2016 Year In Review

Well, I can truly say that 2016 was a year like no other. I write this review from Vancouver, far from where I have called home for the last several years, although Vancouver isn’t home either.

Particpants jump in the Ottawa River during the Sears Great Canadian Chill on January 1st, 2015 in Ottawa Ontario. Photo by John Rathwell.

Particpants jump in the Ottawa River during the Sears Great Canadian Chill on January 1st, 2016 in Ottawa Ontario.

The year started off similar to the past ones, photographing the Sears Great Canadian Chill, but even it wasn’t typical. In years past we have stood on the ice to photograph the event, but this year the Ottawa River hadn’t frozen over yet. I ended up spending the entire event standing in the water in my wetsuit to capture the jumps.

After getting my first job of the year over with, I traded my camera in for a wrench.

The Searching For Sero Vanagon sits on the lift at Diesel Rover striped of all mechacial parts.

The van was a purchase for my current personal project, Searching For Sero. That is where my year really started to get different. My entire spring was spent in the shop, getting it ready and here is the final result.

Winter was about to come to an end when the phone rang again. Camp Fortune was hosting the Canadian Mogul Championships, so I took a 2 day break from the shop to hit the slopes.

Then, I had a studio shoot with the Smedley Brothers. It was a fun day of portraits and a fun job before hitting the road.

Just when I thought I couldn’t squeeze anymore work in before leaving, Ottawa Magazine called looking for a shoot down at the Ottawa Rowing Club. It was a 6am shoot, so we decided to we could squeeze it in right before heading east.

Tracy and I hit the road and headed to Newfoundland shortly after that shoot. It was both our first time there and the opportunity to make amazing images was very high.

As Searching For Sero rolled on, an opportunity to shoot the Mont Ste. Anne World Cup came up, so we headed there. It was a pretty rad opportunity to shoot the top downhillers in the world.

The rest of the year was dedicated to Searching For Sero, arriving on the west coast just in time for winter and to close out the year.