Three photo competition winners tell their stories

For Alexis de Freitas, getting lost in a phone, laptop or television can’t compete with camping next to a pristine river in the Northern Rockies and spotting bears, elk, beavers and mountain goats.

For Samantha Hathaway, escape is a family hike or a stay in a chalet without electricity or any device, apart from the presence of screens to break the boredom of a long car ride for her 7-year-old child. and 10 years. children.

For Kurian Onnunny Samuel, happiness is hiking and backcountry camping at Garibaldi Lake. And daily progress reduces smartphone use to less than two hours per day.

The three went out last summer to explore British Columbia and take photos that were judged the top three out of thousands of captivating entries in the Power Smart team’s Summer Unplugged photo contest. The contest asked team members to share one of their summer adventures without electricity in photos depicting the British Columbia outdoors.

We spoke briefly with our winners about their photos, the appeal of unplugged living and their experiences as members of Team Power Smart. Here are their stories.

Not a member of the Power Smart team? Sign up for free today, then log into your Member Toolbox to start a 10% off challenge anytime between November 1, 2024 and January 15, 2025 to take advantage of our limited time offer doubling of the reward. Reduce your household electricity use by 10% or more over 12 months to earn $100: double the usual $50 reward.

“It was a nice photo of the moose, but I really liked the sunset”

Minutes after unpacking and setting up her tent at a campsite along the Alaska Highway, Alexis de Freitas watched the sunset paint the Toad River and surrounding mountains. She took a photo with her Samsung smartphone, then another of a moose wandering nearby.

“It was a pretty photo of the moose, but I really liked the sunset,” recalls the North Vancouver woman, who travels to Fort Nelson every year to visit her daughter and cubs. -kids and camp on the Toad River. “I’m as blown away as everyone else, because I just held up the camera and clicked. My son-in-law said, ‘We’re going Liard Hot Springs tomorrow and maybe you’ll get an even better photo.” But I said, “No, I like this one.”

De Freitas was right. Fellow Power Smart team members who voted online loved her photo, and of the three contest winners, she chose a YETI Tundra Haul wheeled cooler as her prize.

An administrator at St. Edmund’s Elementary School in North Vancouver, de Freitas enjoys her annual trip to a part of the province most Lower Mainland residents will never see. She has no problem staying unplugged and loves watching students at her school — which has a cell phone ban — struggle to figure out how to use the office wall phone to call their parents at home.

“It kind of makes my day when a student comes into the office, looks at their phone and asks, ‘How does this work?’” she says with a laugh.

As a member of Team Power Smart, she has completed the 10% reduction challenge several times. She earned the $50 reward for meeting her 12-month reduction goal once, and she said her single-glazed windows make it difficult to reduce heating costs in winter.

“During the cooler months, I leave my thermostat at 15°C,” she says. “I don’t know if it’s too low for some people, but I don’t like it to be too hot. I find that at 15°C my apartment is always the same temperature – I don’t increase it not and do not manipulate the thermostat And in summer it is completely turned off.