Friday 1 June 2012

Photography Portfolio Slideshow

During the winter working at Coast Mountain Photography in Whistler we had quite a few staff parties, competitions and nights where we got to share some of our work. One of my favourite nights was our slideshow night at Savage Beagle where we all got to show a presentation of our photos. Here is my slideshow below which are photos I have taken during the summer in Norway in 2011 and in India / Nepal in 2011. Enjoy!

Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival 2012

The Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival was held in Whistler from the 13th - 22nd April this year. It's basically a 10 day celebration of sports, arts and music where you can watch some of pros compete on the slopes, dance to free music during the Outdoor Concert Series, or see some of the best sports photographers work during the sold-out Olympus Photography Showdown.

Tin Pan Orange

Tin Pan Orange
 I was lucky to get a Media Pass during the festival which allowed me access to most areas during the festival and most importantly access to the stage! I got to shoot bands such as The Cat Empire, Dragonette, Michael Franti & Friends, Whistler's own Animal Nation which was an exciting experience for me. I have posted a few of my photos I took during the Outdoor Concert Series to this post and hope everyone enjoys them. 


Dragonette

Dragonette

Michael Franti & Friends

Michael Franti & Friends

Michael Franti & Friends

Michael Franti & Friends

Michael Franti & Friends 
Animal Nation

Animal Nation
I have also started a Facebook page with some of my photography work which you can find at facbook.com/JacquiWhiteheadPhotography I will be updating my page regularly and also trying to get a wide variety of photos for people to view.

Sunday 13 May 2012

Whistler Winter

I promised myself last year I would write more frequently about my adventures but since I left India I failed with that so sorry for disappearing all winter.

Usually I never have a so called 'winter' as I try and stay as close to the river as possible but I decided to do my first winter season in Whistler, Canada after being in Nepal and India.

I have only really tried skiing once when I was about 10 and got a job as a photographer with Coast Mountain Photography in Whistler, but for my job I needed to be able to ski to get from location to location on the mountain. I allowed myself 2 weeks before starting work to learn to ski (I figured I learnt to kayak pretty quickly so if I was motivated I would be able to do this before I started work). 

I pretty much got thrown in the deep end with skiing. When I first got to Whistler I was living with 4 Swedes, 2 Aussies, 3 Canadians, 1 girl from the UK and a South African. The Swedes took me up the mountain and got me on the skis straight away and it was all learning by trial and error. My first day on the mountain I fell over so, so many times then each day the falls got less and less until eventually over winter I progressed to the black runs then the ungroomed powder runs with my friend Colin. Another thing that helped me learn fast was that there were some pretty amazing skiers and snowboarders at Coast that at the end of each day at work they would challenge me by taking me down harder runs and giving me pointers.

 

 

Working at Coast was a really good experience for me. I got really confident using manual mode on my camera and it was fantastic having some really experienced photographers critique my work which helped me over the season become better with getting the exposure and lighting right for my photos. 

As well as working with on mountain photography I also spend part of the winter helping Coast out at Whistler Bungee...... as your about to guess that meant I also went Bungee Jumping!



People who know me well know I'm usually up for anything adventurous - but as long as I'm in control! I jumped 4 times during winter and every time I did it I could never jump off the platform straight away. Jumping backwards was the worst out of all the ways I tried (swan diving and tandem). I did it backwards twice and both times I needed a push off the bridge!




Once I was off the bridge everything is fine and my fear is gone but it's just taking that initial step off the platform which always makes me feel sick in the pit of my stomach:) Later on in the season I moved out of my house full of people and moved in with 3 other people (and an amazing dog called Bella) and took one of my housemates for a jump at Bungee and she loved it but also felt the same as me - doesn't matter if you have jumped once it doesn't get any easier if you are not quite comfortable with heights!



Other great parts of winter in Whistler were the fact I got to see bands and DJs play live such as the Jezabels, Stanton Warriors, Krusha, Crissy Criss, Cat Empire, Swollen Members and Michael Franti. I got to see some of these bands at Telus Fest which was at the end of April just before Whistler Mountain closed and was lucky to get a media pass to this event which allowed me to have access backstage so I could take photos.

I will post some of these in my next post!