There are these weird moments… generally between midnight and 3am, but sometimes they bleed into other hours, when the soundtrack to my life gets filled with a lot of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and ‘[Insert Any Cure Song Here]’ on repeat. It’s the natural state of living with the manic depression, even with the proper medications and therapies.

I’m just getting worn out.

So I’m posting these photos to prove to myself, and anyone else paying attention, that I actually used to do shit that interested me… I was talking to someone a few days ago, and they asked me what I’d like to be doing. So, without skipping a beat, I told her “reporter and photographer.” She asked why, and I told her they were the best jobs a human being could have. Duhr. And I started telling her about things I’d done in the past. Which, of course, actually reminded me of some of the things I’ve done. And it turned out most of those things were really, really cool.

So that’s what this post is about… just to remind myself that I’ve actually done some stuff.

So… click on the first photo to get the carousel going, and enjoy.

…that’s ‘Shockwave’, the jet truck. It’s got three jet engines strapped to a big rig, because, fuck, why not? It’ll get up to 375mph… which seems excessive, but when you watch it scream down an airport runway you’re mostly thinking “…why aren’t more people strapping jet engines to shit on wheels? This seems like something we should be doing.” Anyway… this shot was a fluke. I had the camera set up to shoot, then the flames shot out and screwed up my lighting. Very cool… but totally accidental.

,,,media day at the National Capital Airshow. That’s ‘Truckasaurus’ eating a car and setting it on fire. Because, fuck, why not?

One of, maybe, five times I’ve let a company take me out for an event… but, fuck, it was a chance to ride in a blimp — A FREAKING BLIMP!! Yes, I almost threw up.

I was on The Hill to interview Industry Minister John Manley, when Question Period ended. That’s the Fisheries Minster being forced to feel shame by (I think) a reporter from the Ottawa Citizen.

…if I tried to get this close to a Prime Minister today I’m prety sure I’d take a rubber bullet to the head, but pre-911, all it took was a smile to get past security.

…the ‘Ottawa Treaty’ brought representatives from almost every country to Ottawa to sign a treat banning the use of landmines. That’s Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy standing beside a very awkward Bruce “If I Had Rocket Launcher” Cockburn.

…there was a program, after the Chernobyl disaster, to bring Ukrainian kids to Canada for a few weeks / months every year to stay with foster families so they’d have a shot at getting healthy. The big guy behind her was a VP at a tech company in Ottawa.

…my second week in Toronto. There was a heatwave, and I couldn’t sleep. About 3am, eight police cars scream past my rooming house, so I grabbed my camera and ran (!!) to find this. I got there before they had set up the yellow tape… a bunch of kinds carjacked the mini-van, ran a red, hit a car, flipped a bunch of times, and took off running. They got caught while I was on the scene, so I have their photos as well. The next day, when I told my editor why I was late, he told me “cool… but you work for a tech magazine. We don’t care about that stuff.”

I think this was the women’s Final…

I love shooting these guys…

Summer grass fire in L’Orignal…

…freaks me out that these things are legal in Canada. Who the fuck needs a silencer on an assault rifle to hunt deer or skeet shoot?

It was a drill to show the high school kids consequences of something something I don’t know something or other.

Don’t drink and drive.

…shooting in this rink sucks hard nuts because of the lighting. So I figured I’d get some shots of the kids coming off the ice. Almost worked.

From the Vankleek Hill ‘Yes, Women Can’ event…

After I submitted this photo, ‘The Review’ asked if I’d be interested in freelancing for them…

…this was one of the first of my shots ‘The Review’ published. It was just a spec ‘spring is here’ kind of thing. I waited for them to pass me then, when they got far enough away that it didn’t feel weird, I took the shot.

Yup, still a thing. They were great to shoot. Again, this arena sucks nuts to shoot in, but they supplied some of their own lighting, so that was nice.

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