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.


Dream Trail

It’s a bit of an understatement to say we’re grateful that our home is right here in the Yukon. We’ve always felt this way (I, Brianne was born and raised here, while Gary moved up from BC over 14 years ago now…) but this year especially we’ve got a whole new appreciation of the amazing community, and landscape we get to call home.

One of the many reasons we love it here is the incredible trail system and landscape we get to play on. Through biking and running, we get to explore mountains right outside our back door. So when we were asked to cover the trail crew who was building the new “Dream Trail” on Grey Mountain last summer, we were stoked as it gave us an opportunity to see some of the trail building team in action.

The Youth Achievement Centre (YAC) and City of Whitehorse trail crews are working over a 5 year period to build this trail, which will connect the end of Grey Mountain road, along the ridge with epic views 600 meters above Whitehorse, ending in a flowy dream down to the base of the mountain again.

Built by hand, the crews spend long days digging away, along with lead trail builder Joe de Graff. The plan is for it to a be a multi-use trail which will allow bikers, runners, and hikers alike to enjoy.

To say it’s hard work is an understatement. The team of city workers and YAC crews take a quick flight to the top in the morning, but then work a solid day on the trail before hiking out at the end.

It was so awesome getting to know the hard working crews behind these trails that we all get to enjoy-and we can’t wait to see what the final product will look like. From the previews we’ve gotten already…Dream trail certainly is a good fit for a name.

To read more about the crew and their process, check out the latest issue of Yukon, North of Ordinary Magazine!

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T1D Portraits-Part Two

We were recently approached by the Yukon T1D Support Network to add a few more portraits to the series we started with them back in 2018. Knowing the impact this organization has on families who are navigating a life with T1D, we were of course happy to make it happen.

The Yukon T1D Support Network helps Yukoners who have Type 1 Diabetes through education, advocacy and support. We heard first hand through some of the families we worked with, how incredibly important their work is. Within a day of having a new diagnosis for their child, for example, people from the network had reached out and offered supports, helping them through the first overwhelming and frightening days trying to navigate this new reality.

Yet another incredible group of people in our community, putting everything they have into helping those around them. We are completely honoured to be able to work alongside them to create images that celebrate the strength, resiliency, and joy these families have in the face of T1D. They will be used as part of a new advocacy and awareness campaign.

And we also wanted to take the time to thank the incredible models/families who volunteer to be a part of this portrait series. To share your story, and to be an advocate while many are in newly diagnosed stages, and still trying to navigate this ‘new’ life they are leading. Thank you. You are inspiring.

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The people behind the city...Photo Library update!

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We’ve mentioned before that photo libraries are one of our favourite ways to create content for clients. Instead of one-off photo shoots as things come up over time, photo libraries are a way to purposefully create a library of personalized stock images that marketing and communications teams can then pull from as needed.

A lot of our larger clients are now turning towards these libraries as it can help communications teams pull content easily and efficiently in order to not only plan ahead for campaigns, but also respond when an event comes up throughout the year that they need content for.

We recently did an update on some of the City of Whitehorse departmental photography, and as always, had so much fun working with all of the crews. Always welcoming to us hauling our gear into their offices, or capturing them out on a job site no matter the weather-just a bunch of pros!


Commercial Photography: A Mixed bag

One of the many things we love about commercial photography is the fact that no two shoots are really ever the same, and this recent one we did was no exception!

We are excited to share some of these images from our recent work with Home Hardware, as it was one of those projects that got us to create a variety of different types of imagery for a client, all the while maintaining a consistent style throughout.

The client was doing a website update, and so wanted some new, cohesive photos to go with it. They bascially needed three different types of images: Headshots of some of the management team, environmental portraits, and then exterior/architectural shots.

We did this shoot over the course of two days. First, starting with setting up our headshot gear on location, for the ease of the team coming over to do their photos. Then we moved onto setting up the ‘in action’ or environmental portraits throughout the store where we get to capture employees doing their thing, as well as the interior building shots.

And finally, the next morning we set out bright and early before the store opened, in order to capture that beautiful morning light for the final series of exterior shots to show off the location.

We love projects like this as it allows us to utilize various skill sets all within one job. Moving from connecting one on one with a person to capture their headshot, to taking into account background details and working in a bustling store during work hours, to sitting patiently and waiting for the sun to light up a specific detail of a building…it’s projects like this that allow us to explore all the different types of skills we’ve gathered over the years and it feels great when we get to see the final product out in the world!


Northern Solar

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Not everyone knows this, but Gary’s former career before he took the leap and started GBP, was actually as a Journeyman Electrician. He had spent years before that installing communication towers throughout western Canada, and then when he moved to the Yukon, he switched gears into the electrical trade.

Specifically, he wanted be an electrician so he could specialize in renewable energies, and in particular the growing field of solar.

So needless to say, now over 10 years later, when we were able to team up with Solvest, a northern Canadian based solar company, to create some new imagery for them, Gary was pretty stoked!

We’ve actually had our eye on the Solvest team for quite a while. They’re a super cool company that not only specializes in residential, commercial and industrial solar installs, but also is working on northern food security issues through their Cropbox product, as well as research and consultation.

Part of the reason we love working in industrial settings, and in this case specifically with solar installation, is that Gary feels at home on the work sites. He knows the safety standards, he understands the principals behind the systems, and this allows him a unique perspective and the ability to really know which elements to highlight when photographing both the site and the employees on the job.

On this particular project, he was even able to work along side some of the crew he used to work with as an electrician, just this time, he was behind a camera instead of helping with the install itself!

So on that note, here are a few of the images we got to create of the Old Crow solar project. This project is expected to offset annual diesel consumption by up to 30% for the community! It’s a super unique system, custom to Old Crow as it’s east/west facing to take advantage of the long summer days, generating power at the time of day when people are at home, utilizing it the most!





Turns out birding is awesome...

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Being commercial/industrial photographers, we have gotten to experience a lot over the years in terms of learning about different industries, programs and organizations. That’s one of our favourite things about our job is that we are constantly learning new things and getting to meet the awesome people that make up our community.

BUT one thing I can say that we have never come across before is Birding…until NOW that is!

We are so stoked to be working with Lotteries Yukon and Mosaic Communications on Lotteries’ new “What’s Your Recreation” campaign, which was just launched! Throughout the course of the year, we get to work with Yukoners around the Territory and get portraits of them out doing a variety of recreational activities

And you know what guys? Thanks to Tedd here, our first model of the series, it turns out we learned Birding is CRAZY COOL.

Like did you know Woodpeckers tongues are so long, they actually wrap around their entire skull to help protect their brains from concussions!?

LOOK AT THIS DIAGRAM IT’S INSANE:

And that’s just the start of it…Immature Eagles have longer wings than adults because they act like “training wheels” and the Arctic Tern (which we do get here in the Yukon) has the longest migration of any animal in the world!

BIRDS! Fascinating creatures…

All this to say, my world view on birds has been changed. I now get excited when I hear them. I’ve caught the birding bug….

Huge thanks to the awesome team behind this exciting campaign! It’s always so awesome to see our images “out in the wild” with design and we are so excited to see what else we get to capture along the way!


Klondike Kettle Corn

One of our favourite projects so far this year was getting to work with Klondike Kettle Corn to develop some new imagery for their upcoming website re-launch and marketing materials!

Anyone who follows the work we do, knows we love working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, and getting to know Katie and her family was no exception. We got to do some lifestyle images with them, and they even braved the -40 weather we happened to get that weekend so that we could get some authentic Yukon Outdoor lifestyle shots! They were total pros the whole time. Our computer/tether system, however of course decided it didn’t want to work in -40, so we just did without….

Then, we went into a new realm that we haven’t tried before…food photography! For this set, we partnered up with Tara Kolla, a local stylist, who came to the GBP studio and worked with us for the day. We were so happy with how these turned out…and we can also confirm these flavours do in fact taste as good as they look. There was a LOT of taste testing going down…And our computer/tether system enjoyed this temperature a lot more.