The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.

Speaking of the power of photos, did you enter your submission(s) to our 2010 Experience The Mountain Parks Photos Contest? Get a closer look here, see the great prizes awaiting! There are opportunities you don’t want to miss. The list of the 2010 prizes isn’t finalized yet, but we can tell you the 2009 winner went away with quite a deal! Expect some similar prizes this year.

How fun can change people’s decisions – The Piano Stairway

An experiment in Stockholm, Sweden where students changed stairs into a piano. The Fun Theory!
Watch and don’t hesitate to comment below, share your thoughts

I recently came across this coming movie, and thought I’d share it with you.

Here is the plot outline:

The Wildest Dream brings to the screen the last days of adventurer and Mount Everest climber George Mallory – the man who may or may not have been the first to scale the world’s most challenging peak. After disappearing 800 feet from the summit in 1924, Mallory’s body was never found – until present-day climber Conrad Anker discovered it, frozen and intact, 75 years later.
 Linking the past with the present, The Wildest Dream recounts Anker’s efforts to scale Everest in precisely the same fashion as Mallory – with authentic equipment and clothing – to see if Mallory could indeed have made it to the top. Sifting through clues left by Mallory, some of which have only come to light with the discovery of his body, Anker and his team attempt to solve the mystery of Mallory’s death and grant to him the accolades that he may well be due. 
The Wildest Dream is narrated by esteemed actor Liam Neeson, accompanied by Natasha Richardson as the voice of Mallory’s wife Ruth and Ralph Fiennes as Mallory. Never-before-seen archival footage combine with the spectacle and grandeur of present-day Everest on the world’s largest screen to portray an adventure — shrouded in mystery — that spans generations.

The Wildest Dream will be released in both 35 mm and giant screen formats .”

This National Geographic Entertainment movie, slated to be released on August 2010 is starring, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richardson, Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Dancy, Alan Rickman.

Media release excerpt:

…”Travel Alberta has launched a new marketing campaign aimed at long-haul travellers in key North American markets, inviting them to bring their boots and experience everything Alberta has to offer. “Bring Your Boots” taps directly into what travellers love most about a vacation in Alberta – the chance to get out and do different things.”…

To wrap up their campaign, get a look at the ad they’ll be running in major US and Canadian newspapers:

Doesn’t it look familiar to you?

Just take a look at the 2010 Experience The Mountain Parks cover page:

For the record, the image we’re using for our 2010 cover has been submitted by Barry and Adèle Philippson, from Ottawa, on December 6, 2009!! This image was awarded an honourable mention in our 2009 Photo Contest (see our January 13, 2010 post).

We let you judge.

How “visionary” were we when we picked up this photo for our next cover?

Furthermore, what do you think of the “experience” we brought you and you’ve known now for years?

By the way our 2010 edition of Experience The Mountain Parks will hit the newsstands on May the 20^th. Watch for our insert in the Globe and Mail!

The Film

Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema.
Travelling through the heartland of America, Diamond looks at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding – and misunderstanding – of Natives.
With clips from hundreds of classic and recent films, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native directors, writers, actors and activists, including Clint Eastwood, Robbie Robertson, Sacheen Littlefeather, John Trudell and Russell Means, Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people from the silent film era to present day.

The Team

Stephanie Donald from New Brunswick submitted these two shots below.

She said:
“I took both photos in Jasper when I was there March 2 and 3 while on a wildlife tour.
The first photo is taken while driving on the #16 in the direction of Hinton. The second is taken while stopped on the Maligne Lake Road.

Although short, my trip was fabulous and I can’t wait to get back!  It is an amazing part of the country.”

You can do the same too by submitting your photos here!!
And your videos here!!

On behalf of all of our contest sponsors, we are very pleased to announce that Rui Shan, of Edmonton, Alberta submitted the winning entry to our Reader Photo Contest!

 

 

 

 

We’re pleased to unveil that one of your submissions will make the 2010 cover of Experience The Mountain Parks, your printed guide!

So let’s discover which submission it was;
This photo has been taken at Lake O’Hara back in September 2008.
Barry Philippson, of Ottawa, submitted this photo; read what he’s saying about it:

“We have visited the Rockies many times and our highlight of our trips is always the Lake O’Hara region.  It was a beautiful early fall day – not a cloud in the sky and the larches were golden. It was nearing the end of the day and we were rushing back to the Visitor Hut to catch our bus back to the parking lot.  We just had to stop before our descent back to the hut. We just soaked it in and stayed as long as we could.  We did – we had to almost run back so we could not miss our bus. It was the best day ever!”

Simple, but how great their mountain experience has been! They’ll certainly will have life-long memories. This is why we thought we ought to pick this one for our next cover. This is the perfect illustration of what we think; a memorable mountain experience!

Congratulations Barry!

With no further ado I’ll let you now take a peek at the photo he submitted.

By the way, it doesn’t mean this photo will be the 2009 Photo Contest Grand Prize Winner.
We’ll have to wait more for the jury of professionals to go through all of your submissions.
We just wanted to share this with you.

Please keep in mind -this year- we had lots of great submissions, we’re sure it will be tough for our jury to pick the best and as we’re going further and further there will be many more opportunities to expose your talents!
Don’t forget you can submit your photos, videos, and stories. Give and share your “insider stories.” By sharing you’ll also learn from others.

Last words;
A few more weeks to wait and we’ll know who’s the 2009 Grand Prize Winner…Stay tuned!

Submission to our 2009 Experience The Mountain Parks Photo/Video Contest is now over and we’ve been busy collecting all your entries to hand them out to our jury of professionals.
Thank you for all these great submissions!
The ones of you not seeing their submissions up on the website shouldn’t be too worried. We gave opportunities to participate through so many ways it’s taking time for us to optimize them as web-ready. So if you made your submission before December 15^th, midnight mountain time, you should see your submission pretty soon.

Good luck to all!

We are sure by now you’ve seen the advertisements running on the right side of this website.
We carefully hand-picked through reputable affiliation agencies some relevant companies and not-for-profit organizations we felt would suit this website and our vision.
However we’re looking for your feedback as we’ll expand this website and its content through your vision too. So don’t hesitate to drop us a few lines through our contact form.
As well we firmly want to open doors to local businesses and local non-profit organizations as we feel it’s important to you and to the local communities we strongly support. We’re actually in discussion with some “Friends of…” organizations to better serve their pursuits through partnership. Our goal is to shape this website as your one-stop before, during and after your outing.

So if you’re interested in our support -as an individual, business, organization, etc.- we strongly recommend you to get in touch with us as we have the technical abilities to shape something for you, to help you out.
This website is yours, we’re giving you here some empowerment to make it work for you.
Pretty soon and by popular demand we’ll be launching our own full shopping experience. So stay tuned as we’re going through the final technicalities.