Darryl Leniuk Photography

Men's Journal Shoot

2011-02-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Men’s Journal contacted me to photograph an upcoming story for the magazine on longboarding. I met up with writer Grant Stoddard and the group from Land Yachtz Longboards, who are also Vancouver based, and we headed into the upscale British Properties in West Vancouver to spend the chilly afternoon sessioning several steep winding hills.

My assignment was to ‘capture the speed and thrill of the sport’. To get that sense of motion in the images, I worked with slower shutter speeds that added blur, but still kept the subject sharp. Most of the shoot was done with me hanging out of the back of the Yand Yachtz van, photographing the riders as they raced down the hill towards me. We had a few close calls with oncoming traffic, but the shoot was a blast and, most importantly, we got the shots.

Avalanche Course

2011-02-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

I headed up to Whistler for the weekend to do the Avalanche Safety Training, Level One with Whistler Alpine Guides Bureau and report on the course for The Globe & Mail. Although I’ve been skiing in the backcountry for several years, I’ve never taken formal training, so it was definitely time. After a classroom session Friday night, the rest of the weekend was dedicated to getting out in the mountains and covering as much as possible.

Sunday’s lesson involved route planning and avalanche recovery scenarios. With limited visibility, wind and blowing snow it was a challenge and great practice for the realities and dangers of being out in the backcountry.

Cat Skiing in Rossland

2011-01-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

We spent New Years in Rossland, a tiny town in the Kootenays known for its outdoor adventure opportunities. In the summer it’s a Mecca for mountain bikers; in the winter it’s a world-class ski destination. I came for a few days of cat skiing with Big Red Cats, an operator specializing in deep powder tree skiing.

On my first day in the cat, I stepped out into a bluebird day of some of the lightest, deepest powder I’ve ever seen. I felt like I was actually in one of those ski resort brochures, you know the one where some dude is cruising down a slope in waist deep powder without a soul in sight. Except you’ll never ski anything like this at a ski resort.

Snowshoeing at Night

2010-12-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

To get in the Holiday mood, we headed up Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain to report on a snowshoe fondue tour for the Globe. Our cheerful guides led us into a forest of giant snow-covered Douglas firs, Cypress and yellow cedar, and along the way, told us about the ecosystem we were tromping through.

After an hour or so of meandering and marveling at the beauty of the forest, we arrived at the rustic and warm Hollyburn Lodge, for a gooey Gruyère and Emmental cheese fondue, homemade hot apple cider and a chocolate fondue for desert. We loved the apple cider.

Climbing in Joshua Tree

2010-12-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

Rock climbers love to talk about the Zen of the sport, testing one’s self against the rock. The purest form of climbing is known as traditional-style, or trad-climbing, and involves climbing unbolted routes, placing protective gear as you go, gear that will halt your fall should you slip. But it’s more a test of nerves—trad-climbing is trusting your gear, and yourself. For more than 50 years California’s Joshua Tree National Park has been one of rock-climbing’s top trad destinations, producing some of the world’s best climbers and numerous innovations in the sport. Today the Park boasts over 8000 climbing routes and draws climbers from around the globe.

The winter months are the best time to climb in Joshua Tree, with blue skies and warm temperatures. So I headed to Palm Springs in late November to take a trad-climbing course with a Joshua Tree Rock Climbing School and report on it for The Globe & Mail. The week was amazing and tiring and the Park was a truly magical place.

Wind Tunnel Flying

2010-11-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

Flyzone, Western Canada’s first vertical wind tunnel, opens this weekend so Claudia and I headed to Delta to check it out and report for the Globe & Mail. After a short lesson on safety and body positioning, we were fitted with a flight suit, helmet and goggles and led into a giant Plexiglas cylinder with our instructor. From a prone position on the bouncy mesh floor, the propeller below you is sped up until you levitate, at first knee high and then, as the operator revs up the rotor, two meters or more off the ground. Your instructor gives you hand signals, telling you how to improve your body position, and keeps a hand close by to save you ricocheting off the walls.

The sensation is a bit like sticking your head out the window of a car while careening down the freeway, but way stronger and more fun. The tiniest movements can have big effects. We each got a kick out of watching each other’s cheeks and chins ripple in the 200km/h wind.

New Globe Column

2010-11-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

For the past several weeks I’ve been doing a new adventure column for The Globe & Mail, which runs each Thursday in the Life & Travel section. The task each week is to come up with an interesting activity for readers of the country’s top national newspaper. So far I’ve covered salmon diving in Shuswap Lake, crater camping in Maui’s Haleakala volcano, Coasteering in Wales and shark diving in the Bahamas. If you have any cool story ideas, please send them my way.

Adams River Salmon Run

2010-10-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

The biggest salmon run in over a century! Having traveled to the Adams River for the two past runs in 2002, and 2006, I was amazed at the amount of fish at this year’s run. For this trip I led a small group of photographers to some key spots I had scouted in the river, where we set up and had a fish’s eye view of the action. The only problem was when there’s this many fish spawning, there’s even more dead fish and the smell was terrible.

On the second day, the group did some dives at the mouth of the river, in Shuswap Lake. We estimated there might be up to a million fish circling here, waiting to enter the river. When the school passed overhead, it blocked out the sun it was so dense. After three days of lugging camera equipment into the river and lake, our group was sore, and tired but exhilarated by the great shots they had captured.

Okanagan Adventure, August 23-24

2010-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

Penticton & Wine Country Tourism contacted us to do a shoot for their new outdoor adventure brochure that would highlight the amazing adventure opportunities in this destination more known for wine and food travel and family vacations. With little experience in this area, they relied heavily on us for advice on how to organize the shoot, maximize the locations and talent and generate great experiential images while working with a very small budget.

We began with an early morning shoot at Skaha Bluffs, a rock climber’s Mecca 20mins drive south of Penticton. We found a nice wall that got early morning light and I strung myself off a leash to get some great angles of our climbers from Hoodoo Adventures. From there it was off to Okanagan Lake for a kayaking shoot and later that afternoon up some bluffs over the Kettle Valley Railway for a rappelling and hiking shoot.

The next morning we were up at dawn to shoot wakeboarding with Kyle Hamaguchi from Wake Up Water Sports. I jumped in the water to get some great wide-angle shots with the housing. All in all, it was a fun two-day shoot and we hope the images bring others here to play.

Kayaking Desolation Sound, July 17-24

2010-07-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

After doing a 3-hour safety course in Powell River with Alpha Adventures, my wife Claudia and I packed food, supplies and several bottles of wine and embarked on a six-day, self-supported paddling and camping trip through Desolation Sound, one of the West Coast’s best kayaking destinations. The trip would be for a story for The Globe & Mail for summer 2011.

Our first stop after leaving the tiny town of Lund was the Copeland Islands, where we met Yuli and Trudy, a couple of ultra-fit 60-somethings with German accents who were ‘from Whistler.’ The Copelands were stunningly beautiful rocky islands, which were only two hours paddle from Lund. The next day we headed north around Sarah Point to the Curme Islands. We camped on the westernmost island, which was slightly larger than a football pitch. The water was warmer up here and after the days’ paddling we spent the afternoons swimming in the shallow channel between the islands. After three nights in the Curmes we headed into Malaspina Inlet where our trip ended in Okeover.

Backcountry Adventure in the Rockies

2010-04-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering are among my favorite activities, so I jumped at the chance to cover a story on a new lodge in the Rocky Mountains for The Globe & Mail. The Lyell Hut, a new satellite hut for Icefall Lodge, north of Golden, sits on a rocky outcrop in the Lyell Range at 9400’ elevation.

After a heli-flight to the main lodge, which would be our base for the next seven days, our guide Geoff Osler began planning when we would do the Lyell excursion. On the 3rd day, conditions were perfect and by 5am we were climbing with headlamps up steep frozen snow slopes and avalanche debris from the previous afternoon’s slides—the reason for the early start.

We reached the hut some eight hours later, after scrambling up a 50-degree col with skis on our packs and a long traverse up the Lyell Glacier. I was exhausted, but the trip was worth it. The two days at Lyell were amazing, as was the rest of this trip. There’s nothing like spring skiing in the Rockies.

Adventures in Wales

2010-03-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

Each year the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) holds it annual conference in a new destination, and I usually make it a point to attend. With this conference being held in Wales, the first time outside Canada, I was excited to attend. These events bring together writers, photographers and many from the travel and tourism industry such as tourism boards, hotels and resorts and tour operators. In general, they’re great for getting a pulse on the industry. Not surprisingly, most have had a difficult time the past year as the economic crisis has been particularly brutal to media. Despite this, there were glimmers of hope, and many I talked to felt more optimism than a year ago.

As for the trip itself, Visit Wales put together a great itinerary. My pre-trip fam had me rock climbing on the Gower Coast, Gorge Walking in Brecon Beacons National Park and Coasteering (scrambling over rocks with wetsuit and helmet) in Pembrokeshire. Along the way we visited castles, cathedrals and experienced some amazing Welsh hospitality. From there, we headed to Cardiff for the conference and more sedate tours.

Exploring BC’s Backcountry

2009-09-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent the last few weeks of summer moving and doing a reno... but in between flooring, painting and shopping for furniture, I was able to get outside and enjoy the stunning wilderness of my own backyard—BC’s backcountry. An overnight hike in late August to Garibaldi Lake, through fields of wildflowers and past glimmering glaciers was definitely a highlight, as was a trip to Elfin Lakes and Opal Cone near Squamish. My girlfriend Claudia was my hiking partner and (mostly willing) model for both trips.

For a bit more adventure I did an overnight mountaineering trip to the Semaphore Lakes area near Pemberton with the BC Mountaineering Club in mid September. On each trip, I lugged along my camera gear, which is down to about 10 pounds for my backcountry set-up. Most people now recognize me by the large front-mounted pack I carry on my chest. I just tell them it’s a counterweight to balance my backpack and they usually believe me. You never know when magical light will combine with a stunning background so always be prepared!

Riding the North

2009-08-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

They say Whitehorse is the new Moab, at least that’s what some of the top mountain biking magazines and websites have been reporting lately. So not to be left out, I headed up north in early August on a media trip to do a story for the Globe & Mail.

There were several forest fires in the area and when I landed the smoke was so thick I could barely see across the street. It was not looking good. I met up with Marsha and Sylvain from Boreal Mountain Biking, my guides for the week. The first day’s ride left from Boreal’s base in the mountains overlooking Whitehorse and wound through fast single track in the surrounding forest. The sun shining through the smoke created a psychedelic yellow light I have never seen before.

The next day, the winds came in and blew away the smoke. We headed to Carcross to do the Mountain Hero ride, a high alpine descent past glaciers, caribou and meadows of wildflowers. The trails were fast and furious and were a blast. My Santa Cruz Nomad proved the perfect ride and Sylvain tailored the tour to give me a challenge. There is a ton of amazing terrain up here, and I think we got some killer images as well. Forget Moab, go to straight to Whitehorse.

Chill on the Hill

2009-07-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Social media—it seems marketers are tripping over themselves to reach the 18-25 year old crowd. So I wasn’t too surprised when Ogilvy & Mather in Toronto contacted us to shoot an event for their client, Coca-Cola, which would be almost entirely promoted through Facebook. The idea was a beach and snow party on the top of Whistler Mountain, with two live bands, a concert stage, beach and volleyball courts and a freestyle snowboard terrain park. The purpose was to position Coca-Cola’s Nestea brand among youth and drive traffic to the event’s Facebook page with great photography, which is where we came in.

The brief was to create exciting, dynamic images of the event, particularly the sports components. After capturing some of the initial set-ups, the crowds began arriving, and people were really into it. The terrain park was particularly popular, with riders dropping in non-stop and hitting some big moves. One of the challenges was that the event was in the middle of the day, when light is very high contrast. I used a mix of strobe and reflectors to balance the lighting, along with a bit of post to get the style the client was looking for. Everyone had a blast and the client loved the images.

Flying kites in the Magdalen Islands

2009-07-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

The assignment was to do a story on kiteboarding in the Magdalen Islands, Quebec’s remote islands located in the middle of the Gulf of St Lawrence, for the Globe & Mail. It’s a sport I’ve always wanted to try, so I jumped at the chance. I did three days of lessons with Aerosport and then met up with some of the island’s top riders for a few action-packed photo sessions. Shooting in the water, with a water-proof housing and directing riders to jump over top of me took a bit of nerve and some quick reflexes, but I think we got some great images.

As for my lessons, they were a blast, but I’ve got a lot of new found respect for those riders. I felt like a beat-up rag doll after the first two days. But, by the last session, I managed to get up and ride a good 50m or more—before ending with a massive crash that deflated my kite.

Last day on the slopes

2009-05-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

I met with Rube Goldberg and Kalina Hornsby, two Whistler based pro snowboarders, with the plan of capturing some riding and lifestyle images for a stock shoot for Getty Images. We headed up to the 7th Heaven area at the top of Blackcomb where we ran into a film crew from Warren Miller productions. They had built a massive jump and were shooting snowboarders launching off it as a promo for the 2010 Olympics. We hoped to sneak in a quick session on it between takes, but their location manager said nope.

Then we found a few nice jumps with some clean alpine backgrounds. The temperature was over 20C and Rube and Kalina were sweating, hiking uphill to hit the jumps. They both took direction well and could easily coordinate their moves to maximize background and lighting angles. Although forecast was for sun all day, there were a lot of clouds up there and we shot like mad in the brief windows of sun. By about 2pm, the weather had turned and we were in a blizzard of freezing rain, so the shoot was called off early. Still, we managed to get a few good images and will be back on the slopes next season.

A Day on the Courts

2009-04-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

The crew met at 7am on a sunny, cool morning that makes you realize why we live in this beautiful city. The purpose of the shoot was to capture three mature, professional men playing a game of pick-up basketball as a rights managed stock shoot for Getty Images. After much scouting, we decided on David Lam Park in downtown Vancouver, for the location we wanted.
-> Watch Basketball Video

For talent, we cast for both look and playing ability—they had to be able to get past me with the ball, which provided some fun at the studio. I find this very important when doing a sports shoot; I can always tell when talent are faking it. DP Kevin Hagell was brought in to capture HD video footage from the shoot. Acting as director for the filming—while shooting stills—is a new role for me. I think motion is the future in advertising, so am trying to incorporate this into most of my shoots.

Crew consisted of Amy Lu as stylist, Ellen Pratt on make-up and hair, Jeannette Gallant as producer and Erich Saide and Hedwig Schipperheijn assisting. The first order was getting the location set up. Erich changed the ratty basketball net with a nice new net that suited the urban location. Make-up and wardrobe were set up in a corner of the court we would not be shooting.

With the great morning light, we began with wide-angle shots of the location using natural light. Once the models were done make-up and wardrobe, we focused on playing and had the models sweating as they really got into the shoot (though Ellen had some fake sweat just in case). The talent proved to be very competitive, which is just what we were looking for. I was able to give direction, then wait for the scene to unfold. For the tighter shots we opted for using a large softbox and location kit to get a more interesting and stylized look. All in all it was a very productive half-day shoot.

Watch Basketball Video
Watch Basketball Slideshow

Urban Obstacles

2009-04-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

The crew met on a cool spring evening to capture some images of parkour, or free-running, a sport that involves equal parts gymnastics, martial arts and athletics. Our talent were Lucius Fairburn and George Boutros, two of the city’s best traceurs. The plan was to get some dynamic images of the urban environment as an obstacle course. Images were captured with both available light and a small portable strobe. Shannon Kohli came out as DP to do some HD video capture, which I directed, and Erich Saide assisted.

With this sort of shoot, permits are near impossible so it was decided we’d do it guerilla and move on if security guards showed up. But, to our surprise the movie ‘Tron II’ was being filmed downtown and several streets were blocked off. There were security guards and police everywhere. But they all thought we were a second unit and just watched as our talent ran up walls, did flips over stairwells and leapfrogged over parking meters…

See Parkour Video