June 21...

Today (June 21) is the first day of summer, Calgary's  Neighbour Day, and International Go Skateboarding Day.  It was also another one of those Saturdays where I ran all over the place taking tons of photos.

First, it started with a talk about lenses and then a field trip with the Calgary Public Library Photo Club.  The field trip had us practicing shooting slow shutter speeds and panning.

While shooting everything of interest that moved I noticed there were more skateboarders than usual downtown, so I asked one heavily tattooed guy if there was an event going on.  He said that today was International Go Skateboarding Day and that people were skateboarding all over the world.

So after the walkabout a friend and I went to Shaw Millennium Park where dozens of skateboarders (of all ages) were competing for some very strange prizes (size 8 shoes and underwear).

We ran into an Aboriginal Awareness Week celebration complete with tee pees and country music, also taking place near the park.  We saw a fiddler that could easily win a duel with the devil playing the Orange Blossom Special.  He was fast, frantic, and wicked!

Next, I went to Bridgeland to check out Arusha's Re-Localization Fair.  I hopped the c-train and got off at the City Hall stop.  From there I walked past the DI and discovered a community of gophers.  At the DI I took photos of a young gopher who looked so cute; even with the red nose and claws.  I heard that gophers were cannibals.  Well, I saw for myself.  A few seconds before taking the shot the little critter was nibbling on a relative; recently road killed.

At the Fair I picked up some fresh BC fruit, bumped into some people I know, and explored some of the businesses on Bridgeland's main street.

Then on the way home I discovered a house party with young people sitting on the roof and a garage punk band blaring from the back yard.  I'm thinking it was part of Neighbour Day.  By this time my energy level was running on empty and I was more focused on getting up the hill to get home than taking any more photos.

Links:

• Summer Solstice - CBC
• Aboriginal Awareness Week
• Neighbour Day
• International Go Skateboarding Day
• Arusha Centre Re-Localization Fair
• Richardson's Ground Squirrel - University of Lethbridge

The Merry Month of May

What a wild few weeks it has been.  The more I do the less time I have to write this blog, but I'll try my best now to catch up.

National Music Centre

After the oops with the Garbage Fest, I did photos for the hip hop concert otherwise known as the Global Fest Urban Arts Youth Forum, both nights of the Jazz Summit, and a private function where gifts were exchanged between the NMC and the Hills-Powers Foundation.

The Youth Forum was full of great performances from young hip hop and spoken word artists, who could also dance!

 Although I was told the Saturday night Jazz Summit concert was the one to definitely shoot, I attended both and was glad I did.  The first night had local band, Both Sides Now (they jazz up Joni Mitchell songs).

The second night had charming recording artist Laili Biali with her phenomenal drummer and upright bass player.  She also had very cool leopard print shoes.  Tim Tamashiro MC'd the second night where he promised the audience they would be Lailified.  The NMC pulled some of their collection instruments out for Laili to play, which was why photos were so important.

On Monday night the National Music Centre celebrated a gift of $1 million from the Jaimie Hill & Tammy-Lynn Powers Memorial Foundation.  It was to be a night of mostly posed photos (which terrified me) and candids of the family touring the NMC instrument collection (which I loved!).  Learned how to use Nik to brighten the people hiding in the shadows in group shots.

DI Mural

A friend of mine, along with a couple other artists, have been commissioned to create a mural on the wall near the Drop-In Centre.  After shooting the Hill-Powers affair, I booted over to shoot the artists projecting their drawing onto the wall while the homeless hung around nearby.

One native woman drew close to me to whisper, "Somebody got stabbed on that corner last night.  Did ya know that?  People get stabbed here all the time."  I told her that while I didn't know about the night before, I had heard of other stabbings that have happened there.  Still, shooting posed shots was more terrifying that shooting near the DI in the dark, with possible drug dealings going on at the corner.

Multicultural Night

Every May, my photographer friend Len and I do two cultural events; Multicultural Night and the University of Calgary Filipino Student's Association Culture Nite.  Unfortunately, due to the Jazz Summit commitment to the NMC I was only able to do the Multicultural Night held at the Jubilee Auditorium on May 18th.  There was much speechifying (almost too much) and a variety of folk performers.  Always colorful.

Calgary Public Library Photography Club

After a brief talk on lenses, a bunch of us did a Prince's Island Park walkabout, Saturday May 17th.  I had to work that afternoon, so I didn't stay long.

Lilac Festival

The Lilac Festival, my most favorite festival, was celebrating 25 years this year.  As usual, the crowds were huge with lots of people, dogs, kids in strollers, vendors, musicians and dancers.  I discovered a band to add to my local favorites list, Freak Motif.

Links:

• National Music Centre - GlobalFest Urban Youth Forum Showcase
• National Music Centre - Jazz Summit - May 23 - Both Sides Now Ensemble
• National Music Centre - Jazz Summit - May 24 - Laila Biali Trio
• Jaimie Hill & Tammy-Lynn Powers Memorial Foundation
• Multicultural Night - GlobalTV video interview of Michael Gratton (organizer) with clips from 2013 Multicultural Night performers
• Calgary Public Library Photography Club
• Lilac Festival