When in doubt, make them run

This was a slow (news conferences) and unimpressive day on my part. But I managed to redeem myself with a fun standup:

Maples Collegiate students excitedly run through the streets in the Exchange District on their way to their highschool graduation dance on Monday, June 27, 2011. HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

And another cute moment here:

 Jennifer Barnabe, left, and her daughter, Samantha with their new puppy, Chance, at their Dufresne home. Chance is a 9 week old Shepherd cross that was saved from a reserve where German Shpherd Rescue had found him in a taped cardboard box near a fire at the reserve's dump. HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JUNE 27, 2011.

Familiar community faces

This was one of those days when things just seemed to work out simply and beautifully. It was one of the first times that I managed to find my way around the city without getting lost, despite a broken GPS and very little time from one assignment to the next. But the nature of the subjects I had that day were so positive, that I had to ride along and smile with them. Here are two happy faces from that day:

 Adult Education Centre teacher, Joe Davis surprised his students by getting his own high school diploma, 38 years after dropping out, in their graduation ceremony on Friday, June 24, 2011. 

HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JUNE 24, 2011.

This made me so happy to see on City Front.

Othello Wesee (right) plays soccer with Kennaissa and Gamda (behind) in Central Park on Friday, June 24, 2011.Wesee is a refugee from Liberia who organized activities for kids in the refugee camps he was stuck in, and continues to do similar work in the Central Park community, helping making the city a safer place for poor kids. HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JUNE 24, 2011

Hydro and Bombers

This is a month old. But life is so busy and exciting and fun, that my blogging has fallen behind to a minor priority. I hope to get on top of photo blogging once again. Perhaps at the end of this glorious summer?

June 23, 2011: a 7am start, small 2-hour plane over to Thompson, then 1.5-hour drive on a dirt road to Wuskwatim, where I spent the day with reporter, Bruce Owen, getting a tour of the Wuskwatim Hydro Project construction site. 

Construction Manager, Terry Armstrong looks at the spillway structure at the Wuskwatim hydro generation project site.

HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JUNE 23, 2011.

The page spread for the Wuskwatim tour.

 It was a 12-hour day that I decided to finish off with the Bombers first home exhibition game:

 Perfect summer evening, full house at the stadium

A Manitoba farming disaster

Drove to Souris, Manitoba, near Brandon last Tuesday. It was a great experience to go with a reporter and see with my own eyes some of the flood devastation in Manitoba. It was a great story, and unfortunately there are many many more stories like this one here.

 Walter Finlay, councillor in the Municipality of Glenwood, and a grain farmer in Souris, Manitoba, surveys the flood damage to his farmland on Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Finley has not been able to seed his land this year since it has been covered with floodwater. HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Governor General Visits Winnipeg

 His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston (center) with President and CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Stuart Murray, on the left, and Consecutive Manager of the museum, Todd Craigen, on the right, take the Governor General on a tour of the construction of the new museum on Friday, June 17, 2011. HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS.

Goldeyes

 Winnipeg Goldeyes host the Sioux Falls Pheasants on June 15, 2011. Photos by Hadas Parush / Winnipeg Free Press

Fans quickly cleared their seats to avoid the heavy rain which suddenly came down forcing a break in the Goldeyes game against the Sioux Falls Pheasants. 

Cats

Arts front :)

Week 1 at the Free Press

Here is a bit of the play I got in my first week at the Winnipeg Free Press - 

First Assignment: Blue Bomber practice!

I discovered very early on that everyone at the Free Press has a great sense of humour, and so they appreciated mine:

Competing twins:

Emotional return of NHL in Winnipeg / press conference:

Closing remarks:
Awesome first week.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 A woman sweeps the floor in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem before the Friday afternoon prayers on May 20, 2011. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash 90.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, James Joseph, also known as The Jesus Guy, is a Jesus lookalike missionary. He recently moved to Jerusalem's Old City after travelling around the United States. He is currently working with Indian immigrants in Jerusalem. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash 90.

Motke

Motke Blum brings in his canvas with easel from outside his studio on the Artists' Lane (Hutsot HaYotser) outside the Old City of Jerusalem on May 17, 2011, before locking up his studio for the day.

This is the story I worked on while spending time in Jerusalem, interning at Flash 90 photo agency.
Motke Blum is an 86-year-old painter and Holocaust survivor. He lives in Jerusalem and works out of his studio on the heritage site of the Artists' Lane, just outside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem. He is of the founding artists of the Lane.
 Much of Blum's paintings deal with the horrors of the Holocaust. Blum sometimes paints simple white paintings in order to take a break from the dark Holocaust paintings.
 Many other paintings and mixed media pieces entertain the imagination and can appeal to many different tastes.
 He will make a joke every time someone walks into his studio, which is small and cluttered with artworks everywhere and in no particular order, saying he's got little people in the back who do all the work for him.
 This is one story of one artist from the Artists' Lane.