Last weekend was a fantastic (and special) weekend. Two very good friends of mine got married at a beautiful lake-side resort on Schuswap Lake in British Columbia. Since the ceremony was only a few hours long, we spent the rest of our time taking advantage of a ski boat that we had rented for the weekend, along with a tube and a wakeboard. The photo of me above is, believe it or not, my first time ever on a wakeboard. I have never tried snowboarding or skateboarding either, so I had no idea what it was going to be like. If you’ve never done it, the hardest part is the initial getting up out of the water (which some others had a bit more trouble with), but since I grew up waterskiing, I knew what to do and getting up came natural. Once up, it was a matter of learning how the board reacted to my movements.

It was such a great weekend. To cap it off, I drove the extra 2 hours south to Penticton where I got to see my father (59 years old) complete his third Ironman challenge. Seeing the intensity of the crowd and the emotion on the faces of the competitors as they crossed the finish line after 13+ hours of racing was quite the experience. I have only ever ran half-marathons (which are 21.1kms), so to see people completing a full 42.2km marathon AFTER cycling 180 kms and swimming 3.8 kms… is beyond impressive to say the least.

Will I ever race one? Probably… someday.

Above: My friend Todd showed us all how its done.

Above: Steve taking flight in the water tube.

I went for a walk after dinner with my parents last night, who were in town visiting. It was around 9:00pm and for some reason, a large group of ducks and geese were extremely active along the river in Eau Claire. It was kind of a humorous moment, so I stopped and took this quick 1-second exposure.

Its about time I posted some photos from this year’s Calgary Stampede, so here is the first.

Leo Tournier, who is the younger brother of reigning Stampede chuckwagon champion Luke Tournier, comes around the corner slightly ahead of fellow racer Rick Fraser. Leo’s tarp sponsor was the Friends of the Mavericks and his wagon is dedicated in memory of his son, Ty, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 3 1/2. Fraser’s tarp sponsors were Heninger Toyota and the Chickwagon Foundation.

The image above is one of my favourites. I grew up in the country riding horses, driving tractors, bailing hay, and even playing pond hockey with frozen horse dung, so I always get really excited when the Stampede kicks off. I love horses, so its easy for me to say that I love photographing horses too. I’m hoping that some of my best images will help me receive access to photograph the entire Rangeland Derby event next year.

Working closely with the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank this year, I was able to secure some pretty awesome seating for the Rangeland Derby on various race days (we all cheered loudly for Barry Hodgson who was racing for the Food Bank). I also had the opportunity to hang out behind the scenes at the race barns where I was able to meet and hang out with a lot of the athletes.

I plan to post more Stampede images in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Tracey Quo and I met at the last Alberta Fashion Week here in Calgary. After chatting briefly, I gave her my business card. A few months later, with the help of Tracey’s friend and model Rayna McKay, we got together to create some fantastic images for her styling portfolio.

Regarding the theme of the shoot, Tracey says,

My concept for this shoot was to use very soft and wearable garments in a peaceful and picturesque environment. All the clothing had a toned down bohemian vibe and included a fair amount of silk. I had an image in my head of various Greek myths that included nymphs lounging around bodies of water … I think Rayna definitely captures that innocent yet devilish motif here.

A huge high five to Rayna who did a fantastic job that afternoon, considering the amount of mosquitoes that were out.

Follow Tracey Quo online via her fashion blog: breakfastatdior.blogspot.com

To see more of Rayna McKay, check out her Facebook page: facebook.com/rayna.mckay

Here is another image I created during the iStockphoto RetroLypse minilypse event. With the overall theme of the event being retro, roller skates and neon colours were a must-have subject. All of the models were fantastic, as well as the make-up and styling. As for the roller skating, the best place to go in Calgary is easily Lloyd’s Roller Rink. We had a blast shooting there.

View part 1 – Marv’s Classic Soda Shop

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This image is available for purchase at iStockphoto. Buy it now.
For more information regarding iStockphoto Minilypse events, check out iStockphoto.com’s minilypse forum.

Exciting news today.

I am extremely happy to tell you that the poster for School of Hard Knocks 8 is now printed. I am happy because the great folks over at Hard Knocks Fighting Championship decided to use one of my photographs from the previous event as the main image of the poster. It is an image depicting James Haddad taking a foot from David Krawczyk (see below), which is one of my best images created that night while shooting on behalf of Top MMA News.

So awesome and very honored. Be sure to keep an eye open around Calgary to see the poster in action.

PS. Tickets are now on sale for School of Hard Knocks 8. Just say’n.

Just a quick shot of Teatro Restaurant. It occupies the Dominion Bank building which is located at Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary, Alberta. I have been inside, but haven’t tried the menu yet, as it is one of the higher priced restaurants in Calgary. A lot of my friends have told me that this restaurant is definitely worth trying, so I think I’ll save my first visit for a date night adventure.

After over a year of research, hard work, preparation, and dedication, I am able to say that iStockphoto v9.0 has finally launched. This is iStock’s first major site design update since back in 2006 and I am proud to say that I am part of the design team that helped make it happen. We’re all very excited about it and can’t wait to see the new design progress into the future.

The new site still has some of the old iStock touches, but overall, things have changed in a pretty large way. We’ve been slowly introducing customers and contributors to the new look with an F5 Article and some videos on Vimeo. Now that the site is live, we’re hoping everyone can help us out by reporting any bugs and issues to us.

Kelly Thompson, COO of iStockphoto, introduced the new design to everyone on August 7th.

“At the heart, what we’ve done is separate the actual content – the photographs, illustrations, video, audio and Flash – and put it directly in front of the people who want it. The home page and the new file landing pages are all about showing content to our customers. There’s way more featured content than we’ve ever had before, and we think the new look helps that content stand out more.”

Check out the new iStockphoto.com

If you’re on Twitter, you might enjoy following the iStockphoto creative team. We tend to have pretty interesting things to say.

• @iStock

• @SoCoAddict (me)
• @jameslv
• @poploser
• @nightcommittee
• @MikaelLindh
• @troydangerous
• @Seventytw0dpi
• @limnen

UPDATE: I am happy to announce that today the photo above has been chosen as an iStockphoto Hot Shots image. I am so happy to have finally produced an image that was deemed worthy enough for such an honor. Very exciting day.

I had the pleasure of photographing Marvin Garriott recently. Marv owns, operates, and is the founder of Marv’s Classic Soda Shop, which is located in the small town of Black Diamond, south of Calgary. His shop was one of three locations set for RetroLypse, an iStock contributor-run photography event. This post is part 1 of a bunch that I will post with images created during the event.

His shop sells a plethora of old style nostalgic candy and also serves ice cream treats from recipes found in vintage soda books. Marv is a true class act and was a great pleasure to photograph. Full of character and style, he is also one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. If you’re ever in the area, go visit his shop and say Hello.

Check out Marv’s Classic Soda Shop online at www.marvsclassics.ca

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This image is available for purchase at iStockphoto. Buy it now.
For more information regarding iStockphoto Minilypse events, check out iStockphoto.com’s minilypse forum.

As I mentioned in my last post, I love sports. I’ve played them my whole life. Softball, basketball, rugby, and… soccer.

The only team sport I still play today is soccer. I’ve been playing on an indoor co-ed recreational team the past 4 years, but starting today, I’ll be hitting the outdoor pitch again. Its been a long time, but I’m looking forward to having some room to run and pass. Indoor is a much faster paced form of soccer, for those unaware.

A good friend of mine, Faby Martin, is an amazing photographer. I met her while photographing Alberta Fashion Week last fall, along with a couple of other now good friends, Oscar Lopez and David Austin. Faby and I had been talking about doing a shoot for a while, so over the weekend, we finally got together.

What you may not know about me as a photographer is that I also like to model. I haven’t done a whole lot of it, but I have done it for various local and international photographers, and it has been fun every time. I find its a really great experience to switch roles every once in a while. Its a great reminder on how to communicate with models. While modeling, I usually end up thinking, “What would I say to me if I were directing this shoot, and how am I reacting to this photographers direction.”

Faby really wanted to do some action shots and I was all game for it. I really love her processing style and I think the images she created turned out really well. Click on the photo above to see the whole Soccer Player, A Story series, or just head on over to Faby’s website for a look at her entire portfolio.

For more info regarding my modeling, you can check out my model profiles on Model Mayhem and Model Republic.