2nd gen Wesley

Ontario newspaper readers haven't seen a "Wesley" photo credit since Hugh Wesley, veteran Toronto Sun photographer and photo editor, left the Sun in 2000.

But the "Wesley" photo credit drought has come to an end with the hiring of Hugh's daughter, Nikki, 24, as a staff photographer at the Mississauga News.

Nikki Wesley, a recent graduate of the Loyalist College Photojournalism program, will be shooting digital stills for the News and video footage for use on the Internet.

She has some big shoes to fill as a Wesley, but with her dad as a mentor, Nikki should fill those shoes quite professionally.

Hugh says Nikki is not the only Sun-related second generation photographer. Dave Cooper's son, Cody, another Loyalist grad, is a photographer in Parry Sound.

Dave, a Day Oner at the Toronto Sun in 1971, is now a Toronto Star photographer.

Hugh Wesley says Loyalist's popular photojournalism program was started partly by the father of Sun photographer Craig Robertson and John Peterson 20 years ago.

"Craig was a graduate too, as are many working photojournalists in Canada today," says Hugh. "Dave Lucas (who quit the Toronto Sun this week) is another graduate."

This new generation of still/video photographers are eons from the days of Graphix cameras, which were cumbersome and required a pocketful of bulbs and another pocketful or film slides.

What a debt we owe to news photographers from all eras.