Five meaningful moments from 2024 for photojournalist Kayle Neis

Article content

As 2024 comes to a close, Leader-Post photojournalist Kayle Neis reflects on five photos that had a big impact on him this year.

This exercise is not meant to showcase the “best” photos but give a small glimpse into what they mean beyond what one might notice on first glance.

Sometimes, there’s more to a story than meets the eye.

Municipal election

This is a wonderful little behind-the-scenes moment, the kind you always hope to catch. As Bachynski hears in real time that he has become mayor — alongside a few supporters on the deck of a Regina pub — I was able to sneak out and catch the mayor-elect as he received the news. This isn’t as exciting as a celebration photo but a nice addition to the night’s series of images.

Article content

Sombre moments

These kinds of photos are always hard to make because they contain very personal subject matter but hold value when it comes to the history of our city and the great people who live here. It was a tricky situation because we didn’t have a lot of information on what was happening for Hopson’s funeral procession so I had to gamble on the kind of image I wanted to make. The first image in this series was of the vehicle procession on College Avenue, which didn’t result in anything I felt was worth publishing, but I then raced to Conexus and was able to catch the moment his urn and the Grey Cup were brought into the building.

Window strikes

This is an outtake from one of my favourite stories of the year, which showcased a group of bird advocates who try to save fallen birds that strike windows and collect data on window strikes in downtown Regina. These types of stories — where I can immerse myself with a group for a lengthy period of time — always yield the best results and allow me to learn new things.

Provincial election

Election coverage can be quite dry at times, especially when many of the events we go to are announcements at podiums. But they are also opportunities to make something weird and interesting outside the norm. This shot didn’t quite work out (there are a few things wrong with the composition), but it’s a testament to trying something new.

Article content

Saskatchewan politics

This image never ended up being published but the thought behind it was to photograph outgoing Saskatchewan Party MLA Don Morgan as he was preparing to leave a long career in politics. My job is multi-faceted and one of my main tasks, especially in portraiture, is to photograph the personality of the subject. Morgan is well known for being a prankster inside the legislature and this photo (in the style of cartoon character Bart from The Simpsons) gives us a glimpse of that.

The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content