I try not to take this blog too seriously… but, believe it or not, since I started this thing I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s a photo blog about Vankleek Hill, or if it’s about photographers from Vankleek Hill taking photos of whatever interests them… including shots of Vankleek Hill.

So, I’ve decided two things…

1. it should probably be both

2. it’s my blog, so fuck you me, I’ll do what we want.

I’ve been wanting to post these two shots for a while now. They were taken in 1998 at Lilith Fair in Ottawa. I picked up some All-Access passes, and ended up in photographers-row for Sarah McLachlan’s part of the show (the rest of the day was pretty much meh at best). The organizers were only willing to give us one song to get our shots, and we couldn’t use flash on Sarah. So, instead of concentrating on her, I turned to the crowd and got a shot of their reaction when she stepped out on stage.

Then I turned the flash off, turned around and grabbed what I could of Sarah. This was long, long ago, so it was pre-digital. The great thing about the pre-digital age was, after you finished shooting, you could enjoy a night out without having to edit your 500 shots down to a usable ten or twelve. You could just sit back, enjoy a dozen or fifteen rum & Coke’s, and let someone else develop your film.

…funny story. Before the concert, Sarah and some of the organizers were sitting in front of about ten of us reporter-types, and no one had any idea what to ask them. So after five solid minutes of silence, a friend of mine, there to cover a local musician, got up and asked Sarah her reaction to something about negative press coverage from the States or something — I think a Rolling Stone article or someone said something about the tour being low on talent or something.

Holy fuck did Sarah shut him down. I don’t think, previous to that day, he had any idea he was part of the patriarchy. I believe he is still recovering.