Tag: calgary Posts

My Three Week Tour of North America

Canada

In just three days, I’ll be heading to the airport again on what will undoubtedly be a great tour of North America. I’m meeting Luciana in Toronto, and her and I will slowly make our way via train to Québec City. From there we are going to head back to Ottawa for a weekend, then off to Banff, Lake Louise and hopefully Jasper. After a brief stop in Vancouver, we’re going to head down to San Francisco for some San Francisco Giants baseball action, and hopefully a few winery tours. Many of the places we are heading to are places I haven’t spent much time in. While I’ve driven through Québec City before, I have never spent any time there and am looking forward to wandering the streets with Luciana (plus I need to get my yearly poutine fix in Québec). I also have never been to Napa Valley before, […]

Inside The Media Room At The Junos

Photography

I picked up a cab and headed down to the Saddledome to attend the Junos tonight. However, as soon as I got to the front door, I was told that I wasn’t allowed inside by some lady. Of course, I received countless emails that said I had access to this event, which of course I tried to explain to her. Her argument was that those emails didn’t mean anything, and that they were limited by space. Eventually she let me in, but it was a rather big hassle. The media room here is fairly nuts. There are about twice as many photographers as last night, but they are stuffed in about half of the space. I went down and looked at the photo pit in the stadium, but I think it’s just going to be too crowded, and I’m not going to bother. I’ve even a bit concerned getting photos […]

Great Night In Calgary

 Journal

So, I really don’t know how to describe the last few hours. It was pretty amazing. The thing is, I was invited to shoot photos on the red carpet for some all inclusive event. Unfortunately, even though it was sponsored by a company and they wanted lots of publicity, as a photographer most of us weren’t allowed inside. So after about 20 minutes of taking photographs in the cold, I figured I had better uses for my time, and headed down to this other party downtown (thanks to a girl we met during the night). Anyways, despite not being on the guest list, we all somehow get ourselves into the hotel. For the rest of the night I hung out with Juno nominees and winners in a special section of the bar, drinking, laughing and having a great time. At one point, I ended up in guitar jam room full […]

At The Junos

 Journal

First, the Penthouse Party at the Fairmont in Calgary. It was awesome. I put my camera down the entire time and just enjoyed myself, which was cool because almost every Juno nominee at the Juno Fan Fare came and hung out. I sat down and put myself next to this really cute girl (Nadine) from a Toronto Media Company. While chatting with her, the guys from State Of Shock swung by and I chatted with them for a while (great guys). There were Juno nominees everywhere, but I was too busy mingling and drinking free beer to notice. I just got back from a full behind-the-scenes look at the Junos setup for tonight (it’s fairly unreal). Unfortunately, the two photo booths are basically so far away as to render most shots impossible (every photographer here is amazingly upset about them). I’m a little more optimistic, since I can do wonders […]

Juno Fan Fare

Photography

I woke up this morning at around 10am, close to being rested, but not 100%. The stupid alarm clock in my hotel room started going off at 4:30am, and it took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to shut it off. No matter. I cabbed down to the University this morning to check out the Juno Fan Fare. It’s basically a huge event where the fans can line up and get autographs from their favourite groups. Media access to this event wasn’t that great. They had set up two photo pits on either side of the autographing areas, but due to the location of them, the angles on the shots were fairly horrible. A few photographers were going “out of bounds” and attempting to get better shots, which made for a few encounters between them and security. I took the high ride and simply shot where I was […]

Inside The 2008 Juno Awards

Photography

I just got back from an invite-only press conference inside the Calgary Saddledome. Inside, we got to get our first glimpse of the set for the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards. A Shot Of The Stage At The Junos To be honest, I was a bit worried about being here, given that I’m not really a mainstream media person. But after seeing how everyone else handled themselves, I no longer feel that out of my element. Ben Mulroney, The Host Of Canadian Idol In fact, watching everyone else take photos and set up huge camera equipment, I realized I’m probably one of the only people there that will be able to post stuff within a few hours of being at an event out here. Russell Peters, The Host Of The Juno Awards In fact, even as I type this I have two movies uploading, one that gives a live demonstration of […]

On My Way

Photography

I currently just flew past Kelowna, and according to the in-seat GPS unit, am hurtling across BC at around 32000 feet. It was raining on the ground in Vancouver, but the sun is shining way up here amongst the clouds. Latest weather report from the cockpit says it’s -6C in Calgary (I should have packed some warmer clothes), so it’s going to be a slight adjustment when I land. I spent the last 15 minutes reading all the emails I’ve been sent from the Junos media committee (something I probably should have done a few days ago). It turns out there’s a lot more going on than I originally realized, and I think I’m going to be fairly busy in the next 72 hours. The press conference starts around noon today and will feature Russell Peters as well as a live performance or two. The event is sponsored by CTV, […]