While primarily for fun, there will also be prizes awarded to the best photograph from each city and then all of the winning entries from each city will be judged by Scott Kelby himself and winners will be eligible to win great prizes including:

This year we wound up having some amazing weather which didn’t provide us with the amazing frost covered landscapes like we’d been treated to in the past couple of years, but it did make for much warmer shooting conditions. We started bright and early photographing all the preparations at the start line out at the Ukrainian Cultural Village. The 55km and 31km races both left from here and worked their way back to the Waskehegan Staging area located at North Cooking Lake. After photographing the start of both races, we hoped in our vehicles and drove back to the finish line to cover the start of the shorter races. After briefly getting stuck in the parking lot (thank you random volunteers for your help pushing us out) we spread out to cover the start of the shorter races and photograph the first racers to cross the finish line. With the warmer weather and great ski conditions, attendance at this year’s event was up and it was so nice to see so many families out enjoying the beautiful weather and getting some exercise. This year I experimented with shooting video to expand our coverage and assemble a fusion video.

Below is the slideshow and a few still images from this year’s event.

For official race results and more information on the Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival, be sure to visit their website and hopefully we’ll be taking your photograph at next years event!

Sarah and I both enjoy watching Dancing With the Stars and even took a brief turn at dancing ourselves in preparation for our wedding. The first year we started photographing this event, we actually were able to reconnect with our former dance instructor Samantha who was participating as a professional dancer with her partner and eventual champion that year – Darryl McIntyre from CTV television. This year she returned as a spectator with husband and MC for the evening, Joel Gotlib from CTV news. We were also happy to run into our good friend Anna Posteraro from the Edmonton Journal who also participated in Dancing for the Kids in 2008 with her professional partner Dominic Lacroix. It was also great running into a new friend, Gina Cicero from Lady Venom Cosmetics who we met recently at the Bachelor Charity auction. Gina was working hard behind the scenes to get the dancers looking their best for their big night.

The judging panel for the evening consisted of professional dancer Delphine Romaire, 2009 Dancing for the Kids Champion Marni Kuhlman from CTV news, and professional dance judge Benoit Drolet.

Helping the audience learn how to use the voting machines were special hosts for the evening – 2009 Dancing for the Kids competitor and runner-up to be Canada’s Next Top Model, Linsay Willier along with one of the stars of Slice TV’s popular series Re-Vamped – Kat Brandon.

First up for the evening was Karyn Decore dancing with her professional partner Voytek Drobina. Karyn is a successful entrepreneur and operates the family hotel business – Decore Hotels.

Roving reporter Erin Isfeld from CTV news, interviews Karyn and Voytek after their performance as they await comments and scores from the judges.

After the judges have given their scores, host Kat Brandon encourages the audience to lock in their scores.

Next up was former Olympic athlete, professional trainer, and founder of Phat training – Jesse Lipscombe and his professional partner Elena Sinelnikova performing an energetic swing dance.

Following Jesse was Janet Riopel and her partner David Lam. Janet was recently awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and was named one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture Magazine.

Following in Janet’s footsteps was embattled MLA Dr. Raj Sherman and his professional partner Kyla Ramsay. Dr. Sherman performed a graceful Viennese Waltz which was likely a refreshing break after a controversial week that was capped off by a closed door meeting with the Premier the day of the event after an out burst got him into some hot water with his cabinet.

Up next was Kari Skelton from Capital FM and her professional partner Dominic Lacroix performing a fierce Paso Doble. After photographing and doing some video of one of their early practice routines, it was a treat to see the finished product complete with great costumes.

The last competitor of the evening was the co-host of Sportscentre on TSN – Bryan Mudryk and his partner Cynthia Pilgrim. Bryan was a former NAIT graduate who worked at CTV in Edmonton for several years before moving to Toronto to take a position with TSN. A two-time cancer survivor and hometown boy, Bryan trained with his partner in Toronto but made sure to come back to Edmonton to support a great cause.

After all the judges scores had been combined with the audience votes, it was former CTV sports reporter Bryan Mudryk and his partner Cynthia Pilgrim who took home the coveted mirror ball trophy with Kari Skelton and her partner Dominic Lacroix coming in 2nd place.

Thanks to Erin Rayner and Jenna Frost from Ed Marketing who organized another fabulous event and congratulations to all of the competitors, organizers, and volunteers on a job well done. Be sure to visit the official Dancing for the Kids website to get your tickets to next year’s event.

As a former Sizzling 20 Under 30 award recipient who was featured in the Edmontonians in 2003, Mr. Najmeddine contacted the former publisher and offered to resurrect Edmontonians and publish it as a quarterly magazine. Most fittingly, the first issue to be published under his leadership was the Sizzling 20 Under 30 for 2010. This annual feature, profiles 20 of the most successful up-and-comers under the age of 30 in Edmonton. These Sizzlers, as they are known, are young men and women working hard to make a positive impact in the community and make Edmonton a better place to live by their contributions to the city. I had the opportunity to photograph several of the Sizzlers for their profiles and hear some of their stories. These Sizzlers ranged from young business owners, to a PhD student working with cancer patients, to wedding planners, teachers, and the current Miss Edmonton. It was a hectic schedule trying to photograph all of them in a short time span at a variety of locations but in the end I think we had some fun and wound up with some great images.

Here are a few of the Sizzlers who I photographed for this event:

Jennifer Bergman is a very successful wedding planner in the city and the owner of Jennifer Bergman Weddings.

Landon Croome is the President and Co-founder of Phantom Screens and Solaris Products.

Amanda Lusk is the owner of Master & Master Real Estate and offers free weekend classes to learn more about real estate investment.

Gregory Bott is a Masters student at the University of Alberta and an Owner/Operator of Original Joe’s Restaurant and Bar in Sherwood Park, Alberta.

Ziyah Karmali is a teacher, model, journalist, volunteer, and the current Miss Edmonton.

Keith Bruinsma is the owner and President of Yellowhead Waterjet.

In addition to photographing some of the Sizzlers, I also photographed a couple of the contributors to the magazine. Christina Emberley is recent graduate from the Journalism program at Grant MacEwan and interviewed all 20 of the Sizzlers for their profiles in the magazine.

Nejolla Korris is a columnist for the Edmontonians and is an international expert in the area of interviewing skils and lie detection and has worked with several police agencies and the F.B.I. Ms. Korris is also the honorary Consul for Lithuania.

On October 13th, a reception was held at Lexus of Edmonton to announce the Sizzling 20 Under 30 and present them with their awards and I was also there to photograph the event. Here are a few photographs from the event.

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• Janet Riopel
• Karyn Decore
• Bryan Mudryk
• Jesse Lipscombe
• Dr Raj Sherman
• Kari Skelton

The event will be held on November 19th, 2010 at the Shaw Conference Center in downtown Edmonton. Leading up to the event, I had the chance to visit Elite Dance Studios to photograph Kari Skelton and her partner Dominic Lacroix as they practiced their routine. For those of you who don’t know Kari, she is the beautiful co-host of the morning show on Capital FM with Rob and Audie. Kari recently appeared in Avenue magazine and is actively involved in several community events and charities along with her husband Ryan Jespersen from Breakfast Television on CityTV.

Here is a short trailer and video that I created during their practice session along with a few still photographs.  Tickets for this event are still available so I would encourage all of my blog readers to think about picking up a ticket to this fun event and supporting a great cause.

Kat Brandon & Gina Cicero introduce Jesse Kovacs to the audience at the Edmonton Woman's Show

Kiptyn Locke with Fans at the Edmonton Woman's Show

David Good & Jesse Kovacs pose for photos with fans in the Hot 107 VIP Lounge

Kiptyn Locke with Daphne Shipka from Hot 107 and Maria Orydzuk from CTV

David Good takes a photo with fans at the Edmonton Woman's Show

Jesse Beck with a fan in the Hot 107 VIP Lounge

Local bachelors pose for photos with fans at the Edmonton Woman's Show

Ryan Jespersen with the men from the Bachelor Pad

Jesse Kovacs, David Good, Kiptyn Locke, & Jesse Beck waiting backstage before the auction begins

Ryan and Kat share a laugh with Sister Lucinda from the Lurana Shelter Society

The bidding begins for a private dinner with celebrity bachelor David Good

Bachelor Jesse Beck Takes Audience Questions

After the auction was completed, the winning bidders were whisked away to Creations restaurant in the Sawridge hotel for the one-on-one dinners and we tagged along to photograph the festivities.

Bachelor Jesse Kovacs out for dinner with winning bidders in Edmonton's Ultimate Bachelor Auction

David Good with his winning bidder

Jesse Beck and Kiptyn Locke Share a conversation with winning bidders

Bachelors from Edmonton's Ultimate Bachelor Auction

The Bachelors with their dates for the evening

Afterward, there was a reception in the Global Edmonton offices where Dawna got to meet the staff who work at Global Edmonton. Dawna is from Manitoba originally but has been working for NBC for the past eleven years as a foreign correspondent and anchor based in London. She has covered stories around the world including the war in Iraq & Afghanistan, every British election in the past 10 years, and most recently covered the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and won an Emmy for her part in the coverage of the night Barack Obama was elected President.

You can watch Dawna weeknights on Global National at 5:30 starting September 20th.

If you are having an event in Edmonton or beyond and are looking to book a photographer who can provide a mixture of photography and video coverage, be sure to contact me for a quote. Photography and video coverage is a great way to tell the story of your event and use it on your website to promote future events to your customers.

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Thanks to everyone who came out and I hope you all enjoyed your day. A big thanks to Edmonton photography legend Bill Hill for taking a great group photograph at the beginning of our walk.

Also a huge shout-out to the team from Fotojournal who donated a 1-year Pro blog and gave away some sweet buttons and discount coupons to our walkers.

If you would like to see photographs from any of the three walks there were held in Edmonton, be sure to visit the official Flickr group at  http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmonton-photowalk3-2010/. Scott Kelby has also created a Flickr group for everyone who participated in this year’s walk so you can see photographs from around the world. Just head on over to http://www.flickr.com/groups/wwpw3

Just a reminder to those who participated in our walk, if you want to enter your favourite photograph into the contest for a chance to win one of Scott’s books, you have until August 1st to upload your photo. Visit the Worldwide Photo Walk page, sign in with the user name you registered with, and upload your photograph.

Even though I was leading the walk, I did manage to find some time for photography. I decided that I was going to challenge myself by only bringing one lens with me and trying to shoot with just that lens. I chose to go with my brand new 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens which I recently added to the lens collection. I’ve only had it for a few weeks and have used it primarily to photograph wedding details such as rings, table decorations, wedding dress detail, etc. This was a chance to experiment with it more and play with the lovely shallow depth of field that you can get with this lens. I had a great time shooting with it and trying to look for the small details on a campus that is filled with many large scale buildings and giant trees. Here are a few quick photographs that tell the story of what I saw through my lens on Worldwide Photo Walk day.