{"id":26333,"date":"2025-01-22T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T17:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=26333"},"modified":"2025-01-23T13:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T21:26:24","slug":"camosun-alumnus-to-represent-canada-in-world-photographic-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/01\/22\/camosun-alumnus-to-represent-canada-in-world-photographic-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun alumnus to represent Canada in World Photographic Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

From health care to camera lenses, Camosun College alumnus Lee Milliken has been chosen as part of Team Canada in the World Photographic Cup held in Quito, Ecuador. Milliken has gained the attention of judges with his photograph that portrays the frenzy of visitors trying to capture a glimpse of the Mona Lisa<\/i> at the Louvre.<\/p>\n

After quitting this job at Broadmead Care Society, Milliken started taking photography seriously, enrolling at Camosun in 2011 to begin a new career path better suited to his passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went all in,\u201d says Milliken. \u201cI was really fortunate to essentially meet the right people at the right time. Jesse [Hlady], who I took courses with at Camosun, we kind of hit it off and just became really good friends. And so he offered me a chance to kind of work with him out of his studio and that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The photo of the Mona Lisa<\/em>, and the chaos surrounding it, that Camosun College alumnus Lee Milliken had chosen to be in the World Photographic Cup (photo by Lee Milliken).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After graduating in 2013, Milliken and his wife Ria started a business in 2018. The company, Spartan Media, found success early, keeping the two busy and without the possibility for vacation. However, in 2023, with some time available, the couple took the opportunity to travel, accidentally leading them to Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The photo] was taken in the summer of 2023, and that was my and my wife\u2019s first vacation in quite a few years,\u201d says Milliken. \u201cMy wife is Greek, so we went back to visit her family in Greece. And so the summer of 2023, that was the year that Greece had a bunch of floods. Our connecting flight was in Paris. So her family said, \u2018If you have a chance to leave now, you should because otherwise, the roads will get closed.\u2019 So we actually just kind of went straight to the airport and booked an early flight to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unscripted trip to Paris would ultimately lead him to tour the Louvre museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get to the Mona Lisa<\/i>, and it\u2019s just one of those things you have to experience. The chaos is just all the people [who] are there to see that one painting,\u201d says Milliken. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a big room, so I was more focused on the people just because I couldn\u2019t believe it. So I just kind of stood on my tiptoes and held my breath, and I was as still as possible. And then I blended, like, six or seven images to capture that one image.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his trip, Milliken started submitting his work, something that he had not done in a while. This led him to join the Professional Photographers of Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just started entering competitions, and I did really well. I won quite a few awards last year,\u201d says Milliken. \u201cThe biggest one obviously was the World Photographic Cup, making Team Canada. So, essentially, I submitted my favourite images and then, it went through like three rounds of curation with all these judges and then the final selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milliken says he\u2019s starstruck by some of the people that he\u2019s competing against, feeling honoured to represent his country in a competition of this magnitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people that I look up to, like, Tim Wallace,\u201d he says. \u201cHe shoots for Lamborghini and Ferrari, and it\u2019s like, holy cow, I\u2019m in the same category as these [photographers]… It\u2019s an extreme honour to represent your country, in anything. I\u2019m just honestly happy to be part of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From health care to camera lenses, Camosun College alumnus Lee Milliken has been chosen as part of Team Canada in the World Photographic Cup held in Quito, Ecuador. Milliken has gained the attention of judges with his photograph that portrays the frenzy of visitors trying to capture a glimpse of the Mona Lisa at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-22-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26335,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26333\/revisions\/26335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}