Off to Edmonton Sunday morning – do a big print run and hopefully be finished with the Kung Fu photos for this season.  Then it’s time to do a little scouting for shoots on the 11th and 25th.

Well, didn’t accomplish much on the scouting front.  I did get a few good locomotive snaps – so it wasn’t a total lost.

Not too much has been happening this last month.  The local hockey season ended early due to a loss in the first round of the playoffs so nothing left to shoot there.

Weather has been up and down so it’s hard to plan any outdoor shoots.

Had an opportunity for a nature photography job, but it looks like a lack of recent video experience killed that chance. 

So for now I just plug away, getting things ready for springtime.

BTW, Way to go Canadian Olympic Atheletes.  You may not have ‘Owned the Podium’, but you did kick some major ass.

I decided it was time to throw together a little portfolio of some of my other work.  See the links under ‘PORTFOLIO WORK’.  Some of mother nature’s offerings for your eyes.

Well, I did go to check out the cheerleading competition yesterday.  Drove up to the place and the parking lot was overflowing, people parked out on the main road and everywhere.  Finally found a spot and went on in.  Thankfully there are soem nice big windows overlooking the fieldhouse; from that vantage point I could see that it was a lost cause to even think about getting a decent shot.

Even if I found a decent sight-line, it was more than likely someone would bump me or cross in front of me.  Maybe next year I’ll see if I can make some arrangements to get a better spot.

The evening went better for me, not so much for the Aces.  A good effort but they lost their second game in the best of three series and drop down to the next pool for the next round.

Now to see who loses the other series in the North Division, and see when the next game will be.

After sitting on the fence about it I figure, why not.  I’ll go see if I can get a decent sight line and take some photos of a cheer competition. All those teeny bobbers and pre-teen boppers screaming away, along with their mothers.  Could be interesting.

It helps that tonite’s hockey game is in the same building.

On the subject of hockey, hopefully the Aces can pull it together after their defeat in Onoway last week.

I made the last minute decision to go and shoot another Winterhawks game last nite.  Started out good with the ‘hawks scoring first.  Tied after one.

Unfortunately that was as good as it got.  With the ‘hawks only having a few extra bodies on the bench, compared to what looked like 3 spare lines on the bench for Slave Lake, they soon lost out to the fresher legs.  Final score 10-1.  But they kept up the pressure right till the end.

Finally got around to adding more hockey photos to my flickr photostream.

Winterhawks vs Barrhead (2010/01/29), Aces vs Jasper Wolves(2010/01/09) and Aces vs Hinton Heat (2010/01/23).

Athabasca Aces first home playoff game is this weekend.  Hopefully they don’t get thrashed again like last week’s opening game (14-3).  If I’m feeling up to it, there is also a cheerleading competition going on – could be interesting and make for great pictures.

Hockey again last nite.  This time it was AA Midget.

Down 4-0 after the first period the ‘Hawks turned it up a notch and walked away with a 6-4 victory.

Twelve players on the bench for this game, and it sounds like nine of them finish school this year.  It will be a big rebuilding year next year.

Contact me for a link to the proofs.

Saturday nite was the last game of the regular season for the Aces.  Unfortunately it had to end in a losing effort.  Good action though.

Just a quick thanks to those few indivuals and businesses who leave wifi spots un-encrypted and/or just open for the random outsider to use (even if you didn’t plan it that way).  Thanks Starbucks, Denny’s by Grant MacEwan, someone at 124st and 113 Ave, someone near the Shell gas station at Clairview transit center, and a lone wide open wifi AP in little old Thorhild.

Thanks all.