Westminster United Church

The Westminster United Church in Medicine Hat has a congregation that dates back to 1913, although the current building was constructed in 1957. In 1979 a fire destroyed the original part of the building, but it was replaced soon after - something we looked through an old album to see pictures of. My friend Taylor was recently ordained and he invited me to Westminster Church to come take some photos. This was the result.

Speaking at Now We're Talking 2014

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of taking part in one of the breakout sessions for Now We're Talking 2014 at the Medicine Hat College. I was part of a panel lead by Jace Anderson, along with Rita Sittler, to discuss the various ways we've used social media to connect with the community and build our brands/reputations.

I don't want to overemphasize the small role I played in the event, but it was nice to share a few of my experiences regarding how my use of social media welcomed some incredible opportunities in the last few years. My Around the Hat photo series and coverage of last year's flood were jumping off points to express how providing content allowed me to promote my work in a genuine fashion that translated into business opportunities after the fact. 

What I enjoyed most about our breakout session is that we essentially just had a conversation about what had worked for us. We weren't really lecturing, so much as we were inviting the discussion on the topic. Perhaps most importantly though, we proved that there is no singular answer for how to approach social media. The most successful participants are generally those who provide genuine, useful, entertaining, and/or informative content in some capacity - but who do so with some strategy in mind. 

We barely skimmed the surface on this topic, but the session has encouraged me to write out a few of my thoughts on social media and how I've used it to reach out. I'll be sharing a new blog post on that soon. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who attended our breakout session at the conference, and also thank Jace Anderson for the privilege of being a part of his panel. At the very least, the opportunity was further proof that my efforts must be working! 

Flood Exhibit: A Shoot for Salazar

Last night I was back shooting at Medalta Potteries. Unlike my past work however, I was actually doing a follow up shoot for a project by Salazar Films out of Vancouver, British Columbia. Aaron Nelson, the Artistic Director at Medalta, was responsible for putting me in touch with Salazar when they were looking for a local filmmaker to assist in their project after they'd finished their primary shoot in Medicine Hat. Anyway, long story short, it turned out to be a good connection.

The exhibit, Flood by the students of Elm Street School, opened last night and was a showcase of artwork on clay tiles depicting student's memories surrounding the devastating flood that hit Medicine Hat last year. It was cool to interview a few of the kids and see them get excited about their work on display. I also put my big HDV Sony away, and took the opportunity to shoot with one of my DSLR's for a change - this is something that I'll probably be doing a lot more of moving forward. 

Stay tuned and I'll be sure to follow up when Salazar releases their finished film. In the meantime, here are a few of the snapshots I took between setups.