2011 – Shaun Best

Shaun Best

News photographers in Canada are a tight community; there are not many of us and when on assignments we spend a lot of time together. We spend a lot of time waiting before, during and after assignments. We are usually in tight pens or seats during an event and usually eat whenever we can together.
Our community was rocked this year with the sudden passing of Montreal Reuters photographer Shaun Best, 44, on the eve of the Montreal Grand Prix. He suffered a massive Heart Attack on his way home after covering qualifying.
Shaun’s work should be familiar to sports page readers; he was an elite photographer who covered the world, especially sports for Reuters. He had hundreds of photos published.
The list of sporting events he covered is impressive: The Masters, Stanley Cup play-offs, World Series, Super Bowls and the list could go on and on.
I remember the first time I met Shaun – or Buster, as he was called. I was in Montreal covering something and a bunch of photographers were getting together for a pint afterwards. Word was that Shaun, who wasn’t covering the event, was just coming into town from somewhere and would join us.
I was excited, I knew Shaun’s work, I kept track of it on the wires comparing it to what the other wires filed from the same event.
I discovered that night he was an even better person than photographer – something that was reinforced during time I would later spend around him over the next decade at Olympics, hockey rinks, on an election bus.
Many of the tributes to him on his Facebook page and on professional photography forums address his quality character over his outstanding photography.
I considered Shaun a mentor early in my career; I would corner him at events and pick his brain on everything from camera settings to where I could get the best perogies in his home town of Winnipeg.
Shaun was a Winnipeg native who started with the Winnipeg Sun and then spent 20 years with Reuters. “He came out of Winnipeg and saw the world with his camera,” said Mike Blake, a Reuters colleague.
Photographer Fred Greenslade of Portage la Prairie, who knew Best at university and at the Winnipeg Sun, said he was “an outstanding photographer” with a knack for getting it right. “He always knew what newspapers wanted. He knew how to edit, knew what the story was, and knew the right picture to send on the wire, all the time.”
by Steve Russell, Toronto Star

News photographers in Canada are a tight community; there are not many of us and when on assignments we spend a lot of time together. We spend a lot of time waiting before, during and after assignments. We are usually in tight pens or seats during an event and usually eat whenever we can together.Our community was rocked this year with the sudden passing of Montreal Reuters photographer Shaun Best, 44, on the eve of the Montreal Grand Prix. He suffered a massive Heart Attack on his way home after covering qualifying. Shaun’s work should be familiar to sports page readers; he was an elite photographer who covered the world, especially sports for Reuters. He had hundreds of photos published.The list of sporting events he covered is impressive: The Masters, Stanley Cup play-offs, World Series, Super Bowls and the list could go on and on. I remember the first time I met Shaun – or Buster, as he was called. I was in Montreal covering something and a bunch of photographers were getting together for a pint afterwards. Word was that Shaun, who wasn’t covering the event, was just coming into town from somewhere and would join us. I was excited, I knew Shaun’s work, I kept track of it on the wires comparing it to what the other wires filed from the same event.  I discovered that night he was an even better person than photographer – something that was reinforced during time I would later spend around him over the next decade at Olympics, hockey rinks, on an election bus.Many of the tributes to him on his Facebook page and on professional photography forums address his quality character over his outstanding photography. I considered Shaun a mentor early in my career; I would corner him at events and pick his brain on everything from camera settings to where I could get the best perogies in his home town of Winnipeg. Shaun was a Winnipeg native who started with the Winnipeg Sun and then spent 20 years with Reuters. “He came out of Winnipeg and saw the world with his camera,” said Mike Blake, a Reuters colleague.  Photographer Fred Greenslade of Portage la Prairie, who knew Best at university and at the Winnipeg Sun, said he was “an outstanding photographer” with a knack for getting it right. “He always knew what newspapers wanted. He knew how to edit, knew what the story was, and knew the right picture to send on the wire, all the time.” by Steve Russell, Toronto Star