Salmon Arm and U17: From ecstasy to agony

Salmon Arm fruit stand. HDR plus green gel illumination.

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 Nestled in the southern interior of BC, Salmon Arm is very much a microcosm of its big brother Kamloops, about 100 km away. I say this with little research, just my initial perception of this quaint little railway town located on the shores of the Shuswap Lake.

Like many smaller communities, it appears it too is feeling the wrath of the global recession, with its primary source of export, Forestry, having one of its sawmills shut down a few years ago.

Also like many smaller towns, the people are friendly and polite, and more than likely, many of the youth probably can’t get out of there fast enough after graduation. Not a slight, but a population depletion fact that afflicts many small towns.

Salmon Arm is more of a town that one might do some summertime activities or stop for a Timmies on your way through, not necessarily stay for a few nights. However, that is just what we did last weekend as my youngest son, Matthew, was invited to a U17 Regional Hockey tryout for the BC Cup, held next month in, yes, again, Salmon Arm.

This was an invite only collection of the best 16 year old players in the Okanagan, vying for the right to be selected as one of 20 players to represent the region at the BC Cup in mid-May. From there, only 10 players are chosen to represent BC as part of Team Pacific - a compilation of the best from Alberta and BC.

Matthew had a very good camp, scoring a few goals and using his speed and size to impress the evaluators enough to choose him as one of the 12 top forwards to move on. Unfortunately, the euphoria turned to agony a few short hours later as Matthew had to undergo emergency surgery to stop the progression of a serious injury called Compartment Syndrome.


Compartment syndrome is a serious condition that involves increased pressure in a muscle compartment. It can lead to muscle and nerve damage and problems with blood flow, if not treated quickly. Effectively, it is a Charlie Horse gone bad.

In fact, my initial diagnosis was just that: a Charlie Horse, and the RX? “Suck it Up.” A common father-to-son refrain when it comes to any injury that you at one time experienced and received little to no sympathy or empathy from an adult figure for.

I recounted to him, as I usually do, a time when I was about 12 years old when the grade nines - the top of the food chain in our grades 7-9 junior high school - made this a sport. They would lure an unsuspecting freshman to their inner circle, extend their hand as if to actually acknowledge their existence on the planet, then with pin point precision, drive their knee into one’s quad muscle.


Writhing in pain in the fetal position,  all one could hear was their uproarious laughter, as all other senses were rendered impaired, save for making out vague shapes. Living in mortal fear of them and the distinct possibility of having a similar episode administered to your only other good limb, you joined in on the laughter, crawled to a more secure area and waited for either the pain to subside or possibly some form of euthanasia to end the indescribable physical duress this causes.

So I knew what he was going through.

While hockey is a physical and unpredictable sport, the tragedy of the situation is that it didn’t need to happen as it was a late, suspect hit delivered to Matthew after he had scored a nice net drive goal and was blindsided after the fact - a knee to the thigh region for good measure.

His future participation in the High Performance Program is now in doubt. He will also have to miss several Junior A camps in the next few weeks, two weeks of school (although he doesn’t necessarily view that as a negative thing) and the possibility of receiving a skin graft if the swelling does not subside in the next few days.

Fortunately, the doctors are optimistic about his recovery and coupled with Matthew’s, shall we say obstinate demeanor, I am confident he will be back on the ice in the near future.

During the periods between his ice sessions, I explored this very picturesque region, dotted with rolling hills and almost cliche farm house scenes. As usual, I researched previous photos taken of the area and set out to do them better.

So, typical to most of my travels, I set out at about 5:00 a.m - when everyone else participates in smarter human functions, like sleeping - and explored the area, D3S and tripod at my ready. The feature attraction of Salmon Arm is a uniquely engineered pier, that is the longest of its kind in North America.

Salmon Arm Pier. North America’s longest wooden wharf.

I also discovered a heritage park with some interesting antique farmhouses and machinery. It is here that I experimented with HDR photography coupled with flash illumination. Unlike other self anointed HDR aficionados, I did not invent this process, nor am I an expert at it. Just trying to expand the creative range of my photographs and stay one step ahead of the curve, that’s all.

Salmon Arm Heritage Park. HDR plus green gel illumination

On the outskirts of the city I found a fruit stand that implored careful consideration for this new technique. I took several long exposures of the scene that featured a water tower and old inoperable pick up truck. When I got back to the hotel and post processed it, I wasn’t overally thrilled with the results.

At about 4:00 a.m the next morning I had an epiphany on how to make the shot look better, but I needed to figure out a way to rig my green-gelled SB900 so that it illuminated the entire cab of the truck. So again, I ventured out at 5:00 a.m. to revisit the scene.

I didn’t have a light stand and there was nothing to affix the flash to. My initial thought was to put the flash inside the cab of the vehicle, but of course it undoubtedly must be locked. Not considering the fact that most vehicles of the 30’s and 40’s were not equipped with power lock doors as a standard option, I never thought to actually see if the doors were open.

Not only was the passenger door open, but it was ajar several inches, enough for me to slip my arm in and place the flash on the front seat. Although it felt like a borderline B&E, technically I was only putting something in the vehicle that was mine and taking it out. No harm no foul.

The lighting was perfect and I achieved the desired look I was striving for.

I only had a few hours to photograph the area, but I will definitely come back in the near future to capture some more scenes of this very unique region of BC. In the meantime, I will seek intervention for this unusual pastime of mine...