(By Mike Helfrich, First Photos contest winner)

After finding out that I won the First Photos contest, I got the opportunity to fly out to Toronto -- all expense's paid for -- to shoot with a few guys from the Vans team. Also, my winning photo was displayed alongside some of the most influential skate photographers out there at the Red Bull 381 Projects gallery in downtown Toronto.

Matt Houghton at Push.ca lined up all my flights, accommodation, and transportation for me, and I have to say he went all out. He set me up at The Royal York which was, oh, how can I say this, amazing! There's nothing better then walking into an upper-class establishment with a toque on and a skateboard in your hand, especially while it's snowing outside. I caught a few people looking at me like I was from another planet.

Mike with his winning photo at the show. akFAORO photo.

By the time I got to my hotel it was already 7:00 pm. With this being my first time to Toronto, I had to go explore as much as I could. Next thing I knew, it was almost 1:00 am (10:00 pm my time, since I flew out from my hometown of Kelowna, BC) and well, to make a long story short, I did not get much sleep that night.

The next morning I met with Matt and Lyndsey Westfall from Push.ca and Brian Hunt, who was there to document the day's events, for a quick lunch at the hotel. After a couple of "epic" sandwiches (that was their actual name on the menu) and a quick breakdown of the day, we met up with Sandro Grisson from Color Magazine and sent it to The Rail skatepark in the north end of Toronto. The park is built on the old military base and is owned /operated by Brandon Del Bianco's dad Piero; such a rad place!

By the time we got there it was about 1:00 pm and we had the park to ourselves for the next two hours until the doors would open to the public. Once we got inside I met up with Vans team rider's Adam Greene and Antoine Asselin from Montreal, and Jesse Landen from Toronto. After about two minutes of watching these guys skate, I knew this was going to be a sick photo shoot.

Antoine Asselin. Helfrich photo.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the park was how much good graffiti there was. I wanted to incorporate some of this awesome artwork for the first shot. I saw Jesse slaying this quarterpipe with banks on both sides, and right behind it was the sickest wall of graffiti in the whole place. After about 40 minutes of shooting on that, we switched over to a sick wall ride transfer that Adam Greene did the cleanest alley-oop three on.

Adam Greene. Helfirch photo.

I was noticing that the pictures were turning out OK, but nothing really stuck out to me. To bring you up to speed, back when I first found out that I won the First Photos contest, Matt said we were most likely shooting at an indoor skatepark since there could be snow on the ground. So from that point on, I knew I was going to need some sort of back-up plan just in case the backdrop was not so flattering. So I went out and bought a fog machine on the premise that we'll be shooting indoors so the air will be very still: perfect for fog.

Jesse Landen, with Sandro running art flash cover. Helfrich photo.

At first everyone was kind of hesitant about the whole idea, but with the help of Sandro, we brought it out and blew a couple clouds, and right away I knew it would take the shoot to another level. The fog gave such a dramatic vibe to the photos; it transformed the skatepark into something completely new. Antoine ripped a wooden Jersey barrier, and I got some great shots on that with fog creeping around it. And then towards the end of the shoot, Brandon Del Bianco showed up and killed it at his home park. I swear he must have magnets in his shoes because it was bolts every time! Before I knew it, 3:30 rolled around and we had to beat feet out of there to keep on schedule.

Antoine Asselin. Helfrich photo.

Brandon Del Bianco. Helfrich photo.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we went out to dinner with the crew from earlier and a few guys from Vans, including Bobby Gascon, Stu Cameron and Jay Shoemaker. We all enjoyed some amazing food at this restaurant called The Rivoli, and then went over to the Red Bull 381 Projects gallery for the photo show [photos here].

The Red Bull gallery is tucked away behind some door you would never think of entering. The show was put together nicely with about 20 photos from all the category winners, along with some heavy hitters like Jody Morris, Michael Burnett, Brian Caissie, Ryan Allan, Rich Odam, Scott Pommier and many more. It was pretty cool how they hung the photos; instead of framing them, the print was held on a pure white wall by four tiny magnets. People could even buy the prints, with proceeds going to the Contributor skate charity. The show was great! I got to meet some pretty cool people and definitely learned a few things in the process. From the show we went to a bar and from there it is all a blur.

Overall, the trip was a blast, except that my flight was cancelled the morning I had to fly home due to a snow storm hitting Toronto. There is nothing worse than being really hung-over and having to carry a bunch of heavy camera gear!

Thanks to Push.ca, Color Magazine, and Vans for making this all happen!

For more, check out: www.MikeHelfrich.com

[ed: click here to see Mike's contest winning photo]

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Related:
First Photos Overall Winner
It's A Wrap: The First Photos Show and Shoot