Sense of Belonging

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This project is a small sense of belonging essay I'm working on. The idea behind the diptych (sp?) is that all of these men work hard with their hands. Whether they are scrap yard workers or farm hands, their hands are their livelihoods. 

While shooting each subject, I asked them a question: What do you hands mean to you?

As you could probably guess, I got some pretty crude answers at first, but a lot of the men had some good insight.

Motorcycle Accident

Stumbled upon an accident on the 401 on the way back to Belleville...
HAMILTON TWP, Ont. - An OPP officer photographs a motorcycle involved in an accident in the Eastbound lane of the 401 near Cobourg. The motorcycle was traveling Eastbound at around 4:30 when congestion caused a slow down and the bike was unable to stop before colliding with a utility trailer. A 39-year-old man and 28-year-old woman were taken to Northumberland Hills Hospital then airlifted to Toronto with life-threatening injuries. (11/10/10). Photo by Adam Jackson.

Col. Williams Story Update... Sorta.

Thursday, October 8th, Col. Russell Williams made a court appearance in Belleville court. I decided to attend, since a) I live across the street and b) I've been following this story since it broke out.

I had to go to class first, so I missed Williams' entry in to the court, but I was there for when he came out...
An OPP officer opens the fence nicknamed 'The Great Wall of Williams' as he Russell Williams leaves court on Thursday, Oct. 8th.



They had Williams blocked off extremely securely. Of the I'd say 40 photographers/videographers there, I'm pretty sure only two got the shot of his face...

While I'm not even close to 9 ft tall to reach over the fence nor did I bring a monopod, I went looking around. I found a nice angle by shooting underneath the tarp.

This is the angle I was looking at - Williams had to enter at this side as there were no doors on the other side.

 

This is the shot I had lined up - before an OPP officer came and told me and 2 other photographers to vacate the area.

Shooting these things demands a lot more than merely exposing an image or looking for a moment. It requires preparation and the ability to adapt to the situation...


This is nothing different than anything else in this case - it has all been a wild goose chase. From tracking down his cottage in Tweed with a mere direction on the highway to waiting around the courthouse, hoping Williams would show, it has been hard. But it has also helped me learn a lot.

Williams appears again in Court on October 18th, and I have a plan...until then,
 


Adam JacksonAndy Lloyd, brother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd leaves the Belleville courtroom soon after Col. Russell Williams' attorney said that Williams plans to plea guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, break and enter charges as well as sexual assault charges.

Flying High

Today, I got the opportunity to shoot Waterloo Region from a bit of a different perspective - in the sky.

Adam Gagnon, staff photographer for the Toronto Argonauts, who is also working on a book about Mennonites in the area invited me up about 30 minutes before the flight time, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that.

After we got out of the Kitchener/Waterloo area, I saw a lot of farms. A lot. That's alright though because after all, that's what Adam was looking for.

Adam Gagnon packs up after about an hour of shooting at around 3000 ft.Cows graze in a peculiar fashion on a farm in St. Clemens, Ont.

Busy Weekend

This weekend, I spanned about 500 km from Belleville. Friday night was spent in Kingston shooting Frontenacs vs. Bulls and Saturday night was spent in Toronto at Nuit Blanche.

Shooting Nuit Blanche was an interesting experience. It was a little difficult technically, but there were lots of lights to play with so I did not use flash what-so-ever.

Bit of a love/hate relationship with this photo. I decided to shoot the game with my 17-55mm lens because I had gotten a little bored of telephoto hockey photos. When this fight broke out, I was on the other corner, shooting through the hole. I saw the fight, quickly ran over to the glass and started shooting. The frame right before this caught a better moment, but wasn't sharp. Nature of the beast I suppose.