In the short time I spent on the whirlwind Whitehorse Olympic media day last February, there was much to see and do!    (This post is well overdue….)

The trip started right from the moment we checked in at YVR. The woman handing out the boarding passes was dressed in traditional dress from the gold rush days. She wore this while hosting the flight to Whitehorse with contests and games.

Upon arrival, our media group was ushered to waiting school buses to take us to the local Whitehorse tourism centre, where we were introduced to the Province’s premier, Dennis Fentie, and members of Yukon Tourism. We were also treated to a dance from the Snowshoe Shufflers! Yep, dancers with snowshoes strapped to their feet! They also had past Olympians and Special Olympians present from the local area. I was honoured to personally meet Christine Larsen and she allowed me not only to hold her medal from the Atlanta Games, but to hang it around my neck as well!

Travel Yukon hosted a quick lunch with tastes of various restaurants in the city with traditional loca foods, such as moose, bison, and venison meats! It was all absolutely delicious!

We were then separated into our respective groups, depending on the activity we had previously chosen. The one my partner and I chose to be a part of was the Wildlife Reserve and Hot Springs tour. In between the two, we even stopped at t a local coffee roasting company, Bean North, where they roast organic beans from around the world that are purchased via fair trade.

At the wildlife reserve we saw many animals, from reindeer, to mountain goats, mountain sheep, elk, and  deer, to my favourite: a lynx!

The Takhini Hot Springs were heavenly! We didn’t have a whole lot of time to enjoy them, but in the -20 degree Celsius weather it was a welcome warm up! The great thing about these hot springs was that you did not get that rotten egg sulfur smell that you often do with hot springs. There was no odor at all! Just two big pools of different temperatures to enjoy at your leisure. We were told that if you’re enjoying the hot springs at night, you may be lucky enough to catch a great light show from the arora borealis. Now THAT, I would love to experience!

Connected to the hot springs is accommodation in the form of small cabins in the woods. The cabins looked very cozy and a good place to warm up as a nice winter retreat. With snow shoeing and cross-country skiing as daytime activities, and the hot springs to warm up in at the end of the day, you will never get bored at the Takhini Resort!

Next, we were taken to the Whitehorse Museum where we had an opportunity try our hands at gold panning, taste some locally brewed beer and attempt the Sour Toe Cocktail. You’ll find more details about interesting cocktail, continent a mummified human toe in this previous post. You can watch a video of me drinking the cocktail on YouTube.

From the museum the media group was taken to our last stop of the trip, the banquet dinner for the Yukon Quest dog sledding race. (http://www.yukonquest.com/) We were invited to partake in the celebration and announcements of the winners of the 2010 Yukon Quest. We had the honour of meeting the winner and speaking with him about the challenges he experienced over the 1,600 km of rough, sometimes hazardous terrain between Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks, Alaska.

We had one final surprise at the Whitehorse airport to round off our Yukon experience as we waited to check in and board our chartered flight back to YVR. Cancan dancers! Pretty sure this is not a regular occurrence for travelers to Whitehorse…

After a full day of travel and activities, we arrived back in Vancouver around midnight. It was a nice break, but I was happy to jump back into the Olympics craziness the following day.

I’d like to thank Travel Yukon and Canada’s Northern House for inviting me to come along on the Yukon media trip. It was truly amazing to see such a beautiful part of our country. I know I’ll be back again to see and experience all that Yukon has to offer! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that will not be forgotten!

During the Olympics, I was invited on a media trip to Whitehorse, Yukon for a day. On the trip the group visited a nature reserve where I saw this beautiful lynx.

For more photos from the Yukon trip, please visit Flickr.

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!!!

This was taken during the Wide Mouth Mason show held at the Molson Canadian Hockey House between periods of the Gold Medal Olympic Hockey game of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games! Amazing band, amazing show, unbelievable game!

For more pics of the concert, visit the Set on Flickr!

(image source: Canadian Paralympic Committee)

Ottawa, ON (October 22, 2010) – Today, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and several decorated Paralympians gratefully accepted the financial contribution of $5M annually over the next five years from the Minister of State for Sport, the Honourable Gary Lunn. The funding was announced during the 2010 Canadian Paralympic Congress in Ottawa, attended by leaders in sport and disability organizations from across the country. This announcement follows the financial commitment announced by Minister Flaherty in the Federal Budget on March 4^th.

This new funding has triggered the most ambitious plan in the history of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

“Our vision is to be the world-leading Paralympic Nation. This means more than gold medals. It means having success on the world stage, as well as having a sustainable Paralympic sport system that encourages participation; provides access to the best equipment, coaches and leadership; and, celebrates the accomplishment of our nations’ Paralympians,” said Carla Qualtrough, President for the Canadian Paralympic Committee . “This is a significant day as it marks the beginning of a very bright future for us. It will empower us to enhance the podium performance of the Canadian Paralympic Team as well as to work closely with our partners to raise the awareness of the opportunities available in sport for Canadians with a disability.”

“Our Government is proud to support our Canadian Paralympic athletes. We have all been inspired by their recent successes, notably at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and the XIX Commonwealth Games in Delhi. This additional investment will ensure that the CPC has the tools that it needs to continue to build on these triumphs, and to encourage more persons with disabilities to actively participate in sport.”

This funding represents a new era for the Canadian Paralympic Committee and leads the organization to a new and brighter future. With significant, stable funding, more children with disabilities will have the opportunity to participate in sport and pursue dreams of representing their country in international high performance competition. The result will be a positive impact on the health and well-being of Canadians, especially those with a disability.

The new Strategic Plan will focus on four pillars: (1) enhancing podium performances at Paralympic Games; (2) building a World-class Paralympic Sport System; (3) creating a sustainable business model for the Canadian Paralympic Committee; and, (4) expanding the awareness of Paralympic sport and building the Paralympic Brand.

“The Federal Government’s commitment represents a new era for the Paralympic Movement in Canada,” said Chantal Petitclerc, five-time Paralympic wheelchair racer and winner of 21 Paralympic medals. “It is very encouraging to see that up and coming athletes will have this type of support from their Government and I am thrilled to see Paralympic sport receive this kind of recognition.

This increase in funding demonstrates that encouraging healthy lifestyles for the 3.6 million Canadians living with disabilities through promotion of sport and recreation remains a priority for this government. It also reflects the growing pride and support of Canadians for the Canadian Paralympic Team. The Canadian Paralympic Committee and its athletes applaud the Federal Government for their support and their vital role in being a strong advocate of the Paralympic Movement.

(source: Canadian Paralympic Committee Press Release)

On March 12th, the 2010 Paralympic Opening Ceremonies took place at BC Place in Vancouver, BC. This was an absolutely amazing and inspiring event and I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to experience it from several photographer positions in the stadium, due to my official VANOC media accreditation.

It was an amazing sight to walk into the stadium and see the stadium filled with people wearing the colored ponchos assigned to their seats. Blue, green and white flooded the stands in the shape of the Paralympic logo. Awesome!

The Opening Ceremony was an amazing show with some incredible talent from the disabled community. The Ceremonies started with the introduction of the esteemed guests, including Prime Minister Harper, Premier Gordon Campbell, VANOC CEO John Furlong, and Paralympics President Philip Craven, among members of the four host nations and others.

From there, they dove right into the performances and introduction of the Paralympic athletes. Canada is featured here:

And from there, the talent and performances spoke for themselves:

The inspiring speakers of the event: VANOC CEO, John Furlong, IPC President, Philip Craven and Rick Hansen of the Rick Hansen Foundation and the Man in Motion World Tour.

And, of course, the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron. The torch was brought in by the parents of Terry Fox, Betty and Rolly Fox, A truly emotional and inspiring moment to experience in person. It was passed off to other torch bearers before the final  15 year old torch bearer Zach Beaumont, lit the cauldron.

With the theme of One Inspires Many, the Paralympic Opening Ceremony was definitely inspiring. Good luck to all the athletes competing in the Games! It will be an amazing 10 days!

For more images of the Opening Ceremonies, please visit the set on Flickr!

This past Tuesday I was invited to attend the Coca-Cola Live Positively Awards, held during the 2010 Olympic Games at the BC Media Center in Vancouver.

“Live Positively” represents The Coca-Cola Company‘s philosophical approach to building sustainable communities through initiatives that protect the environment, conserve resources and enhance the economic development of the communities where it operates. The Live Positively concept grew from the recognition that sustainable growth for The Coca-Cola Company is integrally connected to both its business and its marketing success, as well as its societal role.

The Coca-Cola Company is honouring individuals, families and organizations with the Coca-Cola Live Positively Award during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Each recipient was chosen because of his or her efforts to turn their passion for improving the well-being of Canadians into important changes that have positively impacted their local communities. With a focus on either active living or environmental sustainability, each recipient has a unique and inspirational story to share.

The following were honoured on Tuesday afternoon:

Jennifer Heil & Dominick Gauthier – on behalf of B2ten:

B2ten is a not for profit organization that supports Canadian elite athletes so they may succeed at the highest level of international competition. For more information, visit http://www.b2ten.com/.

Sami Jo Small:

Sami Jo is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the 2009 recipient of the Athletes CAN Leadership Award. Sami Jo is also the co-founder of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Her commitment to sport and her involvement in developing the Canadian Women’s Hockey League has helped create a forum for women across the country to participate in our nation’s sport at an elite level.

Canadian Olympic School Project:

The Olympic School Program is the Canadian Olympic Committee’s primary education program aiming to spread the positive message of the Olympic Games to all students between grades 2-12. The organization has been providing teachers with Olympic Games themed resources for over 20 years.