Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008-

I hit the road today and headed up to Waterloo to do an assignment at Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry. It took about an hour and a half from Toronto so I used the time to work on my French (I am learning French through audio while in the car, as I mentioned in a pervious post.)

I don’t think the story ran so I probably shouldn’t talk about it, but it basically related to how cool it was to work at RIM.

I have never been to RIM before and it was a pretty cool. They have 20 buildings spread out all over Waterloo that they use as offices and labs.

The security was pretty tight and so where the shooting restrictions. I did not have to be blind folded and lead into the lab, but they asked me only to shoot in this one room and if I could make the employees unidentifiable- that would be great.

I could have gone two ways with the photo; I could have concentrated on the BlackBerry, or the people working. The assignment was not specifically about the BlackBerry, more about working there. I decided to shoot it nice and wide and use the space to make an interesting photo.

Daryl-Lynn Carlson story for FP working Section-- Three staff members at Research in Motion pose for a photograph in a test room for RF frequencies of BlackBerrys and their accessories, Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at RIMÕs Waterloo headquarters.

The room was very visual, it was used to test the RF frequencies of the devices. It was kind of a cheesy situation, I needed a picture of the people working but it had to be set up. I asked the guys what they would do in the room and we worked with that. I labeled it as a portrait in my caption information.

I shot the assignment and filed it from out there and headed back into the city. I did not have any assignments for the rest of the night so that left me free to work on a project that I have been working on for the last couple of months.

I don’t want to talk about this story too much either, but it is basically about this apartment in Toronto. It will be done hopefully by the end of the month so my secrets will be revealed then.

I have been working on this project in my spare time and it is definitely the best piece of work that I have done so far in my career, I’m really happy with it. The thing that impresses me the most is that I am making the pictures for me, not with any type of publication in mind. If they get published, that is a bonus, but this type of thinking frees me up and really lets me explore who I am as a photographer. I think I have grown photographically while working on it and I am pleased with the results.

It was pretty late when I finished. I went home and finished off my wedding photos and stayed up late watching a movie with my girlfriend.

The end.

View post on NPAC here

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.

View NPAC Post here

I am this week’s guest blogger on www.npac.ca

I will be blogging everyday for a week on whatever I do at work.

I am going to publish the posts here- but the NPAC post can be seen here

Hello everyone- my name is Brett Gundlock and I am a staff photographer at the National Post. I will be bloging about my adventures and misadventures working in Toronto for this week.

I hope that some of the younger shooters reading this are able to learn a bit from my experiences and I also hope some of the senior shooters reading this will offer me some feedback.

Sunday Dec. 7, 2008-

I received a call just after noon as I started my shift that there was a verdict in the Jane Creba trail. (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1046033) This has been one of the biggest news stories since the 15 year old was shot dead while shopping on Yonge St. boxing day 2005.

I rushed down to the courthouse to find the circus that is known as Toronto media. All of the major TV, radio and print media had a reporter/photographer there freezing in the cold wind.

I had just missed the defense attorneys giving a statement to the media- not an amazing photo-but the only one that was possible to get that day. The wind chill dropped the temperature to -20 but luckily the media was able to wait inside the court house. I hung out with the other photographers until the reporter confirmed that there were no more photos to be had.

My other assignment for the day was to cover the first NFL league game in Toronto- the Buffalo Bills vs. the Miami Dolphins. (http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=1044823) I left the courthouse around 1:45 p.m. to head down to the Roger’s centre. It took me 20 minutes to drive one block before the last NFL game here a couple of months ago so I wanted to avoid the traffic madness and ensure I was at the stadium in time to pick up my credential and set up.

Buffalo Bills fan Jordan Assaraf parties at the tailgate party on Bluejays way, near Front St., before the Buffalo Bills take on the Miami Dolphins at the Rogers Centre, Sunday, December 7, 2008.

After picking up my pass I set up my laptop in the photo room and got ready for the game. My workflow for games is pretty simple- I pre-write my caption and apply it to the IPTC field in Photo Mechanic ingest.

This is my caption that is applied to every image I download during the game-

TORONTO {iptcmonthname} {iptcday0}, 2008– NFL story for Sports Section– Buffalo Bills xxx Miami Dolphins XXX, during NFL action at the Rogers Centre, {iptcdow}, {iptcmonthname} {iptcday}, 2008.
STAFF PHOTO by Brett Gundlock/National Post

During the game I mark the images that are decent and when I sit down at half time to edit, those images ingest first into PM and I go through those first. I make my selects and edit them in Photoshop and save them to a dated transmit folder, caption them and then in FTP them. I erase the XXX in my prewritten caption with the players names, rename the files and FTP the images back to the desk in PM as well.

Buffalo Bills Bryan Scott tackles Miami Dolphins Ronnie Brown, during NFL action at the Rogers Centre, Sunday, December 7, 2008.

Between photos of drunk fans (which is one of my least favourite things to shoot) and game action I filled a lot- 19 photos. I was the only shooter for the Post so I wanted to make sure I sent the best package I could. These images will be used in the future as file photos as well on any story regarding the Bills in Toronto.

Buffalo Bills Paul Posluszny, #50,and Donte Whitner, #20, attempt to tackle Miami Dolphins Anthony Fasano, during NFL action at the Rogers Centre, Sunday, December 7, 2008.

I ended the night with a pint at a pub down the street with a few shooters and then treated myself to a chicken pot pie for dinner at home- life is good.

Feel free to get back to me with any questions or comments-
contact@brettgundlock.com
www.brettgundlock.com