Daily Photo Dose

By May of 2022, photography assignments were finally beginning to trickle back in after a long stretch of uncertainty. Like many photographers emerging from the pandemic, I was saying yes to just about every opportunity that came my way. When my friend and colleague Nathan Elson called and asked if I could help out on a shoot at an Alberta oil rig, I didn’t hesitate. There was only one catch: if I wanted to get on site, the beard had to go.

So the night before the shoot, I found myself in a motel bathroom shaving off years of facial hair in exchange for a day of work. At that point, getting back on set and working alongside other photographers felt worth the sacrifice.

My role was simple—help move gear, lend a hand where needed, and support the production. Fortunately, I was also able to bring along my Widelux panoramic camera and make a few photographs of my own behind the scenes. The Widelux’s panoramic 35mm format felt perfectly suited to the scale of the oil rig, allowing me to capture both the industrial environment and the people working within it.

These images were made during a time when the photography industry was slowly finding its footing again. Looking back, they document more than an Alberta oil rig—they capture a moment when work, travel, and creative opportunities were beginning to return. Shot on a Widelux panoramic camera using 35mm film, these behind-the-scenes photographs are a reminder that sometimes the most memorable assignments begin with simply saying yes.

On March 19, 2022, I headed into downtown Calgary to document one of the many demonstrations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a professional photographer, I had spent much of the previous two years watching assignments disappear and work slow dramatically. Like many people, my routines had been disrupted, and I found myself spending far less time with a camera in my hands than I was accustomed to. The protest offered an opportunity to dust off my camera, get back out into the city, and document the world around me once again.

Debates surrounding vaccines, public health measures, and government mandates had become deeply divisive, and the so called “Freedom Protest” reflected just how polarized public opinion had become. Rather than participating, my goal was simply to observe and create a photographic record of the moment.

For this series, I photographed the protest using a Widelux panoramic camera on black and white 35mm film. The Widelux’s swing-lens design allowed me to capture a much broader view of the scene than a conventional camera, placing individuals within the larger crowd and providing context that would have been difficult to achieve in a standard frame. The panoramic format felt particularly well suited to documenting public demonstrations, where the scale of the gathering is often as important as any individual subject.

Black and white film helped simplify the images, drawing attention to expressions, signs, gestures, and interactions rather than color. Looking back, these photographs are less about politics and more about documenting a moment in Calgary’s history when conversations around personal freedom, public health, and government policy dominated daily life. Regardless of perspective, the images serve as a visual record of a period that shaped communities across Canada and around the world, while also marking my own return to documenting life beyond my front door.

See more of my widelux work here.