High water at The Forks

High water at The Forks, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

A look back at a year in flux

A look back at a year in flux, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

This is a favorite photo of mine from this year because of the
uplifting outcome to a house fire. Though it was devistating for the
homeowners, they lost quite a bit of their belongings, it could have
been worse. When I arrived on the scene I learned that there were a
number of dogs trapped in the house. Visually the house was just
emitting a bunch of smoke and I was getting lots of photos of
firefighters going in and out of the front door to the house. At one
point I decided to walk around to the back of the house to see what
was going on. Perfect timing on my part, just as I arrived
firefighters were carring out the dogs and putting them into the back
of one of the trucks to keep warm. One of the firefighters started to
give one of the puppies some oxygen which was when I captured this
image.

Fire destroys house at 133 Chestnut

My shift was just about to end when I heard on the emergency scanner that there was a working fire at Chestnut and Westminster in Wolseley. I had also just finished testing out a program from qik.com that allows you to shoot live video from your phone. It also has a feature that will post it to a blogger website, but it didn't work.

So, here is the low quality video I shot...






Plus as an added bonus I shot our interview with the District Chief on my point'n shoot...

Winnipeg Blue Bombers exhibition game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats

I know this is a couple of days late in the posting, but it has been a busy couple of days...

My favorite time of the year is football season and I was fortunate to be able to go to the first exhibition game of the season for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Yay!

This exhibition game is always a good time to test out new ways to do things, like try a new work flow, which is what I did on Wednesday night. Normally we (as in most of the photographers) wait until the break at half-time to go to our little media room and start transmitting photographs back to the office. In this day and age of instant internet gratification half-time is a long time to wait for a photograph. So, with that in mind I decided to see how much time it would take to transmit from the sideline during the game. It turns out that it's not as long as I thought it might be, but it was long enough that I would not feel comfortable doing it during the regular season if we didn't have the proper number of photographers covering the game. I was able to transmit ten photos before the end of the half, mostly while Hamilton was in possession of the ball. I sent three photos in the third quarter then realized that all the photos that were sent during the break would be more than enough for the web staff to deal with.

If all goes well during the next game that I can get to I will try it again.

For now here is a selection of the images I processed for the Winnipeg Free Press.

And a clip of video that I was able to grab at the end of the game with my point'n shoot.

Children's Festival slide show

Wanted to see a good slide show of the photos I took at the Children's Festival yesterday. So here is one that I made in Flickr...



And here is the video I shot, featuring FRED PENNER!!!

The Adventure of the Red Tailed Hawk Release

This past week I was witness to probably the funniest event ever.

Now, before I go any further I want everyone reading this to know that I love animals (except if you are an off-leash dog running at me... then all bets are off). I love photographing animals. I love the fact that there are groups who help injured animals. Injured wild animals.

The Wildlife Haven is one of those groups. Really nice people and they also know what they're doing. And it was a brilliant PR idea to invite our humour columnist to go out there and release a rehabilitated bird back into the wild. Everything our humour guy touches...well it kinda becomes bigger than anyone ever would think it could.

This event was a prime example.

You have to watch the video, but let me just say that you can't script this kind of stuff.



There is no way the people at Wildlife Haven could have known that when you invite our humour columnist to do something, well you are going to get humour. Even if it is scary dark humour. The kind of funny that makes you realize you are going to go to hell for laughing so hard.

The video could have included the bit where you see the bird fly into the barn and hit a beam and falls to the ground. It could have included more astonished and emotional outbursts from the humour columnist that were snort-your-coffee-out-your-nose-funny...

But it doesn't and that's probably a good thing.

We don't want people to think that we would laugh at the possibility that an innocent animal released by our humour columnist almost immediately broke its neck. It was fine.

It could have happened to anyone, just because it was our humour columnist doesn't mean anything. Really.

If you haven't forgotten there's a flood outside

Today I got to meet a really nice Manitoban who took me out to his house in Southern Manitoba. I made sure I took the opportunity to put my chest waders on. I wish I had a dry suit because I could not get to the spot I wanted to, the water got too deep! Anyway it was a blast and an opportunity to meet someone who is making a difference in his community which is mostly underwater. The story won't run for a few days so that's as much as I can say for now.

Dr. Jon Gerrard - Liberal Leader

The Doctor held a press conferance across the street from the ER at the Health Science Centre.

Standing in front of the parkade it kinda looks like he is facing a black hole.

I have a much better version I took with my SLR which I will post later today.

The Manitoba liberal leader is calling on the NDP government to put into place a smarter system of funding and delivery of health care services.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

Dr. Jon Gerrard - Liberal Leader, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

Scuba for Cancer a 24-hour underwater relay

Scuba for Cancer a 24-hour underwater relay, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

Over 50 scuba divers from across Winnipeg gathered at the Elmwood Kildonans Pool Saturday for the First Annual Dive for the Cure Underwater Relay. In Manitoba's first 24-hour underwater relay organized by 3 Fathoms Scuba the goal was to raise around $20,000 for CancerCare Manitoba. The effort has already exceeded the goal and is now over $27,000 with more money pouring in.

I have to say that I didn't think this would be a very "fun" assignment, photographically speaking as I don't have an underwater camera. I was thinking what am I gonna take a photo of? The diver going under the water?
lame

Boy was I wrong. There was a guy by the name of Jason Herlick who had an underwater housing for his digital rebel and he offered to take my CF card and shoot a bunch of photos for me... (if only he offered to loan me the camera... sigh).

While I waited for him to do his thing I decided to crawl around on the deck with my cellphone and try to get something... I couldn't just stand there and watch him have all the fun!

Before I knew it one of the veteran divers was down on his hands and knees with me trying to figure out how we could get my phone below the water's surface for a "better" photo. Fifteen minutes later with the judicious use of an underwater mask we got an image... and my phone only got a couple of drops of water on it. OK it's not going to win any awards, but it was really fun to "get" the image.

Then of course I sat down and my eyes rested on my work camera... yeah you guessed it! I couldn't just sit there! Only the first cm or two of the lens ended up underwater. No harm done!!! Those things get more water on them shooting the Blue Bomber games. FUN!!!

I wish I could post the photos that Jason took for us. I will try to link to them from the papers website.

Water main break creates foot deep lake for two blocks

Water main break creates foot deep lake for two blocks, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

Froze the tips of my fingers again. Today I wore my long underwear and its a good thing cause I found myself rolling around in the snow trying to get the right angle for a photo.

The lake started about 50 feet south of the Wellington intersection with Century Street and continued north past Saskatchewan. At times it got to at least a foot deep.

It was interesting to watch people drive through parking lots to get around the police barriers then realize the error of their ways when the water got too deep.

I ended up submitting way more photos to the desk because my first batch focused on city workers trying to clear the ice. My second batch were a lot looser to try to show the amount of water. Good thing I shot the loose pics while I was out there. I would not have been happy if I had to go back.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on the MTS High Speed Mobility Network

Kyle Unger

Kyle Unger (right) with his lawyer James Lockyer (left) outside the courthouse where he was making a new bail application pending a decision from the province on whether it wants to call a new trial. Kyle's first-degree murder conviction for the brutal 1990 murder of Brigitte Grenier at an outdoor rock concert was quashed by the federal justice minister.

After the heat of the Convention Centre I had to move down the street to the Law Courts and found out that I just missed getting Kyle Unger going into the building by five minutes. About the amount of time it took me to drive around the block a few times before getting a parking spot. I should have just run down the street! It was only two blocks...

Ended up spending almost two hours standing outside with a few minutes of warmth in between the doors. It took forever before Kyle came out... we were told there were a few problems with the court papers that needed to be filled.

My job was to do the video which is generally easy as long as you don't let the reporters get in your way. Towards the end of the scrum I managed to get off a few frames with my still camera. This is a big story and it is amazing we didn't have very much art of Kyle Unger prior to this scrum. If I recall all we had was a screen grab from one of the TV stations... I didn't want to miss the opportunity to get a different angle than our still photographer. Now we have lots of art to use.

By the time got back into my car I was very chilled... not just on the verge of frostbite, but chilled to the bone kinda cold.

Power Tobaggan Championships

A few weeks ago I had to drive past Beausejour to another assignment and I saw a sign promoting the championships for this weekend and I made a point of putting the story idea out there this week. I got the green light Friday morning to drive out there and shoot a video and a still for possible use as a stand alone.

Racers from all over Canada and the U.S. came out to the 47th Annual Canadian Power Tobaggan Championships in Beausejour this weekend to compete for top spot on the "world’s fastest and safest track."

Brian Bewcyk (#39) two time World Champion (in above photo) graciously allowed me to do an interview during some down time (ie. lunch) while the rest of his team fine tuned his machine.

It was a good day and a bad day.

A day to remember, that's for sure.

It was shaping up to be a good photo day.

I got a call to go to a house fire on Alfred which is not that unusual. I was the first media person to get there and it looked like a fairly tame fire, some smoke no open flame that I could see.

I was walking up the street looking at the house trying to find something interesting to focus on when I saw a fireman hammering his fire axe at a boarded up basement window. It was the only active aspect at the time and I crossed the street to get a better shot from the sidewalk in front of the house. I ended up standing beside a couple of cops and civilians, though I didn't think anything of it because I was focused on trying to get a shot of the fireman. I guess I was a little too close to one of the cops because he turned around and started giving me the third degree.

So, I moved back to the other side of the street and started shooting some video. A TV guy showed up right about then and set up beside me. After a few minutes the cop came over and apologized for taking my head off. I was quite surprised at this... I've never had a cop apologize for doing his job. So, I was feeling pretty good, but it was still an uneventful house fire. No injuries (thank goodness) and no flames. Until I heard that there were some dogs still in the house.

I decided to go around back to see what was up and that's where I hit paydirt! I tried to wave to the TV guy and get his attention, but he was looking the other way... oh well! You snooze you lose.

The cop was back there too, but didn't stop me from moving around to get the shots and video. Before I knew it all the dogs were packed into a truck and off they went.



I still had to stick around to get the District Chief on camera, otherwise I would have been transmitting the stills back to the paper.

After the Chief I drove back to the paper in a really good mood. Then I found out that a couple of good reporters had been turfed. As well as the Auto/Homes editor who basically kept me in freelance money for a number of years while I was just getting started at the paper.

Sad sad day. One I will never forget.

Plane makes emergency landing

On my way back to the newspaper office to drop off a video from the Siloam Mission assignment I got a call from my editor to head straight to the airport where a plane was going to be landing without its landing gear.

I was just turning onto Selkirk Ave. at the time and was fortunate to be able to go all the way down to Route 90 without much traffic getting in my way.

I made it close to where I wanted to be and was pulling to a stop at an intersection when I saw the plane coming in. I quickly grabbed my camera and shot a sequence through the front window of the car. I felt bad at the time for not being twenty seconds faster in seeing the plane. I wish I could have been able to jump out of the car to shoot that.

Oh well... I still got the shots though.

I think that a fellow photographer at the paper got the better shot from a different location. Top one in this compilation.

I even managed to shoot a small bit of video before the battery went dead in my video camera...

Day of Ashes

Yesterday was the Day of Ashes or Ash Wednesday which is the begining of Lent for Catholics. I was sent to St. Mary's Cathedral in downtown Winnipeg to get something for the paper. Unfortunately it didn't make it into the paper. Must have been a space issue.

Regardless, I was quite happy with the photos I got. It was a noon hour Mass and I had actually never been into the St. Mary's Cathedral before... very beautiful little space they have. I had also never covered Ash Wednesday before, though I did know that the faithful would be doing something like communion, but not communion.

After trying unsuccessfully to get a worthy photo of the procession that went up the main isle I started to move into a position that would allow me to get photos of people getting the ashes put onto their foreheads. At the last second I looked at the Archbishop and the other priests that were gathered around the table that held the apparatus for the ceremony and realized that they were performing the ritual on themselves first. I managed to get ONE frame off before it was over and at the time I didn't think anything of it because they immediately got into position to perform the ritual on the rest of the parish.

When I looked at the images later on I realized that the one and only shot of the Archbishop of Winnipeg James Weisgerber was THE SHOT.

Too bad it didn't make it into the paper.

652 Toronto house fire

652 Toronto house fire, originally uploaded by mdcellphoto.

A couple of blocks from home on my way into work this morning stopped to get this fire pic. Was the first media on scene I think. Had unconfirmed report that someone was taken to hospital.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

UPDATE: It looks like the fire has left a family of five homeless.

UPDATE: A little girl that lived at the house is hailed as a hero in today's paper!

When I first got there I was fortunate enough to get into the back lane with permission from an official as long as I stayed out of the way. I walked between the house just south of the one on fire and the next one down. When I got to the back I was surprised to see over the fence that a huge ball of flame was coming out of the second story window. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to stay around for long so I quickly moved around the fence and got two frames off of the three firemen one of which was a district chief (white helmet) and a captain (red helmet) watching the flames. I think they had just pulled out of the house and were taking the hose away from the back door. I'm pretty sure that they had just decided to go from an offensive attack on the fire to a defensive protection of the other houses while the fire burnt itself down until they could get it an opportunity to get it under control.

I was right in thinking I wouldn't be able to stay there for long, because a policeman quickly moved over to me and asked that I move back to the front where it would be safer. I had no problems with that... I had my photo.

My Tom Canada tribute

Well I guess the trip on the Blue Bomber bus has come to an end for fan favorite Tom Canada. The player who managed to get my name into the pages of the Winnipeg Free Press simply by being a good guy.

On Thursday, August 14th, 2008 the Winnipeg Blue Bombers managed to win an important (at the time) game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. One of the big plays of the game came from Tom Canada when he caught an interception and ran the ball back for a touchdown close to the end of the game putting the win decisively into the Bombers hands.

I was naturally on the opposite end of the field when he ran the ball in for the TD... I remember running down the sideline behind another photographer who was not moving as fast as I would have liked. I don't think he realized there was jubilation taking place fairly close to the sideline in the endzone. By the time I got there I had just enough time to hold the button down on my camera to get the last of the celebration. Those photos sucked cause I had miscalculated the exposure. Then we all followed Tom into the players bench area where he was waving to the crowd and celebrating with other teammates.

After a few more plays I was walking behind the players bench again when I noticed that Tom was going through a bag looking for a football. He noticed I was looking and told me to stick close to him at the end of the game when all the players run onto the field.

I will let this quote from Ed Tait's story tell the rest...

IT was just one small moment -- a tiny blip in the marathon that is a Canadian Football League campaign -- but it could ultimately be remembered as monumental if the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are to salvage their 2008 season.

And it was captured perfectly by Free Press photographer Mike Deal after the Bombers' 37-24 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Friday night.

Just to repaint the picture, Bomber defensive end Tom Canada and head coach Doug Berry are seen leaving the field after the win, both with huge grins on their mugs and Berry with one hand on the player's shoulder and the other gripping a football -- the same one Canada picked off and returned for a touchdown in the game's final score. That gesture -- Canada giving his coach the TD ball -- may just hint that this team isn't as fractured as it's been portrayed and there may be hope for this bunch after all.

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to shoot a number of home games for the paper and have collected a small number of images of Tom Canada that I have put into a slide show. Enjoy!

Thanks Tom for giving me my 5 mins. of fame!

Three die in Scotia street fire

Last night a house fire at 108 Scotia claimed the life of two people. A third person is missing and may have also perished.

There is a wheelchair ramp at the front of the house and one of the victims was 96 yrs old.

Our night photog got pics of the fire, so my job was to get an aftermath shot and video.

I was fortunate in being on my toes and ready when a chief fire marshal made a very brief statement.

I didn't get to spend much time at the scene as I had another assignment to get to. Two of our photogs called in sick.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

UPDATE (3:30pm): The video that I shot is up on the web now...



We also have a great relationship with Global TV here in Winnipeg and they will provide us with raw (and sometimes portions of newscasts) video from major stories. Our photographer was naturally shooting on deadline for the printed paper and couldn't do both video and stills... it's a great backup to our system. Here's their video...



Update (5:00pm): This was the image on the front of the website...

Ice Fishing on the Red River

A couple of weeks ago I had an assignment to go shoot ice fishing with a reporter on a Saturday. The kind of weather related fun story that would fill a hole in a Sunday or Monday paper. Unfortunately it was the same Saturday that Winnipeg and area was hit with some unpleasant weather, so, it kinda got put onto the back burner.

This past week on Thursday I was trying to think of a good story to work on and realized that the beautiful sunny (though very cold) day would be perfect for the ice fishing story. I got a reporter assigned to it and off we went.

The very first people we talked to were extremely nice and open to talking about ice fishing. The second they mentioned that one of them would be going back to his home country of Grenada to visit family in a couple of weeks I knew that I had a hook for the video story.

My 2008 Pictures of the Year

When I was asked to submit a bunch of photos to be used in a pictures of the year package I have to admit I did the job a little too quickly. Looking at the slideshow now I probably should have trimmed a few of the images out.

Oh well...

Some of the photos were particularly sentimental and/or special because of my feelings behind them.

I plan on selecting a few images to write about in the near future.

Until then enjoy!