Photography Posts

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 […]

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 […]

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 band after the show: [blipit id=800792] Also, head on over to Danny’s MySpace Page for some more information. There are some more shots on my Flickr if anyone is interested.

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 my Flickr account, but here are a few teasers. First, the lovely Miss Lindsay Ell: Daniel, from God Made Me Funky: The Dudes: It’s only 9:50pm, and I’m beat. I’ve taken 1GB worth of movies and 4GB worth […]

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 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 […]

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, […]

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 so I can try and get 30 minutes of sleep. I’m pretty much guaranteed to be going non-stop once I land in Calgary, at least until the early afternoon, at which point I’ll probably head back to […]

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 Canadian Juno Awards Coverage page so that people can find it, and I don’t feel like an idiot writing entirely for myself. I’ll probably promote it to the front page (something I’ve […]

It’s getting close. In just nine days, I’ll be getting on a plane and heading out to Calgary to attend the 2008 Juno awards. I haven’t really had time to let the whole event soak in yet, and to be honest, probably won’t figure out where I’ll be all weekend until I land in Calgary. What I really want to do is provide an insider’s view of what it’s like being at the Junos during the entire weekend. I’m not sure what that means yet, but it will most likely involve tons of photos and the odd video. To that end, I really want to go out and buy a new portable camera, something that can do fairly decent video. I really am looking for portability here, and would just go out and get the new Canon Digital Elph, had I not had a pile of bad experiences with them […]