National HIV Testing Day - June 27, 2007

Wednesday, June 27, 2007.

Today is National HIV Testing Day. After realizing this, I thought it would be a great way to get something out about HIV in the Deseret Morning News. So I went down to the Indian Walk In Center in downtown Salt Lake to try to take some photos of someone getting tested.

When I walked in they said that they had only 3 people that had been tested that day so they couldn’t promise anything and that because of HIPPA I couldn’t take photos of the testing center and the person’s face. We had a couple of minutes to chat before someone walked through the door. I think because of that, she realized that I truly have a passion to get information out about HIV and she was then excited about getting a photo in the paper. Soon a middle-aged man walked into the room. She asked if we could speak with him before the test. He said he would love to and he didn’t mind having his face shown. Wow. Thats amazing.

I decided to go to the Indian Walk In Center first because the numbers of HIV within the American Indian population is rising at a rapid rate and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get information out.

Brad Cuny, 44, is tested for HIV at the Indian Walk In Center in Salt Lake City Wednesday — National HIV Testing Day. Cuny, an American Indian, has not been tested in 10 years. The center has performed 250 tests in the past year and a half with no positive test results. The American Indian population is the third highest among racial and ethnic groups living with HIV and AIDS.

A Day of Mourning

Yesterday I was on the late shift. My assignment was to get photos of the flag flying half staff at the corrections office in Draper in honor of slain officer Stephen Anderson who was shot by Curtis Allgier, a prison escapee, the day before. Second assignment - to photograph the Bluffdale special election.

There are also those assignments that touch and change your life. Last night was one of those times. My third assignment was to cover a candlelight vigil for a high school student in American Fork that was killed in a car accident the day before. I have to be honest, I was not exactly excited to get of my car for this one. I knew that it was going to be emotional and I didn’t feel like being a vulture. I decided to arrive about a half hour before the vigil and started asking students if it would be ok to photograph them during the vigil. I just wanted to feel like I was welcome before I started snapping photos of people crying. Then his family walked in. I stepped back for a couple of minutes and then asked the father if it would be ok to take photos of the family during the vigil and he gave me complete access.  What a strong and courageous family.

I took a couple of photos but about 10 minutes into the vigil, my chest started hurting watching all of the tears and the family and friends mourn and hearing the stories of this wonderful person. There was something unique about this vigil and this high school and after they were done sharing stories, I came up to the principal and told her that her high school was special. At that moment, all of the tears I had tried so hard to hold back burst after seeing hers.

At that moment I realized that this was not going to be the first vigil that I was going to photograph in career but I vowed to myself never to get jaded. I spent the rest of the evening with the family, photographing them during the candlelight vigil. This was a night I will never forget. It was a time when as the photographer, I was changed. I decided I wanted to live in a community that has as much unity as this one and I saw the strength of a family who just lost a wonderful son and brother.

Here are the images from yesterday:

Beth Walker, left, Rebecca Clark and Kara Crumrine mourn the loss of former American Fork High School student body president Travis Landeen Tuesday night.

Travis Landeen’s family joins thousands of students from American Fork for a moment of silence to remember Travis during a candlelight vigil on the high school football field.

Students at American Fork High School fill the gymnasium to mourn the loss of their student body president, Travis Landeen.

A flag flies at half staff at the Utah Department of Corrections in Draper in honor of slain corrections officer Stephen Anderson.

A special election in Bluffdale, UT.

Guns

Monday, June 25, 2007.

A day of guns. I was originally scheduled to photograph the Eco-Garden in Salt Lake City. Before breakfast, that all changed. I recieved a call about 830 from my photo editor telling me that there had been an officer shot and he needed me there as soon as possible.

Well, last night, I received a similar call from another editor around 630 at night. He told me that there had been a shooting at the Fashion Square Mall and that 7 people were in critical condition. He paused, “eight people in critical condition and they haven’t arrested the suspect.” My heart pounding, I grabbed my computer at the coffee shop where I had just sat down and jumped in my car to quickly grab my gear and change. I was about a block from my house and my phone rang again. “It was a drill,” he said. “They didn’t bother to tell us.” But looking back, it was a good drill for me.

This morning, prepared from the previous shooting drill, I jumped in my car and quickly got the scene. By the time I got there, they had arrested the suspect after a high-speed chase in Salt Lake City and it was pretty calm at the center where the shooting had occurred. But I stuck around for the press conferences and for them to wheel the body out. Well it was during the press conference that they wheeled the body out so none of us got that photo (tricky, huh). The victim was Stephen Anderson, 60, the correctional officer that was transporting a prisoner to the University Orthopaedic Center to get an MRI. Curtis Algier, a white supremacist, shot and killed him and then led the police on a high speed chase.

After the second press conference, I started heading back to the office. About a block before I reached the office, I got another call. “There has been a change of plans. There is a Sheriffs Convention I want you to go to.” After reading the press release, I realized that it was a convention with lots of guns.

Interesting, I thought. I am going from one assignment where a gun was used to kill someone to another where they are demonstrating guns. It was an interesting afternoon from meeting gun vendors and sheriffs from across the country to actually getting behind a gun myself and shooting.

Thats a whole other story. So after I was done photographing, I went back up to check on one person’s name. While I was up there, they asked me to try once. I refused and then finally gave in after they asked me multiple times. It was a rifle. A huge rifle. I have never held a gun and after this morning it was scary. But after a minute lesson, they loaded it and I fired. I fired and hit the bullseye. I guess photography does come in handy for some things. The guys behind me asked, “now how many times have you shot a gun before?” and I sheepishly responded, “this is actually my first time.” and they dropped their guns and through their hands in the air.

Well here are some of my images from today.

For those who haven’t read the story on Stephen Anderson, 60, the correctional officer that was killed today by Curtis Allgier at the University Orthopaedic Center in Salt Lake City, here is the story that the Deseret News published online halfway through the day. http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,680193840,00.html

Photo Intern Day 5

Yesterday ends my first week of interning at the Deseret Morning News. It was an early morning, starting with the West Fest Family 5k race in West Valley. This was a great example of community journalism. I was able to sit down and chat with some of the families and hear some interesting stories of heroism and family support. This was a great reminder to me that no matter what the assignment is - to work hard to get some interesting images and that I have a great job getting to know the people in the community in which I serve. I stuck around after the race as there were people starting to line up for the parade later that morning. Yesterday was to be a record-breaking high so I was looking for people hiding from the sun, soaking themselves with a bottle of water — something to indicate the heat but where I was, it didn’t seem to be hotter than usual.

After I realized it was going to take awhile for the parade to cross where I was stationed, I raced over to my next assignment about 2 minutes down the road. Here, I was to take photos of volunteers going door to door speaking to residents about a proposed freeway that will cut through the baseball diamonds behind the elementary school in their neighborhood. These volunteers were out to inform the neighborhood on the risks the freeway poses on the children in the area including health and safety risks. There were four sets of media including two papers, NPR and a news station. This is when you realize that you have to do something different so you don’t have to compete for a image. So I sat back at first and waited for those crews to leave so I could have a clean image without other cameras in the photo. After they left, I went ahead of the volunteers, knocked on a door, introduced myself and asked if I could come inside and take some photos of them talking to the volunteers that were on their way. I thought this would be more storytelling and I felt more comfortable doing this then showing up a door and photographing the people without them realizing what was going on.

I knocked on one door and they let me in. After a couple of minutes, the volunteers knocked on the door and this is when I shot the image I thought was most storytelling — the kids in the foreground playing while the mom was talking to the volunteers about the risks the freeway has on the children and the neighborhood. I also decided to make my way to the baseball diamond where the freeway will destroy to show how that land is being used now.

Here are some images from yesterday:

West Fest Family 5k Run –

Volunteers Speak Out Against Freeway and Health Concerns to Children –

Hiking in Salt Lake - Lake Blanche Trail

After work yesterday, I wanted to find some mountain goats for Tim. I was hoping to send some photos of them to him last night. I had heard that there are mountain goats at the entrance to Little Cottonwood Canyon, but this night there were none. I think this was because I took a wrong turn and entered Big Cottonwood Canyon instead. So I drove a little ways and parked at Mill B South Fork and hiked up a little and then saw signs for Lake Blanche Trail. In my reading, I had seen a photo of Lake Blanche but had no idea how strenuous the hike would be. It was hard work, but well worth it. I got to a point in the hike where I wanted to turn back but I wouldn’t let myself and I am so glad I didn’t. Lake Blanche sits at the base of Sundial Peak which you can see in the third photo below.

I wasn’t expecting to get exercise but when I got into my car at the trailhead at the end of the hike, I was exhausted and felt great (other than my knees). The hike is pretty steep and if you have knees like I do, it hurts on the way down. I am also glad that I brought a liter of water because I drank it all. Make sure you bring some bug spray, the last mile up the hike I was swatting mosquitoes.

I started the trail at 6:30 and was able to get back to the trail head by 9:30 when the sun took its last breath. I sprinted down the trail, scared that I wouldn’t make it back down before it got dark.

West Fest 2007

After I finished shooting all of my assignments today, I picked up the polaroid camera that has been roasting in my trunk for the last week. There was a carnival down the road from where I had been photographing earlier that day and I thought it was perfect for some more American Tourism.

Photo Intern - Day 4

I feel like I am starting to get pretty settled into a routine here in Utah. For the last week, I have been waking up by 5:45 (well this morning it was 6:15) and by 6 or 7 I am in a yoga class down the street. Its pretty awesome. I come back home, take a shower, eat breakfast and head to work.

This morning was a little different. I had an assignment at 8 so I skipped yoga (and the shower) and had a great day working on a multimedia project, using stills, video and audio. I am working on a special project with a writer on a river in Utah that has been deemed one of the most endangered lands in America. I am going to continue to work on this project. Here is an image I took this morning (one I am not going to use for the story).

Photo Intern - Day 3

Thursday, June 21, 2007

My third day on the job and I am starting to really like this daily assignment thing. Today, my first assignment was at the Salt Lake City Arts Festival. At first, I wandered. But after about 30 minutes of taking images of children and face painting, I found some interesting subjects and I think I took some interesting images. After that, I was to take photos of the World Peace and Prayer Day. Well, when I got there, the organizers told me that I couldn’t take photos of people and praying because they were trying to respect all religions. Well, I said I would honor that wish as much as I could but that I was there to take photos of the event.

I guess the best part was actually having a deadline I had to meet and feeling like I had something worthy of the paper and interesting for the readers.

Hiking in Salt Lake - Pipeline Trail

Wednesday was my first day off from work so I decided to tackle some of the hiking trails everybody has been talking about. For those who are interested in hiking in this area, I will be posting images and describing the hikes each time I go — which I hope will be every week on my day off. For my first hike, I researched some areas but didn’t really know which trail to go on so I headed to Millcreek Canyon and figured I would just stop. Well I got to Millcreek Canyon and drove until the road ended. I got out of my car and saw two bikers so i asked them what trail I should take and here is what they sent me on… and instead of dragging my Mark II, here is the brilliance of a point and shoot.

So about Pipeline Trail — Take 3800 South and go east and this will throw you directly into Mill creek Canyon. Park at the Church Fork picnic area then start hiking up Rattlesnake Gultch, hopefully no relation to the snake. At some points it got a little steep (or maybe I am really out of shape) but for the most part you look across the canyon. At the summit, you are able to see the whole valley and that is awesome. I decided to bring a book and read there, overlooking the city.

Photo Intern - Day 2

I got my first taste of daily deadlines and remote transmitting. I have to be honest, I don’t think it was the most successful day on my part.

I started out the day photographing a press conference about a nonprofit that seals children’s teeth to improve overall health in Title I schools. After shooting that and lunch, I returned to the office and was quickly sent out to photograph the separation of the Clark twins at the Children’s Hospital. I was excited about this assignment until I found out that it was another press conference. While, I didn’t have the best photos, I learned a lot about editing and transmitting quickly before deadline.

I have only worked for two days now but have already found this internship to be beneficial. I will post images once they have been printed in the paper.