By some sort of luck, Cindy and are living in Bonnie Doon, which is the French area of Edmonton. The Faculté St-Jean, the French part of the University, is just next-door. We did not choose to live there; it’s just that the end we are subletting was there. Don’t get me wrong: we do not live in Frenchtown. There is just more French speaking person in this area.

There is a restaurant and store called The Cheese Factory near by. They sell all kind of cheese, of course, and we can eat a lot of thing at the restaurant. I guess some home-sick Quebecer leaving near by once asked them to use the cheese curd with gravy to make them a poutine, because it’s the only place in Edmonton that I know of where we can have one. Quebecers in Edmonton seem to know about it, because I heard my first “tabarnack” in Edmonton at this place.

So Cindy and I where there yesterday, to see if Albertan poutine was better than the Ontario one.

Yes, it is. But no, it’s not close to the Ashton’s poutine in Quebec City.

Kind of strange, they missed the easiest part, but the did correctly the hardest part. So the French fries where not really good, nut crusty enough. But the cheese was close to perfect. The gravy was not a real gravy poutine.

Funny enough, you can buy St-Hubert gravy and mix at the store (Famous Quebec restaurant)

I’m taking a coffee at Café Dabar, on 82 ave, the trendy street of Edmonton. Cindy is just back from her English class at Accès Emplois, a government agency that help French people find jobs in Alberta. She just told me the following.

In class, someone asked her “Cindy Hains? Did you live in Beauport (Suburb of Quebec City)?”

- I did

-And you are a photographer, right?

- Yes!?!

- Well, you took a photo of my little daughter when she was playing in a public fountain last summer in Quebec City. She was with my husband, but you gave him your contact info.

We are something like 4000 km away from were this picture was taken.

I don’t take picture alone anymore. I always have two buddies with me. All the time. No, it’s not because I want some protection because of what happen Friday. I just have two guardian angels that I am the only one to hear.

I have 2 photo editors behind my shoulder that tells me thing all the time. Behind my right shoulder, there is Frank O’Connor, teacher and program coordinator at Loyalist. He told us that he would be there. He was right.

When I look at something that I have to take a picture of, I hear his calm and reassuring voice. “How can I get a picture of that?” That’s what he says. And I swear to god, I hear him loud and clear in my head.

When I lose focus on what is asked of me, I sometime hear him tell me “Don’t you think this picture is more about [what is in the picture] than about [what I have to shoot]?”

And when I’m running out of time, I clearly hear him says “Get the best picture in the time allowed.”

Some time, it’s behind my left shoulder that the voice is heard. But it’s Tom Braid’s (Edmonton Sun photo Editor) voice that I hear then. The voice is less calm. The voice is there to shake me when I’m not going in the right direction.

“This is a boring picture. You need impact!” I often ear when I shoot or when I edit my picture after an assignment. It’s often followed by “too much dead space here. Tight and bright, Francis! Tight and bright!”

It’s reassuring to have those 2 persons talking to me and helping me to get better pictures when I work.

Friday morning. Jasper Ave, downtown Edmonton. A car gets closer to me on my left. A lady on the passenger’s seat looks at me and points the side of the road: she wants me to pull over.

Have I a flat tire? Is there a problem with my car?

The driver of the car fishtail me. He parks just in front of me, blocking my way. This is not looking good.

A small East Indian guy gets out of the car and walk toward me with an angry look. I crank down my window. He tells something to the lady in the car behind me. She gets closer to me. Now, I can’t drive back either. This is now looking good.

He gets closer to me. He leans down to get to my eyes level.

-Why where you taking a picture of me?

At the previous red light, I took my Mark II equipped my 70-200 and a 550ex flash (that looks pretty impressive) to adjust the white balance. I now realize that I must have pointed the camera toward his car while doing it.

- I did not. I was adjusting some setting on my camera.

- Why where you taking a picture of me? You can’t do that. You have to ask permission first.

- Sir, if I had wanted to take a picture of you, I would have been in my right to do so. But I did not. I was adjusting the setting of my camera.

He begins to speak louder.

- What was the picture for?

- I did not take a picture of you!

He starts yelling. He is pretty angry now.

- You KNOW you can’t take a picture of people like that!

- Sir, I work for the Edmonton Sun, so I know what I can and cannot do. If I had wanted to take a picture of you, I would have been in my right to do so. But I did not. I was adjusting the setting of my camera.

- I want proof!

I show him the back of my camera.

- Here is the last picture I took. It’s a portrait I took this morning.

- That’s not enough. I want a written statement that you did not!

- OK. Go get some paper and a pen in you car, then!

-No! It’s not enough! I want the card!

Yea. I’m going to give a CF card that worth 100$ that have my assignments’ pictures of the day in it. Sure.

- Sir, I did not take a picture of you.

- Why did you take a picture of me?

-OK, this is going nowhere. I got to go work. Bye!

I try to get my car out of this mess, but the guy grab it and put his hand into it through the open window.

I stop. I know his wife jotted down my license plate number. I know that if I hurt him while trying to escape, this can escalate. Against me. I know I did not do something wrong, so let’s try to settle this down without getting into prison or without having blood on my hands.

- No, you don’t leave! Why did you take a picture of me?

I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand. Again, I don’t want to hurt him, so I stop.

- Sir, I’m going to call the police!

- No problem, call the police!

I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand.

I dial 911.

- 911, how can we help you?

-There is guy that thinks I took a picture of him. He fishtailed me and now a car behind me is squeezing mine. I can’t move without running over him. He is very menacing. Can you send someone?

He still has his hand into my car. I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand.

He tells something to his wife and she grabs the phone. She calls the police too, I guess.

-We have the lady on the phone with another agent. Let’s see if we can settle this without sending an officer.

He still has his hand into my car.

-All right! I just want to him to go away so I can go back to work!

He still has his hand into my car.

- Why did you take a picture of me?

- HEY! I’m talking to the police!

I explain the whole story to 911, and she probably does the same. As he continue to yell at me, the guy forgets for a brief moment that his hand must stay in my car, so I crank up the window and lock the door.

He is VERY mad.

I continue to chat with 911.

The guy goes back to his car. He gets into it. He moves his car away, the lady still on the phone on the sidewalk.

- The guy has moved. I will try to escape. I hope he will not try to chase me. I don’t want a high-speed pursuit in the city.

- No, this should be OK. We talked to him.

I guess they told him something like “You are blocking a street, you are holding a citizen against his will, and if he took a picture of you, he had the right to do so. So get the f*-out before we arrest you.”

... The Windsor Star! From May 23 to September 2, I will be working as a staffer at The Windsor Star. I got the confirmation today. Bob Carroll, the photo editor at the Star, is the most experienced and probably the most respected photo editor in Canada. This should be an enlightening experience.

After 4 weeks Interning at the Ottawa Citizen, after 3 weeks interning at the Edmonton Sun, and 4 or five days of freelancing for them in May, I will officially be a staffer at a big daily. The internship at the Sun is really hard and stressful. Tom, Sun’s photo editor, really pushes me to the limit and it’s not easy. This good news is refreshing.

They did not use my Easter picture on page two. Instead, they used all the pictures I filled to make a page spread. I guess it’s even better!

Not enough update, isn’t it? At the place where we live, we don’t have the Internet. And I cannot really use it at work like I used to at the Ottawa Citizen. So when I want to surf the net, I must come the a coffee show that offer wireless Internet or I must park into Victoria’s parking lot to use her wireless network.

Anyways. The first four days at the Edmonton Sun didn’t really went as expected. Actually, it was a total mess on my part. I don’t know if I was rusty or if I was feeling too much like a fish out of his bowl being so far away from home, but everything that could go wrong went wrong. More it went, the more nervous I was and the more mistakes I was making. But Friday, everything went back on track when I covered the Walk the Cross event and I got some neat pictures. I was backing up one of their staffer, and they ended up using two of my pictures and none of his. That took out tons of stress out of my back.

Today, I was suppose to be off but I told Perry, a staffer who at the photo desk on weekend, that I was available if needed. He sent me to the Easter egg hunt at the Fort Edmonton Park. I got few strong pictures and he was trying to push one of them to page two “something bright to start your day” feature picture. We’ll see in tomorrow’s paper if he is a good seller or if someone else outshoots me later on during the day.

So to make a long story short, until Friday I was feeling like I was in a quagmire, but now it seems that I am back on track and shooting like I can and suppose too.

Seen in the last few days:

Domo gaz station are looking for cashiers for 5 of there location. Salary starting at 10$/h.

Hairstylist needed. 500$ contract signature bonus.

Restaurants unable to open because they can’t find employees. They offer 500$ bonus when signing contract and a trip to Mexico if you stay one year.

A plant in Fort McMurray offer 90,000$/year and 30,000$ when signing the contract for your relocation.

Cindy and I safely arrived in Edmonton Friday after a four days trip across Canada.

On the first day, I drove 14 hours. We spent the night in a small and very isolated town called Wawa. That lead to the worst play of words on the history of the play of words. While Cindy was massaging me in our motel room, I told her that her massage was “wawaderfull”.

Winnipeg is a cool and bustling city, I really liked it.

Regina and Saskatoon are surreal. I’m used to see lots of suburb when I arrive to a city. But in Saskatchewan, it’s farm-farm-farm-BANG! Downtown! it’s really dense. I like it!

In Edmonton, I live at the apartment of Victoria’s boyfriend. Victoria is one of the girl who did the fast track but did not came back. We live near 82 avenue, one of the trendiest of Edmonton. Cool.