Dear friends,
I feel as though I owe where I am today to the double rainbow of experiences I’ve collected over my lifetime. It wasn’t always that I had dreams of being a photojournalist, it’s more just how things kind of coalesced into this perfect sense.

My stint as a performing musician.

It all began about a decade ago when I signed up for my very first Livejournal. For those of you who don’t know, Livejournal is a Russia-based blogging site that preceded Blogspot and Wordpress. It’s a platform that is still very much alive, whereas, regretfully, my own Livejournal is not. There was something about the culture of blogging back then that helped me to really come into myself. Gushing all of my thoughts into something others could read offered a certain catharsis. This eventually led to the sharing of photos from my daily life to accompany the text. It almost became a fixation to craft entries for my readers. I would do things in my real life and think to myself sometimes, “I can’t wait to Livejournal about this.” This era piqued my interest in photography and I thirsted for something I couldn’t put my finger on.
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Dear friends,

I’ve had the experience of being able to set foot in and work for both of Canada’s largest newspapers as a summer photography intern. It’s a privilege that feels rare in a time where print journalism has seen its halcyon days, or so they say.

My summer at The Globe is markedly different than the one I spent at the Star. While both institutions offer fertile ground to grow and even blossom as a shooter, The Globe presented a curious experience that the Star was without.

March 16/2011 – Irish author Michael Collins is in Toronto to promote his new novel, Midnight in a Perfect Lie. (Photo by: Sarah Dea/for Toronto Star)

Yes, folks. I have spent the last week and a half plugging away at the desk (cue the dun dun duuuuun music). And let me tell you, after a few days in, I realized (and never believed, frankly) that a photo editor does not a failed photographer make. I feel fortunate to be able to see it from the other side, to grow as an effective visual communicator and gain an array of skills I’ve never had.
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Dear friends,
Allow me to offer a brief interlude between posts to touch on something that has very much shaped the last year of my photo-taking endeavours.

May 2/2010 – Girls’ toys. Photo by Sarah Dea

If you’ve ever met me in person, you’ve, no doubt, also made passing acquaintance with that infernal black gadget fused to my right hand. My trusty sidekick, my partner in crime, the window into my soul (or pocket, perhaps?) – my iPhone.

April 12/2010 – Going to the car wash. May 2/2010 – Girls’ toys. Photo by Sarah Dea
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Dear friends,
Nineteen score and five days ago I brought forth my last entry on NPAC.

July 24/2010 — Mary J. Blige, Grammy award-winning American singer, producer, songwriter, actress, and rapper, performs at the 2010 Lilith Fair at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre. Photo by Sarah Dea/The Globe and Mail Digital Image

I spent the summer of 2009 attempting to catch my breath as I coursed through my internship at the Toronto Star. I can still remember how everything gleamed with newness and novelty – how even being in the city that summer felt foreign.

And now, I feel as though I’m, at last, attuned to the nuance of city life: the din of rush hour traffic, how the skyline dons a light brown blanket on those hot, unforgiving days, how there always seems to be a gigantic lineup for anything at all and that persistent but unmistakable stench that creeps up from the sewers. I’ve even reached a place where I feel assured introducing myself as a photographer, my voice no longer wavering.
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I stayed up to watch the sunrise this morning, and the morning before that.

By sunrise, I mean, see the paper being printed. Leaving the office at 3 am has its perks. You get to meet the sketchy creatures of the night; some would call circulation or paper deliverymen.

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The highlight of the night was after the Men’s 10,000m finals. The Kenyan winner ran a victory lap, and myself and a few other photographers tried keeping up. Pike turns to me and says, “Were running with Kenyans”. Was a funny statement at the time, and had me laughing a bit while trying to replace my full CF card, and keep up with the winner.

I tried keeping up with the Kenyan who won during his victory lap. Kenyan Dennis Chepkongin Masai waves his jersey to the crowd during his victory lap, after winning the Mens 10,000m Final, Tuesday night, with a time of 27:53:88.

Lets talk about the different types of coverage at big events like this. There are a few photographers here; the locals, national, and international. CBC is the host broadcaster; they shoot pretty much anything that moves. The local coverage is a little different from the rest of the coverage. We are assigned to focus a lot of our shots on the volunteers, and the local aspect of this event.

An official tears up the Discus perimetre following the Women’s Discus Qualifiers (Cole Burston/Moncton Times & Transcript)
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Thankfully, I got to sleep in today. The paper has decided to have 2 guys covering the Juniors during the day, and 2 guys covering it at night. Staffers, Greg Agnew and Ron Ward are taking the day shift, while Viktor and myself are taking the nights. I finally got a chance to do some laundry, and at 3 bucks a load, who doesn’t love a good dirty apartment building laundry day. This week, I’m taking any free time I can to relax, because for an intern, this event is somewhat like the Olympics.

I like to think photojournalism is in my blood. My parents travelled all over Asia for just about a full year following their marriage in the 1970’s. My father did a hell of a job documenting their trip. Although I had only heard a few brief stories when I was younger, I recently had a chance to look through his slides from the trip. There is a stack about 7 inches high of sheet after sheet, full with slides that he shot. Sadly he is not alive today to tell me these stories. But I think I am truly blessed to be able to scan through his memories, captured in little tiny frames. That’s my ultimate goal in life; to have the ability to tell stories, even long after I’m gone. I scanned just a few of his photos a few months ago, and have included them in my post today. I apologize for the lack of caption information; there are locations to go along with these photos. Unfortunately, they are back in Toronto, scribbled on the pieces of film packaging.

Holy Men (Photo By Bill Burston)
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