Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer - @RMadonik
Brett Lawrie stretches after his stint in the batting cage.
Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer - @RMadonik
Brett Lawrie stretches after his stint in the batting cage.
Richard Lautens - Staff Photographer - @rlautens
If you live in Toronto, you know there is only one thing more inescapable than taxes and DVP slowdowns: news reports of the Toronto Maple Leaf.
As everyone knows, with the new agreement in place, the Leafs began their training camp on Sunday. In typical fashion, a media cast of dozens went out to the MasterCard Centre for Hockey Excellence (great name) in Etobicoke only to find the 9am medicals and physicals had changed into a 2pm skate. At least there were a couple of press conferences in the middle somewhere to keep the media types out of trouble.
With all the hype and anticipation, frankly it felt like business as usual from everybody.
The day before the first practice, Brian Burke addressed the media with his take on his firing. I'll miss his fire and passion. I spent a night with him and Dave Nonis in an Irish pub in Vancouver last year and I must say he is an entertaining guy to be watching an NHL game in a pub with-it helped that he used his MLSE credit card to pick up the tab.
Richard Lautens - Staff Photographer - @rlautens
It's so hard to choose my favourite photos of the year. Favourite photos are not always the best photos but ones I feel a real connection with for a variety of reasons. I have my favourites of the bunch-do you?
After a major strike by mine workers, 46 people were killed in the ensuing clash between security, police and the workers. The father of a slain miner, Mxolisi Sompeta is seen in their small family home in the village of Kwadick in South Africa.
Rick Madonik - Staff Photographer - @Rmadonik
Its that time of year again, when we each search out the pictures of the last year and revisit what we liked best, or had the most impact, from stories we've been involved with throughout the year.
Please remember to vote for your favorite picture in order to qualify for a prize offer.
NIAGRA FALLS, ONTARIO - Nik Wallenda, of the famous Willenda family, attempts to cross Niagra Falls on a tight rope (cable) from Goat Island, New York, to Niagra Falls, Ontario as seen from atop the Skylon Tower, on June 15, 2012.
TORONTO, ONTARIO - Four of the famed Canadian Snowbirds pass each other in opposing directions, two headed east, two headed west. The 63rd annual Canadian International Air Show, a featured act of the annual CNE, took off Saturday, September 1, 2012 with three solid hours of air demonstrations. The show featured the Royal Canadian Air Forces Snowbird demonstration team.
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos
Sometimes people compliment me on my creativity, I'm flattered but the truth is I'm at the mercy of the creativity of the people that I photograph.
That was true last summer when we were visiting the cottage of a friend and their super creative seven-year old.
I was chilling when Fynn cut in on my summer reading by presenting me with a Lego me.
The glasses, hair, smile, square-ish body with a round head! It was an incredible likeness of me!
I tried to get back to my book, but Fynn's imagination tore me from the pages of the book and into a world I was more familiar with. My career in Lego.
Lego me and real me look a lot alike, real me is less yellow.
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos
I know that I developed my love of Photojournalism when my family moved to South America in the late 70's.
We moved to Peru, which was under a nationalist military government at the time. There was precious little in English to read. The three magazines that were always in the house were Time, Newsweek and National Geographic.
I loved the pictures.
And oddly enough my favourite photo "feature" had to be the Lufthansa ads.
The ads were photojournalistic pictures of their planes behind the scenes presented as one picture on a clean page.
Lufthansa ad from 1985.
This week I got to shoot behind the scenes as WestJet executives were given a behind the scenes look at the Bombardier Q400, which they will use when they start their new regional carrier to launch, or take-off, in June.
November featured a lot of football, but here is what happened off the gridiron first.
ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE - Canadian geese follow a golfer as he walks the 18th fairway at Lakeview Golf Course in Mississauga, November 11, 2012.
Continue reading "Football, Football, Football and other pictures from November!" »
Toronto Argonauts celebrate winning the Grey Cup after the team is presented with the trophy. LUCAS OLENIUK
Rick Madonik, Staff Photographer, @RMadonik
There's no doubt, news photographers always want to be where the action is. Whether its sports, news or entertainment, photogs want to be in a position to capture defining moments and scenes of great emotion. It is, after all, what life is all about.
Our newest incarnation of a boss (we've had six in the last 12 years) is a former picture editor. Since he took the helm of photo - and multimedia - earlier this year, Taras Slawynch, or T as he likes to sign his emails, has shown a lot of passion. He’s brought direction to a department that needed a rudder. This is the 2nd time in the last 5 months we've assembled the vast majority of the 15 staff shooters to converge upon a single "event."
The first installment was Nik Wallenda's walk over Niagara Falls. Last Sunday, we tackled the Grey Cup.
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.
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.