Sometimes, you have to kill your darlings.
Whether it’s a favourite quote, a line from a story or a photograph that held special meaning, the cutting room floor is filled with ‘darlings’ that for one reason or another never made it into the paper. Here are three photographs from 2014 that never made the cut, but find me looking back to time after time.
Shooting concerts is one of my favourites. Often limited to two or three songs in the photo pit before being ushered out, I knew I had at most fifteen minutes to get a good shot of Billy Talent perform for thousands of fans at Rock the Shores 2014.
I hadn’t actually followed the group much growing up so I didn’t know what to expect when they took to the stage and proceeded to bring a raucous group of music fans to their collective feet with their previous hits.
Despite the fact the band doesn’t quite have the same following they did maybe a decade ago, the performance was one to remember and I didn’t even need all three songs to snap one of my favourite concert photographs for 2014.
Later in the year, traversing the terrain of Vancouver Island with my camera as support crew for the 2014 Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock proved to be an experience almost as indelible as riding in 2013. However, on this day, one of my favourite Tour de Rock photographs was precipitated by unfortunate events that prove the more than 1,000-kilometre journey that raises money for childhood cancer victims is one fraught with uncertainty.
Racing past the pack of riders in my vehicle, I saw a small hill, steeped in fog and beautiful light on the way to Tofino. I hoped it would make a nice photograph. I pulled over a few kilometres in front of the pack, parked and ran back approximately a kilometre to a nice spot where I knew they would pass in a few short minutes.
Ten minutes passed and I was still waiting. With no Tour de Rock riders in sight after 20 minutes, I knew something was wrong, and that sentiment was quickly verified when an ambulance zoomed past me toward the riders.
I didn’t know then, as I patiently waited for this photograph, that the West Shore RCMP’s Steve Wright and Matt Pidgeon had been involved in an accident that ultimately cost Wright the ability to ride the rest of the tour.
The remaining riders eventually cleared the hill to continue their journey, short two of their number; this is the photograph as the somber team crested the hill.
Riding for the ALS Cycle of Hope alongside a group of 11 others proved to be another life-altering experience, made more so by a touching moment between Karen McGinn and Corinne Boback. McGinn has ALS, which has already claimed much of her speech, strength and ability to walk. Boback, a family friend, helped organize the community ride in honour of the mother of three, who said she prepares herself for the inevitable by making as many memories as she can so family and friends ‘have something to remember.’
I snapped this photo shortly after Boback completed the 70 km leg of the ride, meeting McGinn at the finish line. No words were shared, and everything that they needed to say to each other was said in a single black and white photo that stands as one of my favourites of 2014.
alim@goldstreamgazette.com