Nick Didlick

BIO:

Nick Didlick picked up a camera because of his love for the wild landscape of British Columbia, not intending to one day shoot photos that would win awards or be splashed across the front pages of the world’s biggest circulation newspapers and magazines.

His initial motivation was simply to capture images of the beautiful natural world and it soon became second nature for him to pack a Nikon along with his pitons or waders. It didn’t take long, however, before his passion for photography blossomed into a career. After starting with weekly newspapers near Vancouver, he was soon working work with big city dailies and international news wires.

He says today that he didn’t have much choice about the matter. “I love making pictures and the camera chose me. I just hung onto my camera straps and went along for the ride.”

And what a ride it was. It kicked into high gear in 1979 when, at the age of 22, Nick joined United Press Canada (the UPI affiliate in Canada). He traveled widely for the next five years, chasing global news events on assignment in North and South America as well as in Europe. In 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.

Nick was the Reuters Journalist of the Year in 1988. It was the first time the award was given to a photojournalist. He was also nominated twice for a Pulitzer. After living out of a suitcase for nearly 10 years, running from one global hotspot to another, Nick was drawn back to British Columbia, where he joined The Vancouver Sun. In 1994 The Vancouver Sun published its first all-digital photograph using the Associated Press’s NC 2000 (a Nikon body on a Kodak Digital back produced by the Associated Press). The front-page picture, taken by Nick, showed Queen Elizabeth arriving for the XV Commonwealth Games. In 1995, he led the conversion of The Vancouver Sun and the Province newspapers to a completely digital photo operation—the first newspapers in the world to do so. Since then, Nick has been a digital photography consultant and lecturer to clients worldwide.

After setting up the photo department of the National Post, Nick became a staff photographer for the publication in their Vancouver bureau.

In 2001 he left the National Post to do contract photography and to start a digital photo consulting business specializing in digital still and video imaging. Since 2008 Nick has also done contract work for the International Olympic Committee, where his duties included managing and assisting the world’s photographers at the Beijing Games, in 2008, the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 and the London Games in 2012.

Today Nick’s photo adventure continues from his home base in Vancouver, B.C., where, when not shooting assignments, he can often be seen rafting salmon rivers or hiking wilderness trails with a Nikon slung around his neck.

In this tour of duty so far, Nick has covered Olympics, Super Bowls, Stanley Cup Finals, Super Power Summits, Royal Tours, natural disasters, riots and other conflicts. His photography has appeared on the front pages of 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, Stern, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone.