A Moment for Charity

Do you Tweet? Are you all a Twitter? For the uninitiated, Twitter is the latest social messaging service that is sweeping the Interwebs. Originally embraced by web celebs in Silicon Valley, Twitter is quickly finding it’s way into the mainstream with everyone from Barack Obama and Ashton Kutcher to local news organizations and companies jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

I’ve been using Twitter for just over a year now and find it’s a great way to network with fellow photographers and meet a lot of great people involved in a variety of other professions. The local Twitter community in Edmonton has been quite active organizing Tweetups throughout this past year.

Why am I talking about all this? Well, on February 12th, 2009, the local Edmonton Twitter community will be joining over 160 other cities around the world for a Twestival (get it – Twitter + Festival + Twestival) to raise money for Charity Water. Charity Water is a non-profit organization with a mission to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Now besides coming out to support a great cause and meet new people, there will also be some great door prizes up for grabs including a framed 8x10 print of my ‘Cigar Man’ photo which was selected as the Best in Show during the 2008 Metro Photography Competition.

WHAT: Edmonton Twestival 2009

WHEN: Thursday, February 12th at 6:30pm

WHERE: Vintage Lounge, 10124 124th Street – map

COST: A $20 donation which will go entirely to charity: water.

Visit http://edmonton.twestival.com/ for more details and to register for the event. Thanks to Mack Male and Sharon Yeo for organizing the event. You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bruceclarke

Celebrating 50 Years

On Saturday I was invited to photograph an event for the Jasper Place Curling Club. 2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of the club and to celebrate the club held a Past Presidents’ Dinner to recognize the contributions of these individuals. Here are a few quick shots from the evenings’ activities.

                         

                      

del.icio.us Tags: events,Edmonton,Curling

Photography Sites & Blogs I Followed in 2008

One of the ways I like to keep up with what’s new in the world of photography, gather inspiration, and learn new techniques is to subscribe a number of blogs and websites. I also started using the social communication tool Twitter to follow a variety of photography related individuals and companies. Here are some of my top blogs, sites and people to follow on Twitter from 2008.

Blogs & Websites

• http://www.twipphoto.com – Home of This Week in Photography
• http://strobist.blogspot.com/ – the site to visit to learn all about off-camera lighting
• http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/2733 – Photoshop guru Scott Kelby’s blog
• http://luminous-landscape.com/ - the web's most comprehensive site devoted to the art of landscape, nature and documentary photography
• http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/ – a humorous look at bad applications of Photoshop
• http://www.dpreview.com – the site for reviews of photography equipment

Twitter

• www.twitter.com/scottbourne – from This Week in Photography
• www.twitter.com/frederickvan – formerly from Adobe and a contributor to TWiP
• www.twitter.com/halfpress – Aaron Mahler – producer of TWiP
• http://twitter.com/stevesimon – contributor to TWiP
• http://twitter.com/lisabettany – Mostly Lisa
• http://twitter.com/RobertEvans – commerical and wedding photographer
• http://twitter.com/robnlauren – amazing wedding photographers from Edmonton

A Christmas Moment

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s also a good time to remind everyone to take some time over the Christmas break to back-up your photos from this past year. Moments captured with your camera are once in a lifetime opportunities that will never happen again so be sure to take steps to protect those valuable moments!

Here is a little Christmas moment from our family. This is our dog Neko, all worn out after a tough day of opening presents. Enjoy!

Dancing for the Kids

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending the 4th Annual Dancing for the Kids fund raiser at the Shaw Conference Centre. This annual event is presented by the Rotary Club of Edmonton and supports the Kids with Cancer Society. Six celebrity dancers were paired with six professional dancers and each performed a different dance in front of a crowd of approximately 800 people and a panel of guest judges including Nicola Crosbie, Jamie Sale, Lynn Mandel and Katherine Frey. Celebrity dancers included Gillian Foote, Jason Gregor, Steve Hogle, Daryl McIntyre, Anna Posteraro, and Schoena Strudwick. They were paired with professional dancers Vince Davis, Samantha Gotlib, Daiana Sanchez, David Lam, Dominic LaCroix, and Delphine Romaire.

 

 

It was a great night of dancing and all of the celebrity dancers put forth an amazing effort. Dances included the Salsa, Fox Trot, Cha Cha, Argentine Tango, Lindy Hop and the Rumba. Video of each performance is available on CTV’s website at:

http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081126/edm_dancing_with_the_stars_081126/20081126/?hub=EdmontonHome#TopVideoAn

After each couple performed their dance, the panel of judges provided their feedback and then presented their scores. Once the judges had their say, the audience then had the ability to vote using a remote control voting system at each table. After all of the couples had performed and the results were tallied, Daryl McIntyre was crowned as the eventual champion with Gillian Foote taking 2nd place overall.

On a side-note, Daryl’s partner Samantha Gotlib was actually our dance instructor when my wife and I went to Arthur Murray to take some dance lessons for our wedding so it was great to run into her again after all these years.

Once the mirror ball trophy had been handed out, the dance floor was opened up to everyone to get up and strut their stuff. While out shooting the dances for my friend Anna Posteraro, I was approached by representatives of the Edmonton Oilers and asked to take a few photos of some of the Oiler’s players including Steve Staios and Jason Strudwick with his wife Shoena who was one of the celebrity dancers this year.

Pictured above: Steve Staios with 14 year-old Jennifer Taite who represented the Kids with Cancer Society.

Edmonton Oiler Jason Strudwick with his wife and celebrity dancer Shoena Strudwick.

More photos of Shoena’s performance can be found on the Edmonton Oilers website at http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=8614

For more information on this event, visit http://www.dancingforthekids.com/

del.icio.us Tags: Edmonton,Events,Dancing for the Kids 2008,Kids with Cancer Society,Edmonton Oilers

My Magazine Debut

Sometime last year I discovered a fantastic Canadian photography magazine called Photosho. Although it has only published 3 issues so far, the quality of the magazine and the images selected are outstanding. In addition, it is a Canadian magazine for Canadians featuring Canadians so that also gets bonus points in my book.

When the editor of the magazine put a call out for submissions or ideas for columns, I decided to pitch my idea for a column dedicated to promoting some of the great on-line resources available for photographers. This includes things like blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, educational sites, forums, review sites, etc. The editor loved the idea and asked me to submit a column for the next issue.

I’m pleased to announce that Issue #4 of Photosho magazine is now available for just $12.99 an issue and features my new column - “Click On – Web Resources for Photoraphers”. Click this link for a preview of Issue #4 http://www.photosho.ca/ps4.pdf. If you have already had a chance to read my column, I would love to receive any feedback or comments as well as suggestions of great on-line resources for photographers.

If you love great photography and would like to support a great Canadian publication, there is also a campaign running right now looking for people to donate to the publication to keep it going. Publishing a magazine is an expensive endeavour that requires a lot of funding so if you’re interested, you can head on over to www.photosho.ca and click on the Donate tab to make a contribution. Donations of $50 or more receive a free subscription to Photosho as well as recognition in the next issue.

David Foster Star Search Competition

I am fortunate to have been selected as the official photographer for the David Foster Foundation Harmony Gala which will be held in Edmonton at the Winspear on Saturday, September 13th. Leading up the event, a talent competition was held this past weekend at the River Cree Resort and Casino where 240 talented young performers took to the stage for their chance to perform for David Foster at an exclusive VIP dinner at LUX Steakhouse this Friday. Performers were given 30 seconds to sing acappella and then the top 58 ended up being selected to return on Sunday where they were given 3 minutes to perform with accompaniment. From that group of 58, six were selected and will perform for David on Friday. David will then select the winner who will go on to perform at the gala the next evening. Here are a few shots from this past weekend.