Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation

A few visual highlights from the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation in Coaldale, Alberta.

What Was Thinking Hat?

Over the last few years I've been asked a handful of times, seemingly out of nowhere, about this one project I was involved with - "what was Thinking Hat?" It's funny how some things spread and then pop up again - having gone on a journey that was largely out of your control. It began in the summer of 2013. I was approached by Spectacle out of Calgary to discuss the idea behind a joint exhibition to debut in downtown Medicine Hat, Alberta as part of Alberta Culture Days. 

The premise was a simple, but compelling idea centred around what was and what could be in the downtown core. My portion of the exhibit featured the photo essays that I had captured of some of the historic and abandoned structures in downtown Medicine Hat for my Around the Hat series. This would be contrasted against Spectacle's architectural and design work for how some of these underused spaces could be reimagined for modern developments. 

What made this concept pop was that it was hosted in a then vacant Beveridge Block at the same time as 2nd Street was in the final stages of receiving a massive upgrade. The weekend long exhibition debuted on September 27, 2013 and saw hundreds of curious visitors come through the doors including fellow artists, business owners, city councilors, and the mayor. 

Following the initial exhibition, Thinking Hat was displayed in the public library and eventually ended up in several of the vacant storefronts on 2nd Street. Amazingly, the project was left visible to the general public for nearly half a year. Why after all these years though, you may be wondering, has Thinking Hat still come up in conversation from time to time? 

Not long after our exhibition in the Beveridge Block the building, which had been vacant for more than a decade, was sold and completely renovated into an impressive event space. While we can't take credit for that, the work we did to put on this exhibit was the first time the building had been accessible to the public in years. It was also arguably the best it had looked in a long time too. Naturally, it sparked a lot of conversations.



At the end of 2018 I also released a documentary short called On 2nd, which was about the changes I had witnessed on 2nd Street as part of shooting my Around the Hat photo series. The project featured some of the footage I captured during Thinking Hat, and to date the documentary short has been viewed several hundred thousand times.

I still look back fondly at what we achieved with Thinking Hat, not just because of the feedback, but because it felt like we were stirring the pot on a discussion about downtown that had felt stagnant. Thinking Hat added more to the conversation by highlighting the good, the potential, and the proof that there was more here than people realized. It was a good start. 

 Jessie Andjelic and Philip Vandermey of Spectacle, and Luke Fandrich of Editing Luke (me).

Editing Luke in 2019

It was a year of incredible challenges, competition, and stress, but also a year of reinvention, growth, and undeniable achievement for Editing Luke. Once again, I won't bore you with every project that I was involved with in 2019, but here are some of the standout moments and personal bests that made this year one that I'm particularly proud to share: 

January 2019 - My year kicked off with an invitation to speak and share a bit of my story with hometown photographers at the Medicine Hat Photography Club. One of the coolest things about the invite is that it provided an opportunity to really reflect on my approach in a way that I hadn't considered or contextualized before. 

January 15, 2019 - A series of travel shoots in Calgary, Alberta resulted in the release of a brand new photo set featuring the architectural details of Calgary's newly built Central Library. In addition to one of the images trending on Instagram, the post quickly became the most viewed set on Editing Luke in January.

January 30, 2019 - My documentary, On 2nd received additional attention after playing at the 2019 Mayor's State of the City Address in Medicine Hat, Alberta. 



February 12, 2019 - A new photo set featuring Death Valley National Park in California became February's most viewed post on Editing Luke.

February 2019 - The Hey, Canada travel photography series was officially launched.

March 1, 2019 - With the production company growing, I took a moment to celebrate the 5 year anniversary since Editing Luke became my full-time operation. 

March 11, 2019 - An overnight frost and well-timed shoot lead to this photo set going viral and easily garnering the most views on Editing Luke in March.

March 21, 2019 - Editing Luke was interviewed on CBC Radio Calgary.

April 1, 2019 - A series of new travel shoots took place in Edmonton, Alberta.

April 8, 2019 - A new photo set of an old lodge in a Florida swamp attracted the attention of the Tallahassee tourism board and lead to this post becoming April's most viewed.

April 2019 - After several months in talks, planning, and negotiations, I secured funding to produce a new feature length documentary.

May 1, 2019 - This new photo set of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida became the most viewed post of May on Editing Luke. 

May 17, 2019 - Documentary production went into full swing.

May 2019 - In what became my most ambitious travel shoot of the year, for the second half of May I embarked on a 14 state road trip through the Northeast USA. This travel shoot was also noteworthy as following it I had officially shot photography and video (in varying capacities) in all 50 United States and D.C. 

June 4, 2019 - Cover images featured on the annual report for the City of Medicine Hat.

June 12, 2019 - Filming on the documentary continued in Vancouver, British Columbia.

June 26, 2019 - Following an exploration of RCA Studio B in Nashville, this new photo set went on to become June's most viewed post on Editing Luke.

July 1, 2019 - Travel shoots in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

July 15, 2019 - Documentary enters post-production.

July 25, 2019 - This recap of some of my past Canadian concert photography highlights became the most viewed post of July on Editing Luke.

August 2019 - Instagram features for @editingluke abounded this year from tourism related re-posts in places like Montreal, Dallas, Cape Cod, Seattle, Miami, Detroit, Toronto, and Los Angeles. As well as business features from companies like WestJet, McDonalds Canada, and Pizza Hut. 

August 10, 2019 - Long awaited details about what the new documentary I'd been working on for months was actually about were finally released. This also became August's most viewed post on Editing Luke.

September 18, 2019 - After a premiere at Medalta Potteries, my documentary Clay, Creativity & the Comeback debuted to the public online. After several months of shares and multiple streaming links, this post quickly became the most viewed of 2019 on Editing Luke. Additional details about the project were also released here. 

You can watch the complete documentary here.




September 27, 2019 - A collection of 40+ original art prints were installed in the newly built Stringam Law Office in my hometown of Medicine Hat, becoming the largest collection of my work on display in a single location to date. 

October 26, 2019 - This month was dominated by an epic travel shoot around Japan, and the subsequent launch of the Overseas Collection for all of the future photo sets to come. With so much content debuting on Instagram, this brief recap became the most viewed post of October on Editing Luke.  

November 8, 2019 - Work continued on the expansion of the Around Alberta series.

November 10, 2019 - With the WU17 Hockey Challenge in town, Editing Luke was contracted by TSN to shoot some material for them. This post became the most viewed of November.

December 15, 2019 - The year wrapped with a series of incredible travel shoots around New York City leading up to Christmas. While much of the content has yet to debut, a few of the early hits have included Jagged Little Pill on Broadway, Riding the Subway, Carnegie Hall, and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

December 23, 2019 - Featuring scenes around Old Quebec at Christmas, this new photo set became the most viewed post of December on Editing Luke.

Singapore Visuals

A few random visuals from travel shooting in Singapore. More here.