Stories & features

Trio of photo contest winners tell their stories

For Alexis de Freitas, getting lost in a phone, laptop, or TV can't compete with camping near a pristine Northern Rockies river and catching glimpses of bears, moose, beavers, and mountain goats.

For Samantha Hathaway, escape is a family hike or a stay at a cabin with no electricity and no devices in the mix, other than the allowance of screens to break the boredom of a long car ride for her 7- and 10-year-old kids.

For Kurian Onnunny Samuel, happiness is a hike and backcountry camping at Garibaldi Lake. And everyday progress is trimming smartphone use to less than two hours per day.

All three got outside this past summer to explore B.C. and take photos that were judged the three best among thousands of captivating entries in Team Power Smart's Summer Unplugged photo contest. The contest asked team members to share, in photos that showcase the B.C. outdoors, one of their electricity-free summer adventures.

We chatted briefly with our winners about their photos, the allure of life unplugged, and their experiences as Team Power Smart members. Here are their stories.

Not a Team Power Smart member? Join for free today, then log in to your Member Tool Box to start a 10% Reduction Challenge anytime between November 1, 2024 and January 15, 2025 to take advantage of our limited-time double-the-reward offer. Reduce your home electricity use by 10% or more over 12 months to earn $100: double the usual $50 reward.

'It was a cute shot of the moose, but I really liked the sunset'

Minutes after unpacking and setting up her tent at a campground along the Alaska Highway, Alexis de Freitas gazed at how the sunset had painted the Toad River and surrounding mountains. She took a photo with her Samsung smartphone, then another of a moose that had wandered nearby.

"It was a cute shot of the moose, but I really liked the sunset," recalls the North Vancouver woman, who makes an annual trip to Fort Nelson to visit her daughter and grandkids and camp on the Toad River. "I'm as blown away as everybody else, because I just held the camera up and clicked. My son-in-law said 'We're going to Liard Hot Springs tomorrow and maybe you'll get an even better photo there'. But I said 'No, I like this one.'

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

An administrator at North Vancouver's St. Edmund's Elementary, de Freitas embraces her annual trip to a part of the province most Lower Mainlanders will never see. She has no problem going unplugged, and gets a kick out of watching students at her school – which has a cell phone ban – struggle to figure out how to use the office wall phone to make a call home to their parents.

"It sort of makes my day when a student comes to the office, looks at the phone and asks, how does this work?," she says with a chuckle.

As a Team Power Smart member, she has taken the 10% Reduction Challenge several times. She earned the $50 reward for hitting her 12-month reduction target once, and she said her single-paned windows make it challenging to reduce heating costs in winter.

"In the cooler months, I leave my thermostat on 15 C," she says. "I don't know if that's too low for some people, but I don't like it too hot. I find that at 15 C, my apartment is consistently the same temperature – I'm not jacking it up and fiddling with the thermostat. And in the summer, it's completely off."

'It's tough getting up there, and it's not for everybody'

The 9-km hike to Garibaldi Lake is one thing. Going another 4.5 km to iconic Black Tusk – including an advanced-hikers-only scramble final ascent to the top of the rock – is something else altogether.

"It's a very challenging hike," says Kurian Onnunny Samuel, a Surrey resident who describes himself as a regular "but not pro" hiker. "Going up to Black Tusk, we saw far fewer people. It's tough getting up there."

The Tusk is not, however, where Samuel got his prize-winning photo of Garibaldi Lake. After hiking back down to his tent at Taylor Meadows campground, a well-deserved rest re-energized him for a day hike to the area's other gem: Panorama Ridge. He had heard great things about the view of Garibaldi Lake from the ridge, so rather than use his smartphone he chose to add his Sony digital camera and lens, which added an extra kilogram of weight for the hike.

Good call.

"I think that's the best view I've experienced in my life," he says. "We stayed there almost like 30 or 45 minutes, and there was nobody else around. Just nice clouds in the sky, reflecting in the lake, where there wasn't a single wave."

It's experiences like that, plus a hike to Elfin Lakes Samuel made on the same trip, that have convinced him that he should spend more time outdoors and less time on electronic devices. He hangs out regularly at Fleetwood Park near his Surrey home, and he's launched a personal challenge to get his smartphone use to less than two hours per day.

His other challenge as a Team Power Smart member has been to earn a $50 reward for reducing his energy usage by 10% or more over 12 months. He hasn't hit that target quite yet, but he has had success earning a few dollars for shifting his power use as part of our Peak Saver program.

'We've heard we're a bit of a rarity', says mom in unplugged family

The short July hike to Port Alberni's popular Hole in the Wall was a hit with Samantha Hathaway's daughters, even if they didn't get a chance to swim in the clear water that pools below the wall.

"My girls were actually quite upset that they couldn't swim in it," recalls Hathaway, who won third prize in the Summer Unplugged photo contest for the photo taken en route to a family vacation in Tofino. "But I think the air temperature wasn't that warm, and the water is quite cold. I feel that in many parts of B.C., it's not that warm until August."

The lone device on the hike was one parental smartphone for photos. That's just the way the Hathaways roll, even when at their Maple Ridge home.

"I think the reason my husband and I do this with the children is because that's the way our parents raised us," she says. "We've heard we're a bit of a rarity. We're a family of four in a 2,100-square-foot house with one TV, one laptop, and no video games. We have lots of books, we do lots of colouring and drawing. And the girls are active sports-wise, dancing and swimming."

The family is also doing their best to limit electricity use at home through the HydroHome app and Peak Saver programs – they earn a few bucks as a reward for reducing or shifting their home energy use away from peak times of the day. And the whole family gets real-time information about energy use in the home through the Powerlync hub that sends data to the Hydrohome app.

"We downloaded the new app, and the kids really like that because they see the spikes in energy use when we turn on the microwave or make the coffee," she says. "We're really trying to teach the girls about saving energy and protecting the world that they live in."

The kids are also looking forward to homemade ice cream, courtesy of their mom's Summer Unplugged photo prize package. From a variety of prize choices, the family chose the Ninja CREAMi ice cream maker and Ninja Foodi 6-in-1, 8-qt air fryer.

See also:

• Log in to your Member Tool Box to start a 10% Reduction Challenge