I've managed to spend a healthy portion of the last four Canadian winters in warmer, southern parts. There are many species of birds that fly south for a more comfortable experience, why not me? When the Canadian Geese silhouette themselves against the prairie skies in I dig out my passport and start googling; cheap, flight, warm... now. Traveling always requires a budget of sorts and if my bank account isn't flush VISA saves the day. Sometimes I'm fortunate enough that an organization or individual will fit the bill in exchange for moving/still images. I love the idea of a good ol' horse trade and I couldn't think of a better way to pay for new experiences in far away places.

Over the last 4 years I've been lucky enough to travel to Asia twice, Central America thrice, and now I'm south ofthe Equator in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  I'm a volunteer photojournalist for CUSO-VSO photographing other volunteers in the field. My collogue, Lisa Gregoire is writing the stories and I'm providing images. We have been sent to Tanzania to collect volunteer stories  to help the organization fundraise and recruit. Exciting times ahead! *more blog posts*

After a great month in Mexico, and via a volcanic accent in Guatemala I arrived at my final destination, Nicaragua. Since its independence, Nicaragua has encountered several periods of political unrest and for over a hundred years has been a significant economic appendage to the United States. This made it a precarious place to be during the rise of socialist movements in the 20th century. Politics aside, Nicaragua is an amazing place to visit and I got to see it from the unique perspective of a volunteer cameraman for Edmonton based N.G.O, Change for Children.

Half my time in Nicaragua was spent gathering visual media for Change for Children and their partners, the other half I traveled. I tagged along on a dental/doctor brigade (photo to the left, dentist) in the northwest Bosawás region, home to the Miskito people (Miskito child pictured below). I also got to work with the youth of Estelí with the arts organization Funarte. It was my first experience working with a development organizations and won't be my last.

For my last week in Nicaragua I traveled to the Isle de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua. As soon as you leave the ferry terminal in San Jorge you see the unique profile of the island on the horizon. Ometepe is comprised of two volcanoes side-by-side that are fused together with lava to form one island. One of the volcanoes is dormant and the other is not. From the air the island looks like a figure eight, and you'll see the figure eight symbol incorporated in a lot of the local art.  The island is filled with crystal clear springs, waterfalls, and plantations.

On the ferry ride over I met a few backpackers and we soon discovered that we were all going to the same guesthouse/organic farm, Finca de Magdelina. We decided to share a cab for the two-hour ride and had no trouble finding a local with a 4X4 jeep to take us there. We watched the sunset 30 minutes into the jeep ride and then soon realized that the jeep's headlights were not functional. Our anxiety grew as the daylight dissolved into dusk but the driver didn't seem to have any problems navigating the narrow jungle roads. He stopped at one point and produced a 12-inch crescent wrench from beneath the drivers seat and popped the hood. We all looked at each other slightly satisfied. For the next 2 minutes or so we heard the driver smash metal on metal under his hood over and over again. The smashing didn't work; we had no headlights and now it was pitch black. We asked him to use the horn but he said that didn’t work either. The driver sensed our strife and said, "No problem, I live here for forty years." So on we went through the jungle in the darkness. My confidence began to grow in our driver's night vision as the light from the rising half moon gave shape to the road. Just after the driver told us we had one mile left to drive we came up behind a large industrial truck that was blocking the road 50 yards ahead of us on a hill. It looked like a dump truck but there were some people loading furniture into it. As soon as our driver turned off the engine the other driver quickly jumped in the truck and we saw the taillights light up. As soon as he got in the truck he hit the clutch and started to roll back. I thought to myself; great, he's moving so we can get around. I was wrong. The truck picked up momentum very quickly because of the slope of the road and was clearly coming right for us. Our driver started to bounce the side of his fist on the steering wheel in a futile attempt to beep his horn. The American guy that was sitting shotgun began to yell, "Hey! No! Heeey!  No! Nooooooooo!!!!!! A lot of thoughts went through my head as four tonnes of steel came straight at us. Time really started to slow down and I thought I could reach across Helen open the door, push her out and we can dramatically roll into the ditch to safety. Then I thought, who knows what the trajectory of all of this twisted metal is going to be and we could get squished in a minor fender bender. I'm safest here, but shit! I'm not wearing a seatbelt! Then I looked over at the American and thought, he sounds really funny when he's panicked. He was still screaming Noooooooo! The driver kept up his rhythmic back fist to the horn. Through the windshield I saw a Pepsi bumper sticker get larger by the millisecond, we all made helmets out of our arms and braced for impact. The truck smashed into our front, the jeep flew back 15 yards in an instant, and then rolled to a stop. After the initial shock wore off and we all exchanged a bunch of "are you OKs?" Nobody seemed hurt and we got out to assess the damage to the jeep. The front end of the jeep was smashed beyond repair. It was easy to see this in explicit detail because the headlights were now working perfectly. *more blog posts*

Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food, Art, Food. And not necessarily in that order. This encompasses my trip to Mexico. That and a couple of reunions with new Mexican friendships forged earlier in the year at the Banff Centre for the Arts. I met many artists from Mexico in 2010. They threw the best parties, had interesting stories to tell, and we shared a profound appreciation for Banff's Rocky Mountain setting.

When I went to Mexico I reunited with my friend Miguel who lives in the museum rich Megalopolis, Mexico City. I spent many hours and walked many miles through Mexico City's many museums. To name a few of my favorite; the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, and Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes where I saw the infamous Man, Controller of the Universe mural by Diego Rivera.

Below is a photograph of Cai Guo-Qiang's instaltion at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo. The gallery floor was covered with volcanic pebbles surrounding a pond shaped like Texcoco Lake, and filled with 10,000 litres of mescal (a sort-of tequila). Covering the gallery walls are 14 gunpowder drawings depicting the Mexican landscape and cultural motifs. *more blog posts*

In the summer of 2010 I participated in a six month self directed residency at the Banff Centre. I got to work with some amazing talents in an amazing facility. Needless to say the experience was nothing short of amazing. Here is a nimble nugget of a video covering my environmental tests, storyboard development, and other activities at the centre. Thanks to all at the Banff Centre that helped me out with this project. Special thanks to artists Matt Walker who consulted me through my first pupppet mold, Price Morgan for all of your 3D and compositing work, and Sebastian Butt for Papier-mâché-ing with me. *more blog posts

Here are a couple of deleted scenes from Midnight Matinee with a little voice over.  In the first version of Midnight Matinee the camera character was inspired to make a film by a painting not music. I was going to have it paint a scene and the film would magically take place in another dimension inside the painting.  I later scrapped the idea because that kind of Mary Poppin' magic was a technical monster. The second clip (on the bridge), was a disastrous but halirious good time that did not fit but made me laugh so I decided to include it in this short video segment.   *more blog posts*

Four days of fine food, fine people, and fines for parking.
In the spring of 2010 the National Film Board of Canada sponsored a stop-motion animation research trip for me to Los Angeles, California.  My new film Ethos (old title Eirene) caught the NFB's attention and they agreed to send me to L.A to discuss Ethos's process with a range of experienced stop-mo talents ranging from Cal Arts students, commercial animation producers and veteran stop-motion animator Anthony Scott (Coraline). At Cal Arts I got to meet up with the lovely Kirsten Lepore who I was first introduced to in 2009 when I stumbled upon her stop-mo delight "Sweet Dreams". After getting back from California I was so inspired to animate I started testing one of my smaller armatures. Here is an animation test I did for funzies with my newly purchsed Dragon Stop-motion. Maybe one day I'll figure out what to do with the blue. *more blog posts*

Myself and designer Sheldon Woloshyn built a ball and socket armature with robotic head in his garage. This little 2 minute video covers the 2 month process. At the end of the vignette there is a clip of the animatronic head.  *more blog posts*

I returned to India for the forth time in 2009 to lens the Indian segment of the documentary Sacred Cinema for filmmaker Mark Power. We interviewed some exciting and famous "filmies" (what Indians call film industry people) such as Three Idiots bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani and independent film director Onir. I spent a lot of time on passenger trains. This particular time I was holding a camera.  *more blog posts*

Photo credit: Mark Power