Beginnings

I had the pleasure of visiting a group of young farmers running a CSA farm near Elora around a week ago. I spent the day in the blistering heat (although I feel bad saying that now because it's been even warmer since) shooting, getting in the way, and generally feeling like I'm finally shooting something well. (I've been in a slump. More on that another time.)

I grew up slaving in my parents' large garden, but it was all tending to vegetables, whining, and sitting in the shade after my parents got frustrated enough with me. Sometimes I even got banished back inside, to my delight.

These people work, and hard. They use horse-drawn plows for cultivation and were fulfilling the back-breaking task of picking peas at 8 a.m. when I arrived. And they'd already been up for a couple of hours. I'm hoping this is the start of some excellent time with Yehuda, Schirin, Mat, and Emily. (As well as the numerous animals.)

Here's a brief preview. Many, many more to come in the future.

Emily and Mat head out into the fields for a morning of pea-picking.

Organic farming is their main practice, but the task of hand-watering each row of vegetables would be monumental. Mat fixes a leaky irrigation line amongst the rows.

Schirin takes a break in the shade of the tent where she sleeps on the farm. With a former farmhouse housing around 8 people, she wanted her personal space and elected to stay in a tent. Two of the other farmers stay in an RV on the property as well.

Yehuda ponders his crops before hooking up Milly to start cultivating the rows.

Sally, who will work with her partner Milly on the double plow, waits while Milly, Mat, and Yehuda work on cultivating one of the farm's three fields.

Schirin and Max, the baby of one of the housemates in the farmhouse, enjoy a pre-lunch snack.

Freshly picked spring onions are washed and laid out to dry before being bundled for market and CSA pick-ups.

Yehuda takes a quiet moment after lunch, while Goldie does the same on the dining room floor.

Nose meeting grindstone

I'm still just working away in Guelph. I write. I shoot. I occasionally produce some multimedia. It feels like I do a lot and then some days I don't. It's puzzling.

Here are a few photos I've shot in the past month or so, along with their play if they've been run (some are recent and haven't been run, sometimes other shots ran but I liked the ones below more.)

GUELPH, Ont. (29/05/12) - John Linseman (right) laughs during a game of euchre with Gil Boisvert and others at the Acquired Brain Injury Tuesday night program at St. Joseph's Hospital on May 29. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (29/05/12) - John Linseman enters the living room at the Acquired Brain Injury Tuesday night program at St. Joseph's Hospital on May 29. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (31/05/12) - Owen Willems throws a hammer in a field at the University of Guelph on Thursday, May 31. Willems coaches students in throwing events like shotput and javelin and spends the summer competing in Highland Games. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (28/05/12) - Jackie Unsworth takes in a hot afternoon with her first ice cream of the season Monday along the Speed River in Guelph. Temperatures soared to 33 C by the afternoon with a humidex making it feel more like 38 C. The heat will continue into Tuesday along with thunderstorms, which will cool the area down by Wednesday to temperatures in the teens and low 20s. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (19/05/12) - Soojung Yu, 15, along with her brother Seungmin, 12, is one of the recipients of the Alice Sloan Scholarship at the Guelph Kiwanis Music Festival. Shown at their Guelph home, the musical siblings also both received senior piano scholarships and will peform in next weekend's highlights concert. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (30/05/12) - Residents in the Ward cheer on protesters as they make their way to downtown Guelph on Wednesday, May 30. A group of 20 protesters participated in a casserole protest, banging pots and pans to show their solidarity with the students of Quebec. They were joined by at least another 50 in the downtown core. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (30/05/12) - Protesters make their way to downtown Guelph on Wednesday, May 30. Starting in the Ward, around 20 protesters participated in a casserole march, banging pots and pans to show their solidarity with the students of Quebec. They were joined by at least another 50 in the downtown core. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (29/05/12) - Evalyn Parry plays the role of Annie Londonderry, a 19th century female cyclist first to cycle around the world in a preview of the musical act Spin. She is accompanied by percussionist Brad Hart, who keeps the beat with a variety of sounds produced on a rustic bicycle mounted several feet of the ground. The River Run Centre showcased a selection of the performance on Tuesday, May 29 during their announcement of shows for the season. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (05/06/12) - Musician James Gordon (right) and Patrick Cieslar of Wellington Water Watch discuss waterway issues with a group of around 30 outside Guelph City Hall on Tuesday. The group wanted to pressure council to keep rivers and waterways in the city's official plan. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (06/06/12) - Hava Goldberg makes a wet dash through the intersection of Macdonell and Norfolk Streets on Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (12/06/12) - Justin Brooks fishes for pike in the Clythe Creek Ponds along York Road in Guelph on Tuesday evening. Photo by Rachel Psutka. 

GUELPH, Ont. (14/06/12) - Around 30 people, including a handful of children, gather for a tour of the dam on Guelph Lake as part of the Two Rivers Festival on Thursday evening. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (14/06/12) - Dan Schneider (front) of the GRCA leads a tour of the dam on Guelph Lake as part of the Two Rivers Festival on Thursday evening. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (15/06/12) - Dancers Tanya Williams (left), Sarah Tolmie (front), and Diane Hurst (right) join hands with Helen Drew, being piloted by Vanessa Hyland, all while floating on canoes at the Two Rivers Festival concert and 20th anniversary celebration of the covered bridge on Friday night. Dozens of spectators lined the banks of the rivers near the Boathouse to watch a choreographed routine involving the four dancers in four canoes. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (06/06/12) - Special Olympian Tammy MacDougall, front, cheers at the conclusion of the law enforcement torch run Wednesday. Nearly 80 law enforcement officers ran about 4 kilometres through Guelph raising funds for Special Olympians. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Add captionGUELPH, Ont. (11/06/12) - Annika Wegman, a Grade 7 student at Ken Danby Public School, convinced her closing church, Paisley Memorial United Church, to donate $25,000 to help her school's Me To We team raise funds to build a school in Sierra Leone. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

GUELPH, Ont. (11/06/12) - Guelph resident Burnaby Q. Orbax, one half of the two-man show Monsters of Schlock, is bringing his comedy sideshow back to Guelph on June 21 for the first time in several years. He is pictured here at his Guelph home with his Guinness World Record certificate for pulling a 4,050 kg truck using meat hooks in his back.  Photo by Rachel Psutka.

First Stretch at the Merc

I started my summer job at the Guelph Mercury on May 2, about a week after I finished my internship at The Record. I'm writing and shooting, but there are definitely days when I spend the whole day at the computer and playing phone tag with various voicemail systems. I'd love to be shooting a bit more. We'll have to see how this goes with time.

I will probably post some pdfs of my written work at some point but for now I'm going to stick with some of the photos I've shot over the past two weeks.

CrossFitters Tim Atkinson and Belinda Cox are two of six local athletes heading to CrossFit regionals from May 11-13. Photo by Rachel Psutka. (View accompanying multimedia piece here)

Nicole Hogg, co-owner of Atmosphere Cafe, along with chef and general manager Shawn Gilbert, are pleased to have a defibrillator on site at their Carden Street restaurant. Pictured here on May 11, the pair says that nearly all their restaurant staff have been trained in how to use it. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Jessica Hua, Nicki Phits, and Alisa Phits run Wacky Tabacky, Guelph's newest smoking accessory store, located on Speedvale Ave. They are one of two new stores opening in the past six months and believe they are filling a niche outside the downtown core. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Rearing their large yellow heads, dandelions have made their appearance around the city. These few are located in Royal City Park along the Speed River, seen here on Wednesday, May 9. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Kyle Weltner has been working at Thomas Video for over a year while completing a theatre degree at the University of Guelph. Shown here at the Baker Street movie rental store on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, Weltner is one of the last employees of the movie rental business in Guelph. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Wellington County weed inspector John Benham points out a group of giant hogweed plants growing in a rural lot near Elora on Thursday, May 3. Despite numerous treatments, the weeds continue to germinate from seeds buried underground. Photo by Rachel Psutka.

Artist Ella Dawn McGeough installs one of 16 panels of colour into a bus shelter in St. George's Square on Tuesday, May 15. Coinciding with the bus terminal move, the University of Guelph Masters student is working with the city to install the colourful panels to help transform the square. The art will be on display until August, when the shelters will be removed and placed in other areas of the city. Photo by Rachel Psutka.