A Bonfire For Dave

While a backyard bonfire was a fun idea for my first night in Regina over the Canada Day weekend, it was actually because of Dave that my friend Tyler and I wanted to do it.  It was a year ago that we all sat around the fire together, sharing stories, listening to music, and talking about the future.  Wendy was just over a month away from having Darwin.  It was really our last major hangout before Dave passed away in September, and it was the footage that I shot last Canada Day that became the final shots I had of Dave and that I used in the memorial video I edited for him.  If that wasn't enough, our musings around the fire also became the inspiration for my reel last summer.

With these memories fresh in our minds I also wanted to have another bonfire to shoot some scenes for my Searching Salvation project.  The logs and ashes left in the fire pit were still those from last Canada Day and the stick that I wrote everyone's names with was still right there resting on the ledge.  Regina will always remind me of university and the close friends I made there, and this just seemed like another poignant way of saying goodbye.  After Tyler moves away later this year I think we'll both continue to look back at this weekend as one of our most ambitious hangouts, and maybe even one of the most symbolic.        

Canada Day in Regina

My intention was to write an epic post, but after getting home and realizing how exhausted I was, realizing that I shot over 650 images (+250 on my iPod), and realizing that I didn't have near the time I'd need to organize this right now, consider this a teaser for posts to come.  

As I've done numerous times before, I drove to Regina for the long weekend to celebrate Canada Day and relive a few pieces of nostalgia in the city I attended film school.  My friend Tyler is moving to Ontario in a few months, and as far as close film school friends and former College West buddies are concerned, he's the last one still there. It means Regina, with the exception of Wendy and Darwin, will no longer be the social hub it once was for me.   

The trip had a different feel to it than any of the other previous visits.  It was a mix of creating new memories, revisiting places that defined the city to us, memorializing Dave and the anniversary of one of our last major hangouts on Canada Day last year, and saying goodbye to traditions we've been creating for a decade.  Between exploring the university again, walking around downtown, visiting Wendy and Darwin, having a bonfire and shooting clips for Searching Salvation, touring the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, driving out to the Regina sign, watching the fireworks in Wascana, catching a movie at the Southland, taking the familiar walk from the uni to Mac's for slurpees, revisiting and photographing scenes from old film projects, going for schooners at BP's, and working out our schedules leading up to Vegas in September, it was a whirlwind 48 hours.  That doesn't even include all the stops I made to take photographs on my drive to and from Saskatchewan.





I'm going to need a bit of time to digest everything now, but that was a really fun weekend. Frankly, I don't know if we could have forced anymore nostalgia without enrolling in summer school classes.

Echo Dale Beach

Just a short drive outside of the city, surrounded by the cliffs of the South Saskatchewan River valley, Echo Dale is Medicine Hat's answer to what to do on hot summer days.  The giant man-made lake is well kept through the warm months, and then drained as the temperature drops.  The secluded nature of the park makes the location seem special for those who go out of their way to check it out.  That's not to say it doesn't get busy, but the evening I was there we almost had the place to ourselves.  Who could complain about that?  It's a really beautiful spot to pass the time with friends and relax.