Another year gone by, and an epic year it was…

The year started off preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Seeing 2010 on the calendar suddenly made it all a reality and the mad rush to get organized and a site up and filled with content began about a month before the Games actually opened. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of talented folks who teamed up to create the VancouverAccess2010 website. With BCIMC accreditation, we focussed on the fan’s view of the Games and the team of us set out to attend as many events as we possibly could. We photographed and reported on them via this great resource site that we collectively created. Posts were also featured on Canada.com’s VanFans2010 blog.

The Paralympics was an even more amazing experience for me. With IPC photographer accreditaion, I was able to get up close and personal to shoot the amazing athletes and their inspiring performances in sports ranging from from sledge hockey, to sit skiing, to vision impaired downhill skiing, to curling, to incredibly emotional medal ceremonies! Unbelievable!

During the Games, I was invited to join a media day trip to Whitehorse, Yukon. Yep, that’s right, a DAY trip to Whitehorse! It was crazy! Caught a 7am flight, toured Whitehorse, met a 2006 silver medalist Olympian, visited  a nature reserve, tasted coffee from a local eco-friendly coffee roasting shop, soaked in some hot springs, drank a Sour Toe Cocktail, and enjoyed a banquet dinner celebrating the annual dog sledding racers. The Yukon is such a beautiful part of our country! I would love to head up there for some summer camping to see what’s under all that snow! I imagine it to be absolutely breathtaking! Another amazing adventurous experience!

When the Games were over, I was caught in the Olympic hangover, felt by much of the city, and many of my colleagues and partners in crime throughout this great world event. This got me thinking what I should do next and I came up with the idea that I wanted to do more traveling…

So, in March, I flew to Austin Texas to shoot a wedding for a friend who was unable to make it, due to a car accident. Never having met the bride or groom, nor having ever spoken to them directly, it was an interesting experience. The couple were amazingly welcoming and we got along instantly. I am happy to now call them friends. Their jewish wedding was held in Houston, so there was a bit of a road trip mixed into the trip (and of course some tasty Texan BBQ!). Unfortunately, there was not much time for site seeing with the short timeline, but I hope to make it back to Texas to see and photograph more of it!

Less than 2 weeks after returning from Austin, I was in flight yet again! This time for a month long adventure to Bali, Indonesia! Wow! It was an amazing month full of culture, food, site seeing, crazy drivers and photography! I spent the majority of my time on the northern side of the Island in Lovina. I spent about a week in Ubud as well. My trip to Ubud included a motorcycle adventure through the rice paddies, a walk through the Monkey Forest, a cooking class, and a Kecak and Fire Dance performance. It was an amazing month indeed, and I came home with gigabytes photos of the trip which can be viewed on Flickr.

Upon returning to Vancouver, mid-May, the city was gearing up for summer. I was excited to do as much camping and music festival-ing as I could! The first camping trip of the season was the first weekend in June, at Golden Ears Park. Always awesome camping there, one of my favourite provincial parks! No cell phone service, great hikes, campfires and of course tasty camping food (and drink)!

My first music festival of the summer was the Vancouver folk fest. I was fortunate enough to get 2 free Lifetimer, all-access passes to the festival from a friend who was unable to use them (thanks Lulu!) and me and a friend enjoyed a weekend of music, sun and family atmosphere at the beach!

Next on the list was a whale watching adventure with my family out of Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island with Ocean Ecoventures Whale Watching. Again, amazing! You will find a full summary of the adventure in this blog post.

Komasket Music Festival in Vernon, during the August long weekend, was the next road trip. Teaming up with @Scales and @Uncleweed for some social media coverage of the event was great fun! Got some great shots, met some great artists (including Fred Penner and the Wailers), and as with most summer music festivals, came home with a sun burn!

Later in August, I took a week long trip to my home town of Duncan, on Vancouver Island to spend my birthday with family and friends. Good times had by all with boating/tubing on Lake Cowichan, and floating in the Cowichan River, a day trip to Port Renfrew and Botanical Beach, and no Island visit in summer would be complete without a fresh local crab fest! The perfect birthday it was!

In the fall, things finally wound down a bit. The last trip of the year was one out to Ucluelet and Tofino, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. I had not been out this way since I was about 12 years old, so I was very excited to go enjoy and photograph the beaches, especially with storm season just setting in! I was not disappinted! We lucked out with beautiful sunny weather the first day, including a gorgeous sunset on Long Beach. And the next day we enjoyed a storm and some great big crashing waves on the rocks in Ucluelet. And of course no trip to Tofino would be complete without a stop at Cathedral Grove and Coombs to see the goats on the roof on the way back!

In the fall things became quite busy. I moved out of the downtown core at the end of September, to East Van. Although I have always had a dog on a part time basis, in November Roxie came to stay with me full time as @Scales departed for Thailand. I love having her and love that she gets me out rain or shine (or snow!) for two hour-long walks a day! Having started a fulltime position at 80 Elements Entertainment in October, I have fallen back into a full time job routine. Also, I have been shooting weekend events for Estee Lauder. I started doing Bikrams Yoga three times a week in November, which I have become ridiculously addicted to. So the end of the year has found me to be quite busy.

I was happy to spend Christmas on the Island with family and friends and will be spending New Years Even there as well to ring in another (hopefully) adventurous year full of travel and surprises!

My new years resolutions are these: Travel more. Photograph more. Build my photography kit. Learn more about social media. Do more Bikrams! More is MORE!

Cheers to 2010 and all of you that I have met and befriended in the past 365 days! You have made an impact, and (whether good or bad) you have helped shape who I am and who I am to become. I thank you and look forward to another amazing year in 2011!

Cheers and Happy New Year!!!

February 13th was an amazing day for me! It all started with a walk in the park with the dog, where I received a phone call from the Holland Heineken House saying that I had won the ticket lottery for tickets for the 5000 M speed skating match that day!

With only an hour and a half before the event, things were rushed! I raced home, got ready to go, jumped in the car and raced down to the Holland House to pick up the tickets to make it to the Olympic Oval in Richmond in time!

So the tickets placed us in a section with other Dutch fans, all decked out in Orange and crazy costumes. Being Dutch myself, this was a very fun place to be!

There were 14 pairs racing in the event and in the end the Gold Medal went to the Netherlands’ Sven Kramer!!! Kramer not only won the race, but also broke an Olympic Record for the 5000 M race! AWESOME!

Not only did I see this amazing race and gold medal win, but later that evening I was fortunate enough to be at the Holland House for the celebration and to photograph Sven Kramer! Below are some of the photos of the day. Please visit Flickr to see more images of the day.

The ticket lottery at the Holland Heineken House is only available to Dutch citizens, so not an option for everyone. But if you have your Dutch passport and you want to try your chances to win the option to buy coveted tickets, head on down to the Holland Heineken House ticket desk and put your name in the draw! If I can win them, you can too!!

Yesterday’s win for the women’s hockey team against Switzerland and the gold medal presentation to Alexandre Bilodeau, gave Canadians much to celebrate last night!

Last night’s celebration at the Molson Hockey House was full of energy! Tom Cochrane played an awesome concert for the crowd, starting with Victory Day and ending with Life is a Highway, with a three song encore after that.

Donald Sutherland made an appearance as well and stripped off his coat and replaced it with a Canada hockey jersey, and then saying to the crowd, “I have only one question for you: Do you believe?!” Causing the crowd to go wild!

Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies also showed up to play Life is a Highway with the band.

Here are some of the images from the front row of the concert. To see more, please visit my Flickr account.

Although the Molson House is sold out for the duration of the Games, here are a few things to not if you are able to get your hands on a coveted pass to get in:

Fanzone Entry – $100.00
VIP Entry – $450.00 and up (depending on day)

Beers are $7.50 CND
Hard Liquor $10.00  CND

As with all Olympic venues, they accept only Cash or Visa as forms of payment.

Yesterday I was able to catch Premier Gordon Campbell and Olympian Charmaine Crooks fly down the temporary Olympic Zipline at Robson Square. It took him some time to actually step off the platform and take the plunge, but eventually he did and here are some photos of the event.

In the interview following the zipline, the Premier told news crews that the hardest part was stepping off the platform (especially considering his injured foot), but once he was going it was a great experience. he even tried to do a backward somersault, but was unsuccessful…

The zipline itself crosses over Robson Square from the top of the law courts to the Vancouver Art Gallery. It will be up throughout the Games from February 12 to 28th, from 10am to 9pm, and is FREE to the public! If you are up for the adventure I highly recommend arriving early, as the lineups for this once in a lifetime activity will likely be long! They plan on shooting 70 people down the line each hour, so chances sound pretty good that the lineup will move quite quickly! So come early and have FUN!!

[mappress]

Vancity is buzzing with activities in preparation and anticipation for the coming Winter Games.

In 22 days, Vancouver will host the world with Glowing hearts!

Flags and banners are starting to appear in all corners of the city.

VANOC venue access tents (aka security check points) are being erected, these can be found just on the west side of BC Place, one of the main entrance for the 2010 Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as for the Nightly Victory Ceremonies.

Deliveries are arriving, as seen here on Pacific Avenue, across from BC Place.

Fan gathering places are starting to pop up all over the city. Two examples seen here at Library Square on Georgia and Homer as well as at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Robson and Hornby.

Roads are being closed all over the city, these photos taken around GM Place.

Games sponsors are making themselves known as they manifest themselves on the sides of entire buildings and on various billboards. This one partially completed can be seen from the corner of Hornby and Georgia.

Fences are going up and security is starting to tighten, as you can see here at GM Place, just outside the Costco entrance.

GM’s fleet of sponsored vehicles is ready to crawl the city.

Stages are being built for upcoming entertainment acts. This one is found beside the skating rink at Robson Square.

And of course we have the Vancouver Police Department roaming the streets on horseback!

With three weeks remaining before the world visits our beautiful city, I’m sure we will continue to see the city transform for this exciting world event!

Make sure you start planning, this is the perfect time to get your game plan sorted before the storm hits Vancouver… Plan your movement and your schedule wisely, it will be wild…