Language Lesson From South Africa

Richard Lautens - Staff Photographer

My colleague, Bill Schiller and I just returned from several weeks in South Africa working on a couple of stories.  In the news business we are not supposed to talk about the story until it publishes of course, so look for some pix, video and story towards the end of November.

One of the things we do at the Star when we are in a new or dangerous place is to hire a 'fixer'.  These are local people who know the lay of the land, speak the language and help us maximize our time in the field while helping to keep us from blundering into unsafe situations.

On this past trip, we spent several days with a lovely man named Mbulelo Sisulu.  He is a freelance journalist in the Eastern Cape region and a member of the Xhosa tribe.

He was great at helping find what we need, translate and was happy to roll with the punches.  He didn't even bat an eyelash when we suggested we get him a room at our lodge rather than his going home (a two hour trip) as we wanted to get some early starts.

Mbulelo speaks very good english and of course his native tongue.  At one point I asked him about the clicks and clacks of his language.  My children are very interested in languages (they are 12 and 15 years old) and so I asked him to explain a bit of the language in a video letter to my kids on my iPhone.  Note that he loved the Canada hat I had given him and took a liking to my jacket that he was happy to wear when it turned a little cold and rainy.

Click here to see the video here

Mbulelo is seen on the left getting the correct spelling of some names with writer Bill Schiller.

 

 

Toronto Fashion Week Day 1

Bernard Weil @bernardweil 

& Keith Beaty @KeithBeaty

After a short hiatus, I'm back shooting Toronto Fashion Week, this time with Star photographer Keith Beaty. While I'm shooting video at the shows, Keith will focus mainly on runway stills for our paper and web galleries. Deadlines for print and online are as tight as ever. We'll still be looking for behind the scenes and some fun photography so check with us throughout the week. 

BERNARD WEIL - Mannequins watch over photographers and reporters working in the media lounge.

 

Doug's Hoop dreams

 

Councillor Doug Ford involves one of the kids in the TV interview while others watch from behind. The weekly practice was interrupted by the presence of the media.

 

The Raptors are back on the court, well, one is on the ice....

Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos

Basketball is back, it is one of my favourite sports to cover.

Media Day for photographers is a little tedious, but offers us the rare opportunity to have a basketball blog with a lot of horizontal pictures. 

Toronto Raptors 2011 first round draft pick centre Jonas Valanciunas makes it to his first media day. He was under contract in Europe last year.

Best of August

Budi, a 6-year-old Orangutan at Toronto Zoo. Budi is one of two sumatran orangutans at the Toronto Zoo who are being trained to use an iPad. Currently, they love to watch videos of other orangutans but the hope is to use the devices for training and learning. (Rick Madonik)

 

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer

 

As usual, August fell somewhere between the feast or famine when it came to photography at the Toronto Star. Steve Russell continued his endless effort of supplying great pics from LONDON 2012. The Olympics dominated the sports story for the month of August, whereas the discovery of various body parts in Mississauga and Scarborough, dominated the news angle.

Russell recently posted a blog of his favorite images from the summer Olympics, and they can be found by following this link: http://thestar.blogs.com/photoblog/2012/08/the-end-is-here-steve-russells-favourite-pictures-from-the-games.html

The monthly roundup of pictures can be found below. As usual, it runs the gambit from funny/cute animal pics, to strong portraiture and everything in between.

Canadian distance runner Cameron Levins, fifth from left, runs the 5,000 at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium  in London.   (STEVE RUSSELL)

A breakdown on a broken down Olympic photographer by the numbers.

Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos

Here is a breakdown on a broken down Olympic Photographer and his daily, as the Brits call it here, kit.

1. HEAD - Full of picture ideas and dream as well as contempt for anyone who blocks a shot, and cloudy from lack of sleep. It is capped with a COC give away that proves invaluable whenever a Canadian athlete wins a medal!

2- T-SHIRT - The Star Games shirt it reads "Keep Calm and File Fast" and contains a tribute to Randy Starkman, the late Star Olympic writer. 

3. ACCREDITATION - The most import piece if kit. For photographers it contains two pieces, the laminated card and the photo vest. See 10.

4. CHESTVEST - A kind of camera bag that you can sling over a shoulder or wear out in front too. The later causes loads of belly sweat. It contains batteries, 300mm, 14mm, 17-35, food.

5. SORE BACK - My sciatica is in full force!

6.  CANON 1DX + 70-200 - Some days it is my widest lens used.

7. SHORTS - Lots of deep pockets, carries cards room keys and train passes.

8. SORE KNEE - Two days in my knee started to hurt, super painful, in a place that I had injured it previously during the G20 riots. Turns out I was just sitting strangely all the time in photo positions. Bottom row of swimming had an 8 inch space for feet. I'l size 12! Some gentle barrier nudging cured it.

9. SORE FEET - We walk a lot, everything is a hike and carrying all the kit does help. Blisters and falling toe nails are the norm.

10. PHOTO VEST - Because we look so good in them!, The photo vest is the second part of the photographer's accreditation. It has to be worn. Lose it and your Olympics is over. Near the end of the games everyone's vest gets very funky!

It has 14 pockets, so whenever you look for something, you find it in the 14th pocket you look in. Two front lower pockets are great for dropping a lens in when you have to make a switch. I keep my internet stick in in a berate pocket and my phone in the other. I keep my change in a pocket that zips. Anything else that might set off the metal detectors is also kept in the vest. The vest, like the Olympic accreditation, only comes off in the hotel room at night and to go through the x-ray machines.

11. THE ROLLIE - Carries a third camera body, remote gear, rain gear and a couple extra lenses.

12. CANON 1DX + 500mm - The work horse, I'd say about 75 percent of the 70,000 frames shot to date are done with these two buddies!

13. THE BACKPACK - Contains laptop, hood for those cold days, battery charger and other odds and ends.

Now for some pix,

Germany's Helena Fromm beat Vietnam's Hoang Dieu Linh Chu in Taekwondo at the London 2012 Olympic Games .

Karine Sergerie beats Farida Azizova of Azerbaijan in her opening bout in Taekwondo.

Great Britain waits for their scores in Team Synchronized Swimming final.

Japan performs in Team Synchronized Swimming final.

Japan competes in Team Synchronized Swimming, it's funny that an event that involves swimming also involves so much air time.

Team Australia's music included AC/DC.

Canada just falls short of the podium in Team Synchronized Swimming.

Canada dives into the Team Synchronized Swimming final.

Team Canada swims!

Canada finished fourth in Team Synchronized Swimming.

A dual spin was one of the high lights of Canada's routine.

Team Canada!

Team Canada thanks the crowd as they await their scores.

Matthew Gentry watchs the clock run out on him in the bronze medal match against Russian Denis Tsargush at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Matthew Gentry loses the bronze medal match in the 74kg weight class.

Jordan Burroughs  avoids Iranian Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi and wins the gold medal match in wrestling's 74 kg weight class.

Jordan Burroughs goes into the stands to hug his mother stops to pose with fans after winning the gold medal match against Iranian Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi in wrestling's 74 kg weight class.

 

 

 

 

Photographer gets shot in Nunavut (by kids with cameras!)

Richard Lautens/Staff Photographer

This summer I had a great assignment up in Nunavut.  I love the arctic region and am happy to get up there every chance I get.  It is hugely expensive however so I am very happy when I have to go there on assignment.

The story reporter Sandro Contenta and I were working on was the dismantling of the old DEW (Distant Early Warning) line sites.  In the 1950s, the US and Canada combined to build a string of radar sites across the country in the arctic to warn of Soviet bombers coming over the Arctic Circle.  It was somewhat obsolete within 6 years or so but many of the sites operated into the 1980s in one capacity or another.

 

Any travel in the north is an interesting affair.  Over the 7 days we were in and around Baffin Island, we had 3 days of forced landings, unable to landings and hope to landings.

 

Hall Beach is one community where we were able to spend a few days.  This small community of 600 is one of the more traditional Inuit communities.  I was struck by the cavalier attitude of the parents with their kids there.  With the sun never setting at this time of year, the kids were on the street until 3 or 4 in the morning.  I was surprised to hear a little voice outside of my window around midnight calling out ‘man…man…man’ by a three year old I had spoken to earlier in the day who wanted me to come out and play and who had obviously forgotten my name.

The kids were unconcerned about the fact that polar bears wander into town at the rate of two a week.  The kids also skip and jump over the ice on the Foxe Basin like it is nothing regardless of the fact that none of them can swim.  The parent in me was freaking out of course.

 

One day I was shooting some pictures at the edge of town and ended up with a mini entourage of children checking out the strangers in town.  They were fascinated with my light brown hair and blue eyes and were thrilled when I showed them my cameras and let them shoot some photos (don’t tell my boss!).  I have always found that getting in with the younger set helps open doors with the adults in the community who can be somewhat shy when it comes to strangers. 

Me posing for one of the kids

Here's his photo.  Not bad I think, except for the subject matter. Note the clothing-mid july and still quite cold.

Me being closely observed by my advisor.

Not quite the help I needed when editing.

Writer Sandro Contenta and I with a whale head bone on a beach.  I'm glad we didn't meet him when he was alive.

We had some fun there of course but I don't want to diminish the myriad problems they have in Hall Beach which is unfortunately typical for many small, isolated northern communities.  Some graffiti on one of two stores in Hall Beach reads " No Good.  I got no friends and I'm so bored"

 

For the published story and two videos I shot:  http://bit.ly/Nf3wOx

For the official photo gallery:  http://bit.ly/OR5TMh

 

 

When it rains, nothing happens - at tennis anyway

12-08-09 - TORONTO, ONTARIO - Rain drops clinging to the glass in the upper levels of the Rexall Centre says it all for the day of tennis.

 

Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer, @RMadonik

Best of July

 

        Richard Lautens              

 When it came to finding this month's collection of work, I couldn't resist offering up Richard Lauten's portrait taken on the last day of the month - today! At first, I thought it was an illustration (a picture designed, or conceived, or art directed, and a paid model) and pleasantly surprised to find a portrait (a picture which depicts something about the person). I'll let Lauten's caption speak for itself" Trish is one of more than 186,000 women in the US and Canada have logged on to find their own version of Christian Grey, the character from the book Fifty Shades of Grey. By mid-July 4,931 women from Toronto had altered their profiles on the site seakingarrangements.com indicating they were looking for a Mr. Grey, in other words, a dominant/submissive relationship with BDSM.

What follows is a more day-to-day representation of the types of assignments the staff find themselves up against. Steve Russell is only 4 days in the London 2012 Games, but already working around the clock getting to numerous events, so this is just a tease to the Best of August, when he will be featured prominently.

The emotions of being a homer.

Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos

It is tough.

When I'm at the Olympics I realize how much of a homer I am. As a journalist I'd love to be objective, but during the Olympics as a Canadian I want the home side to do well and get on the podium! I'm sure it is the same for all my collegues here too.

Tonight as a former swimmer and a Canadian it was hard to watch Scott Dickens swim. He came in with a good morning swim, setting new national record,  that fueled hopes for his semi-final.

I'm sure the other Canadian photographer that were covering that race feel it too.

At the Olympics, that happen once every four years, we see and begin to understand their commitment to their sport.

Canada's emotional state at the pool was already compromised when Ryan Cochrane was bumped to first alternate in the final after South Korean Park Tae-hwan, who had been disqualified won his appeal. This bumped Cochrane out of the final.

As crappy of a day it might seem to Dickens, he still has the 200 breast to look forward to. 

Good luck Scott!

Team Canada members cheer as Scott Dickens is introduced before the 100 metre breastroke semi-final. The top eight times in the two semi-finals advance.