Final week-end of competition 2007 edition of International Bromont at the Bromont Olympic Horse Park.

Photo Francis Vachon for Proaction Photo

Photo Francis Vachon for Proaction Photo

Like I previously said, I recently did my first wedding. It was the one of my best buddy’s so it was especially fun.

Here are some shots.

Val Bélair, July 29, 2007 – Citizens salute the first contingent of about 85 Valcartier soldiers from Afghanistan in a bus on Pie XI Blvd in Val Bélair, north of Quebec City Sunday July 29 2007. To underline the homecoming, a convoy of police and light armored vehicles escorted busses on their way back between Jean Lesage International Airport and Valcartier. Photo Francis Vachon for The Montreal Gazette
Technical: Canon EOS 1d Mark II, 1/250 at f13 with a 16-35 at 21mm - ISO 200 + fill flash

Funny photographers pictures

Iraq: news in transition audioslide

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Rick Loomis has covered the Iraq war for the Los Angeles Times. His outstanding series on “The Siege of Fallouja” and his heartbreaking multimedia report on wounded soldiers in “The Lifeline” have pushed the boundaries of mainstream journalism. Loomis generously agreed to open his photo files to us and recounted his life-changing experiences from his four years of deployment in Iraq.

Technical: Canon EOS 1d Mark II, 1/400 at f4.5 with a 85mm prime lens - ISO 200

Video: Inside the surge

The Guardian’s award-winning photographer and filmmaker Sean Smith spent two months embedded with US troops in Baghdad and Anbar province. His harrowing documentary exposes the exhaustion and disillusionment of the soldiers.

The comments of the last soldier speaking to the camera are pretty deep…

According to a Wall Street Journal article, the NFL will force member of the media to be an advertisement billboard

But some of the NFL’s other actions have horrified Alex Marvez, president of the Pro Football Writers Association and a South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter. He winces at the new rule requiring photographers to wear red vests with small Canon and Reebok logos. Mr. Marvez calls the idea of using working press members as advertising vehicles “really alarming.”

Even worse, some people try to force you to give away all your copyright!

She was taken aback when, before June’s Pocono 500 auto race, she was asked for the first time to sign a credential application agreeing that Nascar would own all images captured at the event. She pushed back and received press passes without hassle.

(…)

That incident echoes a battle between the Ladies Professional Golf Association and photographers resisting the organization’s assertion that it had broad rights to re-use photos shot at a 2006 tournament in Hawaii without permission of the organizations that took the pictures. After the AP and local papers boycotted the first day of the event, the LPGA relented.

First, there where kisses. Then there where hugs. But as the clock was ticking, tears started to appear.

Covering the first Van Doos leaving for Afghanistan was absolutely heartbreaking: one of the most difficult assignment I had to cover yet. Many time I had to restrain my emotion, many time I had to restrain the tear that was coming to my eyes.

Seeing so many mothers hugging their kids, so many kids hugging their father, so many fathers hugging their son, so many loving spouse and girlfriends hugging their beloved one…

First, we had to “steal” those very intimate moments. And then, we had to step in to ask names. One time, it was so heartbreaking that I could not. I had to ask a friend of the guy, because his girlfriend was so in pain that I was just not able to ask myself (third photo).

I did not know it would be so emotional. Even after the event, when I was editing my photos, many times a “ball of emotions” came right down from my gut, up to my eyes.

It is a good thing after all that my friend Hubert, who was getting married the day before (pictures on this blog soon!), will leave only next week, when medias will not be invited. I am not sure I would have been able to do my job properly with him being one of the guys leaving yesterday.

I already talked about photographing grievance and other painful moments. Again, I had the proof that what we do is important. Late yesterday evening, Nathalie Dupont, the lady in the second photo, sent me this email after discovering it on the Gazette web site (reproduced with her authorization):

Bonjour!
Un petit mot pour souligner votre remarquable talent pour saisir l’émotion du moment! Si vous saviez tous les reproches essuyés par nos nombreux neveux et nièces avant le départ, n’ayant pas de photos convenable de nous deux… Une seule comme celle-là leur suffit amplement! Moi qui a longtemps cru que je n’étais pas photogénique… preuve à l’appui que le problème est souvent derrière la caméra, pas vrai? Merci pour ce baume au coeur!
(…) Pour les moments touchants, dommage que vous manquiez tous les ohhhhhh! et ahhhhh! des gens qui n’étaient pas sur place et qui s’ébahissent ici devant la photo

My free translation:

Hello!
Some words to underline your remarkable talent to photograph all the emotion of a moment! If only you would know all the everyone in the family was sad to not have a decent picture of us before his leave. Just one like this is more than enough for them! And me who was thinking all those year that I was not photogenic… Now I have the proof that the problem was behind the camera, right? Thank you for healing our heart!
(…) For the touching moment, it is sad that you miss all the “owww!” and “awwww” of the people gathered here when they look at the photo.

I sent her a high-resolution version of the photo. That is the least I can do to repay my invasion of their privacy.

With my work with La Presse, and now with this one for The Gazette, I feel very connected with those guys. I have photos. I have names. I will check the headlines with another eye now.