5 days done, 5 to go. I’m working a lot at the Citizen. I usually arrive at 8 or 9 in the morning, and leave after 9pm. I make the most of the time I have here!

I do a lot of portrait. I’m kind of happy with that. That is my weakest side and that gives me a good reason to practice. And since I’m interning, I can do all the mistake that I could not do as a staffer. But the fact is that the portraits are not Pulitzer price winner, but they turn out pretty good. I get used to doing them, I’m more at ease. I know more how to talk to people, how to direct them, how to place them, how to watch for my background, my light, ect.

Tomorrow, I’m heading to the country to shoot something for the “home” section. A lot of shots to do, a lot of pictures should be showcase from that assignment. Seems a pretty big assignment. I’ glad they are not sending me to simple and not important assignment. They seem to have enough confidence in me to send me to some serious jobs. Today, I went to the Coroner’ inquest about the sinking of the Lady Duck, an amphibious vehicle that sink with tourists in the Outaouais River, making 4 deaths. That’s not the kind of thing that they can say “Well, the intern screw it up, so let’s send one of our staffer for a re-shoot.” It’s a one shot deal. I get the picture or else they can’t use arts for the story.

(Written Sunday, published Monday)

2 days completed at the Ottawa Citizen, and 2 photos published.

I started Friday with a studio shot of… a shoe! The assistant photo editor showed me where the studio was, but did not know how to operate it. So I had to figure out by myself how everything was working to get a photo of a nice lady show, I guess that was for the fashion section.

Then, I needed to go downtown to get a portrait of a guy organising a manhunt game. Basically, a hide and seek game played downtown Ottawa. Creativity on demand: in 20 minutes, I met the guy, found a concept, found a backdrop, set up the two lightstand/umbrella and flashes, took the picture, and packed my gear. The picture ran pretty big in the City section.

Just after that, I had to get some winter shot of various building for their archive. Then, I had to go to a diplomatic event to get some shot of important peoples. The Citizen is in the Capital of Canada and has two weekly pages/sections about the diplomats and VIPs of the city. Those assignments are kind of very basic “grip and grin” photos and I think the staffers are pretty happy that the interns are more than willing to shot them!

On Sunday, I was shooting Carleton University basketball. The court is beautiful, the stadium is great, and the light is wonderful. I could shoot at 1250 ISO for 500th of a second. At most high school gym that I’m use to shoot basketball, it’s more 1600 ISO at 320th of a second. Moreover, on one end of the court there is a huge window that throws natural light in. That gives a nice side light to the player. Great! The picture ran really big on the back page of the sports section.

After the basketball game, I went to another VIP event. The assignment sheet said “Shoot the Serbia and Montenegro Ambassador. Be there at 6:00, or at 8:15 when the cocktail begin”. I arrived at 7 and understood why those two different possible times slot. I had to wait until 8h15 because there was a movie presentation. I comfortably sat in the room and watch the movie about the life of Nicola Tesla. That was actually really interesting! 5 minutes after the movie, my pictures where taken and I left.

Today (Sunday), I just have another VIP at 7pm.

Monday is going to be interesting. Or not. I’m heading an hour south of Toronto. I need to be there at 8am. And they are not even sure that the person I need to shoot will be there! Yea, it’s pretty mysterious. To not ruin the Citizen’s story, I will tell you more about it after it happens. Or not.

The staffs at the Citizen are quite interesting. There is Bruno, the Parisian photographer with a tick accent but a lot of talent for portrait and feature. Pat, the senior shooter, is really generous with is knowledge. John Major, the photo editor, has a lot of energy and likes to teach to young shooters too. No wonder why he is taking four interns, including me, in April and May!

A first year student from Loyalist is with me for the week. Lars is his name. He has a friend in Ottawa and we are sleeping at his house. He does not have enough bed for both of us so I had to find something to sleep on. For 10 days, I’ sleeping… on a massage table! It’s slimmer than a single bed, and it’s like 4 feet high. Pretty scary! I found out that massage table are pretty comfortable for an hour long massage, but they are not intended to be comfortable for an 8 hours long sleep. But who cares? I’m having a lot of fun doing what I like: taking pictures.

The only negative point so fare: One of my 550ex flash stopped working for no apparent reason. I just have one left.

One week can be a short period of time. Or a very long one. It is when you are waiting to get the camera you bought on Ebay.

Yesterday, I finally got the Canon EOS 1D Mark II that I bought last week. Shipping took a week and a half. I was starting to freak out because tomorrow, I’m going to Ottawa for my one week internship at the Citizen. Of course, I wanted to have it for that.

I now have a professional body, a backup body (my 20D), 2 flashes, umbrellas, wireless transmitter, and an assortment of lenses from 16 to 200mm, including a 2x extender. I just need a 300mm f2.8 and my arsenal of gear to freelance will be complete. But at 2500$ used, I guess this will have to wait a bit.

Like Canon did with the new 1D Mark II N who was a small improvement over the 1D Mark II, Canon unveiled today the EOS 30D, a new version of the 20D.

Canada lost 2-0 against Switzerland in mens hockey at Turino. They did not score against Switzerland. Or did they?

The cliché of the Japaneses tourist photographing everything they see has just made a step further. The new trend at funeral in Japan is to take photos of the deceased with camera-equiped mobile phone.

After my three weeks in Kitchener at The Record, I will head out to Ottawa for another three week. The second internship will be at the Ottawa Citizen. Moreover, I will do a small 1 week internship during the reading week at the end of this Month.

Still looking for a summer job.

Last week, I went to Kitchener for an interview at the Record for a summer job. I did not get it (Tara Walton did), but I got their three weeks unpaid internship in April.

That was my first time there, so Cindy and I took the time to visit the city, a very beautiful place indeed. Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge form an urban community of more that 500,000 people, making it the 10th biggest in Canada. For my fellow French Canadian friend who are really bad with geography, it’s just a bit smaller than Quebec City.

Since I never had the chance to read the Record either, I bough a copy while I was there. It is a really good broadsheet paper with a good pictures reproduction. They have a circulation of about 70,000. Pretty good!

Now, I need to secure a summer paid internship. Working on it!

What do you get for less than 20$ at the World Finest Chocolate factory outlet in Campbellford (ON)?

THIS:

Ring! Ring!

- “Hello, it’s X at the Whatever Newspaper. Do you have a picture of that guy, by any chances?”
- “Yes I do”

***

I just made my first sale from my archive. Selling a picture without having to press the shutter is kind of cool.

Never delete a picture, and have a good archiving system.