Offering incredible views of downtown Calgary, Alberta, Sky 360 is the revolving restaurant located at the top of the Calgary Tower. With the restaurant taking 60 minutes to complete one rotation, we made a sunset reservation and marked the occasion by sharing a bottle of sparking wine, the grilled house foccacia, sky burger, and butterscotch crème brulée.
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It was 10 years ago today that I launched a series called Around the Hat (aka the Hometown Series) featuring scenes around Medicine Hat, Alberta. I couldn't have predicted how much would've have snowballed from this self motivated project, but from prints to production agreements to the hundreds of photo essays from around the world that eventually followed, a lot of that momentum started right here with this series.
Before the Editing Luke production company became a full-time operation I was looking for ways to create content to drive visitors to my website. I had an interest in exploration, history, and expanding my business to include photography in addition to the video production I had already been doing. Medicine Hat, my hometown, felt untapped in terms of people going behind closed doors to show off what was there. So I began to think about what it would be like to contextualize the local history into compelling plot points and to develop character out of a sense of place in a way that felt fresh, energetic, and above all, visual.
Coming from a filmmaking background and education, this was all a deliberate exercise to get my feet wet and build an audience through storytelling. My first photo essays featured the most obvious historic sites and attractions, like - Medalta Potteries, St. Pat's Church, and the Cypress Club (all posts that have now been updated since their first release).
To be clear, the history was really just a jumping off point. I wanted people to feel like they were exploring with me and still have context for what they were seeing along the way. When the initial posts attracted thousands of hits in a matter of days I knew I was onto something.
Over the years the series continued to refine itself with regular social media posts on Facebook and Instagram, and into more elaborate photo essays on this site that featured glimpses into places that most people weren't able to see or had largely forgotten about. Recently I highlighted the renovation happening inside the former Cecil Hotel and put together a recap of the former Riverside Waterslide. While larger photo series' and projects continued to follow this one, after a decade of growth the Around the Hat series alone has been responsible for millions of hits.
While the collection isn't complete and continues to expand and deviate, the lesson here has been all about approach. Sometimes a simple change of perspective makes the familiar seem completely new again - I just chose to share it as I was doing it.
Explore the complete Around the Hat series here.
As the last major studio still located within Hollywood, the Paramount Pictures lot is full of nostalgia, history, and tons of stereotypical scenes right down to the clear views leading up to the Hollywood Sign and an array of Best Picture Academy Awards on full display.
The Paramount Pictures lot today features 30 stages, a blue sky tank, and a massive New York backlot with 10 different neighborhoods. The Paramount Pictures lot also includes the former Desilu Studios (formerly RKO) which was purchased in 1967. There are still numerous clues throughout of the movies and popular television shows that have been filmed here in the heart of Los Angeles since the initial Paramount lot was constructed on this spot in 1926.
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| Paramount's Best Picture Oscars on display. |
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| Lucille Ball's Bungalow from when this was the next door Desilu Studios Lot. |
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