Place of Rescue Fundraiser 2008 Photos

On September the 12th, 2008, there was a fundraiser held at RockPointe Church for Place of Rescue, a Cambodian orphanage for victims of AIDS. Country music artist Paul Brandt, joined by his wife Liz, played an acoustic set as part of the evening, which also included silent and live auctions. Over $100,000 was raised for Place of Rescue that evening; the generosity of the people who attended was touching. From a photography point of view, I enjoyed myself, though it was hard to get the pictures I wanted of Paul Brandt while trying to avoid blocking other people’s view. One of the things I need to do more of as a photographer is to take risks to get great shots.

A Weekend of Shooting: Glorious!

I had a very busy weekend, but it involved a lot of photography and videography, so I had a lot of fun. I hadn’t done any serious photography since early July, and I was really missing it. When I heard that there was a Place of Rescue fundraiser at my church that included a Paul Brandt mini-concert, I asked if they had an event photographer – they didn’t, so I was the guy with the camera on Friday night. I’ll talk more about Paul Brandt when I finish processing the photos, because I got a chance to met him briefly, but I wanted to process one image from each of the events I was part of this weekend. Here’s one of my favourite photos from the concert…

The other event I attended this past weekend was Memory Foundation’s Face-Off Against Cancer, a hockey tournament that raises money for malignant melanoma research and support for families impacted by it. This year the tournament was held in Crystal Violante’s honour, my friend who passed away from cancer last year. They already had an event photographer, but I decided to bring along my Nikon D300 and Canon HF100 HD video camera and do my best to capture the memories for the people playing on Crystal’s Shooting Stars, the team created in her honour. Ashley set a personal goal of $2000 for fund-raising, and she managed to hit $2435 $2935 thanks to great support from our friends and family. Thanks to everyone that donated! Below is one of the images I captured from that event, cropped in a trendy 16:9 aspect ratio. 😉