Life in Afghanistan

In my last entry, I mentioned a story about a pair of soldiers that returned home to Cochrane from Afghanistan.

After the story I wrote on the flag, I knew that each soldier had a much bigger story that could be told. Unfortunately one of them didn't have clearance from his commanding officer to speak to the media. The other, Cpl. Sam Agustin, did have permission to talk.

After close to three hours spread over two interviews I realized several things, one of which was I was in a little over my head.

I was fortunate enough to not have to worry about my deadline. I had about three weeks to write it since we had decided to use it in the Remembrance Day Eagle.

I had a lot of fun talking with Agustin and although I struggled with writing it, that was fun too. What I learned from my struggles writing was that I need to take better, more detailed notes, especially when I have such a long recording.

-30-

Homecoming Flag

Since starting at the Cochrane Eagle, I have started writing news and feature stories again. Luckily I generally only write either very short stories or ones that I want to write.

This gave me the freedom to take what was a simple grip & grin assignment of two soldiers returning from Afghanistan with a town flag, into an interesting candid shot and a story.

-30-

Labour Day Rodeo

I always look forward to covering rodeos. There is usually only one, maybe two per year. The anticipation of the Labour Day Rodeo in Cochrane was heightened since I've never covered this rodeo.

Unfortunately, the rodeo couldn't live up to the anticipation. It's a very small rodeo with very few entries in the events I like to shoot the most. It was still fun to cover but given the other assignments I had over the summer, it just can't compare.

-30-

Team Roping

Team roping is not one of my favourite rodeo events to cover. It is less exciting to watch and generally makes for less interesting photos that the more popular events such as bull riding or saddle bronc. It's also not an event that editors generally want you covered at a rodeo.

As a result, I wasn't really excited about covering a ranch rodeo which was solely team roping. What I was looking forward to was the freedom to move around and try new angles that isn't always available at bigger events.

As it turns out it was fun and I came away with some unique and interesting shots that told the story really well.

-30-

New Camera

I haven't been updating this blog or my website as much as I would like lately. I am once again trying to do a better job of updating things on a regular basis. Since I'm no longer using my laptop as my primary computer at work it should be easier to remember to write/post updates at night.On to today's entry. I recently picked up the Canon 1D MK IV camera. I'm not going to do any kind of scientific review of the camera. I thought I would post my thoughts on it. So far I am really, really impressed with the high ISO performance. Although I still love the ergonomics of the canon 1 series cameras, they have made some changes to the button layout. I think I'll get used to it over time but for the moment the MK IV isn't as comfortable as my trusty MK IIN.

Finally, I'm still making adjustments to the custom functions but I'm finding the auto-focus of the camera to be at least as good as the MK IIN.

The first image taken with the Mark IV at ISO 10 000.

-30-

Wet & Wild, a water fight at burn survivors camp

One of my favourite assignments of the summer happened because of my good relationship with the Redwood Meadows Emergency Services.

I was covering a training exercise with them when they announced that they were going to be participating in a water fight with youth burn victims on the last day of the Firefighters Burn Treatment Society's annual summer camp at the Easter Seals Camp Horizon in the Kananaskis.

I instantly realized this would make for a great photo spread and story.

After the exercise I spoke with the RMES Cpt. Evans and got the details on when the water fight would be.

When I spoke with the camp's director, Ian McKee he was happy to have me out to the camp but their was one restriction, I couldn't interview, name or do any close up shots of the campers.

I wasn't real happy about this since the kids are what make the story but I agreed to the restriction, I was just going to have to focus on the camp councillors and RMES personnel.

When the day came, it was raining in the morning and cold and overcast as the time for the water fight came.

The fight went ahead as planned, with one bonus for me, the kids all wore their ponchos during the fight.

This had the effect of obscuring faces in many of the photos and making it easier to show kids without having to worry about whether the kids faces were too prominent in the image.

The fight was a lot of fun to shoot. I wore a complete rain suit and made sure to stay out of the way of the fire hoses to protect my camera.

Only one kid tried to soak me and he asked first if my camera was water proof. I told him not enough for the bucket of water he was carrying and he moved on.

I didn't stay completely dry, on of the probationary firefighters poured a cup of water on my shoe, making sure I was included in the action.

Read the story in the Eagle here.

-30-

Cadet Search & Rescue - Part II

I had never been out to Waiperous before shooting the cadet search and rescue.

On the day of the training it was a little slow at the paper and no one knew how long it would take to get out there.

I wanted to leave a little early so their would be time to stop and shoot any wildlife I might see on route.

As it turned out, it was a much shorter trip to get out there than anyone had estimated and there wasn't any wildlife to photograph.

I arrived very, very early for the training.

It wasn't really a bad thing, I was able to interview the media contact prior to the exercise and get the background on what was going to happen thus making it possible to plan ahead to get the best pics.

This assignment also included one of those perks that don't happen a lot but are really nice, I was fed dinner by the camp.

After dinner, the real work started.

The civilian nurses got the causality kits out and began transforming three healthy staff cadets into three badly injured individuals in need of rescue (or at least a shower.)

Once the victims were ready, the were hidden around the camp and the cadet searchers got started. It didn't take the group I was following very long to find their victim and rescue him.

With the photos and the exercise over, it was time to get some interviews done.

Unfortunately for me, all three of the cadets I needed to talk to had very thick accents, two were from Quebec and one was from Britain.

It made the interviews long as I often had to repeat and reword questions so they could understand.

Quotes were also tough, full of pauses and ums as they searched for the right words.

As my first multiple source story in years, this was a tough way to start.

Overall it was a fun experience and I am looking forward to continuing to work on photo essays for the Eagle.

Read the story here.

-30-

Cadet Search & Rescue - Part I

So a little bit about what I do at the Eagle on Tuesday production days. When I started at the paper I hadn't written a story since I was at SAIT. Since I was a little rusty, I wasn't really qualified to lay out and cut the news stories of the other reporters. Because of this I spent a lot of time bored while I waited for the pages to be laid out and proofed. While I was waiting one Tuesday, I decided to go through the old issues of the paper.

I discovered a story on the army cadet search and rescue training at the Rocky Mountain National Army Cadet Summer Training Centre which is located past Waiparous on the forestry trunk road. The camp accepts the best cadets from across Canada as well as exchange cadets from the United Kingdom. They go through different training modules that include mountain climbing, a service week and other outdoor activities.

The photos with that year old story weren't any good, but they showed the potential of the training exercise. The army uses a causality kit that includes props and fake blood that can be disturbingly realistic.

The next day (after production) I spoke to my editor about doing a photo page and short story on the camp. She agreed, later that same day, the camp's media contact called the Eagle to invite a photographer out to cover some of their upcoming activities. From there it was simply getting down the details and the story was a go.

-30-

Finally, A great front

It took longer than it should but I have finally got an excellent photo on the front of the paper.

From shooting the Lord Strathcona's horse musical ride in St. Albert, I knew what picture I wanted to make from the RCMP musical ride's charge, basically

the one shot I didn't have from the Strathcona's. As the show started to draw to a close, I made sure to be at the end of the arena, ready with my 300mm lens. From there it was all about luck. I was in the right spot with the right gear, I just had to hope that the officers would have good expressions. I was lucky and they did.

-30-

More Red

The Musical Ride performed at the Cochrane Agricultural Society grounds on Tuesday Aug. 3 at 1:30 p.m. Since the paper's deadline is 5 p.m. it was decided that we would hold the paper to get it on the front and two full-page photo pages.

It was a lot of work and stressful but more then that, it was a lot of fun. for the first time in a long time I had to rush to make deadline and more importantly I can say, now that it is over, that the quality of my work didn't slip.

-30-

Seeing Red

Going to keep this one short. The RCMP's Musical Ride was in town for about four days with the performance on Aug. 3. In the morning before the ride, a couple of horses and riders visited the residents of the Bethany Care Centre.

More to come...

-30-

Wildlife in Town

So wildlife photography has never been my favourite thing to do, especially when working for the paper. All three of the newspapers I've worked for liked the occasional wildlife feature but I don't really have the patience to wait for the animals and I tend to feel guilty about not working while I'm sitting there waiting.

Its a different story when the wildlife

e comes to the city. It can be both challenging and exciting to try and safely find and photograph the animal whatever it is.

-30-

Portraits are fun

Since I started at the Cochrane Eagle I have been assigned several portraits a week. When I started in Photojournalism this fact would have depressed me. Starting out, I found portraiture tough and unpleasant. I wasn't comfortable or confident enough in my photography to tell people how to pose. I also didn't have the lighting equipmentor knowledge to light portraits or the experience to see and use available light properly.

This has changed as I gained experience as a photographer. I started to improve technically as I played

with lights and learned to see the potential of available light. As I gained confidence in my technical skills, I developed the experience and confidence to pose people and create the image I wanted, one that fits with the reporters stories.

Things have now turned a full 180 degrees from when I started. I've picked up a pair of studio lights and battery packs for location lighting. My outdoor lit and unlit portraits are getting to be consistent and good. I still struggle sometimes with indoor lighting, however I am looking forward to winter when outdoor portraits stop occurring. After about a month of shooting a portrait every other day, my indoor work will be as good and consistent as my outdoor.

-30-

Stampede #6

Some pictures from the final night of the Rangeland Derby.

Stampede #5

I decided to head down to the Stampede and shoot the final performance of the Stampede rodeo and.

To change things up from the last time, I decided to shoot the rodeo from the South media building located just above the tie down roping and steer wrestling chute.

Given the weather warning that was issued Sunday, having a roof over my head was a bonus, it was even better that the storm never materialized, though.

South Media was a good place for the bareback event but didn't work very well for the tie down roping and was worse for the steer wrestling.

As for the rest of the events South Media worked but wasn't as good as ground level.

Along with the rodeo action, it was cool to be there to record an end of an era as the Stampede retired bucking horse Grated Coconut (Centre).

Another highlight was saddle bronc rider Chet Johnson. The poor cowboy ended up riding six horses, four more in the same day than any other contestant to make the finals.

Stampede #4

Some photos from the final day of the Calgary Stampede Rodeo.

Stampede #3

Continuing with the Calgary Stampede, I was sent down to the grounds July 15 to cover the talent search, one of the stampede's hidden gems. The night that I went was the first of the semi-finals. The Boyce Theatre in the Calgary Round Up Centre was filled to capacity with crowds lined up outside hoping to get in as people left after their child performed.

To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to the assignment. There is a lot of musical talent in Cochrane and I have covered many of them since I started at the paper. I like covering performances but there aren't any really good venues from a photographers perspective (lack of interesting lighting, cluttered backgrounds, etc.) in Cochrane.

The stage at the Stampede was what I expected, Spot lights on the performers but lots of advertising cluttering up the background. I was able to get up high at the back of the theatre to help eliminate the distracting backgrounds.

What I hadn't expected as I drove to the grounds was quality of the performers.

Without a doubt, of the performances I saw, junior performer Eva Paolucci (top photo) was the crowd favourite. She sang How Sweet It Is but had an incredible stage presence for someone so young.

The performances while I was there was all musical, the best pics were from Michael Bridge playing his original composition, The Slippery Slope on his accordion.

He really was into his playing and had great facial expressions. Unfortunately he isn't from Cochrane or the surrounding area as these would have been great for the paper.

The Cochranite, Lucas Chaisson, was very good. He sang The Light and played the guitar.

My favourite performer on a night that turned out to be a lot more fun than expected was Madi Allen who sang Day Turns To Night (bottom image).