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.