Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival 2023

A few visual highlights from this year's Rise Up Hot Air Balloon Festival in Medicine Hat, Alberta. These images were captured across 4 days around various launch sites within the city. 

Render Monsters & Camera Creatures

The reality is that if you're going to be locked into editing for months on end you're going to find a few distractions along the way. 

These all started out as random doodles of camera equipment that over the last few months turned into characters. I've been referring to them as "Render Monsters" and "Camera Creatures" ... can you tell there's been some downtime throughout the fine cut? 

While there was never a point to these, I used AI to texturize a few of my favourites and then organized them into a poster. I think I'm halfway to releasing a children's book.

I'd like to think the influences are somewhere between "Bump in the Night" meets "Food Fighters" meets "the Real Ghostbusters" cartoon. I would've bought these as action figures as a kid, and each one would've had a spring-loaded projectile.

So, that's where I'm at lol.

Finlay Bridge in Medicine Hat, Alberta

On May 14, 1908 Finlay Bridge officially opened. The green truss bridge that spans the South Saskatchewan River in Medicine Hat, Alberta is a locally recognized heritage site, and since it was completed over a century ago, it has remained a symbol of the city. At 277 metres long and 10 metres wide, it was the largest bridge in Western Canada when it was built. Few local landmarks have maintained their practical significance and usage for the entirety of their lifetimes, but Finlay Bridge remains an artery to Medicine Hat's downtown core to this day.

Finlay Bridge was named after William T. Finlay who was one of Medicine Hat's early mayors from 1900-1902. Finlay was also Medicine Hat's first MLA when the province of Alberta was formed in 1905 and became Alberta's first Minister of Agriculture at that time.

Over the years Finlay Bridge has undergone refurbishment, including a complete deck and paint rehabilitation in 2009. The installation of brand new decorative LED lighting above the bridge and along the piers was also completed in 2011. Finlay Bridge is the support structure for the main Shaw Cross Canada fibre optic cable, proving that while the requirements for the bridge have evolved over the years, it is no less relevant today.

Construction of Finlay Bridge in 1908.