ears.

I've spent my whole life trying to figure out where I got this "creative" and journalism gene from. My parents are both in the math and sciences (one an engineer, the other a nurse), my brothers were both good at everything school-wise. I barely passed grade 10 geometry, cursed biology and have never touched a physics text book. Give me Hamlet, and I'll be happy any day.

If you look at our family portrait, I'm the mixed child. Where my brothers each take off of a parent, many people say that I look equally like my father as I do my mother. Personality wise, there are days where I'm saying things that I know Mom would, or see a picture someone took of me wearing the same expression as Dad.

So where did this artistic thing come from?

I think my grandfather, Papa.

I'm so sad that I never really got to know him as an older child and now adult, but I think he would have gotten a real kick out of this whole broadcast journalism deal.

There's home videos by Papa of us eating dinner in the early 1990s. He was obsessed with recording and archiving life, and although nothing out of the ordinary may have been going on in these videos affecting the world, they were the news of our family, which was the most important broadcast.

In one, my mother is trying to feed me vegetables while I squirm in a high chair. While she's distracted, I drop every single one off the side of my chair, turning back to her with wide eyes. Finally, Mom submits, thinking I've finished eaten everything and hands me a peanut butter cookie, which I gorge myself on.

Although there's half a dozen people at the table, no one notices this exchange except the camera - and Papa. He turns to the lens, smiles and lets life go on. When my mother finally figures out my scheme and all hell breaks loose, Papa has evidence against me, and says that it could be the most important piece in the trial.

This is so similar to journalism. As we record an event, and as flies on the wall who are watching and see the picture, we can't get involved. You have to let the events happen as though we're not there.

However, we are there, and more aware than anyone.

Although he's not here with us now, my grandfather has such a large influence on my life. I have his characteristic ears, which poke out from my heavy headphones when I'm shooting. I'm passionate about recording and filming life. I think I got this from him.

Thanks Papa. I think you would have loved watching my good, bad and interesting footage. My work is for you.