Readers may have noticed a few changes at the papers lately, most notably here on the editorial page. As of last Monday, I am the “new” editor of the Haliburton County Echo and County Life. Although if you’ve read the Haliburton County Echo more than once, you’ll be familiar with my photos and articles, if not my name.
We may have even met during my travels throughout Haliburton County during my non-continuous years working as a reporter/photographer in the area.

Sometimes I’ll be called by name, or acknowledged like a distant cousin, but other times I will simply be asked (usually by children): “Are you the Camera Guy?”
I estimate during my time here I’ve have had tens of thousands of images published in either the Minden Times, Echo, or County Life (formerly Cottage Times), so the title fits.

After starting at the Echo some time close to 2000, I left the Highlands around 2006 and worked for about five years at different publications in Muskoka such as the Muskoka Magazine, the Bracebridge Examiner, the Gravenhurst Banner and the Huntsville Forester. This period also included two semesters instructing journalism students in news photography at my alma mater, Humber College, and after that I studied photojournalism in Denmark. I also had a short stint as a bike messenger in Toronto just before taking the reporter/photographer position at the Minden Times and Haliburton Echo in 2010. It was a welcomed and serendipitous return I couldn’t pass up.

I’ve never considered being an editor before this year because I’m fully aware of the work and responsibility that comes with it. That aspect hasn’t changed, but my openness to bear the responsibility has. There is an undeniable tradition of quality at the Echo influences every decision.
I hope in my role as editor I do the paper’s founders – and all of the dedicated staff who have served this community over the paper’s 138-year history – proud.

I hope I can make this community and the people who call it home, whether seasonally or all year round, proud to see themselves in the pages of the Echo and County Life.
If home is where the heart is, then I’ve arrived and don’t intend to go anywhere. I’m ready to lead and add to the legacy of excellence.