Working the IAAF World Juniors for the newspaper has me SUPER busy, running around and getting things organized for the paper until really late at night. I’m typing this currently at 11:30pm, on my laptop, at a desk that doesn’t belong to me, while I wait for my photos from the evening to load to the paper’s FTP server.

All right, so I’m supposed to be an East Coast blogger, so lets hit that topic for a little while.

When I first moved out east in April, the first thing I noticed was the change in attitude of people. People are a lot friendlier than I’m used to. Lots more random greetings on the street, and random people are willing to help you if you need anything. Like I said in yesterdays post, not a lot of news happens here. By that, I mean, spot news. Fires, murders, and all those picture rich events, don’t seem to happen here.

July 19- Here is a photo today at the track during the Opening Ceremonies. I’m the one standing up shooting with a wide, while Chris Pike is sitting on his cell phone. (Photo by Viktor Pivovarov/Moncton Times & Transcript)

Moe Doiron (who is originally from Moncton) once told me, “There are two types of people in New Brunswick. Those who work for Irving, and those who don’t know they work for Irving.” I had no idea how true this statement was until I got out here. Irving is a family that basically runs New Brunswick. The family owns most any industry you can think of, including Brunswick News, the company that owns my paper and as well the two other dailies, and countless other weekly’s. They are a smart business family that constantly creates jobs and keeps New Brunswick employed. I find that somewhat incredible, coming from Ontario, where anything and everything has an equal competitor, or two.

Lets jump around a little here.. Important life lessons…

In my opinion, whom you surround yourself with is very important. At Loyalist, I surrounded myself with a great group of friends. We pushed each other, always working to one-up one another. Finding different angles, unique ways of approaching the same subject was my way of trying to one up the competition. I adopted that same way of thinking in my everyday shooting. Whenever I approach a subject, I try and find interesting and unique angles to shoot it from. I’m also somewhat of a hypocrite, because I’m a huge fan of symmetry at the same time. Sometimes, the simplest angle, a dead on straight angle with symmetry is the most interesting way to approach a shoot, for me.

I learned the most in school being around that group of friends. We pushed each other the way no teacher ever could. Frank O’Connor (as great of a man and teacher as he is) would never tell you, “That picture F%^*&@$ sucks…what are you thinking”. That’s an abrupt statement. You can take that in and say, wow, I really did something wrong here, what do I need to change to make it a proper photo. Or, you could take that and accept the fact that your picture sucks, and do nothing to change that. Hearing tough critique from my friends helped me improve my work immensely. That, and the fact that the 60-80 people I was going to school with, wanted the exact same jobs as I did, left me with only two options. Kill, or be killed. I worked really hard alongside some of my peers that last year at Loyalist College. Worked to be the best. That was the only thing on my mind. If I was sitting on my ass doing nothing, I wasn’t advancing my career, and I would almost literally slap myself, and go outside and make a photo.

A police officer stands watch on a pedway, leading from U de M CEPS building, to the Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium. Today, Monday July 19, the Stadium officially opened opened its doors to the IAAF World Juniors Track and Field. (Cole Burston/Moncton Times & Transcript)

I won the 2010 NPAC Student Photojournalist of the Year award. I was told it had something to do with a wide array of creativity throughout my portfolio. I owe that award to some of my peers at Loyalist College, and those who I sought guidance from. I never did get to thank anyone for that in person. I was on assignment, shooting a benefit evening at a local pub when I got the call. I could barely make out the words from beyond all the noise from a band, but a voice said I won something. That was super cool. The newspaper wrote a little article on it and everything. Being recognized for photography in front of Moncton’s eyes was for sure a cool experience.

March 10 2010– Dr. John ter Haar, 64, has been practicing dentistry since 1973, shortly after graduating from University of Western Ontario. (Photo By Cole Burston)

I hope I made some of this day’s blog interesting. Its now 3 am, I took some breaks in between to cool down after a long day and hung out with Chris Pike, and staffer at the Times & Transcript, Viktor Pivovarov. Pike is down for the week to shoot some track and field as well. I was really happy to see a familiar face after being out here since April. It has been months since the last of the recognizable fellow Loyalisters’ faces in the Maritimes had drifted back to their rightful place, Ontario.

Anyways, I better get to sleep. The couch awaits.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

- Cole.

PS. feel free to check out coleburston.blogspot.com

Dancers of ‘Tango’ are silhouetted as they perform at the XX Arts Centre as part of the “Take it from the top”, DancEast Student Talent Showcase.