I was fortunate enough to join the iChannel team in attending this year's Power Ball - celebrating its 25th anniversary with a 'Quarter-Life Crisis' theme - which I've heard is one of the high-profile events, where anybody who is anybody will be there. And it definitely was a bumping party, full of fabulous food, drinks, art, music, and fashionable ladies and gents.
One thing I love about my job is that I get to go to such a wide range of events - one week I could be interviewing a musician at a concert and the next week I'd be taking photos of cute dogs...no complaining there! So last week, when I got asked to cover the Toronto Fire Fighter Calendar Show, how could I say no? Check out my post from the event on the iChannel blog:
It’s no secret that Toronto is known for being the home of
an amazing variety of delicious foods - from restaurants out on King West to
cafes on College, there are great places to dine throughout the city. And from
May 30 - June 3, The Grid TO
presented an event that collaborated with local eateries to offer a unique
dining experience featuring a classic meal: the burger. Taking a typical burger
and adding their own twists, more than 20 restaurants participated in Burger
Week - a majority of them offering $5 burgers, while the rest were Black-Tie
Burgers ($5 from each goes to The Stop Community Food Centre).
The iChannel team and I visited three restaurants to see the
different creations and we even got to go into their kitchens to see how
they’re made. The first stop was Brassaii (461 King Street West) where we met
up with Chef Chris, who walked us through the making of his Black-Tie lamb
burger, topped with wild leek aioli, heirloom tomatoes, house-made pickles, and
feta cheese. It was a great start to the day and my mouth was already watering.
My favourite photo...future food photographer right here!
Next up was Utopia Cafe, at 586 College Street, and it was
packed. As soon as we got there, we noticed how crazy and hectic it was - not
surprising though, since it was lunch time. We got a behind-the-scenes look at the Ultimate Bacon Burger (another Black-Tie Burger).
And so the mouth watering continued. We also spoke to Darrell Ball from Muskoka
Brewery. Utopia Cafe was just one of the restaurants offering a beer-and-burger
combo that featured Muskoka Brewery products; they even threw in a special
Burger Week glass with each purchase!
Our last stop was Hrvati Bar, a Croatian-styled restaurant
at 690 Euclid Avenue. We went into the kitchen and got the
rundown on their signature hamburger, or “pljeskavica” - we all definitely had
troubles pronouncing that one. After the interview, we got to taste it
ourselves and I thought it was incredibly delicious. Our iChannel host Kalen also
spoke with Karon Liu, a food writer from The Grid, who gave us some background
of Burger Week itself.
This was definitely a fun event to cover with the iChannel team. I mean, anything with food involved has to be good, right? Right.
On May 27, I helped out The Pet Network and iChannel as the photographer for the day so I thought I'd share the events we covered!
First up was the Purina Walk for Dog Guides for petNews, which took place at Toronto's Purina Pawsway at Queen's Quay. Click below to read about the experience:
There is also a full gallery of my photos on The Pet Network blog, but here's a glimpse!
And the second event for the day was CLIMAX (Canadian Live Intimate Music and Art Xperience) presented by Proud FM and BMO Financial Group, which was a rally to end homophobic bullying. The event featured live performances, plus amazing food and drinks! Click below to read my post on iChannel's blog:
Here are some photos from the event at Berkeley Church:
It was definitely an interesting day, and I had a great time with the team!
- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28
The final event from May 19th as a photographer for iChannel was the Toronto International Circus Festival. We checked out the Zero Gravity Circus show on the Westjet stage, which was pretty impressive - full of acrobats, dancers, and mimes. Harbourfront Centre was super busy, since it was a gorgeous long weekend, but I didn't mind because I got to enjoy the sun as well!
Check out my blog post for iChannel (click the image and it'll take you to the article!)
There is a full gallery of my photos up on the iChannel blog, but here are a few to give you a quick idea of the event:
The fun iChannel team!
I had a great time tagging along with them on their shoots for the day!
- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28
