Lynn Ball gave a scintillating talk, and i-Photo session, to an enthralled Probus group. We all sat in rapt attention as he told us the stories and showed us some of photos that he and his brother Doug Ball have taken over the years.

At an early age Lynn was drawn into photography by his father, an ex RCAF reconnaissance photographer, who had a darkroom in his basement. Meanwhile Doug was drawn to sports, where he had a natural talent, excelling at golf and hockey where he could easily have been a pro in either sport. Their father wished that Lynn would pay more attention to sports and Doug to photography. Despite Doug’s natural talent that was exactly what he did joining Lynn in their lifetime passion for journalistic photography. While Doug was the best member of any team that he played for, without even trying, Lynn was always the worst player while trying the hardest. Looking at the results though I think they both made the best choices.

Among the photos, taken by Lynn and Doug, the following were some of those shown:

• The pants off racecar driver set.
• A mirror image shot of a young Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger.
• The queen’s 1964 tour in Charlottetown, with a shot of a fainting Honour Guardsman being dragged away just in time.
• Robert and Ethel Kennedy at a hockey game after a Canadian Press dinner.
• Johnny Bower acrobatically missing a goal bound puck.
• A shot of Gordie Howe’s huge fist as his arm is wrapped around the neck of teammate Ed Joyal.
• Bob Stanfield set showing him throwing catching and dropping the infamous football which is said to have been instrumental in his loss of the following election.
• The famous shot of Trudeau pirouetting behind the Queen before a G8 summit dinner.
• Hilary Clinton with her first beavertail snack during a Winterlude visit to Ottawa with President Bill Clinton.

Michael was born in Bellville and was of fifth generation Irish descent. He had one very much older sister and so was brought up much like an only child. He went to school at the Nicholson Catholic College in Bellville and was the captain of the football team. He went on to university and graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1971 after reading Electrical Engineering.

Mary was born into a larger family of seven in County Limerick, Ireland, in a small place between Limerick and Kilarney. She had two sisters and four brothers. She went to school in Newcastle West and after completing school became a secretary to lawyers. Later she moved to Galway. They met each other in Galway, where Michael recruited her as a tour guide for a trip around Ireland. They decided to get married and move to Canada. Mary’s first days in Canada were in January in Montreal with several feet of snow and typical low temperatures.

In the meantime the family had moved to Kanata so that Michael could take up a position in the Acoustics Test Laboratory at Bell Northern Research. Later he worked on International Telephony Standards and then into project management in Voice Over Internet Protocol,VOIP.