The passing of a great sports writer

On Monday April 16th A good friend of mine passed away, not only was he a friend of mine, he was a great friend to amateur sports in Canada.  Toronto Star writer Randy Starkman was just 51 years old, too young for anyone to leave us.  From the first time I met Randy back in the late 1980's while covering the Olympics, to the last time we chatted, just a few weeks ago while covering the Swimming Canada Olympic trials in Montreal.  We had some laughs, shared some sensitive moments talking about the passing of my mother only two days before, as always he lent me his ear and offered me some comfort during a very difficult time for me.

Randy Starkman, will be missed by so many, and I will always miss his friendship.

Football archive

I am really happy to know that the Canadian Football League Players Alumni has endorsed the photo archive.  It should mean that more of the photos will find their way into the lives of those that inspired me to shoot the pictures and put this site together.

The blame game

I used to blame all the amateurs that bought cameras and started to play at being "professional photographers"  It's not people that are to blame for the changes to professional photography, it's the technology that has made it easier for them.

For all that is positive about digital photography there is an equal negative side.

The football player

I had the pleasure of sharing e-mails with a former Ottawa Rough Rider player, who in the 1980's played four seasons, he is living abroad these days and dealing with issues related to the abuse his body and mind took during his playing days.  He had gone through the photos and found several of himself and former team mates, what he told me after that  made all the energy I have put into this archive worth the the time spent.  He was using the photos to piece back together his playing days, as a result of repeated concussions much of what he had lived through was gone.

An opening statement

For all that is good about digital photography a world of what is wrong sneaks below the surface a world of mediocre images created by camera's that do all the work. The learning curve of photography has been reduced to a 300 page manual.  Jump to the "Auto" button and away they go. The days of learning "how to take pictures, how to read light, how to compose" have slowly eroded into point and shoot world, where computers and software fix the mistakes, or create the images. The professional world of photography is slowly drifting away.