The Photographer’s Q&A focuses on Canadian photographers and visual journalists.

This week’s Q&A is with Adrien Veczan, photojournalist and winner of the Tom Hanson Photojournalism award.

Is there a Canadian photographer you want to know more about, or want to make a submission? E-mail gregyapp@gmail.com

*The square photos you see here were all shot for the Star’s Big Picture Month. It was great to have the resources (and mandate) to generate pure good photojournalism. There was a lot of debate about it over the month, but it was great to see everybody getting excited about it.

What were your first steps in the industry?

I started out freelancing for community newspapers during my first year in school. I remember showing a really really bad portfolio to Irv at the North York Mirror. Nevertheless, he sat down with me, analysed it, and patiently gave me feedback. He must have sensed that despite the poor quality of my images I was going to work hard and began to send me on assignments. I also started getting jobs from Walter (now retired) in the Durham region and learned a lot there too.

Meanwhile the Reuters guys in Toronto took me under their wings and if it hadn’t been for Fred, Mark, Mike and Peter I wouldn’t be where I am now. To this day I still go to them for help and guidance.

Then I did an internship at the Toronto Star alongside Sarah and Ian. I don’t think I need to explain how big a deal this was for us. Working with such a talented staff on a daily basis is a humbling experience. All the things I learned there helped kick-start my career.

Most recently, I was honoured to receive the Tom Hanson Award, an admirable endeavour with the noble goal to “give a photographer trying to break into the business the chance to perform on the national stage.”

When you were a student, what did you want to do after graduation, and are you where you thought you would be now?

I moved from Montreal to study photography at Seneca College in Toronto. I had scouted a few schools, chose Ontario because there weren’t any good options in my home province and opted for an English college because I wanted to become bilingual.

Seneca’s photo program is oriented towards commercial photography. The program just started out when I enrolled. Except for one, none of the teachers had any experience in photojournalism. I knew I’d have to pursue my journalistic goals off campus. The teachers were all excellent photographers in their fields (fashion, food, wedding, studio, architectural, nature/wildlife, stock photography) and while in school, I did learned a lot about post-production, marketing and business.

My business plan has since been largely based on winning the lottery, so in that sense, no, I’m not where I thought I’d be (yet). But as far as my career goes, I’m pleased that my efforts have paid off, and so far I really can’t complain.

August 13, 2009 – Big Picture Month – Paul Rademacher (front), “J-Rodd” (middle) and Bart Krzysztofek (back) skydive three kilometres over Cookstown. (Adrien Veczan/Toronto Star)

Do you have a mentor?

Yes. Fred Thornhill. He is my own personal “Loyalist College”. I can go to him with any question, regardless of how stupid it is. He’s a great guy, a great photographer, a great cook and, when there’s no witness, a great fisherman. He has taught me a lot about photography and life.

I wish to any other photographer starting out to have a mentor. There’s no substitute for the guidance and support you can get from someone who has been in your exact position before.

What or who are your biggest inspirations?

It’s always fun to look at the work of the famous photographers, but I’d say the photographers around me are bigger inspirations.

August 12, 2009 – Big Picture Month – 14-year-old provincial wakeboarding champion Mitchell Lowry during a training session on Chemong Lake near Bridgenorth. (Adrien Veczan/Toronto Star)

No documentary about Nachtwey can match what you can learn from shooting alongside the likes of Frank Gunn or Mike Cassese. Or listening to one of Boris Spremo’s many stories. Or sitting in the Star’s newsroom. Or going to Ottawa and sit down with Adrian Wyld, Chris Wattie and Jason Ransom to hear your portfolio isn’t quite there yet.

And it’s not only the veterans. I’m inspired by the work and career path of the photographers a few years ahead of me; Carlos, Darren, Mark, Pawel, Tara.

What was a pivotal point in your career?

For sure the Star internship and the recent Tom Hanson Award (with the upcoming CP internship.)

What are you working on now?

At the moment I’m responsible of photography for an annual magazine. I enjoy the creative carte blanche and the fact the deadline isn’t anytime soon.

Also, I have a extra bathroom that I wish to turn into a darkroom. I’m almost ashamed not to know anything about processing film – I guess that’s the new generation – but I really want to learn and play with chemicals.

So far the only thing I know is that I need a red light bulb. And I already have records and a turntable… By my calculations, I’m half way there!

How important to you is multimedia?

Not very. (Don’t hate me because I said that.)

I just think it’s a whole different craft. Video that is.

I really like the slideshows (stills and sound.) During a recent internship at the Sydney Morning Herald, I witness the Downunder approach to multimedia. They produce very powerful pieces with amazing photography and simple soundtracks (interviews, music, or ambient sound, depending.) Editing is very simple and quick – and – you don’t have to sit and watch the whole thing if you don’t want to; you can simply browse through it like a simple photo gallery.

August 20, 2009 – Big Picture Month – Emergency Task Force (ETF) officer Alvin Valledor in tactical training at the shooting range of the ETF training facility in Toronto. (Adrien Veczan/Toronto Star)

How do you ensure you are progressing as a photojournalist?

I shoot a lot of pictures. I look at a lot of pictures. And I seek feedback from people who’s work I admire.

What is your favourite way to unwind?

I’m into travel photography. I know it sounds similar to what I do day-to-day, but there’s a big difference.

I can’t take a step back from photography unless I close my eyes. I continually look at how the light bounces off what I see (and think about how I’d photograph it.)

Travelling makes me see that same light but from a different perspective.

What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you about being a photographer?

Tom Hanson’s wife Catherine recently told me, “Remember to keep your eyes and heart always open; that’s when the best shots are captured.”

I’ll always remember Richard Lautens telling me he couldn’t think of anybody who really wanted to become a photojournalist not ending up getting a job.

And describing the attitude a photographer should have, Mark Blinch told me to: “Stay humble, keep your head down and do your work.” (which is echoed by one of Fred’s many many quotes: “No one wants to hire a jerk”)

August 3, 2009 – Big Picture Month – Visitors riding the Behemoth; the tallest (230 feet), steepest (75 degree first drop) and fastest (125 km/h) roller coaster in the country at Canada’s Wonderland. (Adrien Veczan/Toronto Star)

The Photographer’s Q&A focuses on Canadian photographers and visual journalists.

This week’s Q&A is with Christine Kilpatrick, freelance Visual Journalist in Vancouver, B.C.

Is there a Canadian photographer you want to know more about, or want to make a submission? E-mail gregyapp@gmail.com

What were your first steps in the industry?

My first steps in the industry were to assess whether or not I had enough talent to take great news photographs. I chased the news on a freelance basis and bought myself a radio scanner. I was often first on the scene of murders, accidents and assaults.  I would submit my photos to the local newspapers and when they started buying them I knew I may have a chance at being a news photographer. I pursed that aspect and made sure I had the proper credentials to be noticed as a serious photographer and not a hobbiest.

A tragic bicycle accident where a car hit and killed an older man cycling to work.  The family gathered to find answers. Photo by Christine Kilpatrick.

Unfortunately, with the big budget cutbacks, newspapers no longer have the budget for freelance photographs in Vancouver.

When you were a student, what did you want to do after graduation, and are you where you thought you would be now?

I worked really hard for two years to earn my certificate in Professional Editing and Broadcast Journalism from BCIT. As a mature student who wanted to pursue my dreams, I felt I needed to earn the credentials and the skills to achieve my goals. I really wanted to work in the news industry as an editor or a camera operator for a Vancouver news room. I thought I would be hired right from my internship but this was not the case. I completed two full time internships at Global News and CTV News, both of which were informative and enjoyable. However, I am not where I wanted to be at this point.

What or who are your biggest inspirations?

I think Annie Leibovitz, who shoots most of the Vanity Fair’s covers. Although she has made the news because of a ton of financial trouble recently, she remains a great photographer. I also admire the stills photographer, Kimberly French. She is a movie stills photographer that works on feature films in Vancouver and Calgary. I met her on the set of Brokeback Mountain in Calgary several years ago. She has an exceptional eye for taking beautiful photographs of actors on set and just the right moment. I recently read an interview she gave to Digital Photography Magazine from the UK. I took and used a lot of her advice on photography. She has an abundance of talent and skill and produces the best stills in the industry. I would like to apprentice with Kimberly French and learn her system of taking great film stills.

I am my own biggest inspiration. I have not met a mature woman in the industry. (When I say mature, I mean in 40ish). It is evident the industry is male dominated and women in the news  or sports photography industry have a harder time proving themselves as capable camera operators or news photographers. I am sure the colleges are filled with female students but there are a few actually working for big agencies like Reuters and the Canadian Press.

I liked this picture also taken in Whistler Village because the helmet matched the pants.  Mountain biking is huge at Whistler Blackcomb and they dress like road warriors. Photo by Christine Kilpatrick.

Do you have a mentor?

No, I don’t have a mentor but I would like a mentor and I feel it would be a huge benefit if I had a mentor. There are so many little things to learn that you don’t learn in the class room. Some things only come with experience. I learn by watching and doing and I wish could shadow some great shooters to learn their tips and tricks.

I would like to apprentice for a year or so, whatever it will take to get to the level where I can provide photographs to a News Agency like Reuters, Canadian News Service or the Canadian Press. There are a few really great photographers out there have been self taught. I went and got all the credentials employers asked for in job descriptions and chased news for two years. I am versed in video production, editing and still photography. I have been a freelance stringer for five years to a major celebrity news magazine but I haven’t gone to route of paparazzi. Some days I feel like doing the paparazzi thing for the money but I haven’t gone that route. There is a huge stigma attached to paparazzi photography because it is invasive but those photographers support families, own homes and pay the bills with the newest photographs of the star of the week.

What was a pivotal point in your career?

I don’t want to come across and a whiner or cry baby but I have felt like giving up because I haven’t been able to break into the industry after three years. I don’t know if it is because I haven’t graduated from Algonquin, Fanshaw, Humber , Ryerson or Loyalist or horrors of horrors, I am not a young fresh graduate.

I attended the NPAC conference last year in Toronto to network , meet editors and show off my portfolio and get advice. I enjoyed the speakers.

I keep plugging away at networking and trying to learn more about photography and keep taking photographs.

Don’t talk or text while driving.  This driver lived to drive another day. Photo by Christine Kilpatrick.

What are you working on now?

Right now I have a tour company called On Location Tours Vancouver. I take fans of the Twilight Saga to all the movie locations around Vancouver. I offer wine tours and after the Olympics, Venue Tours.

I was hopeful to get something with the Olympics. I did work for the Olympics in 1988 in Calgary in the media broadcast center. I was a student and was asked to work for ZDF German Television. It was such a great experience I wanted to be involved with the Olympics in Vancouver, my home town.

How important to you is multimedia?

I think the newspaper in the format it is in now is on the way out. I think people will be getting most of the news online. People have a short attention span. Kids would rather watch You Tube than regular television programming. News has to be in short sound bites. It has to be quick, entertaining and easy to access. I think there is a future in news photography but it will be online. Video clips of news have to be presented like a tv commercial. There is a new generation of MTV viewers and to send the message, the media had to grab and hold their attention. Lucky for me, I know how to do some of  the technical stuff.

I love taking candid street photography. These two women were mirroring each other and probably were not aware of their pose. I think they were mom and daughter visiting Whistler Village in the Summer of 2010. Photo by Christine Kilpatrick.

How do you ensure you are progressing as a visual journalist?

I am a member of the Langley Photo Club. I read what I can about the industry and I attended the NPAC Conference. I was hoping the conference would come back to Vancouver this year. It was recommended to me that I join the Professional Photographers Association of BC. I take workshops with professional photographers and I take photos almost every day. I have started a Picture A Day on my blogspot, www.newsflic.blogspot.com and made a website, www.christinekilpatrick.com.

I am looking for opportunities to become a stills photographer on indi movies as well.

I look at the NPAC site for news I can use and visit different websites. I am always looking for what is new and any news or trends I should be aware of when it has to do with the news and media.

What are some of the must-see websites you visit?

National Geographic Photographers for inspiration and I  look at Fickr for inspiration. I love looking at what other photographers are doing for fun and work. I haven’t found any great sites for guidance information or education.

What is your favourite way to unwind?

I love to travel to the Caribbean. I feel I need to go every year. I take a lot of photographs.

Simple portrait of Megan Bowes. Photo by Christine Kilpatrick.

What s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you about being a photographer?

Don’t give up on your dream.

Walk around your subject. Look for a shot the other guys aren’t getting. Don’t stay in the same spot, don’t shoot from eye level. Take a lot of pictures. Get in there and get the emotion. Be patient, if it is uncomfortable, take the shot. Make sure all your shots are crisp and in focus.

The Photographer’s Q&A focuses on Canadian photographers and visual journalists.

This week’s Q&A is with Michael Willems, award-winning freelance photographer, private teacher, presenter and photo coach in Oakville, ON.

Is there a Canadian photographer you want to know more about, or want to make a submission? E-mail gregyapp@gmail.com

What were your first steps in the industry?

I started shooting events around me several decades ago, and had photos published in various magazines and newspapers in Europe, but my first real steps in the industry were here in Oakville. Armed with my emergency services scanner and always carrying a camera or two, which was easy because I shoot events and teach photography, I would shoot every accident and spot news event that came my way. I would quickly submit these to the local newspaper – wanting to freelance, but not expecting quick results. And indeed these were not forthcoming. That suited me fine: I had patience. I continued to practice and to learn what the papers published. I looked at every picture, every cutline. I honed my technical skills and my people skills.

This recent picture of Elizabeth May is a fave because she is such a nice, likeable person, and because she is the only politico I have met who came up to me when she noticed me demonstratively not shooting her drinking, and said, “That is very very nice of you, I saw you did your best to avoid the wine – but don’t worry. Wine is legal and I have no problems being shot with a glass.” – Photo by Michael Willems.

When you were a student, what did you want to do after graduation, and are you where you thought you would be now?

When I was young I wanted a career in journalism, but it turned out that I had to wait a few decades.  I came to this industry in different ways from most. I trained as an engineer, and travelled the world in that capacity and later as a business executive. In my younger years I worked for long periods in very wild environments, including Nigeria, Libya, and the Middle East, including Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. These environments and what I saw there further whetted my appetite for photojournalism. I am quite visual in nature and wanted to share. Pity that “digital” had not yet been invented. I initially learned photography during those years.

What or who are your biggest inspirations?

As photographers: three greats come to mind: Nan Goldin, Robert Capa and Annie Leibowitz. Definitely. And probably even in that order. In life: travel. I have spent time in almost 40 countries, and find that people are people – but the differences is what makes them so interesting.

I love the colours here, and this was my first Oakville Beaver front page. It is also a fave because Jaymz, a fellow photog, told me about this spot – very kind of him, since he could have kept it to himself. Helping others is a cool thing. Photo by Michael Willems.

Do you have a mentor?

I have many. As said, Reg Vertolli at The Oakville Beaver gives me truly excellent advice, and there are several others: especially experienced photographers such as my friends Gregory Talas and Peter West, both ex news photographers and very experienced in the film world. I was going to say “older” photographers, but that would sound wrong. I am older than most, too, and “old” is a good thing if it means “experienced”.

What was a pivotal point in your career?

The second half of 2007, when I shot a long-term shoot in a drug den in Toronto. This enormously unsettling long-term project brought me at once back to the danger of the Middle East wars (Toronto drug dens seem more dangerous to me than Baghdad was during Iranian air raids) and to the sense of isolation, the sense of depression, and the sense of “these people are in a different world – my world must know about this”. I made an exhibit of this, which drew over 2,000 visitors during CONTACT last year and got me on CBS Radio’s “Metro Morning” and “Big City, Small World”. But it changed my life, too, reminding me of how some people live, and how isolated they are.

This picture is from my “IV – Intravenous” exhibit. The misery, the desolation, the mess; the focus on the cocaine, the heap of used needles, and yet the nice electric toothbrush in the corner… Photo by Michael Willems.

What are you working on now?

I am working on black and white portraits. Back to the future, you might say. I am also going to do “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep”, free photos of dead or dying babies for the parents. I went to a seminar about this in London yesterday and thought, is that ever moving. I’ll do it, however painful it will be for me – my feelings are none compared to the parents’, I am sure.

How important to you is multimedia?

I am a stills person. But I have learned that I have to move with the times: standing still is moving backward. So I bought a 7D in order to be able to do some video – or rather, to hone my skills in that area. But the work and time involved in post is not something I really like.

How do you ensure you are progressing as a visual journalist?

By tackling new items of my own, by always carrying my camera, and by always, always seeing people as interesting. And also, by always delivering the best work I can: Whether I shoot a “grip and grin” event or spot news or a corporate headshot, I try to put everything into it. And finally, by learning new techniques. I look at what other photographers do.

This one, of a standoff in Oakville at Knar Jewellers, is a fave because I shot it in the dark with a non-IS lens and no support, and because i got it to The Sun with literally one minute to spare. It’s also a favourite because it got me a Halton Police Media Award for “Best Police News Photograph”. Photo by Michael Willems.

What are some of the must-see websites you visit? Please include why you visit these sites. E.g.: Inspiration, guidance, information, education, etc.?

Um, NPAC? Seriously – but also Facebook, silly as it may sound – keeps me in touch with others who are not from my background. DPreview for gear stuff. Photo.net for excellent advice from other pros. Strobist and David Honl (whose Round Table I am on) for new small strobe tips – I teach flash after all.

What is your favorite way to unwind?

Playing with new gear in my studio. With a glass of wine. I am of course a gearhead: as a teacher of photography I need to be totally up to date with equipment. And driving – I drive all over North America. No undoing shoes and belt in your own car!

What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you about being a photographer?

I could sound cliché and say; “Don’t”, or “keep your day job”. But in fact it is the opposite: “go for it” was much better advice. When I went full time into photography I went down in income by, oh, 85%. But I went up in life enjoyment by about 500%. And although I now work 7 days a week (I shoot, and then evenings and weekends I teach, both at Henry’s and at my own outfit, www.cameratraining.ca, where I train pros), at least I can sleep in every day – I get up at 8-8:30 am. When we say things like “don’t”, we need to keep all aspects of the decision in mind. Not just money.

And finally, this one because it was another oakville Beaver front page, but also because I was in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time, in spite of the fact that I was washing my car when I heard the call, and hesitated before deciding to go; and when I got there I was the only press, and Oakville police kindly let me shoot. And finally, a favourite becasue it again shows a nice juxtaposition, that between a teen and a fully armed tac team. Photo by Michael Willems.

The Photographer’s Q&A focuses on Canadian photographers and visual journalists.

This week’s Q&A is with Rod Frketich, photo editor at The Waterloo Region Record.

Is there a Canadian photographer you want to know more about, or want to make a submission? E-mail gregyapp@gmail.com

What were your first steps in the industry?

I graduated from Loyalist College in 1991. It was a difficult time to be looking for a job.  I took the first job that came along. Finished school Friday and began work Monday at Barry’s Bay This Week. Barry’s Bay was the beginning of an Ontario tour of progressively bigger papers. Pembroke Daily News, Timmins Daily Press, Orillia Packet and Times. All these papers were my first steps in the industry.

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