Winter 2005 - University Photographers' Association of America

DEPTH OF FIELD
last year's Print Competition. That
photo is a dramatic silhouette of a
class at the Monterey Aquarium in
front of a tank with colorful jellyfish.
As Mark explains, the lighting
was there and didn't require him to
change anything on that level. He
did place the figures where he
wanted them, and then directed the
class to ask the professor questions
using their hands. Manually
focused at wide open at about 1/
125 second, Mark just needed some
patience for the jellyfish to
cooperate and swim into the right
spots. These essays work well with
Mark's style for as he puts it "The
majority of what I shoot is
photojournalistic."
The Hawaii trip came about due
to Mark's contacts with a BYU
professor. When he heard about this
class, it was an easy sell to the
administration "Our university has
a lot of international mentoring and
outreach programs. They are
always looking for this kind of
stuff," Philbrick comments. In fact,
these photos ran in all sorts of
publications and posters. The
travel, while a bit taxing on Mark's
personal life, is ultimately very
visually inspiring. "I like anything
that doesn't look like here (Provo,
Utah), the third world, wilderness,
the jungle."
For his travel kit, Mark usually
carries three digital Nikon camera
bodies, lenses in 12mm, 17-35mm,
28-70mm, 70-200mm, a TC-14
teleconverter, two or three Nikon
800 strobes (which he sets up on
stands and utilizes with Pocket
Wizard slave units, as he likes to
stay away from on camera flash). For
the trip to France, Mark started
using a Photoware backpack,
which he's become very fond of. He
also travels with a Titanium
Powerbook Mac and a day bag for
the camera equipment.
BYU has been all digital for at
least three or four years, and Mark
has used every version of Adobe
Photoshop since the software was
created way back when. He likes to
shoot most everything in Fine JPEG
format, saying he finds that Nikon
RAW files just don't give him what
he's looking for. Mark admits he's
been very fortunate in being able to
always obtain whatever was
needed for him to do his job. With
Jaren on board fulltime and other
student shooters, BYU has a Nikon
arsenal of two D2H's, two D1-X's,
two D1H's, two D-100's and one D-
70. Plus all the latest auto-focus
lenses. Mark makes a common
observation amongst University
Photographers when he says
"Before computers, buying a camera
was a luxury. A camera was
expected to last twenty years. The
paradigm has changed." What also
helps is that the photo department
is a on a chargeback system for most
university work, and Mark and
Jaren have a nice contract as the
official photographers for the
Western Athletic Conference, which
also brings in some money that can
be invested in updating equipment.
Despite his loyalty to (and the
business associated with) Nikon
over the years, Mark's department
has also recently purchased two
Canon Mark II's to try out, mostly
because of problems with the Nikon
autofocus system. These should get
a good workout as the photo
department covers a lot of sports,
including all of BYU football
games.
He's got the expensive toys, he's
got the exotic locations. Even when
he doesn't travel off campus, he can
capture a jaw dropping shot like the
First Place winner in this year's
Campus Environment category of
the Print Competition. What really
puts Mark over the top is his
relentless quest to push himself
creatively, never be satisfied with
what he's done, but to always try
something new. For example, BYU
has two graduations annually, so
Mark figures he's now
photographed more than fifty. Still,
each one is different and a new
challenge for him. "I always try to
get a few shots that I've never done
before. Part of my philosophy for
every day is what can you do that's
different?"
An example of this philosophy
at work can be illustrated by another
Best of Show shot of two relay
UPAA Contact Sheet 7