Re: [Leica] Ted, tell us about...

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>]

Andrew Amundsen asked:
Subject: [Leica] Ted, tell us about...


> ...your "Day in the Life of Canada" experiences. It must have been an
> extremely high complement in the world of photojournalism to be  chosen
> to participate in one of these series of books. I wish they'd give more
> space to some written stories of the phographers day out! Would you tell
> us about "your Day"?<<

Hi Andrew,
The photographers for Day in the Life of Canada gathered in Toronto, about
120 in all. About 40 Canadians, plus more Americans, plus a selection from
around the world.

What was interesting was the "big names" were just like the rest of us...
photographers on assignment to-gether covering the same subject namely,
Canada. We were briefed, picked-up film,. plane tickets and all the other
travel information. And off we went.

My original request was to shoot around Vancouver Island on the west coast
of Canada using a helicopter during the 24 hour period..  Unfortunately they
wanted me out of my home town territory and gave me a little town in Nova
Scotia, Pictou!

Pictou is like a grave yard at midnight.... like really full of activity!
;-(  So it was my beat for 24 hours and the first exposure I made was as the
second hand went to the beginning of the 24 hours of the shoot day.  A store
front window full of mannequins!

So now I was on the way of roaming for the next 24 hours looking for
pictures. Well until about 3 a.m I managed to find a cop and cruiser, a
coffee shop still open, a gas station attendant, a drunk sitting on the
curb. He wasn't a happy camper to start with and wasn't any better when I
put the camera up with a Noctilux to shoot.

He made a valiant attempt to get up and chase me but fell flat on his ass!
.... "thanks again for the neat picture!"  I thought..
And drove off in search of whatever else I could find. Man I'd have settled
for mice running across the street it was so quiet, not a human in sight.

Then I heard the "all night local radio DJ" talking about my assignment in
the region and I thought, "OK DJ at work 4 am!" and found him after banging
on the door to the radio station for about twenty minutes. Hell he wasn't a
happy camper either, but let me shoot some stuff of him at his mike and
desk.  Big deal!

Now think, Kodachrome!!! We were using it as the main film no matter where
we were. Or that's what some of us were lead to believe, however some guys
were using B&W also.

Finally it was getting light in the eastern sky as dawn approached and I
found a shot near a huge paper mill. There were Cormorant birds, dozens of
them resting on pilings between me, the mill with it's lights and the
warming sky. So I shot them in silhouette against  the background of mill
and sky.

When we returned to Toronto and the film was edited this picture was first
selection for the cover. :-) Hey cool on me I was all smiles and feeling
quite good. That was until someone came up with .... "people will think it's
like another NFB Canada book of birds, bees an landscapes!" OOPS! Off cover
and in the back on page 207. And only part of the frame. Oh well next time!
:-)

Finally the town started to come to life and I had a family to shoot at 6
a.m as they prepared for work and school. Nice family, very cooperative,
however non pictorial. Hey I tried everything in the book and nothing
worked.

Then I was off hunting again, found an old folks home and photographed an
old-timer 101 years old and finally got some interesting shots of wrinkled
hands and face with nice window light from the shadow side. Then a Highland
band practicing in a field near their school, looked good when I pulled some
white silk stocking mesh over the lens giving a kind of ghostly foggy look
to the pipers.

The local theatre was preparing their staging, more neat stuff in there, man
I was on a roll..;-)  Although beginning to fade as the afternoon wore on, I
drove  down to the fishing boat docks as the fishermen were returning with
their catch of lobster of the day. Lots more good stuff and the kodachrome
was smoking through the cameras..... 4 of them, M4's and R4's.

However as I drove back into town I was getting in bad sleep stage, dosed
and drove off the road... my good fortune was I happened to leave right into
a farmers hay field, took out some barbed wire fencing and kinda scratched
up the car some and dinged a fender on a post. Oh well what the hell, took
pictures of where I ended up and managed to get the car back on the road.
Then went to find the farmer, told him what happened and who I was and he
says,

"Hey yer the picture guy photographing Canada!"  And called his wife and
showed me to her. :-) That was strange being kind of shown as some kind of
oddity. Well? ;-)  He says, "No problem, don't worry 'bout the damn fence I
had to replace it along there anyway." Gave me some apples and off I went to
the lobster restaurant to photograph, you guessed a "Lobster dinner!"

I had asked about doing this earlier in the day and a 9 lb. lobster, the
biggest I've ever seen had been caught and that's what was photographed on a
platter being served to a kid. :-) Of course it was my "duty" to eat some of
it, so the kid and I cleaned it up with hot butter and warm buns. ;-) Best
part of the shoot! :-)

Then I wandered the town still hunting and finished the last shot as the
second hand went to the next day. Then went to bed and was up at 5 am. to
drive to Halifax and catch the plane back to Toronto.

I was happy with what I produced given the location I was assigned, but as
we all came together again in TO there were some little behind the scenes
rumbles. Hell it wouldn't be photographers if they weren't bitching! :-)

There were a few things that ticked off some of the Canadian shooters who
believed we were "shooting a clean 24 hours non-stop."  Which most of us did
without sleep and plugged right through it.

Some of the American..."big name, big dollar guys" had sent their assistant
to their designated cities a week in advance to scout for pictures, so when
"big name" arrived to shoot he just walked in shot and went his merry way,
some in a matter of a few hours. The Canadian's playing by the "rules as we
were told" walked in cold turkey to our locations and shot what we found,
good, bad or ugly, hey we're rule players! Actually, it's we're stupid!
However, on an overall basis we held our own.

Anyway it was a great and different experience, and even though we were all
photographers, the "big names" were kind of neat rubbing shoulders with and
chatting up guys you'd only read about. :-)

The final note is about the cover photo of the Canada book, the original
photo has all kinds of dandelions all over the place and it was nearly
dumped, but good old Photoshop of some kind cleaned it up to what you see
today. :-) So much for the honour of Photojournalism! ;-)

ted

Ted Grant Photography Limited
www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant


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