Richard Branson at YVR

Another trip to Vancouver behind us with Roland back home in Switzerland. I hope the flight went well- it certainly was a great day to fly out and overall the last 3 weeks had very good weather- in Merritt certainly.

I will write more about his stay with us in my next post but as it's a matter of being timely with news oriented photography I will share the photos I took of Sir Richard Branson on his trip to Vancouver.

Along with Premier Christy Clark and a host of people involved in airline/transportation matters he was there to announce the new non-stop flight route between Vancouver's YVR airport and Heathrow Airport in London, U.K. on his airline Virgin Atlantic.

It was quite a media event that probably started in the morning and ended up at the airport...a matter of good timing as photography 'on the fly' goes! Despite 3 distinct and separated rings of guests, media and onlookers I was able to get some rather nice photos.
(I believe this is in part due to the fact that Canadians are polite people.)

I had heard of Richard Branson of course and knew he was a wealthy businessman involved in all kinds of ventures. Once I did a little research at home it's easy to see why I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that made him so rich and famous. He has evidently amassed a collection of at least 400 quite divergent companies. The name 'Virgin' is associated with several of them...Virgin this-this-and-that in the back of my mind and a recollection of stunts and daredevil antics by a rather wolfish looking man who had obviously already lived a full life!

In any case, I was glad for the opportunity to put myself to the test and brave the wall of media to get my shots and see now that Sir Richard is a pretty good looking fellow with great hair, a nice way of speaking and a very friendly yet proper manner. It must be said that he has a sly grin sometimes and a jaw that sets quite firmly on certain statements I can't quite recall the content of.

This was quite in contrast to the almost chipmunk-like appearance and demeanour of our Premier who was blatantly enjoying the whole event. I did recall some of her address to the crowd acknowledging our ties to the U.K. (referring to Queen Elisabeth) although I think she's far from a being a supporter of titles.

The airline hostesses (?) that acted as models for the whole prop of Virgin Atlantic probably have permanent lines in their faces by now from the permanent smiles they wore...they seriously were so professional and even managed to keep some warmth in their expressions.