Had an amazing week on Canada’s west coast recently and was quickly reminded that Vancouver is indeed one of this country’s most beautiful cities. By the time I was flying over the famous Canadian Rockies – my anticipation for a week in Vancouver couldn’t have been greater. It wasn’t all fun and games (actually, a [...]
It was another exciting year at the 2012 Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto (#CIAS12) as record attendance turned out. I did a few different things on behalf of General Motors of Canada. Produced some Youtube video. Did a little mobile #Gamification. And shot a few photos for Chevrolet Canada social media properties. I enjoy [...]
It has been an exciting few months being part of the team at MacLaren Momentum Toronto that designs the Canadian International Auto Show (#CIAS12) display for Chevrolet on behalf of GM Canada. My small role in the very big process has been to create and leverage on official Chevrolet Canada social media channels originally produced [...]
Major brand names partnering with big sporting events is nothing new. National brand advertisers have supported sporting events for decades. Sports themselves have come to rely on the BIG money sponsorship revenue. What’s new is how brands are leveraging often very newsworthy content from the major events they sponsor – especially on social media channels. [...]
I’ve never been shy in saying I think Guns N’ Roses is one of the greatest rock bands ever. Sure, in their heyday they self-destructed in a haze of drug addiction and Axl’s mood swings. But in those brief few years – nobody should doubt Gn’R created some of the finest rock songs ever. I’d [...]
Had the pleasure to recently shoot an assignment at BMO Field – Toronto’s home to soccer action. The occasion in mid-October was the Canada Men’s National Soccer Team as they are in the midst of qualifying play for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil match play. I hadn’t shot at BMO Field before, so it was [...]
The Occupy Wall Street movement made its way to Toronto yesterday. Hadn’t planned to shoot it as I was heading to the camera show. When I missed my Go bus by one frickin’ minute, and had another hour to kill, figured I’d check out King and Bay where the demonstrators were beginning to gather. Protest [...]
October is one of the biggest ever for Chevrolet Canada with the launch of three ground breaking new vehicles – the 2012 Chevrolet Volt, Sonic, and Orlando. The award-winning team at MacLaren McCann Toronto has been hard at work for months creating, planning, and now executing one of the largest mass marketing efforts in GM [...]
On behalf of Cadillac, the official vehicle of the Toronto International Film Festival, I’m thrilled to be covering all things TIFF again for another year in a unique social media reporting assignment. With my insider reporting partner Skye Collyer, in our beautiful Cadillac CTS-V coupe we’ll ride to some of the best of what TIFF [...]
Spent a great week in July out in western Canada for the world famous Calgary Stampede in a social media reporting assignment. GMC is a proud vehicle sponsor of the Stampede and does some engaging marketing on-site during Stampede week. The event’s signature event, the chuckwagon races, is titled the GMC Rangeland Derby.
A special week in late June when two of the most distinctive voices in soul history made separate, but equally important appearances in Toronto. Ms. Aretha Franklin and Sade made rare concert stops in the city. Online music news site Manifesto.ca asked to use photos I shot at the shows. Was thrilled to see my [...]
Funk was in the house on Saturday night at the Toronto Jazz Festival. The bass legend that is Bootsy Collins made a long awaited concert stop in the city. Bootsy rose to prominence with James Brown in the sixties, and then Parliament-Funkadelic in the seventies. Bootsy’s work is credited with being a driving influential force [...]
I do love my British soul ladies. Nobody’s hotter than Adele right now, and Joss Stone is a very young veteran singing today. But the biggest selling Brit-Soul singer of them all (100 million records sold and counting) – is Sade Adu and she made a rare stop in Toronto this week at Air Canada [...]
After an amazing opening night Aretha Franklin gave The Toronto Jazz Festival on Friday, I returned Sunday to the main stage tent for The Spanish Harlem Orchestra – a Grammy award winning latin dance music band that I figured would be a fun show under the main stage tent (and it was.) I was quickly [...]
Got a invite from Windows Canada to a cool Saturday night NXNE Music Fest show. Windows was sponsoring the night that featured a headlining performance from Shad – a truly awesome and under-appreciated Canadian MC. I loved Shad the last time I saw him perform, at an outside Juno Fan Fest back in March, and [...]
What to do on a Friday night in Toronto? Heading down to Roy Thomson Hall seemed like the good bet to me as a politico legend and diplomat, Henry Kissinger was taking part in the Munk Debates, and just outside the Hall – the Luminato Festival was in full swing and KD Lang was set [...]
The founding member and chief songwriter of The Beach Boys – Brian Wilson made a rare appearance during Toronto’s NXNE music festival. Wilson, who has a long history of reclusive, and sometimes erratic behavior graciously accepted the award, said a few words, and exited the stage at Toronto’s Hyatt Regency hotel in about a minute. [...]
You can’t get many better assignments then how I spent the recent Victoria Day long holiday weekend. It was at Mosport Raceway just east of Toronto. The Cadillac Racing team has made a triumphant return to the Pirelli World Challenge series this year and it was their first time back racing in Canada in a [...]
What’s there to do on an Easter Sunday afternoon? Actually, not much. I’d been catching up with office work and doing those pesky taxes when by 4pm realized I hadn’t been outside all day, it was time for some fresh air. Noticed lots of Sikhs flowing into Queen’s Park. A quick google told me it [...]
Of course Charlie Sheen’s appearance at Toronto’s Massey Hall was on my mind today. Sheen had become a media sensation since he was effectively fired from his hit sitcom, Two and a Half Men. But I was still doing office work past six on the eve of Sheen’s first appearance in Canada on his Violent [...]
When there is a demonstration going off on a spring-like Sunday afternoon in Toronto, called #slutwalk – it’s hard not to think a few interesting photo opportunities might present themselves (all photos Richard Budman.) The demonstration turned out bigger than expected as maybe thousands turned out to Queen’s Park, then marched a short distance to [...]