This past week the Acadie river flooded due to an ice jam. I think I can safely say that for all of the people who were affected by the flooding, this wasn't the highlight of their week. However, for me it brought back memories of another flood that I got to cover two years ago. I had the chance to be the 'unofficial' photographer for a small regional newspaper that covered the Chambly/St. Bruno/St. Basille area, l'Action Regionale. I got the job the old fashioned way, I earned it. Actually, my girlfriend was the editor-in-chief...don't look at me like that. One of the stories that I shot during this time was the flooding of the Acadie & Richelieu rivers in March 2011. We were able to get past police roadblocks and go deep into the affected areas. I wasn't feeling very comfortable taking pictures of people bailing water out of their flooded homes, so we chose to go with shots of the flooded roads. In retrospect, I should have taken the shots of people bailing the water, but without a press credential hanging around my neck I thought the locals wouldn't appreciate my presence. I felt that had the roles been reversed, I sure wouldn't have. I guess I need to work on my personal morality. The first shot was taken on Rte 223. in Carignan, Qc. With permission, we drove past a police roadblock and continued down the road until there was no road left at all. This shot was taken at f/2.8, 1/6400 sec. ISO 400 at 24mm. The second shot that appeared in the newspaper was also taken on Rte 223, but at a different point where the flooding wasn't heavy enough to force the road to be closed. After observing a couple of cars going through the waters at a rather high speed and causing some impressive splashes, I figured this would be a good spot to take another picture for the newspaper.
However, the minute I got out of my car and position myself to take the shot, the cars began to slow down and the splashes were no longer as impressive.
My theory, the motorist might have thought that I was a police officer as I guess that from a distance a cop holding a radar gun doesn't look much different than I do while holding a camera in my hands. This shot was taken at f/10, 1/500 sec ISO 100 at 24mm. However, of the two pictures I took that made it to print, neither one of them is my favourite. That particular honour goes to the final photo you'll see in this blog post. It's of a mobile home that happened to be parked in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is another shot that I took while driving along Rte 223. It was shot at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO100 at 54mm. This shot didn't end up making it into the newspaper, but it became a personal highlight to me when a very similar shot appeared in La Presse the day after I took this one. It wasn't the same mobile home, but seeing the photo in La Presse gave me a sense of personal satisfaction. It made me feel that while I wasn't able to find the courage to shoot the people who were suffering through a rather painful moment in their lives, I did atleast have the eye to shoot the kind of photos that would appear in a large well known publication. I've also included some pages of the newspaper from that week because I
am not against trying to draw a little attention to myself.
This past week the Acadie river flooded due to an ice jam. I think I can safely say that for all of the people who were affected by the flooding, this wasn't the highlight of their week. However, for me it brought back memories of another flood that I got to cover two years ago. I had the chance to be the 'unofficial' photographer for a small regional newspaper that covered the Chambly/St. Bruno/St. Basille area, l'Action Regionale. I got the job the old fashioned way, I earned it. Actually, my girlfriend was the editor-in-chief...don't look at me like that. One of the stories that I shot during this time was the flooding of the Acadie & Richelieu rivers in March 2011. We were able to get past police roadblocks and go deep into the affected areas. I wasn't feeling very comfortable taking pictures of people bailing water out of their flooded homes, so we chose to go with shots of the flooded roads. In retrospect, I should have taken the shots of people bailing the water, but without a press credential hanging around my neck I thought the locals wouldn't appreciate my presence. I felt that had the roles been reversed, I sure wouldn't have. I guess I need to work on my personal morality. The first shot was taken on Rte 223. in Carignan, Qc. With permission, we drove past a police roadblock and continued down the road until there was no road left at all. This shot was taken at f/2.8, 1/6400 sec. ISO 400 at 24mm. The second shot that appeared in the newspaper was also taken on Rte 223, but at a different point where the flooding wasn't heavy enough to force the road to be closed. After observing a couple of cars going through the waters at a rather high speed and causing some impressive splashes, I figured this would be a good spot to take another picture for the newspaper. 
However, the minute I got out of my car and position myself to take the shot, the cars began to slow down and the splashes were no longer as impressive.My theory, the motorist might have thought that I was a police officer as I guess that from a distance a cop holding a radar gun doesn't look much different than I do while holding a camera in my hands. This shot was taken at f/10, 1/500 sec ISO 100 at 24mm. However, of the two pictures I took that made it to print, neither one of them is my favourite. That particular honour goes to the final photo you'll see in this blog post. It's of a mobile home that happened to be parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
This is another shot that I took while driving along Rte 223. It was shot at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO100 at 54mm. This shot didn't end up making it into the newspaper, but it became a personal highlight to me when a very similar shot appeared in La Presse the day after I took this one. It wasn't the same mobile home, but seeing the photo in La Presse gave me a sense of personal satisfaction. It made me feel that while I wasn't able to find the courage to shoot the people who were suffering through a rather painful moment in their lives, I did atleast have the eye to shoot the kind of photos that would appear in a large well known publication. I've also included some pages of the newspaper from that week because I
am not against trying to draw a little attention to myself.
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