Steveston High Closure

Photos from a special edition of the paper, called Packer Press, which was put out to signify the closure of the iconic high school on its' 50th Anniversary. It was a lot of fun to work on.

First Shot on Fuji MF Rangefinder

I met Dani sitting on a park bench at Kits Beach feeding the pigeons. He told me his story about escaping the Holocaust as a young Jewish teenager living in Poland back in the early 40's. He was an interesting guy to talk to, and has a life story filled with situations people of my age can only try to understand by carefully listening to someone like him.

Cool Shades

As fellow tennis students look on, Riley Janssen, 4, concentrates on his volley during a lesson put on by tennis pro Barry Sanderson of the Delta Parks & Rec. at the Brandrith Park tennis courts Monday afternoon.

Rick.

It was great to briefly meet Rick who is such an inspiring person and all-around great guy. I had about 3 minutes with him in his office and decided I would go with a tighter shot to try to show his more of his personality and less of his disability.



Rick Hansen, pictured here in his Vancouver office of the Rick Hansen Foundation, celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the final leg of his 1987 Man in Motion tour this month.

Find out more here www.rickhansen.com

Vaisakhi

Richmond Multicultural Concerns Society director Gurdial Singh Neel explains the history and significance of Vaisakhi, celebrating the birth of the Khalsa, at Richmond Caring Place Tuesday afternoon.

Pat on the Back

Kind of cool thing from this week in an email from around the chain:

The first Pat on the Back for March goes to Richmond/Delta photographer Brett Beadle for a dignified, yet heart-wrenching photo of Manjit Panghali’s father as he sat in a press conference called to announce that Manjit’s husband and brother-in-law had been charged in connection with her murder. Brett captured the emotions of the proceedings quietly and elegantly with a tight shot of the grieving man’s profile, a single tear coursing down his face. No one could look at that photo and not be moved by the palpable grief captured by the photographer.

The photo graced the front page of the Richmond News on March 13.

Past week in Richmond

This one was tough. I was called right on deadline about an RCMP release we got saying that a local synagogue was vandalized on Holocaust Remembrance Day. When Eve and I arrived, the Rabbi wasn't prepared to talk at all, but after a bit of discussion he agreed. Anyways, just an example of a two-minute setup portrait on deadline in a delicate situation.

Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth of the Beth Tikvah Synagogue on Geal Road sits in front of walls of Jewish literature in his office on Monday afternoon. He notes that the most fitting punishment for the people who vandalized the synagogue would be to come and learn more about the culture and history of the Jewish people.

And two others:

Erin Fitz-Earle and her son Yewan, 3, watch an Air Canada Airbus A340 take off from Airport Park Wednesday afternoon. They came down from Squamish to pick up Yewan's grandmother and stopped to watch the airplanes take off at the park located just off of Russ Baker Way, east of Vancouver International Airport.


Richmond artist Eliza Au has an upcoming exhibit at the Richmond Art Gallery displaying her collection of ceramic wreaths.

a recap.

Well, it has been about a year now since I started this blog last year, at the end of my schooling at Western Academy and the start of my internship at the Calgary Herald. It amazing how fast a year goes, and how much things change. This will be my 139th post on the blog, which also acts as a good archiving system and allows you to look at your work from the past very easily. It's amazing to take a look back at the pictures I was taking as I was getting out of school, how happy I was with the pictures I was taking, and how seemingly awful I think they look now.

It is all part of the growing process I guess, and keeps me excited for the future of pictures I am going to take. I still love taking pictures as much as I did before school, if not more, and I hope that doesn't change. Now I am hoping I have enough time and perseverance to work on some long-term projects outside of my full-time job, which I am looking into, albeit slowly-but-surely. I just bought a new camera, and although it was an option to upgrade my Canon digital I chose instead to buy a 20 year old camera without a lightmeter. Because I think I'll have more fun with it. At the end of the day, photography is still fun, and I'm happy as ever to be able to make a living taking pictures, it's a blessing.

-Brett. Apr 17/2007

Recent Stuff From Richmond

A few recent things from Richmond, I have been behind on the updates recently. More to come soon...


John Kelly got an interesting Telus bill recently, adressed to "Richmond BC Afghanistan."

George Chan sits on the pier at London Landing Monday afternoon, waiting for the flounder to bite.

Shi Ming Deng's distraught parents, father Qian Hui Deng (right) and mother Li Xue Mei speak to media Thursday. They are trying to figure out how their son died in 2005, when they were informed of his demise two months after his death and several days after his burial.