One of the region's best photojournalists has joined the BarrieToday news team as a reporter.
Kevin Lamb has been hired as a full-time reporter and photographer, starting today. He brings a wealth of experience to our small newsroom, not to mention a fresh outlook on things happening around the city.
"I love working in the news business and having my finger on the pulse of the city and its happenings," he says. "Speaking with people at the centre of issues that are important, or capturing images of events that define the history of our city, is something that I'm honoured to have the opportunity to do.
"It's not lost on me that we at BarrieToday are the writers of our history and we have to get it right," Lamb adds.
BarrieToday editor Raymond Bowe says Lamb is a perfect fit.
"I've known Kevin for many years, since we first crossed paths more than a decade ago at the Barrie Examiner," Bowe says. "One of the key attributes every reporter must possess is a sense of curiosity and he definitely brings that to the table. Whenever he's given a topic or story to delve into, he does it with a keen, inquiring and sensitive eye. That can't be understated."
Lamb, 52, has lived in Barrie since 1993, having moved to the city in his 20s from the small town of Beaverton on the eastern shores of Lake Simcoe. He met his wife here and for the past 18 years they have shared their home with their beloved cat, Fred.
"I picked up a camera in 1999, to use while travelling in Egypt, and decided that I truly enjoyed learning photography," Lamb says. "By 2005, I began freelancing with the Barrie Examiner, and picked up an award for news photography during my stint with the historic newspaper."
In late-November 2017, he shot the final photos on an assignment for the Examiner before it closed its doors unexpectedly the next day.
"That was a heartbreaking moment for me," says Lamb, who soon began freelancing for BarrieToday. "I've spent quite a bit of my spare time running around town with my camera doing what I think I do best."
In 2021, he won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for Best Photojournalism for his coverage of the tornado that struck south-end Barrie. Over the past year or more, he has also taken on more reporting assignments to hone his skills as a writer, too.
"Kevin has come a long way in a short period of time," Bowe says. "He takes a lot of pride in how he crafts his stories and I am sure will do great things with BarrieToday."
Lamb comes to BarrieToday following a long career in the highway construction industry, as a field inspector and later as an administrator. He says he was in need of a change of scenery and to start a next phase in his life.
Lamb is also an avid traveller, having documented everything from life in the Arctic and great white sharks in the Pacific to Second World War veteran paratroopers retracing their steps from the beaches of Normandy through to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.
Lamb will primarily be covering beats since as crime and the courts, but as a general assignment reporter, the sky's the limit.
If you have a news tip or interesting story you'd like to share, you can email him at [email protected].
