Maria Coffey and Dag Goering at their workshop during the CIMFFOn Tuesday night I was fortunate enough to sit in on a workshop at the Calgary Mountain Film Fest hosted by Maria Coffey and Dag Goering. Maria and Dag run an International Eco Tour Company and were in town to give a brief writing and photography primer.
I first heard of Maria during an interview on the CBC in about 2008 (from what I can remember) when they were talking about her book "Explorers Of The Infinite" which focuses on the spiritual and supernatural experiences of extreme athletes. This book has been a huge influence on how I view risk and pushing my limits even long before I was in the plane crash.
During Maria and Dag's workshop on Tuesday I had the chance to talk to them both in person and interact with the lessons. They are both extremely personable people and clearly passionate about telling a story whether it is through words or images. As we were wrapping up Steve Bommer (Spirit West) suggested that I should have had my camera on me for a shot of the couple for the Festival News. As any good photographer should always their gear within quick reach, I ran 3 blocks back to my van where I had left it after a long day of 6 editorial assignments for the magazine. Maria and Dag were very gracious to allow me to (very) quickly pose them with a little directional light as the location was being locked down.
If your interested in what Maria and Dag are doing, check them out at hiddenplaces.net or their Elephant project at elephantearth.org .
