May 22, 2013

EXPOSURE: The Skinner

Jim McDonald learned how to trap and skin animals as a boy. He will be 82 years old this fall. He lives in Belmont, Manitoba with his wife and has run a business skinning animals for trappers and hunters from the area since 1980. Each year Jim is kept busy throughout the various trapping seasons skinning coyotes, foxes, beavers, racoons, fishers and other mammals. Trappers bring him their catch and he gets to work on them in his small shop adjacent to his home. The furs go on to auctions in Toronto and New York and are sold to buyers from countries around the world such as Russia, Japan, Korea, and Italy for use in clothing. It's a trade that Jim thinks will eventually peter out but for now it keeps him busy. He has only raised his prices twice on over thirty years. He'll skin a raccoon for you for $12 and a coyote for $15. In early April I spent a morning with Jim as he skinned racoons. Coyote skins lined his workshop drying and waiting to be picked up by customers. Ink filled every square inch of the record books stacked haphazardly on a desk in the shop and a wood stove kept the shop warm as Jim worked with steady hands.

May 22, 2013

EXPOSURE: Wheat City Rumble

For the first time in over five years Premier Championship Wrestling brought it's show to Brandon for an evening of smackdowns at Houston's Country Roadhouse in April, 2013. Highlights of the event dubbed the Wheat City Rumble included Brandon wrestler Chad Tatum and World Wrestling Entertainment legend the Honky Tonk Man. Wrestling fans traded banter, jokes and insults with the wrestlers, adding to the high energy of the event as the wrestlers performed stunt-laden routines that varied from hilarious to painful.

May 14, 2013

Ice damage at Ochre beach

22 homes were damaged and 12 of them destroyed after a wall of ice climbed the shore at Dauphin Lake and swallowed lakeside homes. No injuries were reported.

March 28, 2013

EXPOSURE: Tatyanna's Hope - Part Three

The past few months have been marked by new milestones for the Zazalak family. Some good. Some bad. On the good side, Tatyanna celebrated her 10th birthday on Feb. 28 surrounded by friends and family. On the bad side she had to be intubated for the first time and spent almost all of January hospitalized in Winnipeg. After a brief hospital stay for pneumonia in October 2012, Tatyanna went on a good run where her health improved to the best it’s been in a year and she stayed healthy right through Christmas. On Dec. 28 the Zazalaks decided to go shopping in the evening since Tatyanna was doing so well. While at the mall things started to go south. Tatyanna’s parents could tell something was off so they packed up the van to leave. Within minutes of getting into the van Tatyanna was in the middle of a status epilepticus seizure — a consistent seizure lasting more than five minutes — and wasn’t breathing. Her parents rushed her to the Brandon Regional Hospital and when doctors there couldn’t get the seizure under control she was intubated and transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg via Lifeflight air ambulance. After a couple days at the Children’s Hospital she was transported back to Brandon on Jan. 31 to spend New Years Eve at the Brandon hospital and was released on Jan. 1. She was home for six days. On Jan. 6 Tatyanna again suffered a status seizure and was again intubated and transported back to Winnipeg via Lifeflight. This time both she and Janelle stayed in hospital in Winnipeg for more than three weeks until Jan. 31. During her stay, doctors worked initially to control her seizures and then her myoclonis, which refers to the random twitching of muscles that occurs in some brain disorders. Tatyanna’s medications were aggressively increased during her stay as doctors worked via trial and error to find the right combination of drugs to best treat her. During the 26 days Tatyanna spent in hospital, Janelle didn’t leave the hospital once. She barely left Tatyanna’s side except to occasionally rush down to the cafeteria for a coffee. Trent made several trips to Winnipeg to visit his daughter and to bring Janelle fresh clothes, food and other items. Tatyanna’s siblings weren’t allowed to visit her in hospital due to visitor restrictions. Janelle’s sister, who lives in Winnipeg would drop off supper for Janelle in the evenings. On Jan. 31, Tatyanna was transported back to Brandon hospital and she was again released a day later. Since her latest release from hospital Tatyanna has had good days and bad but nothing requiring hospitalization save for one night for observation in Brandon. “We have the resources to manage her better at home now,” says Janelle, referring to oxygen and a higher medication regiment. But what they don’t have at home now is outside help. In the fall Trent and Janelle began the paperwork to change Tatyanna’s designation from URIS B to URIS A at the request of the Brandon School Division. The change means that Tatyanna would be supported at school by a trained medical professional rather than an educational assistant. What should have been a simple and relatively quick change has been stuck in months of bureaucratic limbo, which has meant Tatyanna has been without the support to be able to attend school during her good spells and her family is without support at home as well, while everything is worked out. Because of this Trent and Janelle can’t take a break to go to a movie or out to dinner or even to do things like shop for groceries together. Aside from the trips to the hospital Janelle has left her home only once since Dec. 28 for a meeting with the Brandon School Division and a hair cut. But somehow Trent and Janelle still manage smiles and jokes as they deal with the new realities of the disease that is slowly taking their daughter from them. And on Feb. 28 family and friends got together at the Zazalaks’ home to celebrate a very important occasion — Tatyanna’s 10th birthday, something her parents were unsure she would see during her hospitalization in January. But Tatyanna continues to rally and continues to surprise so her family continues to fight for her and enjoy all the small things.

January 5, 2013

Reserved at all times

Street photography is a pretty general term, but essentially it’s about going out in public and making pictures from the unfolding stream of people and events. That’s not so different than what the journalists here at the Sun do each day in Brandon. But there are some moments that don’t fit into a specific story, or can only be appreciated in a wider context. That’s where these photographs come in. For the past few years, I’ve carried a small, quiet rangefinder camera with me - loaded with black and white film - to capture some of these moments before they’re forgotten in the rush of events. I hope they can give another view of our community. You can see more photographs from this work printed in the first edition of “Exposure” in the Sun’s Weekend magazine each month. Or, you can see more photographs, going back three years, on the web: www.reservedatalltimes.com

January 3, 2013

Bruce Bumstead's Photos of the Year

The year is coming to an end which brings us to a point to reflect on the past twelve months and the images that were made. Having been with the Sun for more than a decade and a half, I can count myself lucky to to be in the company of great colleagues who have been supportive, both personally and professionally. An idea was passed around this year to offer a few words about the images that ranked top in our picks for the “Best of 2012”, and to share that with you, our readers. Because photography is so subjective, what one person likes will differ greatly from the next. So I thought I would share some methods behind what I look for in an image. Advice that I received, as a much younger photographer, boils down good images to three main areas — good angle, good light and good content. If you can incorporate any of these into your images, you have the making of a good picture. Combine all three and now it becomes a great image. This was the advice given to me by Peter Bregg, then chief photographer for Maclean’s Magazine and student advisor at Loyalist College’s photojournalism program. I often repeat this advice went asked “what makes a picture good?” Anyway, I digress. My selections this year have been chosen from different categories. People, patterns, colour, and, because I enjoy nature and the outdoors, for the birds. Within these themes, I have chosen images that try to incorporate the three key ingredients that help create images with impact. From up close and personal to something a little slower, different techniques and timing can create new effects that enhance the content of an image, like the case of the Musical Ride. In most cases, it means being in the right place at the right time to capture an eclipsed sun silhouetting a bird sitting on an old threshing machine. I hope that you enjoy taking a second look at my images that have appeared on the Brandon Sun and I leave you with a personal image, taken at Kakabeka Falls outside of Thunder Bay. I first visited this natural wonder when I was just a young boy, stopping for a night on my visit trip to Manitoba from southern Ontario. Summer holidays seem so hectic and too many times I would take the Highway 102 by-pass missing Kakabeka Falls. While traveling back west with my sister, who was planning a reunion with a dear friend in Kenora, she convinced me to stop at the old childhood memory. Need I say more? Maybe not my best, but certainly my favourite image created in 2012.

January 3, 2013

Colin Corneau's Photos of the Year

The end of the year is always a good opportunity to not only look forward, but back too. Few things help me realize what a year actually is than remembering photos I took three, or six, or 12 months ago. It can seem both a long, long time and over in a flash all at the same time. All of my colleagues here at the Sun are using this opportunity to showcase images that caught our eye or heart, and give a chance to pictures that might not have had one to be printed yet. That’s exactly what I hope to use my chance for. These images stayed with me throughout 2012, and said something about what I thought was important or worth taking a few moments for. I hope they can say the same things to you and what’s important in the community we share.

December 1, 2012

EXPOSURE: Seasons in Solitude

Clare Haralson has lived alone on a farm south of Erickson for 26 years. Brandon Sun Photographer Tim Smith has spent the past six month's documenting his daily life.

November 26, 2012

North of the 55th parallel

November 2, 2012

The Dakota Ride

October 19, 2012

A tale of two cabins

On the path of Grey Owl A step into past, a journey worth taking.

October 13, 2012

EXPOSURE: Tatyanna's Hope - Part 1

Tatyanna Zazalak is nine-years-old and is living with Batten disease, a fatal autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder. But if there is one thing that her parents Trent and Janelle have sought to give her above all else, it is a sense of normalcy. This is part one of their story. ***Part one also ran in the Oct. 13, 2012 print edition of the Brandon Sun***

October 5, 2012

All's Fair

Each summer, home-grown festivals sprout up all across rural Manitoba. From seeds planted decades — even more than a century — ago, these events are nourished by the people who volunteer their time and effort. By looking carefully, you can learn a little about each town and what matters to the people who call it home.

May 7, 2012

Brandon Wheat Kings Final Playoff Home Games of 2012

The Brandon Wheat Kings returned home to Brandon for games three and four in their playoff series against the Edmonton Oil Kings. They were no match for the season-leading Oil Kings who won both games to sweep the series 4-0.

May 7, 2012

2011 Flood Fight in Brandon

Images from the front lines of the 2011 flood fight in Brandon, Manitoba.

May 7, 2012

A weekend of flooding

Brandon Sun publisher Ewan Pow took in some of the flood fight over the weekend.

May 7, 2012

Flooding from the air

Brandon Sun photographer Bruce Bumstead took to the air on Thursday, April 21, to document the extent of the flooding, as Westman braces for their rivers' crests.

May 7, 2012

IN PICTURES: The Flood of 1995

The flood of 1995 was worse than 1979, but didn't come up to the levels of 1976. As well, reinforced dikes in Brandon helped mitigate the damages. However, sandbags were needed to keep the river at bay, and people in some other communities were forced to evacuate.

May 7, 2012

IN PICTURES: The Flood of 2011

Dikes were built up by two full feet in preparation for this flood, which was feared could be three feet higher than the record-setting 1976 flood.

May 7, 2012

IN PICTURES: The Flood of 1922

Few photos exist of the Assiniboine River flood of 1922, but those that do show a familiar sight: water, lots of water. The flood spills up over the river's banks, spreading down streets and surrounding homes. If you've got more historical photos from this flood, we'd love to see them. Email website@brandonsun.com. Flickr user RodKenny has posted three pictures of Brandon flooding from his father's collection, dated 1921: click here, here and here.

May 7, 2012

IN PICTURES: The Flood of 1954

Historical data for the flood of 1954 are difficult to come by, but these pictures tell a story of high water levels extending along ditches and roadways. Have more? We'd love to see them. Email website@brandonsun.com.

May 7, 2012

IN PICTURES: The Flood of 1976

In 1976, the Assiniboine River in Brandon rose to its highest-ever recorded level -- reaching a measurement of 1,179.5 feet. In mid-April of that year, the river reached a peak flow rate of more than 600 cubic metres of water every second. Here are some photos from that year, with original captions, where possible..