Three photos from the past week at work, two more days left!

Men’s Eight Rowing competitors (From left) Dominic Seiterle, Brian Price, Adam Kreek, and Malcolm Howard show off their gold medals to photographers after they arrived at Vancouver International Airport Monday afternoon.

Family members of Harnake “Nick” Olak embrace after hearing news that his body was found downriver of where the teen went missing last week.

Jasmine Bharucha is performing in the upcoming Music For Life at the Bell Centre for Performing Arts http://www.musicforlifevancouver.com/
Her personal site is http://www.jasminebharucha.com/

I went out with the coast guard auxiliary the other day and had a blast, here’s  a shot of a sailboat under stormy skies and one of me goofing around.

I realized recently I haven’t posted any of my photography from my work as a Staff Photographer at the Richmond News for quite some time. I guess the timing of my decision to take off to Rwanda wasn’t too random at all, as my focus in photography has drifted to some of my outside personal and freelance work. Anyways, here is a very simple portrait I made today of artist Jason Froese. His work is based on historical photographic images of prospectors and colonialists from Western Canada, and is some of the cooler art I have seen on the job.

Another shot from a project I am working on at the Richmond News, which will hopefully run in the coming weeks. Rick Hansen is a hero and inspiration to many, and is a Canadian icon. In this brief interview he explains his history and some of the work that the Rick Hansen Foundation is doing.

Kelsha Wong, (centre) waits to perform with her group, the Fairytale Princesses, at the dress rehearsal of the The Enchanted Forest at the Richmond Arts Centre Thursday afternoon. The dance recital, featuring almost 500 dancers ages 3 to 17, happened May 17th and 18th at the Richmond Arts Centre.

Dynamo Fencing’s Igor Gantsevich just returned from representing Canada at World Cup events in Montreal and Puerto Rico.

Gabriela Merner, with son Ethan, 4, sit in their Steveston home Tuesday afternoon. Gabriela’s husband Lyle recently passed away from ALS at the age of 39, and shehas gone on to become a board member of the ALS Society of BC.

Millie the 10-year-old cocker spaniel works the front desk Thursday at the Richmond Animal Protection Society as Assistant Manager Sonya Kamp answers phones. RAPS has found themselves in dire need of funding after their successful bid for the city’s contract last year when they under-cut the SPCA’s bid by almost half.

A couple of photographs today, one from an assignment in Vancouver about a young girl who raises funds by collecting pop cans so that she can pay to mark the graves of War Veterans in Vancouver. Without her work, the graves are simply marked by a small ceramic disc which has a number on it. Also, another shot of a few local Richmond guys who really enjoy smoking cigars and were a tad bit worried by city council’s efforts to ban smoking from establishments.

Amanda Neil looks down at the grave of George Staples Sapper in the Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. His is one of the Veterans’ graves she has marked by raising money by collecting pop cans and raising money in the community. Neil was affected by the passing of “Smokey” Smith in 2005 and set out do something.

Cigar aficionados Jack Menard, (foreground) and Robert Angus, (centre) smoke cigars outside of Robusto at #160-13020 No. 2 Road in Richmond. The premium cigar store and cafe is hoping for an exemption to Richmond’s anti-smoking bylaws.

I won CCNA photo of the month for May for the photo I took that ran on the front page of the Richmond News on April 1. The CCNA’s website is www.ccna.ca

And a cropped in version of the page:

It was another amazing year for the conference, and the comments so far have been overwhelmingly positive, which makes me feel good about all the time put in on the phone and emailing trying to bring in a good set of speakers. I was running around too much to take too many photos, but here are a few I found from the weekend:

Click on the photo below to bring up the entire set of photos:

This was a difficult assignment. I went to photograph the grieving parents of a man the same age as me who was stabbed to death the night before. My only hope in photographing in these situations is to do justice to the memory of the person whose life was tragically taken away. It’s a sad, sad, story and could only give my condolences to the family for their loss. -Brett.

Click the photo to see the slideshow:

Parents Harlyn and Cezar Dalde hold a photo of their son Charle, who was murdered Monday night not far from the family’s home in central Richmond.

Here is an article with a few of my photos going into the Richmond News tomorrow about my 3rd place finish in the Western Monthly Clip Contest. http://www.npac.ca