Like most people, I spend way more time than I should on social media just scrolling through imagery. I find myself visually attracted to images with a cinematic feel, that are dark and moody, with lots of deep blacks. While most of my work I shoot is on the brighter side I was inspired to create something that had this feel.

I first shot kayakers on this waterfall years ago but at the time just used natural light. We shot on a cloudy day, and at the time I was excited about the images, but looking back my excitement had faded and they weren’t super strong. They kayaking was still impressive, but the images were flat and weren’t anything special.

I had the idea towards the end of last summer to try and shoot the falls using a flash to create a more dynamic image that showcased the power of the water and the shape of the waterfall. At that time of year the water is to low to safely paddle so it needed to wait. I sat on the idea for the winter and waited until the spring when the water levels would be higher. 

This shoot came around last minute. Keon reached out to me looking to get some photos of his bike, but wanted to get them done before he started riding it. The original photographer he was going to work with fell through. We had never met, but a friend recommended me and when he asked I immediately had an idea of how I wanted to make it look so I said I’d be down to give it a go.

This idea lived in my head for a while. When I first thought about it I was hurt, on crutches, and spending most of my time on the couch. With all this time to brainstorm I was able to come up with ideas I was excited about but had no ability to actually execute them. Therefore I sat on this one for a while and figured out the logistics of making it work.

Recently I asked to shoot a portrait of Canadian Snowboarder Cam Spalding that matched some previous portraits of athletes I had shot.

When I first started shooting these portraits I knew I was going to need to repeat the look between multiple different athletes. These portraits needed to feel similar, but didn’t need to be identical. From the get go I decided to use a very simple lighting setup as I expect to need to repeat this more and won’t always have the luxury of doing so from home.

I wanted to create an image of returning home after a day on the hill skiing. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could create an evening scene in the middle of the day. We shoot these images around noon on a partially sunny day.

Exploring different activities and learning about them is always intriguing to me. Before shooting this day I had never been around anybody boards in this way. I’ve had a few friends build snowboards, but the process is different. Other then having a general idea of what the space looked like I really didn’t know what to expect.

This image was shot as part of a personal project. I had the idea of wanting to shoot a top down image that really showed the body position of the runner through the shadow. This location is at a local park and a walking bridge passes over the gravel trail below. This was the perfect location as it allowed me to get above my athlete (Will Goneau) as he ran through. It took a few tries to get the exact body position with the shadow, but since we were working in a small space it was easy to have Will run through multiple times.

This wasn’t the particular image I had planned for the day, but I’ve had an idea similar to this in my mind for a while. I picked up the athlete, Will Goneau, from nearby this location, and thought if we had time we could check it out after we finished the original shot we planned to try this other idea I had.

We focused on the first shot, which was a top own running image in the forest. After we completed this image I asked Will if he was down and we went back to the underground parking lot.

I’ve fished on occasion throughout my life, and I keep telling myself to get into it, but it always gets pushed to the wayside when things get busy. However I’ve been visually interested in fishing for a long time, often seeing imagery come from this world that is stunning. Fishing normally seems to coincide with the early morning, or the late evening. From a photography perspective this is perfect, generally the best light of day, and the most likely time to get fog rising of water.

As a photographer, I often wish I could be in multiple places at the same time to get imagery from a few angles. This specifically happens when shooting a jump where each rider might only take a couple tries.

When I first show up to a jump I usually try and do a full 360 around the jump. Checking out every angle to see where the feature looks best. Some jumps, based off the terrain they are built in are limited and might only look good from one side. Others have multiple angles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another.

Ben Poechman had a spot in mind he wanted to hit. He had been there a few days before and set it up, but just needed to wait for it to snow for the landing to get soft. When he reached out to me he said the feature was right at the end of the forest. This was my first day back shooting snowboarding of the 2020/2021 season and while I hadn’t shot snowboarding with strobes in a while I knew I wanted to do that for this image. The feature was close to a chairlift so it took away some of the difficulty of the logistics of hauling all the gear.

I’ve released my 2022 calendar. Calendars can be ordered here.

It features 12 months of landscape images all capture in British Columbia, Canada.

From an early age, I played soccer. Starting with the leagues where all the kids chase the ball around the field, eventually moving on to indoor leagues and high school soccer. I was never the best but always had fun playing. After high school, I stopped playing, but I still enjoy kicking the ball around.

A overnight get away over the Hurley to the town of Gold Bridge, British Columbia. We were treated to the beautiful landscapes of British Columbia and a colourful sunrise and sunset. A personal trip with amazing views, some good food and beers and plenty of laughs.

Personal project shooting with personal trainer Meaghan Sutter working out and weight lifting in her fitness studio, Peak Training Whistler

Personal project shooting road biking with Emily Slaco on a sunny summer morning on the Duffy.

A woman on a cruiser bike on a gravel trail in Pemberton, British Columbia. Shot as a personal project.

Motivation can be difficult to find sometimes. On certain days I go out and the conditions aren’t ideal, and if I’m shooting work on spec I find myself leaving my camera in the bag and not shooting much. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, I’ve wanted to try and add some motivation to my shooting to make myself more engage and find the story in each day out. After something I recently heard I’ve been challenging myself to create a simple story before I even head out shooting to give myself a direction to shoot towards.

2020 was an interesting winter. In British Columbia, the season came late with hardly any snowfall in December and ended earlier than expected with restrictions being put in place. However, there was still plenty of time to get after it. I’ve put together this slideshow to share my snowboarding work from 2020. Some of the images made it to print in various magazines, others have been used online, and some haven’t been seen at all.