Yesterday afternoon I placed a few calls and booked myself into the Calgary hotel where all the media are staying for the Junos. It’s right downtown and should be close to all the major events. I actually have a few friends from high school out that way, so I’m looking forward to seeing some of them again on their own turf.
I went to Flickr late last night and did a search for Juno photographs. Surprisingly, I couldn’t really find any. I spent some time thinking about what that means and either a) bloggers and new-media type people typically don’t end up at the Junos or b) most photos end up entirely in the hands of corporate publications.
Either way, I think I have an interesting opportunity to present a pretty awesome overview of what it’s like to be at the Junos for three days, sort of a photojournalistic approach to being inside. I plan on writing as much as I can over on Urban Vancouver, as well as my own site.
I’ve actually been thinking hard about how to restructure my website when the event comes to make finding and reading about the Junos straightforward (as well as help people find my website when the event is taking place). I’ve gone over a few different ways in my head, and I’m fairly convinced that I’ll have to make changes to my theme to pull it off, at least if I want Google to take notice.
Giddy Up – Me with a cowboy hat +1I’ll be flying out of Vancouver on the afternoon of Friday the 4th, which puts me in Calgary early enough to pick up my media pass, and check out the opening night gala. Saturday is pretty much filled with music, autographing and drinking events, so I’ll think I’ll have no shortage of things to photograph. I’m definitely getting a cowboy hat, and when not formally dressed, will be walking around taking photos with it on. Very exciting.
Sunday is the actually award ceremony, and I’m not entirely sure what my access will be like to that — the red carpet event is pretty elite, and most photographers don’t have access to it. So we’ll see. Monday is April 7th, which is of course my birthday, and I’ll be flying home early in the morning, landing in Vancouver just in time for some nachos.
Contrary to popular belief, wearing a cowboy hat in Calgary is NOT cool. Unless it’s Stampede time – then it’s cool, but after its 10-day run that hat should go back on the shelf.
It’s gonna be cool when I’m there.
Happy shooting, Duane!!
Arieanna got a media pass as well, I’ll let her know you are going too.
Awesome. I totally forgot to talk to you about this, among other things. We were originally going to potentially run a social media aggregator to cover the Junos. I think we could set something up pretty quick. Interested?
(oh, and I think you would fill most of the content, but we might start a meme to tag news etc. with delicious links “junos2008” which get them aggregated — somehow I don’t there will be an “Tweets” about the Junos … http://twemes.com/junos2008).
P.S. Oh, and that whole time with you me and the hat in Ottawa was fun 😛
Yah, aggregate away.
I went to the Junos with my sister when they were in Winnipeg and had a good time. Neither one of us brought a camera though, truthfully I was kind of afraid they wouldn’t let them in, security was pretty tight. I think I bought a program instead. I love Canadian music and found it was a great event for introducing me to stuff I’d never heard before. Take in as much you can and have fun!