Happy Holidays

 “Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.” -Joanne Harris

However you celebrate this time of year, I wish you all the very best and hope that you are in good health, good company and good cheer. I hope the love you feel for the people around you is greater than the loss you feel for those you can’t be with. I will be thinking of family separated by time, geography and mortality while doing my best to celebrate the company that I find myself in over the next week or so.

I have so much to be grateful for this year and I appreciate that you’ve come through the last 12 month with me. 2013 started with some challenges, but revealed a year of successes with some amazing events, clients and photos. The successes of 2013 would not have been possible without a huge number of people.

Thanks to Forehand Foods Group/Burgoo Bistro; Justin Joyce, Stephen MacIntyre, Ken Carty, Michael Carty and their exceptional management team and restaurant staff. Peter Cocking at Figure 1 Publishing. The team at 5 Peaks; Christopher Colpitts, Chris Kennedy, Solana Klassen, Richard Bolt, Adam Campbell and Amy Golumbia who has so generously set me free to shoot her events the way I see them. Tom Skinner and Clif Cunningham at Canada Running Series in Vancouver, thank you for having me along for another great season. Gary Robbins and Geoff Langford at Coast Mountain Trail Series/Squamish 50, thanks for bringing me along on your inaugural season and the opportunity to shoot in some truly challenging weather and terrain. Thanks to Kathryn Stanton and the Meet Your Maker team. Thanks to Susan Butler, Louise Hatton, Michelle Leroux, Darren Kinnaird and the photo team at Crankworx 2013. Thanks to Erik & Kim at SUPERDROP – would be a perfect stocking stuffer! Peter van den Berg at Rollco. The whole crew at CreativeMornings/Vancouver who are working to bring Vancouver’s creative community together for thought provoking conversation and breakfast all before 10 am. Thanks to Jim and Lesley at Exhibit Connections, Brian Kladko at the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Ashley Kroening & Margaret Buttner at the Arthritis Society – BC & Yukon Division. Thanks to Rachel Johns at Greenstone Productions. Thanks to the Whistler Question, the Georgia Straight, The Vancouver Province, Canadian Running Magazine, Sheri Radford at Where.ca, The Columbia Valley Pioneer, James Blackwell at Mountain Bike UK and more who have trusted my work to share with their communities and readers.

Thanks to the huge but close knit community of event pros that routinely invite me back. Thanks to the BC Bike Race family; Dean Payne, Andreas Hestler, Lisa Au, Danielle Baker, Malina Parmar & Karen Stark among many others. Thanks to Dave Clark and his Whistler-based team for having me out for Coho and the Spirit of the Shore Half Marathon. Thanks to Ken, Isaac & Al and the Scene Ideas Crew. Thanks to Coreena Fletcher who has weathered an almost impossible year with her amazing spirit intact; thanks for the opportunity to work with you, Jay and Molson. Thanks to Tim Hopkins at the Vancouver Sun Run, Marc Campbell at the Surrey Marathon and Maurice Wilson at BC Athletics who continues to invite me back to work with the team at the Whistler 50 despite my bar tab. Thanks to the dozens of photographers I’ve worked with this year who continue to innovate and elevate a challenging and changing industry. Thanks to that core group I seem to see most event weekends with special thanks to Michael Campbell Burns who is half the size and works twice as hard as anyone I’ve met and to MCJC John Crosby who not only rocks the mic weekend after weekend but has also become a great client and corporate headshot model! Thanks and congratulations to Hana Dethlefsen, whose cookbook Let’s Cooking is making the local foodie rounds and making Japanese cooking a little easier for the rest of us.

Thanks to an amazing group of athletes who have lit it up for my camera, some already mentioned, and others like James Marshall, Shannon Penway & Tom Craik who make it so much easier to make great photos. Thanks to the thousands of event participants who smile, wave and dig deep for the camera even when they see me at the top of a climb. Thanks to a year of great swag and sponsorship, most of the events I work are made possible only because sponsors believe in what we’re doing. Thanks to Salomon for keeping me in tech shirts and Kicking Horse for keeping my coffee can filled and Ryders Eyewear for great specs and some mean looking socks. Thanks to Mark Busse, Johnathon Vaughn Strebly, Nick Didlick and Rick Etkin who have fielded endless questions with good will and in good spirits. Special thanks to Patti Houston who comes in like a Fairy Godmother to make things happen.

Thanks also to the friends, family and clients who have supported my return to photography without whom my best work would not be possible. Thank you, most of all, to Ms. Leslie Carty who has pushed, supported and encouraged me through the darkness of winter and the frenzy of event season because we are better together.

Happy Holidays & Much Love.

If I have left you out, it has been unintentional and I will make amends!