Garrett Davis Photography - Editorial Photography

My blog has moved!

2009-08-25T22:31:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I've got a brand new blog! So if you have reached this page, please visit my new blog at:

http://garrettdavisphotographyblog.com/

Also, update any bookmarks, subscriptions, or links with the new web address. Thanks!!

-Garrett

Paperback Hero

2009-03-18T21:48:00.003-06:00

After a great session with Juke Kartel, my name is starting to get out in the music scene, which is awesome. It also helps that one of the biggest fans of my work (and my roommate) is a guitarist for Lifehouse, the one and only Ben Carey. So when Bryan Hopkins, lead singer for Paperback Hero and good friend of Ben's, asked me if I would do some promo shots for them at the Key Club, a famous Hollywood club on Sunset Boulevard, I jumped at the opportunity.

I had about 20 minutes with the fellas at the famous bus behind the club (it's been used as a dressing room for bands that play at the club for years). A very cool scene for an awesome band. After the shoot I stuck around and got some live shots. I also mixed in a few shots from a show they did at the Hard Rock with Juke Kartel about a week before the Key Club.

Here's what we got....

From left....Pete Burke: Drums, Dan Fine: Bass, Bryan Hopkins: Lead Vocals, Chris Latham: Guitar

Bryan Hopkins....

Dan Fine....

Pete Burke....

Chris Latham, with the rock star pose I was looking for. I hope that was directed at the camera and not me....

The Hard Rock made for a very cool venue....

Here's Ben playing with the guys and showing off for the camera....

Gotta throw a few more Juke Kartel shots, they played right before Paperback Hero at the Hard Rock....

Juke Kartel

2009-03-05T17:52:00.021-07:00

Some good friends of my Aussie roommate were in town the other day to put on a show at the famous Troubadour in West Hollywood. The band, Juke Kartel, is from Melbourne, Australia and are breaking into the American music scene in a huge way. You may recognize the lead man, Toby Rand, from the hit reality show, Rock Star Supernova, in which rock stars battled to be the lead singer for a band which featured Tommy Lee and others. Great group of guys that put on a heck of a show, good enough for a guitarist named Slash from a little band called "Guns N Roses" to stop by and be part of the crowd.

Aside from being a roadie most of the day, I managed to snap a few pics as well....

Toby Rand....

Dale Winters....

Jason Pinfold....

Todd Burman....

I love this one, that's actually a camera flash from the crowd lighting up Toby....

Tommy Kende....

Not Everyone Loves Santa....

2008-12-08T12:59:00.002-07:00

Check out Myles....I don't think he's a big fan of Santa.

Breast Cancer Survivor

2008-11-26T16:07:00.007-07:00

I had the opportunity to spend some time with Nedra Spaulding, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Here's the kicker, Nedra is a hospice nurse. She spends time with patients battling for their lives in their final days, and here she is now battling for her own life.

I wanted to do something a little different with my first time photographing her. So instead of being with her during a chemotherapy session, I decided to join her as she gets the remainder of her hair removed. She was very upbeat about her situation, and held her emotions very well as she had her head shaved.

She's a wonderful woman, and I hope to continue this story and spend more time photographing her in the future.

San Francisco and Sonoma Wine Country

2008-09-01T14:57:00.007-06:00

I've been taking quite a few weekend trips throughout the summer, one of my favorites being a recent two-day trip to San Francisco. My friend Robin and I took a day trip out to Sonoma to do a little wine tasting, which was amazing....

Sonoma Wine Country:

San Francisco:

Robin's a bit shy around the camera:

Character

2008-06-05T10:34:00.004-06:00

Character: The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual; the quality of being individual.

Portrait photography is far more than just pointing a lens at an individual's face and pushing a button to record an image. What makes a great portrait is finding the true character within the individual, and recording a specific moment that displays the individual's uniqueness.

I met a nice man today, a man with good character. His name is Robert Bubai. He is from Maine. While traveling to the west coast a year ago, his van broke down. He was lost, with no where to go. That's when a citizen of Cedar City invited him into their home, soon after he was able to get a trailer to live in. Here he is a year later, still loving life, and in no hurry to get to the west coast. In some way that shows the true character of our city....welcoming.

Let's be honest, most of us would be hesitant to approach Robert and start up a conversation, at least without knowing the character of the individual. That's one of the benefits of documenting life with my camera, I meet tons of interesting people that I may have never met otherwise. I had a great conversation with Robert; he is one of the happiest individuals I've ever met. After our conversation I asked him if I could photograph him and his dog, Sierra (which he named after the Sierra Mountains). He said yes.

To me, this first portrait reveals Robert's true character, and the second portrait shows the love he has for his dog, Sierra. If you happen to see Robert and his dog hanging out at the many festivals we have in town this summer, be sure to say hi, he will brighten up your day....

California Dreamin'

2008-05-23T19:09:00.009-06:00

Every time I'm in Los Angeles for work, or play, I crash with a few buddies of mine, one of them being my best friend of 27 years, Ryan. One of the other guys at the house happens to be a guitarist for Lifehouse, Ben Carey. What a perfect opportunity to get some edgy rock star portraits.

For this set I wanted a ring flash effect, which gives a very direct flash to the subject, filling all the shadows on the face and produces a "halo" around the subject. Since I don't have an extra $500 lying around, once again I had to improvise. I taped two Canon Speedlight handheld strobes directly to my 16-35mm lens, which unfortunately only created half a halo. I was still very happy with the results.

Ben Carey, guitarist, Lifehouse

Ben with his dog, Gibson

I also tested the system out on another buddy of mine. I love the urban look I get from this photo:

I love how this technique lights up the eyes:

A trip to southern Cali isn't complete without a ride on the Harleys. Ben on the left, Ryan on the right:

Matt Nelson, of the Nelson Brothers:

Matt on his shiny new bike:

Ryan cruisin' the 210:

Bikers

2008-05-14T15:49:00.002-06:00

Here's a few portraits of some bikers that were in town for a fundraiser. You can check out the story behind the photos on my other blog, on my newspaper's website, thespectrum.com.

Seattle

2008-05-08T20:41:00.011-06:00

This past weekend I was in Seattle for my two days off (quick trip....don't ask). Every time I make it back to my home town, I make sure I hit up the market (Pike Place Market) and take in the atmosphere, that always helps me feel like I'm really home again. And of course, I always take my camera. I like to challenge myself and try to focus on a different aspect of the most photographed site in Seattle; this time I wanted some black and white images. So I grabbed my 50mm and hit the market....

Seafood Stress:

Chinese:

Fruit:

Feet:

Love:

Market:

Sailing:

The Original:

Tourists:

Tunes:

Bull Riding

2008-05-06T22:10:00.009-06:00

A few select images from the bull riding event held in Cedar City, always fun being a cowboy for a night....

The Subway

2008-05-03T21:39:00.014-06:00

Yet another long and strenuous hike, the Subway Trail in Zion National Park.

Brett repelling:

Sarah walking through the "subway" portion of the hike:

Six feet deep and forty degrees, this is where our hike ended:

Dionne and Emily making the trek down to the river, the hike back up was not fun:

There were several nice waterfalls along the way:

Sarah photographing a frog....if a frog could laugh, it would be laughing at Sarah:

Another nice waterfall:

Closeup:

I fear nothing:

Except this, Laura sporting some bugeye shades:

Watch out for the cow Dionne:

Pie Your Professor

2008-05-01T21:18:00.004-06:00

I know, I know, I don't update nearly as much as my loyal readers (all two of them) would like to see. So here's some recent daily work, hopefully I'll be able to update with daily stuff at least once a week.

In recognition of finals week at Southern Utah University, I thought it would be fun to throw (no pun intended) some photos up from the "Pie Your Professor" event on campus. Luckily for me, the Fine Arts department was left out of this event. Although I don't think it would have mattered, my students love me too much to toss a pie in my face.

Track and Field

2008-05-01T21:11:00.002-06:00

High school track & field, it's more than just running around in circles....

High jump:

Javelin:

Long jump:

Running in circles (for 1600 meters):

Video from Angels Landing

2008-04-21T11:14:00.004-06:00

Just wanted to add the video I put together from our Angels Landing hike. Check it out:

Angels Landing

2008-04-14T21:02:00.005-06:00

You know summer is arriving in southern Utah when you can go on a hike without having to walk through snow. A few of us decided to tackle one of the more scenic, and death defying, hikes in Zion National Park, Angels Landing. That's one of the benefits of having an outdoors section in our newspaper, we can go on spectacular hikes and call it work.

View from the top, definitely worth the burning legs:

Here's what you have to hike up to get to that view (Our reporter, Ryan Dionne, is actually heading back down in this shot):

Here I am hanging on for dear life on the way up:

Here's Ryan hanging on a few feet from the edge, notice the road a few thousand feet down:

Ryan hanging out on top, gotta love his "Delicate Arch" socks:

Luckily I was there to tell Ryan he had a water pack on, not a parachute:

Even from the parking lot you can capture a surreal scene:

Engagement Session at the Beach

2008-04-02T17:17:00.016-06:00

Here's a few shots from an engagement session with Stephanie and Lawrence at Huntington Beach, California. To view more photos from this session, click here. A beautiful couple, a beautiful beach, and a beautiful sunset....I couldn't have taken a bad photo if I tried.

Snowmobile Mayhem

2008-03-09T17:22:00.008-06:00

Here's a few shots from the Red Bull Sled Style Extreme Snowmobile Exhibition at Brian Head Resort this past Saturday. Apparently winter is not over yet. It was very cold, snowy, and windy, which made for very difficult shooting conditions. With every raise of the lens came a layer of snow to cover it. Under the circumstances, I was pretty happy with what I came away with, not counting the frostbite and frozen lenses.

X Games medalist Joe Parsons:

C.J. Gorringe, ready to go:

Parsons with the back flip:

Gorringe takes flight:

Baby Declan

2008-02-20T15:07:00.008-07:00

I absolutely love stories like this one. Declan had his first birthday this past Saturday, and at first glance he looks like your normal one year old. You could never tell that he has been through more surgeries already than you will your entire life. Declan was born 24 weeks premature, weighing in at 1.1 pounds. Hold your hand out and look at it, he was about that size. It was a very emotional birthday party, most of his family never thought he would live to see it.

I love this photo, it really takes that famous saying literally, "a picture says a thousand words." His arms outstretched, Declan seems as if he knows he has conquered adversity and nothing can stop him....all in his first year:

Here he is with mom:

Here's dad entertaining his son:

His eyes lit up everytime I pointed the camera his way:

Opening presents:

Harlem Globetrotters

2008-02-18T21:28:00.014-07:00

Last week the Harlem Globetrotters stopped in Cedar City and put on a show. What a fun event to cover. I set up the backboard camera for this game and ended up with a very unique shot, one that I'll never get from a normal basketball game. All in all, I came out with some fun shots.

Pre-game in the tunnel:

Soaring to the hoop for a dunk:

Then pulling up on the rim for the crowd, giving my backboard cam a shoe full:

A few other fun shots:

Working the Red Carpet

2008-02-17T17:07:00.008-07:00

While I was in Las Vegas for Miss America, I decided to hit the red carpet at the world premier of Rambo. Here's a few of the celebs that made an appearance.

Rambo himself giving me the staredown, I guess he thought I was paparazzi:

UFC's Tito Ortiz with Jenna Jameson:

American Pie's Jason Biggs:

Guy from White Castle:

Cleveland Brown and former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn:

Miss America in Las Vegas

2008-02-13T15:52:00.002-07:00

Man, what a tough assignment. Spending a weekend in Las Vegas with all the Miss America contestants....sometimes I just can't handle this job! The main reason we covered Miss America was because of Miss Utah Jill Stevens. She started out as Miss Southern Utah University, right here in Cedar City, before becoming Miss Utah. What a great story. Not only is she an amazing person, but she is also an American soldier and served her country in Afghanistan. So I decided to follow her around with a camera for a few months leading up to the Miss America pageant. She ended up in the top 16 after being named "America's Choice," but unfortunately her night would end there. Instead of posting all the photos, here's the final multimedia piece for the story:

Michael Vick's Fighting Pit Bulls

2008-02-13T14:53:00.012-07:00

Okay, I know what you're all thinking, "I've seen this already!" I know, I know, but I had to get it up on the blog! For those of you who haven't seen these yet, this was a story I worked on for The New York Times (it never gets old saying that) on the rehabilitation of Michael Vick's fighting pit bulls at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah. I'm still getting several nice emails from people all over the nation about the photos; I'd like to thank everyone for all the kind comments, and I'm still trying to reply to each and every one of your emails. Be sure to check out the multimedia piece I did for this story, which you can find here, at nytimes.com.

Here's the layout, including a shot on the front page:

This photo got the most attention by far, it really shows the connection these dogs have with their caregivers:

Here's a caregiver taking a nap with Georgia:

Here's Lucas, Vick's champion dog:

Lucas was also one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet. Here he is licking the face of Jeff, one of the caregivers:

Lucas, once again looking for attention:

Meryl, peeking out of his igloo:

Handsome Dan, with a caregiver:

Monte Carlo Catches Fire

2008-01-31T17:11:00.001-07:00

What a weekend! We had one objective when we made the trip down to Las Vegas on the last weekend of January, and that was to follow Miss Utah Jill Stevens as she competed in the Miss America pageant. But, as any journalist will tell you, it doesn't always work out that way. The morning of Friday, Jan. 25 we were on our way to Planet Hollywood to meet up with Jill and her family....that was before we saw black smoke coming from the Vegas strip. It turns out the Monte Carlo hotel and casino was engulfed in flames, so I parked my car in the median of the strip and grabbed my camera. Here's what I came back with:

Monte Carlo employees walking away from the casino:

Smoke rising from the casino:

Monte Carlo guests watch from the strip:

A crowd gathers on the strip to watch the fire:

A few of these photos were picked up by USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and other major newspapers. Right place, right time I guess....

Snow Biking and Tubing

2008-01-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

I love working on stories for our Outdoors section, it gives me a chance to get a great hike in or try out an not-so-ordinary sport. The winter months make things more interesting, some of the stories we tackled last winter included skiing, snowmobiling, snow shoeing, and hiking Alta near Salt Lake City. In an attempt to mix it up this winter, we started off with two interesting snow sports available in our area (Brian Head Resort), snow biking and tubing. So we grabbed our bikes and hit the pavement, er....slopes!

Here's our outdoors reporter Ryan Dionne taking on a diamond run:

Dionne grabbing some air:

Dionne carving across a run:

Time to put the bikes away and grab a tube, here's the starting gate:

Tubers hang on as they cruise down the course:

Here's a snowboarder getting ready to head down the mountain, I really liked the light and color in this shot:

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

A new year, a new start....and new kids!

The first of the year brings the first baby of the year story for most papers. So welcome in Cedar City's first baby of 2008, Koy Joshua Wasden:

Howdy Y'all, Las Vegas Style-Part 1

2007-12-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

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??

2007-12-03T11:18:00.001-07:00

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

2007-11-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-11-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-11-01T22:22:00.001-06:00

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!

2007-10-31T22:48:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-10-30T19:16:00.000-06:00

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!