A kayaker learns to roll his boat in Toronto as part of MEC Paddlefest 2009.

For all my photos from this event visit my portfolio site here.

Although we are far away from the mountains - and it pains me to see no snow here yet, and conversely a tonne out west (as I've mentioned before), at least we have the Great Lakes. Oh god, what would we be without them? Saskatchewan I guess. But I digress. The few Great lakes and many other small great and remote lakes and rivers throughout Ontario allow us to chase raging rivers, tour in sea kayaks for weeks, and portage with canoes for miles, or kilometers in the metric language.

The 2009 Paddlefest event was held on Lake Ontario at Sunnyside Park in downtown Toronto.

To celebrate these many exceptional benefits to being a paddler in the east, Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) will be hosting it's annual Toronto Paddling Festival affectionately dubbed Paddlefest, on June 12, and 13, 2010. The event which runs Saturday and Sunday sees several tens of on-water seminars, featuring kayaking, and canoeing, stand up paddle boarding, dragon boating, white water instruction for both canoers / open boaters and whitewater kayakers. The courses feature instruction by some of North America's best and most experienced instructors. In addition to water courses, there will also be land-based instruction on all things paddle sports related including selecting boats, planning extended trips, gear and boat repair, among many others. And that's just the instructional side of things. It is after all a FESTIVAL on a beach, so bring your sunscreen and come enjoy many of the exhibitors and paddling brands that make their way from across North America to be at this event.

A kayaker attempts to learn rolling a kayak from an experienced instructor at MEC Paddlefest in Toronto.

If I sound like I'm preaching about this, it's because it's one of the rare events in Toronto that is very accessible to the public in a downtown core location. Accessible both literally and in the sense that courses are very inexpensive and allows people of all shapes, sizes, and culture to come and have an intro to paddlesports in a safe environment.

A kayaker discusses techniques for self rescues before trying them on his own.

I have photographed this event for MEC for the past 4 years and I can safely say that it's steadily grown in size. I remember standing on the beach last June (2009) and wondering if this is the biggest paddling festival in Canada? It's got to be up there in numbers, I thought. Hundreds, (if not thousands) of people pass through, and if it's not the biggest by number, it's definitely the most multi cultural. Definitely a reflection of Toronto.

I hope you enjoy these photos I shot last year for the event. And of course, if youv'e got an event of a similar nature that you'd like me to cover, don't be a stranger - drop me a line using the Contact link above or at the following email and we'll discuss the details. contact (at) kamilbialous (dot) com

More photos below - remember to check out my portfolio for all the images from the event.

Cheers,

Kamil Bialous

SKILS instructor Michael Pardy teaches a kayak course as part of MEC Paddlefest 2009 in Toronto.

Kayak instructor / famed paddling blogger David Johnson ( http://www.paddlinginstructor.com ) preps a class before hitting the water at MEC Paddlefest.

Kevin Callan himself with all his tricks and treats speaking during a course about his personal equipment that makes the outdoors just a tad more comfortable.

Tags: 2009, 2010, adventure, aquabound, beach festival, boat repair, camping course, canada's biggest, canoe, canoeing, co-op, courses, demos, downtown toronto, dragon boating, event, event photographer, fest, festival, instruction, june, kayak, kayaking, kelly blades, Kevin Callan, kid active, kinesys, kokatat, lake ontario, learn to kayak, learn to roll, level six, mark kelly, MEC, Michael Pardy, Mountain Equipment Coop, outdoors, p and h, p&h, paddle, Paddlefest, paddler coop, paddling, park, photography, pyranha, p[addle boarding, seaward, SKILS, stand up, summer course, sun, sunnyside, SUP, teva, things to do, toronto, toronto beach, tourism, travel, water courses, white squall.

Whitewater kayaker, David Manning, playing on "Santa Claus" wave on the Kananaskis River, Alberta.

So welcome to day three. Thanks for reading (still). Banff is very easy to wake up in the morning in, and I'm not a morning person at all. It must be the air. After a long night of editing photos, I woke up to my alarm, and a rather chilly zero degrees outside. Still a beautiful day though, and a perfect day for kayaking. The morning session was a class lecture about digital asset management and input through output techniques by Alec Pytlowany. It's always great to watch a well crafted presentation.

Isabelle Filion dropping into the pool above "Widow Maker" rapid on the Kananaskis River, Alberta.

The Kananaskis River in Alberta is very interesting for many reasons. First of all, it's a photo studio. I call it that because you can create good images in almost any light by varying the background. Secondly, it's turned off and on every day. That's right, on, off, on, off, on, off. Every day. You see, there's a dam that controls the flow further upstream, and when they shut it off, the river actually goes bone dry. Look it up here if you don't believe me. This however, results in two things. First, the river is dead. There is nothing living in it. Second, there is continuous flow year-round, even when all the other rivers starting losing flow due to drying up. You pair this great river with some people in fancy colours, who are quiet good at the sport, and it's like shooting fish in a barrel. You can create images even with your eyes closed.

White water kayaker, Paul Manning-Hunter, playing on "Santa Claus" wave on the Kananaskis River, Alberta.

Again, as yesterday, the models were great. Completely competent and reliable. Great athletes and great people. Thanks guys and gal. I promise to get your names up here in a few days. While I said it's easy to create a white water image, I think it's takes some skill to create a good image. The reason I love it is that you can really play around with shutter speeds a lot, and create motion, as well as freeze it in the frame. In addition to that, the action is really quick often resulting in frames where the paddle goes right across the paddler's face, which isn't too flattering. So you have to anticipate the correct moment, and it obviously helps if you've kayaked before.

Anyway, it's late, and I need sleep. Hope you're enjoying this. Tomorrow, I'll post the last post of the series as I depart for Toronto. Banff is truly an amazing town, and I will miss it a lot. More about banff tomorrow.

Cheers,

Kamil

P.S. For those who like to "borrow" photos from websites, I thought I'd point out this.

Tags: 2009, banff centre, national geographic, paddling, photography workshop, river, white water kayaking.

Mountain biking just outside of Banff. Model name will follow shortly.

Day two was great straight in to shooting. The day began with a mid-morning meet-up with great models from the area, and the shoot was mountain biking. Technique was primary focus, especially motion blurs and flash blurs. I have to admit, I was pretty apprehensive about working with models, for various reasons. But the guys and gals were great. Super friendly and keen on trying stuff over and over again.

Environmental action shot of mountain biking in Banff.

The great thing about the field sessions is that i am forced to shoot outdoor adventure in ways that I otherwise wouldn't. For example, I would previously have left my flash at home and shot a more side lit photo of the above two mountain bikers. I'm not quite sure if I like the fill flash on it, but the point is that shooting stuff outside of your norm is great for expanding creativity. In the future, I can definitely see myself shooting way more with flash in the outdoors. (Maybe.)

Elise Sethna climbing at the base of Rundle Mountain. The cool thing about Elise is that she placed third in Women's Open Tour de Bloc Championships in May 2009, and twentieth at the World Juniors in France in August 2009.

So working with "models" and shooting climbing had me a little worried. I think the worry stemmed from the fact that when I've shot climbing previously it was with people who were trying to send a route or project, and were not "acting" for me, but climbing for their personal fulfillment. It didn't take long for my worry to pass as I realized that working with models is actually quite amazing. They are there solely to do what you ask them to, which is photographically beneficial in many ways. You can ask them to hang out at a particular spot for a few more seconds, look at the camera or look away, move a hand or a foot in this way or that, and if that didn't work, to re-climb the route all over again until the photo you're trying to create works out.

Sasha (last name to come) climbing at the base of Mount Rundle in Banff.

The models turned out to be excellent climbers and were really cool to hang out with. I may see some of them in Kentucky if I can try to make it there this fall. Super cooperative, just all around great people. Can't say enough about them. Sure, the photos don't look as "hardcore" when people are top-roping and smiling, but the exercise was to try different techniques in photography, not get the most gripping, run-out lead shot. Lots of fun in the end.

My day ended with a braised lamb shank at the Vistas Dining Room at the Banff Centre where I'm staying. If there is one thing that the Banff Centre does well, it's gotta be the food! (and perhaps construction).

Stay tuned for tales from day three coming to ya tomorrow. I'm too tired to do much else right now, as tomorrow is another early wake-up call.

Talk Soon,

Kamil

Tags: 2009, banff centre, climbing, mountain biking, national geographic, photography workshop.