Nick Didlick Photography| If you have landed here at www.didlick.com you have either been given a business card and wanted to know more, searched the internet or taken one of my digital imaging course. Any which way you got here you are on the home page of Nick Didlick, a Vancouver, Canada based photographer, digital photography consultant and web designer.
Funny as it may seem Nick Didlick describes himself as a professional Fly Fisherman and amateur photographer which is surprising since he has made a living from photography for almost 30 years. He began his career in photojournalism by working for a small weekly newspaper, The Progress, in Maple Ridge, B.C. in 1976. From 1976 until 1979 he worked at The Progress, The Coquitlam Herald and then the Edmonton Sun, a daily tabloid newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. Nick didn't waste anytime during these early years learning and perfecting the profession that he says chose him. "I love making pictures and the camera chose me, I just hung onto my camera straps tightly and went along for the ride!". When pushed to elaborate he said "I am a curious person by nature and I love to meet people from all cultures and walks of life and learn a little bit about them, what better way is there to do that than as a photojournalist".
Nick was the Reuters Journalist of the year in 1988 (the first time the award was given to a photojournalist) and was twice nominated for a Pulitzer award by Reuters North America; for a picture from the 1985 Heysel Stadium Soccer Riot, and for a picture of Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev at the completion of the Reagan/Gorbachev Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1986. He has covered Royal Tours, Olympics, Super Bowls, Super Power Summits, man made and natural disasters, riots and other conflicts. When asked about which was his favorite picture he says "I don't really have one favorite picture, but I do have a collection of favorite memories". It is clear Nick has a deep respect for those he photographs and a firey sense of adventure when telling these stories whether it's riding a "tourist camel" in front of the Giza Pyramids near Cairo or photographing rock star David Lee Roth in a seedy dark Vancouver hotel with whipped cream and ladies of the night. Didlick's photos have appeared in many of the world's major newspapers and magazines, including the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, The Times of London, The Sydney Morning Herald and Stern, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone Magazines. Didlick returned to Vancouver and the Vancouver Sun in 1990 (after living out of a suitcase for nearly ten years) to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle the Canadian west coast offers. In the fall of 1999 he joined the photographic staff of the National Post after ten years at the Vancouver Sun. Didlick moved on to the National Post to look for new challenges going into the millennium, and he also started an online Fly Fishing magazine "A River Never Sleeps" in March of 2000 with writer and colleague Mark Hume.
Today Nick works for a number of Editorial and Commercial clients (see recent photography look here) as well as being a Digital Imaging Consultant. For more on his digital consulting and instruction look here.
Nick has been working with digital photography since 1986 when Reuters took delivery of their first electronic picture desk. In August of 1994 the Vancouver Sun published its first all digital photograph using the Associated Press’s NC 2000 (News Camera 2000). The front page picture taken by Nick (below), showed Queen Elizabeth arriving for the XV Commonwealth Games. That year marked a major change in photojournalism as newspapers and print news organisations looked at integrating still digital cameras into their work flows to meet deadlines with breaking news. Quipping to competing news photographers during the Commonwealth Games Nick was often heard to say "If it ain't Digital, It ain't News" referring to the speed his new digital camera could deliver images to the Vancouver Sun.
Always intrigued by new forms of communication combined with a thirst to know more, Nick started in 1994 to experiment in the World Wide Web, by teaching himself web design and, more importantly, the integration of high quality images on the web. "The Web is one of the most captivating forms of communication in the world today," he says. "It is a visual extravaganza, a perfect showcase for still photography". For Nick that means blending still photography with sound, making Virtual Reality scenes and other mixed media content to be served up on the web for readers, web surfers and viewers. "The print media has a limited reach and it's very expensive to produce a printed product. What could be more exciting than placing work on the web which is relatively inexpensive and has an almost limitless audience?". In 1997 he launched the PixelZone, his personal photo website, which has always been a work in progress and a place for him to experiment.
When asked to look into the future, Nick laughs and says "the future, I don't want to know what's coming. That takes all the fun out of life! Life is like a curve ball, it's how you handle it that is important". But after a moment's thought he says he looks forward to more rich experiences that a photographic career can bring. He plans on working on more photographic projects while at the same time experimenting with the latest developments in QuickTime, High Speed Internet connections, web design, web servers and photography both in its still and video forms. Currently Nick shoots Editorial and Commerical Photo assignments and is a Digital Imaging Consultant with Blue Pixel. He also teaches workshops around North America helping other push their own digital photography boundaries.
Looking for new challenges outside of Digital Imaging and Photography Nick became and licenced Fly Fishing Guide running a white water raft on rivers near Vancouver. He holds a Workman's Compenstation First Aid certificate and a Enhanced Standard First Aid certificate along with a Swift Water Rescue Technician certificate. When asked why he he started this new venture he said "I wanted to do something that was as far away from computers, cellphones and webservers as I could. Besides I love to learn new things its keeps your mind sharp and isn't it everyones dream to make a hobby into a lifestyle." His Fly Fishing Guiding service website is Fly Fishing Vancouver. If he is not to be found on a river or lake with a fly rod in hand he will probably be working on his Fly Fishing website A River Never Sleeps or shooting photo assignments from his home base in Vancouver, Canada.
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In December 1979 at the age of 22, Nick joined United Press Canada (the UPI affiliate in Canada) and traveled widely for the next 5 years on assignment in North and South America as well as Europe. In April of 1985 he moved to the newly formed Reuters News Pictures Service in Brussels, Belgium later transferring to London, England as Deputy Chief Photographer for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
These favorite memories come from the many photographs he has taken and the experiences he has had while hanging onto his camera straps. "Like walking through the snow-covered forest in Akademgorodok, Siberia in 1992 with a grade five student on her way to school, or standing alone amongst the 25 mortuary totem poles of the Haida's Ninstints Village in the Queen Charlotte Island's on Canada's rugged west coast". 
In September of 2001 after two years with the National Post, Nick has moved on to pursue other career challenges and is currently looking at different professional career avenues. Never one to look back, Didlick says "I relish the prospect of new challenges that might come my way". 
In 1995, he was one of the lead members of a team responsible for converting the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers to a completely digital photo operation, the first newspapers in the world to do so. The newspapers and their staff of 18 photographers converted from film based photography to electronic photography using 20 - NC 2000 (News Camera 2000) digital cameras. Since then he has been a digital photography consultant and lecturer to a number of clients in Canada and the United States while at the same time working on a number of photographic projects.
Looking back over his career so far it's hard for him pin point one highlight. But recalls 1999/2000 as one of his most productive years, he set up Canada's newest daily newspaper's photographic department at the 