Reminiscing (Part Three)

US actor Ben Affleck poses with some members of the African Children’s Choir at a charity event in Toronto, September 2007. Many arriving guests posed with the children but only Affleck knelt down and group-hugged the kids which made for a wonderful photo.

Many foreign figure skaters train in Canada because Canadian figure skating coaches are held in very high regard. This is 2015 World Champion Spanish figure skater Javier Fernandez practicing in Toronto for the then-upcoming 2016 World Championships which he later won.

You can’t tell from this photo but there were several other world-class skaters practicing on-ice at the same time. The usual rule is that you can’t photograph any skater other than the one you prearranged to photograph. It took a lot of time and a lot of photos to get Fernandez on his own.

I also had a studio set up in the building to do portraits of Fernandez and a few other Spanish skaters.

Recognize this hockey star? Hint: he wears sweater #99.

Nope, it’s not Wayne Gretzky. It’s Bernie, one of three chimpanzees who played “Jack” in the hockey movie, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, produced in Vancouver. Bernie also starred in MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate, also made in Vancouver.

In the top photo, animal trainer Greg Lille skates with Bernie as they pass the puck between themselves, July 2000. The chimpanzee really did skate, puck handle and shoot the puck. Not as well as Gretzky, though.

For some unknown reason, the Toronto Blue Jays had a bring-your-dog-to-the-game day in June 2008. A special section was set aside for dogs and their owners. The dogs were quiet and well-behaved but they never managed to do “the wave” properly.

When I used to photograph the entire Raptors home season, my usual on-court floor position happened to be right in front of the celebrity seats. A variety of actors, musicians, pro athletes and dignitaries often sat in these seats. Above, actress Jessica Alba (L) in 2007 and actor Samuel Jackson in 2011 watch a Raptors game.

Most celebrities were very nice. Except one: an actor who is/was a co-star in all the Mission Impossible movies. This actor didn’t want anyone sitting on the floor in front of him and complained loudly. He threatened to pour his coffee on the photographers. Building security was called and they told him that the photographers were in the proper place. He continued to whine and falsely claimed that he paid a lot of money for his (free) seat. The game was about to start so arena staff had the photographers move away from him and squeeze tightly together off to one side.

US actor Samuel Jackson (L) watches a Raptors preseason game, in October 2006, overtop of Toronto Sun photographer Stan Behal who is sitting on-court in front of the celebrity seats.

The NBA eliminated many of the on-court photo positions after a 2015 incident in which LeBron James fell onto a TV cameraman.

If you’re not one of the up-to-eight on-court photographers then you get stuck high up in the arena. This is the view from that photo position which normally requires a 400mm lens. Yes it is far away and high up but the good points are: your laptop is right in front of you so you can shoot, edit and transmit immediately; a nice washroom is about 10m away; a refrigerator with drinks is about 8m away.

There is another photo position in the arena’s lower bowl but it can be occupied by other photographers who have a higher priority (e.g. an on-court photographer who loses their floor position to TV or to the NBA). There are a few other potential corner photo positions in this Toronto arena but we’re not allowed to use them.

In the previous century, there was Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Photographers could shoot from *anywhere* inside the arena except around the team benches. From any empty seat, from any aisle or doorway, and even from on top of the doorways. (Some entranceways into the arena bowl had a flat slab of concrete above it and photographers could sit on a slab and have a unobstructed, elevated position.)

Canadian country singer Terri Clark performs at Ontario Place in Toronto, May 1997. The stage at that time was at least six feet high. Photographers had to stand way back and off to one side to get a decent view of onstage activities.

At this concert, a large set of metal stairs was at the foot of the stage. I thought the stage crew had forgotten to remove it after they finished setting up the stage.

As the concert progressed, fans came to the foot of the stage, climbed the stairs and put stuffed animals on stage for Terri Clark. In between songs, she picked up the animals and thanked her fans. When the stairs weren’t being used by fans, photographers took turns climbing the stairs to get a higher and closer position to photograph Clark. Fuji Press 800 pushed a stop.

Opera tenor Andrea Bocelli performs in Toronto, April 2001, the final date of his North American tour. Bocelli plays a number of instruments but that night he only sang. His style is that he stands still and does not move or gesture (yes, he is blind so he can’t move around the stage).

So *strictly from a photographer’s point of view*, this show was a guy in a black tuxedo standing in front of a black background and not moving. A couple of photographers shot for barely a minute and left; they had a photo and were done. I stayed for the full allowed time hoping that something would happen to make a more interesting photo. The only thing that happened was a small change in background lighting which I think helped the photo.

For comparison, here’s Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo performing in Toronto, April 28, 2000. A guy in a black tuxedo in front of a black background. Empty black voids usually look bad in concert photos and all that black requires a lot of ink on a printed page.

During this 1995 Patti Smith concert, a brief splash of red light through the smoky haze added a bit of interest to the otherwise empty black void behind her. This was a 400mm f2.8 lens shot from a balcony at the back of a very crowded club. Fuji Press 800 pushed a stop.

Backstage at most award shows, there’s a photo area for award winners to pose with their trophies. Before the show starts, someone has to stand in front of the backdrop so that photographers can check their lighting, exposure and white balance. Photographers usually take turns standing in for light checks.

At the 2011 Juno Awards, a music company’s PR person volunteered to stand in for the light test. She took off her heels, yelled, “I’m only doing this once,” and lept across the backdrop.

In July 1997, I went to Buttonville Airport, north of Toronto, to photograph a young teen who had won a flight on the Goodyear blimp. I did a few photos of the boy standing in front of the blimp before his flight.

The Goodyear people then asked if I wanted to come along for a ride. A ride on the Goodyear blimp? The only answer is yes!

The flight might have lasted a hour or so and we landed back at the same airport. The Goodyear people then asked if I wanted to join them for lunch. I had some time so why not?

What I didn’t expect was that the lunch was at another airport across the city. We boarded a helicopter and flew across town to Downsview Airport. Lunch was served in one of the executive lounges. After lunch, they asked if I wanted to go for a ride on Goodyear’s corporate jet. Again, the only answer is yes!

We flew around Toronto (photo below), zipped over to Niagara Falls (photo above), headed up to Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe and eventually back to Downsview Airport. At this point, the party was over and people started to leave. But I was stuck because my car was north of the city at Buttonville Airport. No problem. They called a helicopter for me and I flew back to Buttonville.

When I got back to the office, the photo editor asked where I had been for the past eight hours. I told him about the Goodyear blimp, private helicopters and corporate jet flight over southern Ontario. And I had photos of everything!

The photo editor said he just wanted a quick headshot of the kid who won the contest.

Another photo from the corporate jet as we flew over Toronto. In the distance you can see the CN Tower and the downtown area of Toronto. Notice how few high-rise buildings there were in 1997. If you live in Toronto, you know that *several hundred* high-rise buildings have been constructed in the city since then.

This is just a little photo that I like. It was shot in February 2000 in Florida during baseball spring training. The camera was a $25,000, 2-megapixel Kodak DCS620. At the time, it was the top-of-the-line digital camera. Today your cellphone takes better pictures.