The internship is now over, actually a fortnight ago. The two weeks of interning at Black Press passed in a relatively short (it seemed to me) amount of time. And I must say, I quite enjoyed the experience. I ran into challenges almost every day, some difficult while others were, well, not as difficult. In the end, it seemed all to be about problem solving.
Don Denton, the photo editor of Black Press, gave Milos and me a number of assignments during these two weeks, and mine were (in a semi-chronologial order and point-form):
On the first day, I went to Beacon Hill Park and Fisherman’s Wharf, as they are two of the top 10 tourist spots in Victoria.
It was raining quite a bit for a good portion of the first few days, and the forecast showed more of the same, so I went out to get some rainy day shots.
Running and jogging is very popular in Victoria, so I was sent out to Dallas Road to catch some runners. I did that, but when I got back I was asked for names. Great. You mean I have to try and stop the runners and joggers and ask them for their name!? Yup. Okay, I’ll try that next time I do this.
As I’ve mentioned before, I was sent out to Wilkinson jail to photograph Dean Purdy, a prison guard. That was ironic, because a few weeks earlier I had been denied of photographing the building for security reasons.
Then I went out to look for feature type shots in Saanich. I went to the Cedar Hill golf course, and to the top of Mt. Douglas where a birder was wathcing a juvenile eagle and some turkey vultures.
I met Barbara Mordaunt outside the Oak Bay house she grew up in. The house will likely be demolished quite soon.
The Canadian Navy and Vancouver Island Brewery launched a new beer, commemorating the Navy’s 100th anniversary. I was sent on location to shoot the event.
Next was searching for features in Victoria. I found an artist chalking the sidewalks of Government Street, people crossing the Selkirk Trestle, and two guys playing Warhammer in a gamers’ store in downtown Vic.
I went to see Liz da Mata, owner of the Reef Restaurant on Yates. After that, I learned (though not the hard way, fortunately) that I should alwas shoot more than one, and preferably more than two shots, from the same angle, to minimise the risk of blinkies.
Oak Bay Avenue at Monterey was my next stop. There was to be a ‘Then and now’ column in the Oak Bay News, and I was sent to take a photo which was to mimic one taken about a century earlier.
On Easter Sunday McMorran’s Beach House closed its doors for the very last time. The day after, I was sent there to document the vast emptiness.
Feature hunt in Oak Bay was next on my list. I got my best shots at the Oak Bay Marina, where I saw people feeding seals and a sea otter, and a sea lion swimming nearby.
Milos and I were sent out to shoot ‘streeters’ for Best of the City. We had to find ten people willing to answer a two page questionnaire and have their picture taken early on a Tuesday morning. So we split up, I walked up and down Government Street and Milos went up and down Douglas Street, both walking somewhere between Pandora and Courtney. This was quite hard at first, but then it got easier, and even a little fun.
Cook Street Village food vendors are now two, down from eight less than a year ago. I was sent to shoot that empty space, and was fortunate enough to find a man there, who could tell me about the situation.
Saanich is quite large, so I was sent out to find more features there. I found a Saanich municipality council member running near Beaver Lake, and a flag-girl stopping oncoming traffic on Elk Lake Drive.
Next I went to see an elderly couple, who have a huge Garry Oak in the yard, and are afraid it might fall on their house at any time. And you know what, I think their concern in legit.
Milos and I were again sent out together, but this time we didn’t split up. Don needed an exterior shot of the Royal BC Museum, so off we went. We asked permission to climb the Netherlands Centennial Carillon, but were not allowed to do so, because of liability issues. I get the feeling again and again that we are not in Iceland anymore.
We mustn’t forget Esquimalt, so off I went to get some features from there. It was cold and windy, but out on Macauly Point I got a fun photo of two puppies playfully greeting each other, as their owners were going in separate directions.
The crappiest assignment I got was easily at Oak Bay High School. There, around 45 students were shoveling manure into bags, to sell as fertilizer. The profit from the 20 dump-truck-loads of shit will be used to support the school’s track and field team.
From the foul-smelling heaps of dung, I went to a pre-school to photograph two parents organizing a fundraiser. They would be shredding paper. At least it smells better than the manure.
Next stop was the Scented Garden in Oak Bay, in one corner of Windsor Park. There I met Dan Bell, a horticulturalist who designed the garden. He actually said he wanted the garden to be named Sensory Garden, because it stimulates more than just the sense of smell. It is actually designed so that even people confined to a wheelchair can enjoy it, as there are four raised flowerbeds in the centre of the garden.
An unveiling of a whale’s tail at the First Peoples House by the University of Victoria. That was my next assignment. And creativity was key. Which, in fact, was quite a challenge. At the unveiling, a group of natives were singing and playing drums, and their chief spread eagledown to bless the earth and the statue. All of a sudden everybody started looking straight up in awe. I looked up as well and saw a pair of bald eagles circling above us. As soon as the singing stopped, they flew away.
My last assignment was to take some pictures of some good men who are organizing the 100th anniversary of the George Jay school.
After I had done that, I went back to the office, captioned and worked on the photos I had shot that day, and then, almost out of nowhere, my days at Black Press were numbered.
Many thanks to Don Denton and all the other good people at Black Press, for having me there for two weeks. What I learned was invaluable.
Oh, and here are some photos, for those of you who read your way to the end 😉
