Dave and I have been pretty lucky to meet some great people through photography. It’s certainly a great perk of the job. I want to talk about one extra special person that came into my life because of taking pictures.
I met Herb Belcourt because of the work I do for Junior Achievement. They are responsible for the Alberta Business Hall of Fame (ABHOF). Herb was selected as one of the 3 ABHOF inductees for 2017 and I was tasked with taking the portraits of these 3 individuals for their photo that would be put on the Wall of Fame that is located in Commerce Place.
Herb was 85 at this point. He was diagnosed with stage 4 Cancer in December 2016 and given one month to live. I made my way to his home in Sherwood Park for the session at the end of February since getting around wasn’t so easy for him at that point. But he’d already made it past the one month mark and was still doing relatively well.
I should point out that I’m typically not the biggest believer in a lot spiritual stuff like past lives et cetera, but when I met Herb and his wife Lesley that day, I had an overwhelming feeling like I’d known them all my life. It could be that they are just so welcoming that they make you feel as though you’d known them forever, but still, it was clear there was a connection.
We did a few different setups for the portrait session, I got shots I was happy with, and started to pack up. That’s when we really started chatting. It was a great conversation. I was so impressed with how Herb, at 85, was such a believer in younger thinking. He commented on how frustrating it was to hear old people complaining about these young ideas and how they thought everything should be the way it’s always been done. I was also impressed with how humble he was. He had recently been awarded the Aboriginal Business Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement award at a ceremony held in Toronto, a park was being named for him in Sherwood Park, and of course there was the Alberta Business Hall of Fame award he was getting. With these accolades coming his way, he explained that he didn’t understand why he was deserving of them. He was honoured but confused. I would have stayed to talk for hours but I had another one of the portrait sessions booked and had to leave.
When I got to my car, I found myself nearly in tears that this man I just met didn’t have long to live. I was just so taken by him. When I got home I started researching his life. It quickly became quite clear why he was getting these awards. I won’t go into all his achievements (you can read a good sampling of them here), but believe me when I say he has done very well in his business endeavours, but more importantly, given back an incredible amount to the community and literally changed people’s lives. And here he is baffled at why people seemed to be recognizing him.
About a week later I headed to Ruth’s Chris restaurant to get the final ABHOF inductee portrait taken. The inductees were gathered there for a special dinner in their honour. I was so happy to see Herb and Lesley again! Lesley explained that Herb was getting a park named after him in Sherwood Park and instead of getting a statue made of him as was suggested, (Herb felt the cost of a statue was far too expensive and the money could be used for much better things in the community), they thought that a plaque would be more ideal. They were going to have a photo taken and it would be etched onto the plaque. I immediately volunteered my services to take the photo as a gift from me. They were thrilled.
The following week I found myself once again at Herb and Lesley’s house to take the portrait. Herb was adamant that the photo would be of him and his two grandchildren. We set up for the photo and I took around a hundred photos of the three of them. Luckily, there were a few where these 1-year old twin boys were both looking at the camera!
