My first week in Jasper started a little bit like a kid playing in one of those cornfield mazes. Just substitute the corn with the fence system that surrounds the tennis courts, child day care, school playground and skate park at the Activity Centre on the corner of Pyramid Ave and Pyramid Lake Road. Oh, and I don’t think parents would go out with their kids in a corn maze during a rain storm either.

However, I still needed to get to my assignment. After finding an opening in the dog park fence, walking around the skate park since there didn’t seem to be an opening on my side, and then of course climbing the playground fence – with my camera equipment – I finally found the entrance to the tennis courts. 

I guess you could say there was a superior reason for my fence adventure, as on my way back I found an older gentleman looking just as lost as me trying to hop the fence where I had. Holding his bag and pushing the chain link down, I helped him over and we walked out of the dog park together, cursing the numerous locked openings.

Yes, I am new to Jasper. Born in London, Ontario, having spent a lot of time on the shores of Lake Huron, I have been living in Canmore for the last year and a half. I have worked with all of the local newspapers in Canmore and Banff and while doing so, fell in love with the mountain lifestyle. The opportunity to continue my photography and stay in the journalism business in Jasper was an exciting opportunity and I am just as excited to get to know the people of Jasper.

This will be my second staff photographer job at a newspaper, and along with freelance work and school, I have been shooting for over five years, having had my work appear in the Ottawa Citizen, Kingston Whig-Standard, Windsor Star, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun and Belleville Intelligencer. 

Having been involved in sports all of my life has led me to be a little more specialized in sports photography, especially hockey, anything on the ski hill and surfing. However, I still always have an itch to get the hard news, the as-it-happens stuff.

I enjoy living in a small town and hopefully I will get to know many of you through my work at the Fitzhugh. I am excited to begin capturing the faces and events of the community of Jasper through my lens, and strive to always come back with something better than the last time. ‘You are only as good as your next photo,’ a friend and colleague once told me. So this is the motto I will go by, and if you see me walking down the street, camera in hand, please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself.