Greek Fest and 'Play On' hockey tournament

The Greek Festival 2013

The Greek festival first began in Halifax in 1986 after Lillian Meletedis had attended a similar event in the US. It was brought up as an idea to then priest Father Elles and other community leaders in the Halifax community. The first Greek festival went beyond crowd expectations in the early summer of 86 which resulted in total depletion of food early on  Sat. evening. The Greek community fused together and started preparing food in the late hours of Sat. night into early Sunday morning with the help of local Greek restaurants donating and preparing a lot of the food.

My first experience going to the Greek festival was in the summer of 1991 as I attended it with a few of my Greek, Lebanese and Italian friends. Ever since, I have been a huge fan of the Greek Festival and try to get out every year to take part of this cultural experience. This year I took my camera along to capture a few moments from a brief visit  this past Saturday.

This was a game to score on the goaltender and win a t-shirt.
This boy and girl were only fooling around while the regular goaltender was on a short break.

Greek School Dancers

Greek School Dancers

History of Greek Folk Dancing

"Greek folk dancing ties Greeks to their past and to their future. Greek folk dancing is very much an active art, both in Greece and throughout the world where Greeks have immigrated. Dancing is a vivid expression of everyday life and everyone of all ages dances at important occasions – weddings, baptisms, family celebrations and community social events."  ( Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church )

Maria Panopalis helping the Greek School Dancers explain
the history of Greek clothing attire.

 "'POSEIDON' plays both contemporary and traditional Greek music from a wide variety of popular Greek singers, and most recently has focused its attention on composing and recording original music. They have performed at hundreds of dances, festivals, televisions shows and concerts from coast to coast in Canada, and in parts of the United States, such as West Palm Beach (Florida), San Francisco, New York City and New Orleans." (poseidonband.com)

Preparing Greek Cuisine 

 Hockey Night in Canada's 

'Play On'

4 on 4

Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 15/13

A friend of mine had called me up early Sat. morning as I was getting ready to photograph at the Greek Festival. He told me about a 'Play On' tournament where 4 on 4 road hockey teams take on each other in a weekend tournament. Being a hockey fan, I was ashamed to say I had never heard of the tournament but thought I should be photographing this event as well. Below are some of the action I captured last weekend and here is a little history about the 'Play On' tournament.

"Play On! is a story of a small-town hockey fan who was passionate about the game and wanted to make a positive difference for the sport across this great nation. The concept was formed after he graduated from one of Canada’s most prestigious business schools and couldn’t find a job. Now, 10 years later, that same business school teaches the story of Play On! to all entrepreneurial students, reinforcing a message that anyone can fulfill their dreams if they just never quit." ( Playon.ca)

"Starting from a single tournament in Halifax, Nova Scotia back in 2003, Hockey Night in Canada’s Play On! has grown to 21 annual tournaments that take place from coast to coast across Canada. Now in it’s 10^th season, over one million people have taken part in one of the 90+ events held to date." (theqmjhl.ca/article)

"Hockey Night in Canada's Play On! tournaments feature hundreds of teams and thousands of participants and include separate divisions for both genders, all skill levels, and all ages." ( Playon.ca

"Each year, the top Elite, Grinders(u19) and Enforcers(u17) teams from across Canada qualify to compete in the National Championship where teams have the chance to hoist the Redwood Cup and earn the title ‘Greatest Street Hockey Players’. At four feet tall and sixty-three pounds, the Redwood Cup is taller and heavier than the holiest of grails – the Stanley Cup." (www.moncton-wildcats.com)"

The Oval, Halifax Commons, Sat. May 15/2013
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Chasing Surfers

My Day Chasing Surfers;

I have  never been a big sports photographer but  certainly enjoy the genre.   I’ve never made it the main focus of my portfolio however, I like action photography whether it be sports, dance, or motocross racing. I love a photograph that captures a moment by freezing the action on a very fast shutter speed or by “panning” and having the main subject in focus and the background blurred and out of focus.

So I decide to tackle some surfing photography as I want surfing photos as part of my portfolio. After some hurricane research I find that Tues. Sept. 11th at noon is the highest swells and I decide to head to  Lawrencetown Beach at 12:15 pm. Lawrencetown is known for its big waves and a lot of local surfers spend a great deal of time there.

When I get there I see my friend and great sports photographer Scott Kirkpatrick with his camera equipment in hand. He's not looking too happy as he starts telling me that the waves are just not surfer-friendly and there are no surfers around to speak of. Scott decides to follow a car that pulled up with surfing boards on top but leaves shortly after for another location after they see the wave conditions as not favorable at Lawrencetown Beach. I decide to get my gear and take a walk up the Hill that overlooks the beach and on the way up I meet another photographer. He tells me of a place 5 kms down the road where all the surfers have gone because it has  better surfing conditions than Lawrencetown beach at this time. I still decide to go up the hill where the Kannon Beach Wind and Surf shop resides which has a café and art gallery and a very picturesque walk overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean. On top of the hill I see two surfers heading out and one captures a wave and gets a decent ride. My photograph of this action is the first picture on this blog.

Because the shot wasn't a real interesting picture taken from afar, I decide to apply some “lens blur” from Photoshop and then remove some of the blur on a layer mask. Basically I am trying to create a Tilt Shift photography effect. I think it is one of my best shots from this days excursion.

I ended up heading out to where the other photographer suggested and was delighted to see more surfers catching decent waves. There I park my truck and head out on the rocky beach where there are other spectators and photographers. Finally I’m getting some shots but the surfers are not doing too much complicated stuff which I hoped to capture. I notice some other surfers further down a rocky beach and I quickly decide that I came this far so I might as well pick up and try my luck “shooting” down the beach.

A long walk over rocky terrain and passed by a grumpy land owner who wasn't pleased I was walking down near his property. I started getting the photos that I want, big waves, surfer guys and girls riding bigger swells. I notice down the beach another surfer dude coming with his board and he's interested in who I’m shooting for. He tells me that “down here” they don't like photographers coming on their land and I ensure him that I was not on anyone's private land walking down the beach. I certainly didn't feel welcome in this particular area.

I continue getting shots of these more experienced surfers (pictures I uploaded) but wrap up kinda quickly as the tide is coming in and I am out on a point of land where I am not sure how far the water would come to shore. All in all this wasn't a bad day as it was good to get out and shoot on a warm sunny day on the Nova Scotia coastline. I enjoyed the challenge of photographing surfers and I hope to get out and try getting better shots another time and hopefully this fall. As stated above, my favourite photo was the one where I used the Tilt Shift effect. One of the things I like best about photography is trying to make a photo better by manipulating it in Photoshop or another image editing software program.