Safety

Industrial Portraiture Adventures


Admittedly, when I boarded on my first Airnorth flight in 2 years to head to Vancouver for a job, I did not expect I’d be standing approximately 130 feet underground just a few days later…

Did I deep breathe the entire walk down here? Yes, yes I did.

This is yet another reason I love this crazy job of ours…every week is an adventure, and this past month, that adventure took the GBP Team to two of Pomerleau’s latest projects in Vancouver, creating environmental portraits of their crews on the job! 

The Superintendent’s daily commute to work.

Industrial sites are always incredible to photograph, not only because they’re visually impressive, but also as it’s fascinating to learn just how much detail, planning, and person hours go into the structures and systems that we use, and likely take for granted, every single day.

In this case we were able to work with the teams building a new outfall pipeline for waste water, and seeing the construction that is involved in laying 200-580 meter long tunnels. Impressive to say the least!

From tug boats, to tunnels, to cranes and road building techniques…it was a whirlwind!
Here are a few of the images we created, and a few BTS along the way. A HUGE thanks to the Pomerleau crew’s we worked with. You guys were so informative and enthusiastic..we can’t wait to come back again!

And a little BTS for ya…

Photo 1: The boys loading all the gear while I take photos.

Photo 2: Gary and I had differing reactions to when I dared to question Siri and got us lost trying to get to our hotel. NEVER QUESTION SIRI.

Photo 3: As is the custom when you haven’t left home in 2 years, we pac-manned our way through the city in our down time. This is Dinner #2 of the evening

Photo 4: In depths! 130 feet underground in a tunnel!

Photo 5: Our boy Stu doing his best to shelter our gear during a sudden Vancouver downpour (luckily only lasted about 5 min)

Photo 6: When it rains…shelter under the bridge and keep it movin’

Public Service...More than 9-5

I don’t think anyone really imagined at the start of this year, that come spring, they’d be attempting to navigate a global pandemic both at home and in the workplace…
2020 has been a doozy of a year on so many levels…and people around the globe are adapting to this ‘new normal’ which is ever-changing as the weeks go by…


One of our favourite parts of our job normally is getting to see the behind the scenes of how businesses and organizations work. We take pride in being able to showcase employees on the job-doing their every day tasks that create the world we live in and keep it functioning….and to be able to have continued to have done that throughout this experience with COVID has been pretty remarkable.

One of the projects we were really stoked to work on, was capturing a variety of employees on the job for Government of Yukon’s Public Service week this year. They wanted to celebrate the employees that have continued to come to work throughout this time… from the workers who left their regular positions to be re-stationed in the Emergency Coordination Centre, or Health Emergency Operations Centre, to those who suddenly had to figure out how to balance working from home while simultaneously home schooling their kids…public service workers make up a huge part of the Yukon’s workforce, and it was really great getting to help celebrate them.


For many, the past few months have been a lot less of the regular 9-5 routine many may think of when they hear the term ‘public service’. Across departments, staff were working extra hours, and often shuffling schedules to try to accommodate new family and life realities during the toughest months at the start of all this. New policies were being written across Departments to keep people safe, some traded their regular work stations for fold out tables in utility trailers, and many suddenly had new roles to take on, on top of their regular duties.

There really isn’t a single sector in our community that wasn’t hit by a new reality this spring. We, along with all of the other local businesses and organizations had to suddenly adapt to something none of us could had expected. But one thing that we’ve found remained solid across industries and organizations was seeing our community come together and find resilience through it all. Yet another reason we’re so grateful for this place we get to call home.


From Board Rooms to Burning Buildings...

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So this summer has been busy to say the least...but that just makes it an exciting one!

Gary just got back recently from an assignment in Ontario, covering GoldCorp's 2018 Mine Rescue Summit. This was nerdy Gary's dream gig as he got to bring in all of his past experience with high angle rescue, fall protection and love of knot tying from his Communication tower building, and safety lead days. 

Mine rescue teams from every Goldcorp operation were brought together for a week of intensive training and the GBP team got to create both 'in action' and environmental portraits of the whole experience.  Emergency scenarios included everything from first aid, to high angle rope rescue, low visibility search and rescue, confined space rescue, firefighting, train derailment, aircraft extrication, and underground mine rescue! Again...nerdy Gary was stoked....

It was such a diverse assignment, as Gary's style of 'on site', documentary style work definitely involves getting as up and close as he can to the action. This meant he took the opportunity to renew some safety certifications like fall protection before heading out, and that he had to work very closely with the extremely strict safety protocols that were in place. 

In addition, our awesome drone pilot, Mike Code of Burning Grouse Productions, came along so that they were also able to get vantage points that would have been impossible from the ground in a safe way, which allowed for some really unique shots!

Then there was the battle of the 30 degree humid Ontario heat to work in while they were photographing rescue scenarios in front of 30 foot tall flames...

Needless to say, one of Gary's favourite assignments as of late. As our whole business is centred around photographing people and organizations at work, we are so lucky that we get to experience quite a variety of assignments throughout our year. From board rooms, to burning buildings...it's always an adventure, and we wouldn't have it any other way!