Last year I attended the 2008 Canadian Juno awards in Calgary, AB, as a media representative for Urban Vancouver. The media accredidation is open for this year's awards show, which are in Vancouver. I would love to attend this year as a photographer again, but am hoping to be able to go as a social media representative for another company where the coverage can potentially reach more people. I received a great deal of coverage both during and after the event, and was essentially one of the only social media people in the room who was using grass root's technology to showcase the behind the scenes ...

Update - Hotwire came through for me again. We're going to be staying at the Magnolia Luxury Boutique Hotel right in Inner Harbour. So exciting. The other day Arieanna contacted me via Twitter and asked if I wanted a photo pass for the festivities this weekend in Victoria. Since I haven't been to Victoria in a few years, I thought it might be a good opportunity to sample some island beer and take some photos. Sometimes photo passes just let you get your camera in the door, and aren't really anything special. However, Arieanna just got confirmation that our passes include access to the front-stage ...

I'm sure many of you know already know who Leslie Feist is. She's one of Canadian's most recognized young musicians now, thanks to obvious talent and also having her song 1-2-3-4 included in one of Apple's largest marketing campaigns. If I remember correctly, Feist snagged five awards at the Junos, which is as close to a landslide as you can really have at an event like that. I unfortunately didn't get to meet her (she was rather popular that night), but I did get to hang out a few feet away from her and snap a few photos. I was doing some reading in my RSS reader this morning and came across ...

I found a bunch more videos from the Junos. After the Gala on the Saturday night, a few of us headed to some after party. Here's a shot from the Jam Room upstairs in the VIP room. ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

So there were five bands that played tonight, and to be honest, they were all awesome in their own way. I'm not a big country fan, but standing three feet away from Justin Rutledge listening to the guy pour his heart out in a southern drawl is enough to rope anyone in. Lindsay Ell was an absolute cutey, and I even got a chance to talk to her briefly after the show. And while they were all awesome, God Made Me Funky was pretty unbelievable. They are a group of eight members from the Toronto area, and their show is this amazing mix of funk and dance. I had the opportunity to talk to Danny from the ...

Wow. That's all I can say. I really had no idea what to expect, but the event so far has completely blown away all my expectations. Sometimes when you get a media pass you can't really do anything. Contrast that with my pass, where I can basically do whatever I want. I literally have walked into any room I've wanted and photographed whatever I have wanted. I was up front, literally three feet from the stage, using both my SLR and my video camera during the whole night, all while drinking free beer and chatting with cute girls in cowboy hats. I'm not coming home. I uploaded a pile of photos to ...

Here's another video I took when the lights were going wild on the stage. A couple of questions were fielded with regards to the Saddledome. [blipit id=799870] ...

I took a quick video of Russell Peters when he came out. The quality isn't stellar, but you can get a sense of what it was like being inside. [blipit id=799742] ...

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 ...

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, ...

It's 6am, and I'm currently sitting on a chair at the Vancouver International Airport waiting to get on my flight to Calgary. I was really looking forward to having a nice hot eggs benedict at the airport, but the airport decided to close Milestone's for me, so I'm SOL I guess. My only options right now are unripe raw bananas or my favourite liquid diet, diet pepsi. If I would have had eggs benedict though, they might have looked like this: Photo by lehedonist on Flickr I didn't get to sleep until well after 2am, so 5am came really early for me. I'm pretty beat, and can't wait to get on the plane ...

Well, in exactly 12 hours I'll be getting on a plane and heading to Calgary for the 2008 Canadian Juno Awards. I haven't really had time to get excited or to even think about what I'm going to do for three days in Calgary. I picked up a few new clothes today, including that fun black shirt I'm wearing in the photo. All my camera equipment is charging in the other room, and I'm slowly adding stuff to a suitcase (and having a hard time deciding how big of a suitcase to bring). I'm heading over to Miss604's house in a sec for some quick Thai food, and to borrow some podcasting equipment from John, ...

At this time tomorrow, I'll be bouncing around Calgary trying to get my media pass before the press conference at noon. Which means I get to spend most of tonight getting my camera gear ready and packing some clothes. Photo from Russell Peter's Website My flight is at 7am in the morning, and I hope to have a few minutes in the airport relaxing with a coffee and an eggs benedict. I'm pretty excited about going to the Junos, and really have no idea what to expect. Russell Peters will be at the press conference tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to chat with him a bit -- I'm a big fan of some of his ...

On Friday morning I'll be flying out to the Juno awards in Calgary. There's a press conference at noon sharp where the media will get to view the entire setup as well as talk to Russell Peters, the host of the Juno Awards. I was originally going to fly out around noon, but I just got the email about the press conference so I might take the full day off and fly out at 7am, assuming I can change my flight. I'm still waiting on a few image assets from the Juno organization, but I've started putting together a page that I'll use when I'm out there. If you can, please throw some link love at my 2008 ...

When the Juno awards were announced a few months ago, I put my name on the list for media accreditation. I didn't hear anything for a while, so I sort of assumed it wasn't going through. Today I got an email saying I had a media pass, which means I have full access to photograph the Canadian Juno Awards. I'll be photographing and writing on behalf of Urban Vancouver, so look on my blog and over there from time to time for photos and a few entries. I still have to sort everything out and see if I can get a hotel room and what not, but it's fairly likely I'll be heading to Calgary for the first ...