NPAC Member's Blog - Day 1

This is the first installment of my blog during the week of Oct. 1st to 6th, 2009 for the News Photographers Association of Canada (NPAC)

My daily posts from a typical work day will be posted on that site, and I'll mirror them here.

Photographer's Blog – Day 1 – Peter Power

Blogging for me is not foreign, but when I have blogged in the past it has only been on an occasional basis, and generally only when I’ve felt strongly that I have something significant to share. I don’t have a Facebook account and I don’t Twitter. My on-line presence is very minimal and I’m sure the number of hits my personal blog gets is pretty minimal. Frankly I’d rather not know how small the number is and remain blissfully ignorant.


In my home I have two strange people – teenagers who have somehow snatched away my two lovely children, and replaced them with opinionated, pimply-faced, adult “wanna-bees” who have little interest in what I have to say. I love them dearly, but this phase in their lives is certainly a challenging one for all of us. Balancing work hours, photography, driving schedules and other responsibilities as a husband and a father keep me busy, so I cherish the quiet times at home, when the only one with any demands on me is the cat.

Easton is curious to know what I'm up to following a beautiful autumn rainfall in Hamilton.



I really have no idea what the coming days will bring in terms of photography, work, and more specifically, this blog. Perhaps events will unfold that will keep us all interested. You have a choice in the matter. You can read on, or not, but I must take whatever comes my way this week, or whatever I can discover for myself. At every newspaper this is always the case. The week will undoubtedly include good and bad assignments, some challenging, some mundane, but no matter which I will do what I can to make each shoot successful. These are some of the reasons I enjoy working for a newspaper – most days are different, and most are unpredictable.

The key word in the previous sentence is “most.” As anyone who has worked for a newspaper for any length of time knows, every once in a while you end up being challenged with an assignment you’ve done before….or at least one that is very similar.

As is always the case, I’m never too far from the Blackberry – that ingenious curse of the 21st century that blurs the boundaries between work and play. The email exchange this weekend was with a Globe photo editor asking me if I can do an assignment in St. Catharines. I love The Globe and Mail for this incredibly civilized approach to assignments. They actually ask if you can do something for them? We’re not naive at The Globe, and we understand that a request is as good as an order, but the simple, polite level of consideration shown with a request first goes a long way toward harmonious relations.

Anyway, the assignment I happily accepted set of alarm bells in my head so I went to my photo archive to see why? It turns out that in 2007, while still working for The Star, I had an assignment in the same place; room even, for a very similar story, but mercifully, a different subject. Thank goodness for small mercies.

Now two things become an issue. I know that the room isn’t great, but it is key to the story, so likely I’ll end up shooting there again. I also know what I did last time, and I hate repeating myself, so I’ll be challenged to come up with something different. The trick will be to put these thoughts aside, and approach the situation with an open mind.

If I’m not divulging any editorial or corporate secrets I’ll try to share the results with you later in the week.

-30-