Friday 14 November 2008

Blair's blog

Blair Gable, an award-winning photographer who walked away from the Ottawa Sun in August, snapped one of our favourite Remembrance Day photos for Reuters.

He's got the eye, as visitors to his Pho(blog)raphy blog can see, and it saddens us to see talent like his being lost by Sun Media for whatever reasons.

The Toronto Sun of old would have rolled out the red carpet for Blair. He reminds of the many innovative Toronto Sun photographers whose award-winning photographs graced the pages over the decades.

In viewing the first 10 months of Blair's elaborate blog, you can sense his passion for photography and his willingness to share what he knows at the drop of a hat.

Who has a Reuters front page Senators hockey photo in today's Ottawa Sun?

Blair Gable.

Gone from the Sun, but not avoidable when editors are looking for a quality front page photo.

This young man with photojournalism flare and multiple awards will be in news photo circles for decades to come.

That speaks volumes for someone who graduated from Loyalist College five short years ago.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the kind words. They are very much appreciated.

    I was thinking about all the photogs that have left the Ottawa Sun in recent years.... The only one in the last five or so years to have left to a full time position somewhere else was Jason Ransom who went to the PMO...

    Blair Gable - left to freelance
    Darren Calabrese - left to freelance
    Sean Kilpatrick - left to freelance
    Jeff Bassett - left to freelance
    Sue Bird - left to freelance
    Bill Grimshaw - left to freelance*

    The list goes on as you look back in time... The number of extremely talented (and now very successful) photographers that worked in the OS newsroom and got out as quickly as they could is staggering. It is interesting that so much talent would quit a steady paycheck, car allowance, gas card, benefits, etc. to run their own business with no stable future. It is sad that the management does very little to encourage them to stay. Good luck!

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  2. It's sad, tragic and unforgiveable how atrocious "management" (and that's stretching the term) at the Ottawa Sun drives so much talent away. It would be a good business school case study in how not to run an organization. Why would you want to lose your best people - or not care if you do? Instead of encouraging, supporting and mentoring, staff are browbeaten, belittled, intimidated and treated like children. Morale is in the toilet, mainly because of a couple of senior managers.

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