I’ve recently launched a new site: Brent Foster Photography
There’s been a lot of emails coming my way, so I figured I’d post a little info here.

My plan is to launch the studio August 14, 2010 in my hometown, Wallaceburg, Ontario. Last summer I came home to work on a story for Canadian Geographic, and as time passed by, fell in love with a girl who I’ll be marrying October 2, 2010.
We plan to run the studio together in a 100 year old bank building…. Tammy’s custom stained glass work will take place in the basement, and the photography studio will be on the main floor. There will also be a gallery where I plan to feature local, national, and international photojournalism and multimedia.

My main focus will be wedding photojournalism in Windsor, Ontario, London, Ontario, and in the area I am living as well as portrait, pet, and maternity work at the studio, and on location. This does not mean my career as a photojournalist is over. It does mean I am settling down a bit, and for the first year, will be mostly here, but when things are up and running I plan to continue to take trips, and work on stories important to my heart both in still photography, and multimedia. I will also remain a member of Bombay Flying Club. I am however, equally excited about entering a new realm of photography, and spending a lot of time with my new future wife, and amazing 3 year-old step daughter! Wish me luck!!!

I’ve recently launched a new site: Brent Foster Photography
There’s been a lot of emails coming my way, so I figured I’d post a little info here.

My plan is to launch the studio August 14, 2010 in my hometown, Wallaceburg, Ontario. Last summer I came home to work on a story for Canadian Geographic, and as time passed by, fell in love with a girl who I’ll be marrying October 2, 2010.
We plan to run the studio together in a 100 year old bank building…. Tammy’s custom stained glass work will take place in the basement, and the photography studio will be on the main floor. There will also be a gallery where I plan to feature local, national, and international photojournalism and multimedia.

My main focus will be wedding photojournalism in Windsor, Ontario, London, Ontario, and in the area I am living as well as portrait, pet, and maternity work at the studio, and on location. This does not mean my career as a photojournalist is over. It does mean I am settling down a bit, and for the first year, will be mostly here, but when things are up and running I plan to continue to take trips, and work on stories important to my heart both in still photography, and multimedia. I will also remain a member of Bombay Flying Club. I am however, equally excited about entering a new realm of photography, and spending a lot of time with my new future wife, and amazing 3 year-old step daughter! Wish me luck!!!

Sometimes life jumps right in the way of your plans, and that’s a good thing in my books.
A lot is changing for me these days, hence the slowness of blog postings here.
I’ve decided to return to my home town, set up a STUDIO serving Southwestern Ontario, and got engaged in the meantime!
A lot of this stems from coming home this past summer to work on a project on my hometown for Canadian Geographic (see previous posting) I’m really excited to become an integral of the community I grew up in.
My plan is to run the studio here in Canada, combine forces with my fiancée, and to continue to take trips to pursue multimedia and photojournalistic projects throughout the year. Apologies in advance if this blog comes to a bit of a lull for a while!

Best, Brent

This summer I spent two months documenting my hometown, Wallaceburg, Ontario, for Canadian Geographic. This month they are featuring the 9 page photo essay. See it HERE Thanks to all the residents who let me spend time photographing them. This is a lifelong project for me, and I feel it serves as a microcosm for all small towns.
You can also see a link to a photo club interview HERE

Check this out… Thoughts?

I have some time between classes, and an upcoming assignment in Nairobi, which allowed me to take a pretty magical hike yesterday.
I spent four hours or so on an amazing journey to see the mountain gorillas at Volcano National Park in Rwanda. It was truly one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. Here are some images:

Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda – Images by Brent Foster

After two weeks together, the third year Journalism and Communications students, and I wrapped up our course at the National University of Rwanda.
I couldn’t be happier with the results.

The students came back with some surprisingly solid images given the fact this was the first experience shooting a photo essay, and using a camera for most of them.

On top of that using point and shoot cameras with 10 people to a camera provides it share of challenges, to say the least.

Here’s a look at some of the images they brought back from a great two weeks together. In three weeks I will start a new course in Kigali at the Great Lakes Media Center.

Students Pictures-National University of Rwanda – Images by 3rd Year Students

It sounded like a canon.
As I sat drinking a coffee and discussing my teaching experience at the University with my colleague we heard a thundering thud.
I knew it wasn’t a gunshot, but never would I have expected a bloody attack had occurred about a hundred yards from where I sat.
Bertha and I looked at each other. “What was that?,” she said. I replied saying I was confident it wasn’t shots fired, and the thought of an attack simply didn’t occur to me. Not in the Rwanda I know.
Bertha and I looked around, gauged the reaction, or lack thereof, of the others around us, finished our coffees, and left on motorcycle taxis.

It was only when our friend Sam arrived at the Rwanda Initiative house that we learned what had happened. At least two grenades were set off simultaneously, resulting in at least one person dead, and dozens injured.
No one knows who’s responsible for the attack. Rumors are circulating ranging from the arrival of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, racial tensions, and the upcoming elections.

As soon as I heard about the attack I grabbed my cameras and rushed back to the scene. I walked with Sam, Bertha, and another colleague, and we searched for the attacked areas, expecting police, people in distress, and news reporters.
There was nothing.
It wasn’t until we looked down at our feet in the area we thought was a scene of the attack, only to see they were covered in blood. We were standing literally on the site of the attack, and life went on around us like nothing had happened.

The first day wreaked of havoc from the beginning. I arrived into a tightly packed classroom of 71 students only to discover my fly was down. As I turned around to subtly pull it back up, I realized the zipper was broken. Great. Not only that, but the speakers, laptop, and everything I had prepared weren’t exactly going to work all to well in a brightly sun-lit classroom, with one plug.

Things turned around quickly though. We moved the class into a much larger room, found an extension cord, and started to project images and multimedia onto a white sheet. The rest of the week has been golden… sort of.

To give you a little background, I’m here in land of 1000 hills, otherwise known as Rwanda, teaching multimedia and online journalism. I’m currently at the National University of Rwanda in Butare, and following that, I’ll be at the Great Lakes Media Center in Kigali for three weeks.

I was brought here by Rwanda Initiative, a Canadian NGO that recruits teachers from all over, and brings them to Rwanda to teach.

So far, the biggest challenge has been supplies. I came with several cameras in tow, donated by the Toronto Star, but even combined with those, we have 7 working point and shoots for 71 journalism students… not exactly ideal.

At the University sits a box of old Nikon D1s that have been donated from media organizations all over the world …none of them are working.

So, we’re doing what we can. Groups of 10 are going out with one camera, and learning to build sequences, shooting wide, medium and tight, how to white balance, shoot environmental portraits, features, and photo essays. They’re
excited, and so am I. Each day, the pictures improve ten fold.

All in all, things have been great so far. The students are very attentive, and have learnt quickly to come to class on time after realizing I was serious about blocking the door with a desk at 8:35 each morning. Deadlines are deadlines:)

From World Press Photo’s web site:
“In this audio slideshow, jury chair Ayperi Karabuda Ecer reflects on the progress of the contest after the first week of judging. She describes the process during the first round, a time when the whole World Press office is engaged in the judging. Additionally, this year included specialized juries that simultaneously judged the categories of Nature, Sports and Portraits while the rest of the jury focused on the categories within News & documentary.”

Check out February’s issue of PDN to see a story my colleague Poul Madsen from Bombay Flying Club, and I are featured in called “Turning NGOs into Paying Clients”
The important thing I think to take away from this story is that you can do work that’s important, and helpful, but still need to survive in an industry that’s getting tougher by the day. I love working with NGOs, as I feel like the work produced can actually make a direct difference when working with them… something I often battle with when working for other clients.