I took this photo this morning when Geroy Simon and Paul McCallum stopped by the TEAM 1040 morning show with the Grey Cup that they helped win this past Sunday. It made me think about this professional sport and how I’ve come to appreciate what it is.

Being the American that I am, I have to remember what my parents, as well as many folks south of the border, would say when it comes to this piece of timely sports news.

Most likely, it would be something to the tune of, “Oh, that’s nice.”

When I was back visiting my family in Iowa this past September, I took the opportunity of showing some of them what a CFL football game was like, taking advantage of the NFL Network’s agreement to rebroadcast TSN’s coverage of select Friday and Saturday games. I often send them emails or put out tweets about working these games, so it was nice to finally give them some insight about the technical work I do behind the TEAM 1410 radio broadcasts.

Within a brief minute of turning on a game, one of my nephews had the same reactions that I did when watching my first CFL games.

“How do you score one point? And why are they punting on third down?!”

Those things still trip me up from time to time, but that’s just apart of the game that is played in Canada compared to what I grew up with all my life. The field is bigger, there’s one more player on each team, and multiple players can be in motion towards the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped rather than only one player being allowed to run parallel as the play starts.

And I really only point that out because Geroy is one of the first guys I picked up on during my early days of working BC Lions games. There’s just something a bit captivating when number 81 is in nearly full sprint as he approaches the line, timing it just perfectly with the snap of the ball as to not be offside, and then wondering if Simon is on a deep route for the end zone to hopefully strike his patented Superman pose when he snags the touchdown.

Not bad for a guy in his mid-thirties and at the top of his game, not to mention sitting in the upper class of several CFL records.

And if you really want to find out all of the differences between the two, there’s a great Wikipedia entry for that.

But what really stands out to me is that this is the 99th time that the Grey Cup has been played for.

An Instagram photo from the 2011 Grey Cup Tweet Up at the Rosedale on Robson

The league that plays for the Grey Cup has changed, reshaped, expanded, retracted, gone up, and gone down over that time, but the cup has remained the same as well as the basic premise that every year, a group of teams battle for the right to get their name engraved for future challengers to see. And that has happened for almost 100 years.

Completely ignoring an all out which league is better debate, that’s a fact the NFL can’t touch.

They also don’t do it for fortune. The highest paid players make six figured salaries with only modest endorsements. The fact that many players have off season jobs to supplement their off-season training speaks to the passion they have to keep playing this brand of football, and it’s something that I have a lot of respect for.

This isn’t a league that you can simply call a “minor league” to the NFL. It’s a league of its own brand of football that has stayed truer, not by much, to football’s divergence from rugby. It’s played and followed by people who have dedication to any other professional sport like golf, tennis, soccer, or baseball.

It’s reality television at its best because I can experience all of the drama at the stadium or on TV, but then I can go to Ricky’s in Surrey for breakfast and catch the players doing the same thing.

My proximity to it all draws me in, and it’s hard to not get into the story lines. Listening into the post-game show after a game one night, a man from Seattle called and said it best.

“You can’t say the NFL is better than the CFL, or that the CFL is better than the NFL and all that. I love my Seahawks, and I love the Lions. It’s like chicken and fish. You just have to love them both.”

Shot with my iPhone from a BC Lions game from now demolished, temporary Empire Field

So true, but if I were forced to choose over watching either or, I’d choose the CFL for the simple fact that 20 second play clocks keeps the action on the field moving and dramatically cuts down on the lull between plays. Even this American boy can get bored with football games spliced with three replay perspectives followed by five minutes of commercials.

With my experience in technical side the radio industry, there’s a subtle excitement that you get from setting up, rewiring, or moving studios around. And quite honestly, there are a lot of details to have in place before going live in a new control room for the first time.

This video was that moment for The Beat 94.5 when the mic went hot from its new studio and over the air.

Project’s not done yet, but getting to this point is certainly a relief.

I had a fairly big project going on with the day job today, but there was a brief moment that relieved a little bit of the stress. I forgot about the email that mentioned Lights was coming in for a performance in our lounge at the station. I snagged my camera and snapped a few shots for the one song that I could stick around for.

I caught Lights about a year ago when I shot photos of Jets Overhead at The Commodore. She was the headliner, but I didn’t have a photo pass for her performance, just the opening act.

Lights takes my musical tastes to realms not usually tread, and I can’t help but appreciate the passion she has in her craft. She was also pretty brilliant live.

As hoped, I got to head to Punta Cana with the radio day job as a sequel to the very short trip that Rebecca and I had there in July of this year. This one was for a week, and it wasn’t as much relaxation as I had hoped but still provided some great, warm weather and tropical sun.

I just got through all of my photos this past weekend, so here’s a small collection of my favorites from the trip.

You can see the whole set of photos on Flickr.

I never like to pass us an opportunity to see some carnage and destruction, preferably that of the controlled type, but this was a chance that doesn’t come along too often.

In my near 15 years of being involved in the radio industry both in the U.S. and Canada, I have never seen a transmitter site have its towers knocked down first hand. Using my Nikon D90 and a cheap tripod, I thought I’d use the opportunity to take some video such opportunity.

To give a bit of back story, this is the now former home of CKST (TEAM 1040AM). Built in the early 80′s, the five tower site has been replaced with a completely new site, not far from this location. This site was slated for eventual demolition, but recent site inspections discovered some structural problems on the base of two towers that the need to bring them down became extremely urgent. In fact, this information was discovered late last week, and this past Monday’s appointment with experts in knocking down towers like this was bumped up.

As you’ll see in the video below, my video techniques are a little rough, but the sound of each, 240 foot tower hitting the ground was impressive. By the time I captured the third tower coming down, I figured out that static shots of each collapse worked much better on my cheap tripod, hence that annoying crunching sound of sorts. Live and learn.

And some photos of the aftermath.

The best part of this whole day was being able to hop back in the truck and drive away because I didn’t have to help clean it up, not that I’m against the manual labor. There’s a lot of twisted metal, glass, ceramic, and other pieces to deal with. There are experts to handle that part, too.

I was at BC Lions vs. Saskatchewan Rough Riders game this past Friday, working the radio side of the play by play broadcast from BC Place. I’m not the biggest football fan, but the passion and excitement of the game is always what draws me into watching a game from time to time.

Finding this clip on YouTube, this game had two great elements to it. A ridiculous comedy of a play that results in a touchdown combined with pure athletic power on display in the field goal block towards the end, the real reason I’m posting this. Seeing that happen on the field in real time was amazing.

As apart of the day job, I had the opportunity to shoot some photos at the red carpet event for the 2009 Juno Awards last weekend. Some of Canada’s best known musicians and performers came through to talk to members of The Beat morning show, so I did my best to shoot through the thick crowd of fellow media members, such as other photographers, producers, TV cameras, etc.

Here’s a few of my favorite shots.

Elise Estrada

Sam Roberts

MuchMusic VJ, Leah Miller and Dallas Green of City and Colour

Mike Reno of Loverboy

Elvis Costello and Diana Krall

Sarah McLachlan

You can see all of the photos from that night on Flickr, and I’m fairly impressed with how some turned out compared to others. All of these were shot with my Canon S5IS, and I took some time after this to learn more about my camera in anticipation of having more opportunities like this. You never know what type of situation you’ll be in when you get to shoot events like this, and it really made me feel like a newbie standing there.

People have asked me a few times as to what I thought about the whole experience, and to be completely honest, it was just another day on the job. However, when Elvis Costello walked up with his stunning wife, Diana Krall, I did have a brief moment of where I couldn’t believe how close I was standing to a man of great talent, if not a lasting impression on rock and roll history. That would have to be my highlight of the Junos.

I have never been close enough to the Stanley Cup to really even see it prior to today. The one day I go to work without my camera, it decides to roll through the front door at work and pay the place a visit. In a mad scramble, I was able to snag a pic with it via cellphone, not to mention the opportunity to touch it as well as take a good look at it.

The one thing that struck me was how scratched it is. That’s not surprising, and I think it’s a lot like seeing people on TV and them not looking the same as they are in real life. It’s been through a lot, not to mention that its century old lifespan lends to have a little bit of wear and tear to it.

The cup was in town tonight for the Vancouver Giants home game where they honored legends of the NHL. The Giants even dawned the jerseys of the last team to win the Stanley Cup in this city, the Vancouver Millionaires[wiki] in 1915.

Back then, all you had to do was be a proven team and issue a challenge to the reigning holders of the title. A far cry from the 82 game regular season and playoffs consisting of four rounds, best of seven series. This point was only driven further into my head when I got home tonight to turn on “Hockey: A People’s History“[wiki] on television. A must see for any hockey fan.

Alas, one day, Vancouver’s name shall appear on this cup once more as champions.