(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.