Monday December 8, 2009-

My first assignment was to cover the ground breaking the Evergreen Brick Works (http://www.evergreen.ca/rethinkspace/) This group is turning an abandoned brick factory into a centre for nature and sustainable living in the Don Valley. I did a tour of the buildings last week; the building are all deteriorating and falling apart, but it is cool to see the history of the brick manufacturing and even the graffiti that covers the walls.

Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty takes part in the ground breaking ceremony at the Evergreen Brick Works, Monday, December 8, 2008.

Aside from the ground-breaking story, the media showed up to take the opportunity to question the Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty on the current political situation in Ottawa. He was a special guest for the ceremony, along with David Miller, the Mayor of Toronto and other delegates. The post event scrum quickly turned from questions about Brick Works to politically pointed questions.

When you’re in situations like this you have to think of the big picture. Yes you are covering an assignment of ground-breaking, you need a photo to illustrate that, but Flaherty is part of a bigger story with all of the National Government drama. Whatever you can get to illustrate that is a bonus for your editors.

My next assignment was to go to the office and photograph a bunch of new gadgets. Pretty straightforward studio assignment; shoot stuff on white paper, not to much to talk about.

I then went to cover the Highway of Heroes, the three Canadian soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan being transported to the corners office in Toronto. Huge amounts of people showed up to show support for the fallen soldiers and the families. I wanted to show both the three hearses and all of the people.

Three hearses travel down the Don Valley Parkway under Wynford Dr carry the bodies of Canadian Soldiers Pte. Demetrios Diplaros, 25, Cpl. Mark McLaren, 23, and Warrant Officer Robert Wilson, 27, killed in Afghanistan, Monday, December 8, 2008.

I wasn’t very happy with my photo. My initial plan was to have the sky silhouette all of the people along the overpass, but the motorcade was 45 min late and the sun was completely gone. I should have re-positioned myself to make a better photo of the event looking back.

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