Le grand voyage

I take little brake from packing our stuff to write this. Cindy and I are leaving early tomorrow for her remote hometown of Lebel-Sur-Quevillon. A good 11-13 hours of driving awaits us.

My step family was supposed to come during the holidays, but Cindy’s mother health condition just deteriorate so we’ll do the trip this year.

I am of course bringing most of my gears with two ideas in mind. Lebel-Sur-Quevillon main (and mostly unique) employer, the pulp and pulp mill and sawmill, just officially closed after 3 years of lock out. To give you an idea of how bad the situation is up there, a 12 apartments building recently sold for 20000$. No, I did not forget to put a 0 there.

Secondly, Cindy’s father Leon is a hunter and used to be a fur trapper. We’ll go into the northern wilderness in snowmobile, and I should be able to get some good landscape photography and, if I get lucky, some wildlife too.

I don’t know if Internet will works up there with my phone, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to update before we come back.

Je prends une petite pause de nos préparatif de départ. Cindy et moi quittons tôt demain matin pour sa petite ville natale de Lebel-Sur-Quevillon. Un bon 11-13 heures de route nous attend.

Ma belle-famille était supposé venir à Québec durant le temps des fêtes, mais la santé de la mère de Cindy s’est récemment détérioré alors c’est nous qui ferons le grand voyage cette année.

J’apporte évidemment la majorité de mon équipement photo avec 2 idées en tête. Le principal et presqu’unique employeur de la ville, l’usine de pâte et papier, viens tout juste d’officiellement fermer ses portes après 3 ans de lock out. Pour vous donner une idée de l’ampleur du désastre, un immeuble de 20 logements s’est récemment vendu 20000$. Non, je n’ai pas oublié de 0.

Deuxièmement, Léon, le père de Cindy, est un chasseur et un ancien trappeur. Nous irons dans la nature du grand nord en motoneige alors que je devrais pouvoir rapporter quelques images de la nature et, si je suis chanceux, quelques photos de la vie sauvage.

Je ne sais pas si mon téléphone me permettra de me connecter à Internet là-haut, alors il se pourrait que je ne puisse faire de mise à jour d’ici à notre retour.

Back from Montreal

Back from a 3 days of shooting stock in Montreal. I shot about 350 frames in two days (Edward couldn’t sleep the second night, so I was way too tired to go shoot on Sunday) and just finished a selection of about 85 photos that will be submitted to various photo banks. A lot of post-processing in the next few days! I stumbled into a couple of feature photos while walking the street, so I’ll post some of that here eventually (already did with this one).

As planned and explained in my previous French post, I sat with 5 young photographers who would like to break into this business. 4 of them are still student at the CEGEP du Vieux-Montreal college. There was a lot of talent there! It went pretty well. I mainly reviewed their portfolio and answered general questions about the business. Apparently, Carl-Antoine Mainville Larocque was happy with the time he spent with me, even posting a picture of me suggesting a tighter crop to a photo with the help of some napkin paper.

That would be me with the camera. Being the host photographer gives you great access!

The media where stuck farther away. RCMP and security guy where everywhere. At one point, I felt a vigorous hand on the back of my shoulder, then I heard a guy who was in charge of helping me doing me my job screaming « HOST PHOTOGRAPHER! HOST PHOTOGRAPHER! ». Then the hand went away. I was probably a second away of being thrown to the ground…

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(Photo by Clément Allard)

Update: Oups! PM’s official photographer got me in his frame too

Busy week

Sunday, Cindy and I are leaving for Trois-Rivières. Two families there are waiting for her to take portraits of the kids, and I will be assisting.

Tuesday, I have a job for the National Post. Saturday and Sunday is the Sommet de la Francophonie, were I am one of the host photographer for the event. From Wednesday to Friday, I will be at the airport to photographs all the delegations as they arrive, and then I will spend the weekend shooting the actual summit.


Copyright © 2023 Francis Vachon.