Slow day on the beach

Richard Lautens, Staff Photographer

With a slow day earlier in the week, it was once again time to go on a feature hunt. 

When I head out looking for pictures between other assignments, it is great to have a sense of what I am looking for. It seems simple enough but unless you know what you are looking for in a photo, you are unlikely to know when you have found it!

Heading out the other day, I had the idea of looking at the new leash-free zone in the Toronto Beach area.  It was a cold day and few people were on the beach.

I saw the one guy playing with his dog. Fortunately the tonality of the sky, water and sand were similar and I really liked the uniformity of the look.

 

 

 

Grief

Steve Russell, Staff Photographer

There are assignments I love, assignments I do because they have to be done and assignments that I hate. But one of the most difficult types of assignments that we have to deal with at the Star involves grief.

A tragic death, an accident or murder scene and the events that follow, like a family that speaks out or the funeral, are emotionally charged assignments.

That was the case last week after the death of Evan Frustaglio. The death of the 13-year-old hockey player was attributed to the H1N1 virus. 

After a reporter spoke to Evan's father Paul over the phone he agreed to a picture.

I was sent to the family home to photograph Paul holding a picture of his son.

His home was easy to find on the street, the driveway was full with family and friends' cars. A large group of them outside helping out by clearing leaves from the yard. I waited outside for Paul and his family to finish watching the news.

I selected a spot outside to do the picture so I could be ready to take the picture as quickly as possible.

Paul came out with a picture of Evan playing hockey, but what I did not expect was that Paul was accompanied by the rest of the family: his wife Ann-Marie and son Will.

It was hard. All three had swollen eyes from watching the newscast. I showed Paul where I would like him to stand, Ann-Marie and Will joined him. Will began to cry, I put down my camera and told Paul that if this was too hard, Will didn't have to do it.

The family looked at each other and Paul said, "We talked about it. We want to do it for Evan." 

-srussell@thestar.ca

Raptors V Detroit

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

There is a multitude of reasons any particular picture may not make the paper, or the Web. Space considerations, layout of a page (ads can sometimes leave very little useable space for art), lack of interest after a story or picture is developed, missing a deadline (when events occur after the paper is already "put to bed"), or simply, difference of opinion on a particular image.

The physical paper has dwindling space, so the new forum for readers to see photographers work is expanded to the Web. Our pictures editors do a pretty good job of trying to compile photo galleries in order to help showcase many of the images which don't make the paper. There are times they are just swamped so we generally appreciate when they do make the time to put together a gallery.

Wednesday night the Raptors played host to the Detroit Pistons. Here are a few images I filed. A couple of them made it to the gallery, and only one picture made the paper (which is normal).

With only 15 minutes between the first and second half to download images, edit, caption, tone and transmit, its a bit of crush to get several choices back to the office for the early pages. Unless you have one amazing frame you are convinced is the only frame necessary, we generally file a selection and leave the final edit to the folks manning the pages.

So, here are some of the "outs" from the game the other night. Hope you enjoy them.

Detroits Ben Wallace is wrapped up in the arms of Hedo Turkoglu.

Raptors Chris Bosh is fouled by Charlie Villanueva as he goes to the hoop.

Jarrett Jack drives hard against Charlie Villanueva.

Chris Bosh is fouled by Jonas Jerebko on the offensive end.

DeMar DeRozan is fouled as he tries to dunk over Austin Daye.

Pistons Charlie Villanueva, on the bench in 2nd half, looks as if he can't watch his team lose.

Remembering Remembrance Day

Richard Lautens, Staff Photographer

Earlier this week I had the privilege of visiting the Veterans Residence at Sunnybrook Hospital here in Toronto.  I was sent to make some pictures of several WW2 veterans who will be featured in an article on Saturday in The Star.

It was amazing to see some of the folks-all in their late 80s in such a well-run facility.  We do enough stories about poor conditions in nursing homes and we all know that these Vets deserve the best.

This reminded me of a time back in 2004 when reporter Joe Hall and I tracked down the 8 remaining Canadian WW1 veterans. The youngest of this crowd was 105 at the time and he had to lie about his age to get into the war.

We traveled from New Brunswick to Washington State to photograph them all and talk to them. The one that sticks out in my mind was John Babcock.

Babcock is now the only Canadian WW1 vet remaining and is 109 years old. When he dies there will be a state funeral in honour of all those who died in that war. Babcock has said that he doesn’t want all that fuss.

What I remember of taking his photo is that I went into his house that he shared with his wife Dorothy, 29 years his junior.  When I went in I came in close, looked him right in the eye and shouted at him my greeting. 

After we sat down his wife went off to get a piece of pie for all concerned in the kitchen and asked John about what he wanted. I could barely hear her as she had her head in the fridge but John piped up right away. 

I then realized that all my shouting and treating John like he was frail must have been more insulting than useful.  He could hear and see fine and when he jumped up and offered to take us on a car tour of Spokane, Washington where he lived I realized just how far off my assumptions were.

I was glad to hear he is still chugging along and wish him and all the other vets a heap of thanks for what they have done for us all.

 

WW1 Veteran John Babcock, then 105, with his wife Dorothy

 

Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

Pumpkin Park

Carlos Osorio

Staff Photographer

Sometimes you get lucky.

What I mean by that is that sometimes you are handed assignments that are fun, new and incredibly visual.  I was asked to pop over to Sorauren park after 6 pm on Nov.1. The assignment request mentioned that residents of the neighbourhood brought their jack-o-lanterns and left them at the park. I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought i was either going to get a mountain of pumpkins or none at all. I pulled onto Sorauren and it was jammed packed full of cars and people carrying pumpkins. I started to get really pumped up thinking of how cool this could be. After circling for a while I finally found a space and grabbed my gear. I decided not to bring a flash and just work with the ambient light.  When I actually got to the park I was blown away. Jack-o-lanters lining paths all lit  with candles. It was awesome. All sorts of people walking along looking and taking photos. I spent a good hour walking, taking photos and talking to some of the people from the area.  This is why I love what I do. Finding little gems around the city that otherwise would remain a mystery to me.

 

 

 

No room for these pictures.

Steve Russell, Staff Photographer

A couple days after Halloween and I have resurrected these pictures from the cutting room floor!

These pictures did not origionally run in the paper or the website for a variety of reasons. Some variations of these pictures did run and I thought it would be fun to give them a second look.

Ahhhh, fashion week! A model patiently awaits his wardrobe as Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong of Toronto label Greta Constantine debuted their spring 2010 collection in the basement garage of Audi downtown in Toronto.

Boas are back in the Greta Constantine spring 2010 collection.

I had to get these young ladies in, drove in from Sarnia I believe to see their hockey hero!

Ranger's rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto, the obeject of their screams!

REO Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin helps Mirvish Productions' David Mirvish announce the coming of 'Rock of Ages' in April 2010 to the Royal Alexander Theatre in Toronto.

I've never seen David Mirvish look so, umm, 80's cool. Holding up a LED "lighter" Mirvish Productions' David Mirvish announces the coming of 'Rock of Ages' in April 2010 to the Royal Alexander Theatre in Toronto. The production's music is a tribute to all the hard rock  hair bands in the 1980's.

-srussell@thestar.ca