the shots I need from the floor....oh the joys of working for a small paper.

This one works great for a feature shot of the team:


All in all I'm happy with my first attempt. After a few tweaks and some luck, I'll come away with a great portfolio image.

Happy Halloween!

Here's some shots from the Haunted Hospital in town put on by one of the fraternities from Southern Utah University. They have it every Halloween at this creepy old hospital that used to house psychotic patients. Trust me, the place really will scare the heck out of you, on any day of the year.

No haunted hospital is complete without a creepy nurse standing near a puddle of blood:


This one really caught me off guard (Okay, it scared the crap out me, although I still managed to make a shot out of it). It's another nurse with a knife, pounding on a window:


This next character was "Flannel Jack," named after a Cedar City myth of a man that terrorized the city, although some people swear it's a true story:


Although Halloween isn't all about scary characters, it's really about the candy:

Welcome to Garrett Davis Photography!

Welcome! I thought it was about time I started a blog, especially now that I have my website up and running. If you haven't checked it out yet, do it already!

www.garrettdavisphotography.com

My portfolio can be found on that site, while on this blog I will post my most recent work, including any stories that come along with the photos.

I guess I should introduce myself, if you don't already know who I am. Here's me:

This photo was taken by a good friend and great photographer, Rainier Ehrhardt, during Georgia's crazy celebration at the 2005 SEC Championship game in Atlanta. Can you tell I was an excited intern back then?

Currently I am a staff photographer/videographer with The Spectrum & Daily News in Cedar City, Utah. I've been here for a year-and-a-half now, covering everything from sheep festivals and dog weddings to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and Southern Utah University football (which unfortunately is 0-8 at the moment).

Here's a few other sites that may interest you:

• I'll post recent sports work on my SportsShooter.com site here.

• Photo galleries from recent events can be found on my newspaper's site here.

• I also have a page on a great site for the college shooters out there, College Front Page, which can be found here.

• If you ever want to purchase some of my photos or view a wedding that I've photographed, you can do so here.

I hope you enjoy my work and continue to visit my blog every once in awhile!