Photojournalists need to be mobile. We have to file our pictures before the deadline, and sometime that mean filing on location. You have to bring your laptop and use an available Internet connection. Usually, you can use a Wi-fi  provided by the event you are covering, from an Internet café nearby, or by using an open and non-protected one (which is officially not legal).

But sometime, you just can’t. You have to file from a place where there is no Internet available around and you don’t have the time to find one. What do you do then?

I knew I would have to invest someday, and the time came for on last week’s election. I had to file from a restaurant where the ADQ from the Quebec City area where rallying during the evening. No Internet was available (at the end, there was an access, but it crashed during the night so…)

I went to see my friend Patrick at Telus. I bought a Treo 700p, so I could use it as a modem. No cable needed, it use bluetooth to communicate with the laptop. It worked like a charm. The communication was fast; a couple of MB of pictures was transferred in just a few of minutes.

And since then, I’m in love with my Treo. I can synchronize my calendar from my computer and have my contacts list everywhere I go. I use it to receive and send email. I listen to my MP3 collection. I can browse the Internet. I can even make phone call! So when I am in the bus, I can read my RSS feed while listening to my music.

Sweet!

When you shoot for a newspaper, it’s almost instant gratification. Usually, you see your picture in the paper in the next day’s edition. But when you do a job for a magazine, it can take several months before you see your work printed. For instance, I took those pictures of Dr. Claude Fournier for the Medical Post on January 12, and they just hit the stands – front page.

Just got myself a new client. I recently did a portrait for La Presse, the most prestigious French Canadian newspaper. Think of it like the Toronto Star: A big city broad sheet that also act as a provincial newspaper.

What I like with freelancing for the Montreal Gazette is that it is a very picture friendly newspaper. More than we are used to see with a broadsheet. If you provide them with two very different pictures, they are going do use both. Again today, they put one on the sports front and another one on the turn.

Once, I did a portrait of two native businessmen in the Huron-Wendake reserve. I did two very different portraits in two very different locations. Their where so different that both pictures where played pretty big on the business front page section!

I’m pretty excited. I’m about to start my biggest assignment yet. It’s going to be three days of shooting, including one out of town. This should give me national exposure. I’m really happy to see that my client has that much confidence in me for such a big job.

Evidently, I will keep the details and the client’s name in the dark for now.

It is a prolific day for Freelancer Vachon. I have today 5 pictures published in two different papers.

Yesterday, I was at Le Colisée for The Montreal Gazette to photograph the return of Patrick Roy behind the bench of the Quebec Remparts, his first game since the alleged incident in Chicoutimi. They used the picture of the standing ovation just before the game.

They also publish 2 pictures of the owner of GV Snowshoes (I like this one best) and a portrait of Joe Juneau.

The National Post used one of my pictures of filmmaker Joanne Marcotte. They did not use the one I prefer, so here it is.

In the last few weeks, I worked a lot. I often work with freelance journalist Mark Caldwel. He works with many different publications, and he helps me get jobs with them. He is into in depth feature and profile, so many of my recent work is not published yet.

One of the heated debates amongst photojournalists is the one about crooked horizon pictures. Many think that if the picture is not good at first, tilting the horizon will not make it better. I attended Peter Power’s feature picture workshop at the last GWNW. At the workshop, Power defended his use of the crooked horizon by saying he use it only when that helps him filling his frame.

Before the workshop, I was personally not a big fan of tilting. I tried it only once with, I must admit, an interesting result.

However, Power’s words stayed in my mind and I decided to give it a try when I photographed Industry minister Maxime Bernier. The National Post recently made an in depth profile on him and they wanted a candid photo of him interacting with people in his ridding. Bernier is pretty tall. At least 6 feet tall. I was lucky to catch him chatting with the Mayor of St-Georges, the biggest city of his ridding of Beauce, 100 KM south of Quebec City. The mayor is pretty short. Maybe 5 feet 5. The picture looked awkward. A lot of empty space above the mayor’s head was making the picture look odd. I tilted the camera a bit, and got a picture with so much more impact. As Edmonton Sun photo editor Tom Braid would say: “taking picture is easy. Just fill your frame with valuable content, and light it!”

As I write this post, I realize how quickly we become rusty with a second language. I feel I write in English like a 10 years old kid would. Lucky me, there is a good chance my friend Natalie will pay us a visit from Toronto this weekend. That will help!

The assignment sheet for the Montreal Gazette freelance gig said I had an hour with Michel Audet, Quebec's recently named designate to UNESCO, for a portrait.

I arrive a bit early to scout the place, one of the many Université Laval huge campus buildings. I find two great locations that I could use as a backdrop.

I arrive at Audet’s office at the same time as the reporter, who asks him how long he will have for us. 15 minutes. Knowing that I might not be able to get him on my previously scouted location, I start to take pictures as the journalist interview him. The office is small, there is nothing I can use as a backdrop, so I just put an off camera flash and I try to created something.

After 15 minutes, he have to leave. I ask if I can have him for 5 more minutes in the hall downstairs. I know I don’t have a lot of time, so I decide to use the second best location I found. Less potential, but safer. The other one has some mixed light with weird reflection on the floor so I want to play safe.

No time to be artsy fartsy. “Get the best picture in the time allowed”, was saying Frank O'Connor, one of my teachers at Loyalist College. I just put a side flash on a light stand and I shoot a couple of frame. “Thank you for your time, sir!”

At the end, the Gazette used the one in the office. The picture ran pretty small and I guess they wanted a tighter one.

I did not talked a lot about myself since we came back from Windsor. That’s mainly because they are not a lot to say. I went back to my old job to repay some debt before I can start to freelance more seriously.

Well... I *AM* freelancing. It’s just that I do not really advertise myself for now. However, the Montreal Gazette call me for freelance jobs here and there. Saturday, they publish two pictures of mine for a story on Tran Trieu Quan. This one was on the front of the business section, and this one inside on page C4.

I’m back from GWNW! The annual photojournalist conference and workshop in Toronto is an absolute must for any Canadian news photographer.

I’m so glad to see Loyalist friends have I not seen in month. Ryan Jackson, Aaron Lynett, Tara Walter, Kevin Hill, Joe, Natalie Bay, Alexandra Stephanson, and some now second year student that where in their first year while I was in my second.

Some folks from the Windsor Star where there too. I was so glad to see Tyler Brownbridge, Bob Carroll and Rob Gurdebeke.

Sadly, Lisa King could not make it.

That was also funny to realize that so many people, including some that I had never met before, are reading my blog.

Anyway. Enough with the names dropping.

The conference was really inspiring. When you see some of Peter Power’s best pictures in his feature hunting workshop, you just want to go out and shoot-shoot-shoot.

I missed the last conference on Saturday because I had to leave, but Chris Bolin, Vincent Laforet, Jim Young and Lana Slezic where just great. Everyone was shacken after Slezic shoed her images and spoke about Afghanistan.

On my way back, I was carpooling with Jacques Boissinot (CP staff in Quebec City) and Bernard Breault (staff photog at La Presse in Montreal). They are friends for years now and they are so funny together. They act like an old couple, pretending to argue and fight all the time with each other. They ruined Cindy’s makeup because of the laughing tears that where running from her eyes.

Can’t wait to next year conference!