When My Career Took Off (Literally)

Just a couple of days after starting work at Stream Media in June of 2008, my boss asked me if I wanted to accompany her on a helicopter ride to shoot aerial images of the city. Considering that just a few months before this I had been stressing myself out about how bleak I expected my post-university career options to be, this was the start of what only continued to be a series of 'I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this' moments with Stream.   

Agreeing to the helicopter ride was a no-brainer for three reasons.  One, I'd never flown in a helicopter before (let alone one with the doors removed so that we'd have an unobstructed view).  Two, I knew it would be a memorable experience and allow me to see the city I grew up in in a way I never had before.  And three, when would I ever get a more opportune time to joke, "look I can see my house from here" and actually mean it? I even found a screencap of us flying over the place I live now.  

Barb shot video and I shot stills. We hovered around Medicine Hat capturing different landmarks, development projects, and athletic facilities - really anything that we thought existing or potential clients might want to use in future projects. Needless to say, the views were awesome and surreal.




On one hand it was just a helicopter ride, but on the other, it marked a promising start to my life out of film school.  Professionally my work only continued to improve from there.  Although it's tough to beat a helicopter ride after only a few days on the job, the work continues to be unpredictable and spontaneous - if not still occasionally nerve-racking.  But, how's that for a symbolic start?