Wakefield Community Centre (Photo: Niels Jensen)

On the weekend of January 21-22, 2012, the Rural Route Communications team took time off from research and photography in the Townships, and headed to Wakefield in western Quebec to shoot video footage and stills of a workshop at the local community centre. The workshop, sponsored by the Blue Metropolis Foundation in collaboration with the Quebec Writers' Federation, is part of an oral and written storytelling project called "Once Upon a Time." The workshop leader was Laura Teasdale, a playwright, actress, and director based in Knowlton.

The photo below shows Louise Abbott at work. She recently added this boompole with a pro-sound ambient dipstick to her kit so that she can bring a shotgun microphone much closer to the sound source without interfering with the framing of the picture.

Niels Jensen, meanwhile, has acquired a Sony A77, which enables him to create panoramas, like the one above, in the camera itself. This new compact model also has built-in GPS tagging, which will be particularly useful for the work that Rural Route Communications does in northern Canada.

(Photo: Niels Jensen)