RMES Ride along

After seven years as a photojournalist and dozens of emergency calls I have never travelled to a scene with lights and sirens.

Until April 6 that is.

I was in the Chief’s office at the Redwood Meadows Emergency Services  (RMES) station to interview Rob Evans about his promotion to Fire Chief.

About five minutes into the interview Evans paused, said they had a call and left to see what it was.
They had received a call for a car fire on a service road in Kananaskis Country.

When I stepped out of the office to see what was happening, Evans asked if I had my camera gear and if I wanted to ride with him in the departments’ rapid response pick-up truck.

I, of course, said yes, went back into the office to grab my camera and while being careful to stay out of the way of the engine crew, go into the rapid.

The drive from the hall was fascinating, the first thing I noticed was that the sirens, which I’ve heard from the outside and are quite loud, are much quieter when heard from inside.

I was also stunned, more than I probably should have been, out how other drivers on the road reacted as we drove down Highway 22.

When I drive myself to the scene of and accident or fire, I have a general idea of where all of the responding police and fire units are thanks to my radio scanner.

If I am ahead of any emergency vehicles I frequently check my mirrors and makes sure to pull off the road and be out of the way well before they reach me.

Even without the advantage of knowing that they’re coming there’s no excuse not to get out of the way of emergency vehicles.

On this call, two pick up trucks continued driving, blocking the way, oblivious to us for some time as Evans honked the horn and worked to safely pass them.

I was told that this is actually about average but it does get worse on weekends as more people come out into the country.

We arrived on the scene moments after the engine did while that crew was still unrolling hose lines and getting their breathing masks on.

Evans said that everything went well at that scene. The proper strategy was with a combination of water and dry chemical extinguisher used to put out the fire.

With the fire out, they cleaned up their gear, turned the scene over to the Kananaskis Fire Investigator and returned to the hall where I was able to finish my interview with Evans about his promotion.

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First on the scene - a river rescue

It's actually been a long time since I've arrived first on the scene. With most of the hard news happening outside of the town limits it's pretty tough to beat vehicles that don't have to follow posted speed limits, red lights and the rest of the rules of the road like I have to.

On this river rescue I arrived first by about a minute or two. I was followed closely by Cochrane Fire Services Capt. Huw Jeffries in their ERU (its a pickup truck, I'm not sure what the designation means). He drove right onto the bridge to asses the situation. The Engine was off responding to what turned out to be a false alarm fire.

Moments later, two ambulances arrived and their crews started asking me  what was happening, which unfortunately I didn't know much since I had just arrived and only knew what had been transmitted over the radio (I did tell them what I'd heard the police say since I have no idea if ambulance crews monitor RCMP radio traffic).

Shortly after that the crews who had been paged into the fire hall for this call started to arrive with the necessary equipment to effect the rescue.

From there things progressed quickly, safety ropes were tied, water rescue team members got in position to back up the high angle rescue, and a firefighter climbed over the edge to effect the rescue.

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Rescue Animals

Although it is said that "patience is a virtue" its not one of my stronger virtues which is why I'm not much of a wildlife photographer. I'm just not good at sitting and waiting for wildlife.

I do however like pictures of wildlife. Which is why I quite enjoyed going to the Cochrane Ecological Institute where I was able to cheat and get great wildlife shots without much waiting. Since the lynx and owls and deer were in their cages it was pretty easy to get these photos.

It was especially nice to get the shots of the Lynx. After I finished photographing volunteer Konny Trosien and the baby deer (above), Lindsay, the reporter with Cochrane Eagle who was writing the story asked if we could get pictures of the Lynx. We were told that they are pretty reclusive but we could go up to the viewing tower and see.

Just as we turned to go one of the two lynx walked past the window right in front of me, it seems that the lynx was feeling contrary that day it was called reclusive so to prove the staff wrong it made an appearance and then to test my patience it paced so I could see it through the thick trees but not get a good shot for most of the time we watched it. Fortunately I managed this one good shot.

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Fire in Bragg Creek

The whole point of my moving to Cochrane was so that I would stop missing hard news because I was out of scanner range in Calgary. I still nearly missed the biggest hard news since my move because I was in Calgary. Fortunately a friend and photographer at the Rocky View Weekly texted to let me know about the fire in Bragg Creek.


The Husky Station, caught fire and was destroyed the evening of Jan. 30 (read the Cochrane Eagle story here.)


As it turned out I was able to get some great photos but as I write this listening to the RCMP planning their coffee break at Tim Hortons I can't help but wonder why can't news happen on nights like this??

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2011 - Animal Pictures

Horses at Rafter 6 Ranch.

A Swainson's Hawk keeps an eye out for prey from a fence post.

I should start out saying that I don't have the patience to be a really good wildlife photographer. I would love to take great shots of animals in the wild but I just can't concentrate and sit around waiting for the animals to come to me.

A seagull is lit by the setting sun as it flies past Ghost Lake.

I had some success this year shooting pics of animals for the paper some of them, such as the seagull were pure luck while others like the Osprey was more planning and patience (it helped that their nest is at the Toyota dealership in town and easy to access to photograph the Osprey).

An Osprey returns to its nest with twigs to add to it.

That said included in this post are some of my better and luckier shots of animals, not all of them wild.

A dog chases after its ball in West Bragg Creek.

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2011 - The feature photo.

Paragliding off the big hill in Cochrane.

Remembrance Day in Cochrane.

Finding feature photos (or stand-alones as the reporters insist on calling them) is a real challenge in Cochrane. With a large portion of the population leaving Cochrane to work in the City not a lot is happening in town during the day.

Cam Macdonald breaks boards while fundraising for the Firefighters for World Need trip to Haiti.

I have a few favourite spots around town for features but I can't really run something from the same place in every paper. This is where being a weekly paper is an advantage. So long as we make sure to shoot as many photos that go with a story as possible I don't need to produce features every day which means I can spend the time to look for great pics like the ones featured here instead of settling on the first thing I see to fill the paper.

Kids sled on one of the few snowy days in Cochrane.

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2011 - Fire

2011 turned out to be a good (or bad, depending on your point of view) year for fire photos. I covered everything from house fires, semi fires, wildfires and again lots of training. Given the distance I have to travel for many of these I was not always able to get the flames but had to photograph the clean up afterwards.
Below is one of my best and favourite images of 2011 from a house fire in Waiperous Village. It is also the only shot I can think of that has received multiple complaining letters. The more interesting one was a person who wrongly wrote in saying that the firefighters had plenty of water on scene. I spoke with one of the Cochrane fire captains after the e-mail arrived. He told me I had all the facts right in the paper, always nice (and reassuring) to hear.

Cochrane firefighters Hans Peterson and Cameron Robin keep an eye on a house fire in the Village of Waiparous while they wait for water to be trucked in. Fire crews from Ghost River, Cochrane and Exshaw responded to the fire March 2. The house was fully engulfed in flame by the time crews arrived.

Another favourite of mine this year came from car fire training, just as my favourite was last year. This time it was the Cochrane Fire Services training. This image works well entirely because of the one visible eye as the firefighter signals for increased water flow.

Cochrane Fire Services firefighter Randy Shiman signals to the pump operator for more pressure during vehicle fire training Nov. 5.

Although the controlled burn in Kananaskis, below, was a little outside of the Eagle's regular coverage area, the decision was made to cover it because the smoke could potentially blow into and affect our coverage area. It was also a great opportunity to get photos from a helicopter of a large forest fire.
Again luck came into play. According to the public information officer on scene the larger publications from Calgary and TV news had come out but conditions were unsafe and they left without any photos or video footage from the air. When I was there along with a summer student from a paper in Canmore, conditions had improved and we got, as far as I know, exclusive images of the fire.
I also discovered that I am probably prone to motion sickness as I wasn't feeling to well as the flight went on but started to feel much better once I was one the ground again.

The view from the air of a controlled burn in Kananaskis country.

Burnt out trees after the controlled burn in Kananaskis country.

The view from the air of a controlled burn in Kananaskis country.

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2011 - Adventure in Haiti

Top: the firefighters play with one of the orphans at New Vision Ministries. Above: Firefighter Kailyn Sundby hands out toys to Haitian children.

The trip to Haiti with members from Cochrane Fire Services is something I should have blogged on as it happened. It was an incredible experience that taught me a lot.

Lieut. Derek Orr plays with one of the orphans at New Vision Ministries

I learned that although I can survive the heat I am much better suited to Calgary or perhaps even cooler climes. I also learned that I can handle the pressure and produce stories and images anywhere that I have too.
It taught me how to pack for working trips, I was maybe a little over packed with equipment as far as batteries and chargers go but in Haiti if anything had been broken, stolen, lost or worn out I would have been out of luck.

Firefighter Ryan Morrison and New Vision Ministries Stephen Byxbe work on the second day of the trip.

The trip also had several surprises, the biggest shock was how little culture shock I experienced traveling.
The number of people and confusion at the airport in Port-au-Prince was a little overwhelming, and likely would have been terrifying if I had been alone, but after I became used to the number of people it didn't feel very different.
I have often described Haiti to people here at home as a warmer, more populous first nations reserve here in Canada.

The group works on Marc Onell Pierre's house.

I very happy to have had the experience and am grateful I went with such a great group of people. Despite my loathing of the heat, I would jump at the chance to go overseas again to tell this kind of a story be it in Haiti or somewhere else.

Firefighter Kailyn Sundby works to smooth out the concrete before the firefighter start working to frame the wooden roof.

Click on the links to read the stories about who we helped, bringing happiness to kids and local firefighters build homes.
I am also writing a photo book that on the trip that will be published with help and support from the firefighters. I'll write more on that later.
Included in this post are some of my favourites from the trip. Click here for the full gallery of images posted at the Cochrane Eagle.

The firefighters work on the home of Marc Onell Pierre.

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2011 - People & Portraits

This post combines some of my best portraiture and people features. Portraits are, for me, the most challenging aspect of the job. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't shoot enough of them. Depending on what the stories are in any given week I can shoot several or I can shoot zero portraits. Setting up and using lights, especially in tight, small indoor rooms is challenging and it is easy to lose these skills if you aren't using them.

Tea on canvas artist Marie-Josee McCool displays finished work.


Lee Edwards and Dwayne Eliuk, not pictured, are working to organize a competative singles darts league.


A composite image portrait of the team Cougar Town For A Cure who participated in Cochrane's Relay for Life on May 27 2011.

Although these next couple of pictures aren't portraits they are very much like what I would try to create if I needed to illustrate a story on an actress or play. As for the mayor, as a politician it is probably my favourite shot and works better to than a simple portrait at a desk.

Evil step-mother Devilia Hardup, played by Lisa Wood, gloats after tearing up Cinderella's ticket to the royal ball during the Cochrane Vision Theatre's performance of Cinderella Dec. 3

Mayor Truper McBride makes a speech thanking everyone for their role in getting Cochrane's Community Health Centre urgent care, lab services and diagnostic imaging facilities up and running.

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2011 - The best of rodeo

A bullfighter attempts to get the steer’s attention during Tyrell Ward’s ride Sept. 5 at the Cochrane Lions Club’s Labour Day Rodeo.

Cochrane is a very western town. Over the course of the year I covered 5 rodeos and a PBR bullriding event. The nice thing about rodeo is that great images can be made regardless of whether the cowboy (or cowgirl) has a successful ride.

Wade Jober of Viking missed his steer and ended up landing on his head at the Dogpound Rodeo July 20.

This year most of my success has come from the unsuccessful rides. Some of those shots include the steer wrestler above who overshot his steer and the pair of bullriders, at bottom, who ended up with hard landings.

Water Valley trick rider Shelby Cummings performs at the Dogpound stampede.

Although it is definitely not one of my best action photos the shot below is one of my favourites. This year when we started to run preview stories in the Eagle for the PBR event, to be held in town in the darkest arena there is, I was not excited to say the least.
I knew that no matter how good the action, available light images would be of terrible quality, especially when compared against the outdoor rodeo pictures taken throughout the rest of the year.
I decided that if I could get permission, it was time to try something new. After speaking to both the arena manager and event organizer, I got permission to set up my studio lights for the event. I am very proud of the experience I gained and the success I had setting up the lights and shooting the event to get sharp wonderfully lit images.

Steven Turner scored an 87 for this ride on Mega Bite at the Cochrane Classic Bullriding May 14 at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.

Landen Collins from Coleman has a rough landing after being bucked off of Tree Toad during the bull riding at the Water Valley Rodeo June 4.

Grant Good Eagle is bucked off of Heat Seeker at the Tsuu T'ina rodeo and pow wow July 22.

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