Canadian Men's National Amputee Hockey Team - Selection Camp
November 17/18/19, 2006

Some photos from a long-term project I'm working on, focusing on the hockey team. These were shot at CanLan Ice Sports @ York University in Toronto, during the Canadian Amputee Hockey Team's, national team selection camp.

Amputee hockey players, most who wear prosthetic devices, came from all over Canada to try out for the national team. The mens national team has had many successes in the past winning consecutive gold medals in the ISIHF World Championships, and is currently undefeated for the past 5 years in international play.

Eagle Classic Junior Boys Volleyball Tournament
November 25, 2006

Division "A" championship game between Quaker Village Public School, and C.F. Broughton Public School. C.F. Broughton won 15-12 in the third match to win the division.

Train ride with Santa - Uxbridge Heritage Train Station
November 26, 2006

Daniel peers out a window before the train pulled away from the station, hoping to get a glimpse of Santa who was rumored to make an appearance on the train ride between Uxbridge and Stoufville.

Toronto Municipal Elections - Ward 41
November 13, 2006

Long time community volunteer Chin Lee won the Scarborough-Rough River, Ward 41 seat beating out 9 other candidates. The newly elected councilor gets hugged by supporters as he enters the Boston Steakhouse in Scarborough.

Rememberance Day Ceremonies - Uxbridge & Port Perry
November 11, 2006

Two ceremonies, in two different towns ~ 20km apart, taking place at the same time. Newspapers need photos of both. No wonder I have so many speeding tickets.






After the service a Rememberance Day parade led people to Elgin Pond in Uxbridge, where the surrounding park was re-dedicated under the name of Veterans Memorial Park. 91-year-old, comrade George Izatt was all smiles as he got to cut the ribbon to officially unveil the new name of the park.


Back at the Legion, Norm Budd who served in WWII and Korea as a Private in the R.C.R., and Roy Povey who served in the Middle East in 1957 with the British Forces sing some old favorites. (Below) Jim Smitherman who served in the R.C.N.V.R. during WWII doing convoy duty, and also on a minesweeper in the English Channel, shows a photo of himself on the HMCS Bittersweet.

Pepsi Junior Men's and Women's Curling Championships
November 11, 2006

Rememberance Day Service @ Scarborough Civic Centre

Riding through Durham Forest


It was really cold and windy last Sunday, but it didn't deter these guys from going for a stroll through Durham Forest. Although a different pic was used in the paper, I like this one better.

Pix from GWNW'06

Here are a few photos from GWNW'06. I didn't take many over the two days (three if you include Thursday) I was there, as there were a lot of things going on, and I was trying my best to take in the experience as opposed to recording it.

In a nutshell, the workshop being my first one ever, was very humbling and a little overwhelming. Coming off of two consecutive extra long work weeks, I think I may have had a total of 6 hours of sleep from Thursday through Saturday, so for me it was a weekend of inspiration and complete and utter exhaustion.

Not ever attending photojournalism or photography school, I was pretty much starting from scratch meeting and getting to know many of the fellow Canadian photographers who attended GWNW, and for the most part felt very welcome, especially during the nightly 'technical meetings'. It was nice to finally put faces to names, and meet some talented individuals who are extremely passionate about their work.

The Friday workshops were very informative, and personally helped me with my photography. The Saturday lectures were amazing. If you missed them, well... I feel sorry for you.
The organization of the entire event worked like finely tuned clockwork. A lot of time and effort was dedicated by the many volunteers who put this whole event together, and for that I thank you. It was very well done. and I can't wait for next year.

The PhotoSensitive luncheon with an open invitation for their next project, was just what I needed.

The Canon and Nikon clinic cleaned everyone's cameras, and even fixed my hotshoe free-of-charge, with a turn around time that would make CPS or NPS blush with envy (or embarrassment).

The portfolio reviews were priceless. When else are you afforded the time by leading industry professionals to have your work critiqued, and have suggestions made? The 20min timeslots flew by so fast. Maybe next year they'll extend them to 30min, but somehow I doubt that.

I do however have some tips for next year.
1. If you're attending both days, and don't live in the core of DT Toronto. Get a room at the hotel. Especially if you plan on attending the late night meetings at the bar.
2. Have a portfolio printed up. I got screwed when the laptop I was using started giving me error blue screen messages and kept on crashing 2 hours before portfolio review time. Thankfully I had a MacBook Pro on order, and was able to expedite the whole transaction thanks to the Apple store. Problem could have been averted if a. I used a Mac to begin with, or b. had the whole thing printed and ready to go.
3. Get some rest before GWNW starts. It's two very, very long days.

So that's it. It was awesome.

Now to the photos...

Phill Snel, Deputy Photo Editor at the National Post reviews Vancouver photographer Rafal Gerszak's portfolio, while Steve Russell, staff photographer at the Toronto Star reviews someone else's, during the non-official after hours portfolio reviews at the bar.

(above) Toronto Star staff photographer, Peter Power talking during his 'Feature Hunting' workshop.
(below) Peter Power critiquing other peoples work during the 'Feature Hunting' workshop hands-on portion

Participants of the 'Feature Hunting' workshop were given an hour to roam the wild and untamed streets of Toronto, and to take 'feature' photographs of whatever they saw, which were later brought back, projected on screen, and critiqued for the remainder of the workshop.

These were the two photos I came back with. One was taken under a stair-well somewhere on Spadina, of people playing chinese checkers . The other was taken in an ally way somewhere just north of Queen St.