The local Fire Department got a new ladder truck. It’s basically a hydraulic basket thing. The local press was invited to get a demonstration. A shot from the ground of the truck would be boring and what you would expect. So when I was offered to go up in it I didn’t hesitate.It was kind of weird though. I was a bit nervous when I was on the ground. I’m not really afraid of heights, but it can make me a bit uncomfortable. When the ladder thing started going up I felt nothing.It was like I had gone into some kind of “work mode” in my brain and didn’t really think of it.Anyway, here’s the outcome of the picture.Making that shot really made me appreciate the water seal on the EOS-1D as it was pouring down that day.

Assignment: Shoot a portrait of an animal ambulance driverSo a couple of days ago I talked about a portrait style photo that really didn’t work at all.This one however I’m really happy about. Nothing really happens in the photo, but to me, this could be a text book portrait.The man is a former EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) driving an ambulance with the local fire department. Today he’s driving the “animal ambulance”. They use it to transport dogs that need to be put to sleep or injured. They even pick up road kill.For lighting, I used a Canon Speedlite 580ex which I bounced into the corner of the ceiling behind me.

Assignment: Shoot pictures from a local boxing clubI was assigned to shoot some photos from a local boxing club. There are some obvious shots that you would most likely expect to see. Such as this one:To me that’s a pretty standard boxing gym photo. Somebody putting handwraps on.The lighting in the gym was straight out horrible. I had to shoot a picture of one of the boxers as well for a side article. There were some huge mirrors in the gym and decided I would try to use the mirrors by bouncing the flash into them and that way get a different look or feel to the image.Before shooting that picture some girl was pounding on a bag and I used her to test it out before going over to the guy I had to shoot.Anyway one of the aspects of the story was that there is up to 40 boxers in pretty small gym that only has one boxing ring in it. That’s basically what I wanted to do something with. The standard picture showing as many people as possible shot a bit from above was my first approach.That photo was just too straight forward for me and I wanted to do something different. I went closer to the ring at ground level and explored my options.I came up with this:I really like the how that came out and I’m more excited about the paper actually bringing this photo. I like the different stuff and I like the fact that the paper would bring this.Anyway they are doing neck strengthening drills where the people laying on the ground would push their head back against the people standing in front of them, placing their hands on the back of their heads as resistance.

I stated that this blog is about my experiences working as a photojournalist on a newspaper. It was always my plan to post both the good and bad experiences.. That’s what you learn from.Here’s one that falls into the category of “Not so good”.I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll say it again. Quite a few of my assignments are portrait style pictures. It’s exactly these types of assignments that are actually the biggest challenge for me. Shooting sports or really cool events is the easiest assignments to do because along with joy and excitement comes passion. With that comes extra energy and my search for great or different pictures comes to life.Shooting arranged lined up photos can surely be a pain in the ass. I had a handful of this type of assignments in a row and my inspiration was at rock bottom. I shot a boring lifeless photo and I sort of knew this when I sent it to the paper.Not long after I received a text message from the boss telling me something like “The next time you submit an arranged portrait without any kind of life in it, I’ll send you out to redo it”.Talk about a wake-up call… I felt bad. Mostly because I knew the picture was exactly what he said it was. Lifeless.The next day I had a talk with him about it and it turned into an inspiration for me. I was not going to let that happen again. He gave me a few pointers about what it would take to make the pictures better. It actually doesn’t require all that much. Just a little imagination.It has helped me quite a bit and I’ve been more satisfied with the lined up photos I’ve taken since then..The picture in question:

So as mentioned a while back, one of my plans when buying the M-Audio Microtrack was to make some slideshows. I finally got around to recording some audio during a hockey game, so I had some audio to mess around with and test some stuff.Anyway here’s my first slideshow containing Audio!Click image to launch slideshow.

Assignment: Capture images from the Operation Day’s Work Workshop.Every year high school students have something called “Operation Day‚Äôs Work”. One day each year they do various things to collect money to whatever good cause they choose every year. This year the money will go to Africa.One of the schools had a workshop on the school where they would learn stuff about Africa - including an African dance.Walking in to a school with high school kids with a big camera for some reason makes the students run for their life trying to avoid being in the pictures. I told them only the african dancer would be in the picture so they all relaxed.. Ok so I lied!

Assignment: Capture first snow of the yearThe first snow fell on November 1st. So of course it had to be captured.