2011 was a great year at Sohm Photografx. I photographed lots of architecture, of course, but also entered into an unexpected second career photographing gala openings, conventions, and award ceremonies, in short, “event” photography.

I also created a new gallery website to showcase my recent projects. The site is located at:

sohmphoto.smugmug.com

The site allows me to post very nice galleries of my best photos and even allows viewers to purchase images right on the site.  It gives me a way to share photos with a wider audience and a way to show prospective clients examples of my work.

I have divided my smugmug galleries into categories that cater to different types of viewers.

Under “architecture,” I post my most recent architectural shoots including intimate projects like the St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in West Jordan (one of my most favorite shoots of 2011), the exotic Monument Valley Elementary School, the grandiose City Creek Center, and the high tech JL Sorenson Moledular Biotechnology Building on the University of Utah campus.

“Events” include conventions and gala events such as the grand openings of the Leonardo science and art museum and the Natural History Museum of Utah and the AIA Utah Design awards. It also includes photos from the SMPS national conference in Chicago at which I was hired to be official event photographer. Besides being a lot of work (and fun) the SMPS Conference required that I take formal studio-type portraits of award winners. Fulfilling that challenge required transporting studio lighting, backdrops, etc., via airline to the convention site and back, which turns out to be rather tricky. The results, though, were fabulous.

“Portraits” include corporate portraiture as well as family shoots.

The “landscapes” category contains some of my best western landscapes, soon to be augmented by photos from my recent trip to Monument Valley, Northern Arizona, and Upper Antelope Canyon.

I hope you take a look at my sohmphoto.smugmug.com site for my latest and greatest. Since is a better way to see my work, most of my future blog entries will refer views to that site to see the “good stuff.”

Victoria is an honors student majoring in flute performance. Choosing a new flute was a quest, an epic journey involving a flute dealer intimately connected with the tiny community of the world’s finest flute makers. In the end, like Harry and his wand, the flute chose Tori and an intimate bond was forged.

When performing, Tori and her flute are one. In portraiture, they are inseparable.

In the kick-off convention event on January 27, 2011, Simonson discussed the effects of the recession, of federal stimulus funding, the cost and availability of labor and materials, and construction hiring trends with an abundance of graphs and insightful statistics. He concluded that sustained, albeit slow, overall growth seems likely although some areas are poised to make quicker recoveries than others.

As gloomy as the current economy may seem, it presents some overlooked advantages. Simonson pointed out that construction material costs remain low and stable. Likewise, skilled workers remain abundant and labor costs remain stable and relatively low. This is welcome news for companies that currently have work. Simonson observed that as demand for construction increases, the cost of materials and labor are likely to increase.

Simonson’s analysis and 2011 forecasts are currently posted on the AGC of America’s website at the following link:

http://news.agc.org/topics/economics

For the most current information in the continuously changing construction sector, Simonson invited conference goers to subscribe to his “Data Digest” blog that he keeps current with new statistics when they become available. To subscribe to Data Digest, click on the following link:

www.agc.org/cs/data_digest_subscription_form

Dana Sohm, Sohm Photografx, 801-450-1947

Vernal, heart of the Unita Basin, has long been known as the home of the Dinosaur National Monument. But in recent years oil exploration and drilling has brought new money and industry to the region and with it the need for a local energy research and testing facility. The recently completed Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center (BEERC) brilliantly meets that need.

The BEERC, an extension of Utah State University, is public/private partnership bringing together educational resources of Utah State University with the business savvy of it private sector partners.

The result is a sparkling new state-of-the-art facility that promises to serve the region’s educational and research/testing needs for decades to come. Samples will be tested soon after being collected, instead of being sent out of town to another facility. This will reduce the costs and time of testing as well as insure more accurate results.  In the same building, students will be able to attend classes which are remotely taught using sophisticated video conference systems.

I first used the new backdrop with a family of three boys. The oldest is married with a family of his own. The youngest was about to depart for a 2-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The family wanted a picture of their missionary son and one of the full family before he left. While all were assembled, we did grouping including just the parents, the oldest son, his wife, and their incredibly beautiful daughter, etc.

Portraiture is becoming an increasingly important part of my business. I receive referrals from family and friend, and business portrait requests from many of clients in the construction industry.

Base Camp Interior, Image no. 0810-5731. The interior of this renovated office building, designed by JRCA Architects, sparkles with light from east-facing windows.

Sculpted Bronze, Experience Music Project, Seattle, designed by famed Architect, Frank Gehry. The building was designed to house a museum dedicated to rock music and science fiction. The section in this photo is  part of the “Monorail Canyon” through which passes Seattle’s famed monorail.

University of Utah Marriott Library, Image no. 0810-4044. The library was newly remodeled and seismically upgraded by MJSA Architects.

Les Paul Gold, Experience Music Project, Seattle. This portion of the Experience Music Project remembers the gold color of a the famous guitar named after legendary guitarist and inventor of the electric guitar, Les Paul.

Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center, Image no. 1010-2072. The newly constructed BEERC building, designed by Brixen & Christopher Architects and CRSA Architects, and constructed by Gramoll Construction, is an extension of Utah State University located in Vernal, Utah.

City Library Pond, Image no. 2145-0099. The Salt Lake City Library,designed by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie and Utah-based VCBO Architecture remains Utah’s most original and one of its most beautiful buildings.

Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, Image no. 0503-0203. The fanciful Conservatory, just inside the main lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, is redecorated with each change of season.

Security Cart, Disney Concert Hall, Image no. 0808-6206. Famed Architect, Frank Gehry, built this fanciful concert venue for the Disney Family in downtown Los Angeles.

Utah State Capitol Dome, Image no. 0801-9122 Utah’s state capitol building reopened in 2008 after years of earthquake retrofitting and restoration of its original design and character.

Epcot Dome. The center-piece of the futuristic Epcot Center in Walt Disney World is a geodesic sphere called “Spaceship Earth,” a phase coined by Buckminster Fuller, futurist, environmentalist, and inventor of the geodesic structure.

Library & Daffodils, Image no. 0804-3612. Daffodils presage the coming of spring at Salt Lake’s Main Library.

St. Francis of Assisi Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, Image no. 3126-0014. The backside of this adobe structure, made famous in a painting by Georgia O’Keefe, and in photographs by Ansel Adams and Paul Strand, remains much more memorable that its more church-like front.

Craters of the Moon, 'Inferno Cone'

Or at least that is what some thought the moon was like before humans actually went there.

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho is so called because its discoverers thought it resembled the moon’s surface through a telescope. In reality, it is a massive lava field.

Craters of the Moon was created by tectonic plates pulling apart from each other opening weak spots for magma to spew through to the surface resulting in many square miles of black hardened lava in smooth flows, gravel-like pebbles, and craggy debris. The material is extremely hard with broken glass-like edges that can shred shoes. The blackness of the lava absorbs sunlight and radiates heat that shimmers distant horizons.

The lava proved impassable for pioneers on their way to Oregon. Early on, the Oregon Trail traversed Southern Idaho through Fort Hall and Fort Boise. When natives became dangerous, pioneers were forced to change their route through a narrow strip of land between the lava flow and the mountain range immediately to the North. One traveler described the area as the “devil’s vomit.”

Can you imagine leading a convoy of covered wagons, in the middle of the summer, on dry prairie land, then running into this?

Without the Asphalt Trail, of course

Yeah, I’d try to go around it, too.

Today, a small portion of the lava fields has been somewhat civilized and made accessible to visitors. The National Monument now boasts a comfortable visitor center, a paved road, and asphalt walking paths to numerous volcanic features.

The coolest of these features, literally and figuratively, are caves in ancient lava tubes formed by underground rivers of lava a few thousand years ago. We explored “Boy Scout Cave.”

On the trail to the cave we saw what looked like a molten droppings from a molten cow.

Sort of

The entrance to Boy Scout Cave is unimpressive. But for a sign on the side of the trail, we would have walked right past it. It looks like a minor depression in the landscape, with boulders dumped in.

Entering the cave requires slithering on hands and feet through a narrow opening. My son and Marketing Director, Dave Sohm, entered first. I had to pass my camera and tripod through to him to free up my hands.

Here is the view 30 feet inside looking back at the entrance.

The cave interior is pitch black, flashlights and spare batteries are mandatory. Even our brightest flashlight gave only enough light to see where our next steps were going to be. In order to capture detail of cave walls, we used a technique called ”light painting.” During a 20-second exposures, we waved our flashlights on whatever we wanted to illuminate. It is an interesting and adventurous way to capture a portrait.

The cave interior is also freezing cold and quite refreshing after being on the hot, dusty surface. Icicles form on cave walls and, at places, the cave floor is a sheet of solid ice.

Here, near the end of the cave, David illuminated the left portion of the cave with his flashlight. I illuminated the foreground and cave roof. The glimmer of light in the distance is the cave entrance.

Here is a Google maps link to the area:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=43.131057,-113.384399&spn=1.369001,2.38678&t=h&z=9

I am honored and humbled to announce that Professional Photographers of America (PPA), the world’s largest and most respected trade organization of professional photographers, recently named Dana Sohm 2010 Photographer of the Year, Gold Level, in connection with its 2010 International Photographic Competition, one of the world’s most rigorous and respected photography competitions. I am one of only 45 photographers worldwide to receive this received this award.

Photographer of the Year Judging Process

The International Photographic Competition, sponsored annually by PPA, invites professional photographers to submit their four best photographic prints for judging before a panel that examines each print according to strictly controlled conditions designed to insure that each is judged purely on its aesthetic and technical merits. The judges do not know the identity of the photographers until all prints are judged.

The panel of judges assigns numeric scores for each print. Prints scoring 80 or more (out of 100) are designated as having earned “Merit,” and are included in PPA’s “General Collection.” General Collection prints are exhibited at the annual PPA convention. A very small percentage of the thousands of submitted prints are Merit prints.

A photographer is named Photographer of the Year if all four prints are judged to be Merit prints.

Gold Level

All Merit prints are then rejudged to determine which will be accepted into the PPA “Loan Collection.” Loan Collection prints are retained by PPA for a traveling exhibit that is displayed worldwide at various galleries and photographic events for one year. In other words, Loan Collection prints are the best of the best.

It is a great honor for any photographer to have even one print selected for the Loan Collection. Photographers with two of their four merited prints are designated as Gold Level Photographers of the Year. Because all four of my prints are Merit prints and because two of my prints were selected for inclusion in the Loan Collection, I received the Gold honor.

Being named Gold Level Photographer of the Year is an exclusive honor. Of the more than 4,000 prints submitted by over 1,000 photographers, only 45 photographers world-wide achieved the Gold Level. Many photographers submit prints for years without winning Photographer of the Year let alone the Gold Level. I feel especially honored that I received both recognitions in my first competition.

Below are my winning images, all designated as Merit prints. “Tulip Bottoms” and “Security Cart, Disney Concert Hall” were selected for the most exclusive Loan Collection. “Delicate,” and “Ballerinas” were selected for the General Collection.

Most architectural photography is done with a ground-leve camera, providing a perspective seen by users of the building. But there are times when an aerial view shows off a project in ways that ground-level photography cannot achieve. There are many ways to achieve an aerial view. A nearby parking structure of roof-top provides a stable camera base and is often ideal.

Cherry pickers or scissor lifts can elevate a camera up to 50-100 feet. When available, they can provide an ideal solution for low-level aerials or even indoor shots needing a higher perspective.

Airplanes and helicopters can be rented when a far-off view of an entire neighborhood is needed. However, aircraft are expensive and often cannot get close enough to show just one building.

Mini-blimps provide an ideal aerial view for many projects when other options will not work. The blimp provides a camera platform up to 100-300 feet providing a perfect aerial view when featuring just one building or one development. It give an elevation higher than can be achieved with lifts but much closer than can be achieved with other aircraft.

Mini-blimp Photography

Mini-blimp photography is always an adventure. A digital camera is attached to helium-filled blimp with a gyroscopic mount to reduce vibration with a radio transmitter to communicate with the ground crew. A blimp operator holds a tether line while a camera operator views what the camera sees and signals the camera when to shoot.

Tethered blimps drift with the wind and can bob to and fro like a kite. For this reason, calm morning air usually provides the best weather. The camera angle is repositioned by walking the tether to a new location. The operators are never directly under the blimp. Like a kite, the position of the blimp can be hundreds of fees away, horizontally and vertically, from the operators.

A small blimp is ideal because it can be inflated and still fit into the trailer. The blimp need not be big enough to lift a photographer, just a camera and a remote control, stabilizing system.

The Ground Crew

The blimp operator (on the right) wrangles the tethered blimp, guiding it into position and away from trees and powerlines. The camera operator (on the left) wears a Star Trek-like video visor (remember Geordi LaForge?) that allows him to see what the camera sees. He holds a joy-stick radio-controller that rotates the camera horizontally and vertically and tells the camera when to shoot.

The camera operator must have a cast iron stomach. Because the blimp drifts with the wind, the feeling of standing still on the ground while seeing the whole world jerking and swinging around is very disorienting and causes certain people (me) to get seasick. If you had to walk out of the nausea-inducing Blair Witch Project, operating a blimp camera may not be your best career choice.

This is St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in West Jordan from the ground. The client wanted to document a massive concrete pour filling the oval-shapped exterior of the new church structure.

The following pictures were taken from the air.

Another assignment was to photograph the Barnes and Noble building at Sugarhouse Commons.

Here is the building from the ground.

The same building using a mini-blimp. This view elevates the camera above traffic and traffic signals and opens the view to include the rest of Sugarhouse Commons and the mountains, beyond.

Below are mini-blimp aerial shots of “The District” shopping development in South, Jordan, Utah.

The mini-blimp shows the central retail area as well as the entire development with an intimate closeness and clarity that could not be achieved by airplane or helicopter.