Author: Don Denton

Day Trip To Gabriola

Took a quick trip over to Gabriola Island to take in Saturday at the Poetry Gabriola Festival, you can see photos from that event at my other site Literary Photographer. Gabriola is a pretty island, still quite rural and for photography’s sake I was wishing it was clear out and I had been able to take advantage of sunrise/set. The eroded rocks on the shoreline …

Working On Projects

It’s always interesting when working on a project how certain themes or subjects start to repeat themselves, often threaten to become a project in themselves. Boats have begun to show up in many of my island photos, it makes sense as we have such easy access to water but until you start looking you don’t realize how many people do have boats and how they …

On Conscientious

It was more than a pleasant surprise today during my daily check of photo sites to click on Joerg Colberg’s Conscientious site and see one of my photos from the Salt Water &Rain project. It was especially heartening as this is one of the first projects where I’ve moved away (or at least I feel like I have)  from my newspaper photojournalism background. The project …

Olympic Torch Run In Victoria

The Olympic Torch Run started it’s trek across Canada in Victoria with a lot of ceremony but luckily very short speeches in front of the Legislature. Olympic medalists Simon Whitfield and Catriona Lemay-Doan light the first torch Premier Gordon Campbell signals success as VANOC CEO John Furlong lights a cauldron with the Olympic flame brought over from Greece Esquimalt Chief Andy Thomas holds up the …

i2i Photo Show Opens Thursday

If you’re in Victoria this Thursday, check out the second i2i show, with images from the instructors (including yours truly) at the Western Academy of Photography. 6pm 1001 Douglas Street.

Victoria In The Fog

Two weeks ago I was meeting up with Micah Escamilla, a former student now a California based photographer, who was in town for a few days and an an hour to kill before we met up for coffee so took advantage of the time and foggy morning to shoot a few images.

Ted Grant at Luz Gallery

Quinton and Diana hang photos for the Ted Grant exhibition. The Luz Gallery opens an exhibition of medical photographs by Ted Grant. Opening reception starts at 6pm October 22 at the Fort Street location in Victoria. The Gallery also hosts a workshop by photojournalist Farah Nosh this weekend. Coming in March of 2010 Donald Weber will present a photography workshop and a grant writing workshop.

First Nations’ Art Unveiled

It always amazes me how often that you’ll get a run of assigments that are connected. This past weekend the photographer working ended up at two events where there were dogs wearing sunglasses. Last Thursday and Friday I had an assignment each day that was centred around First Nations art. Thursday was the official unveiling of the Darlene Gait/Butch Dick designed murals on the Ogden …

After Midnight Photo

We shoot Day in the Life projects for all the local papers every year and it gets to be a challenge finding new images especially when you pull the Midnight to morning shift as I did last week on our Victoria shoot. This shift went well though, lots of pix. I really liked this image of a bus running through the wash at the bus …

Chris Bickford book – After The Storm

I first came across Chris Bickford’s work on the NY Times LENS blog a couple of months ago and really enjoyed his dark contrasty surfing images from North Carolina, not the first place that springs to mind when you think of surfing ( and I live on Vancouver Island where the main surfing happens during the cold, wet winter months, again not the first place …

Globe and Mail Feature

Tom Hawthorn wrote a nice piece in the BC section of the Globe and Mail about a photograph I took of my son that was used for a book cover. Update: Here’s the original photo and a new photo of my son with the book cover: Original

Going To The 2010 Winter Olympics

Here’s the official company press release: Subject: Olympic coverage team announced To all Group Presidents, Publishers and Editors: (Please forward to your Publishers and Editors) In just six months, B.C. will host one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world – the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. It is a very special opportunity for the province, and Black Press, both in terms of marketing …

Sea King Helicopter Surprise

The return of the Canadian frigate HMCS Winnipeg after a six month tour of duty Friday provided all sorts of photo opportunities with the big ship sailing into port with all hands on deck, the waiting families, the tearful reunions etc but the big surprise was the flypast of a Sea King helicopter from the ship, dangling crew member Master Corporal David Tillotson. Tillotson  who …

Model Airplane Airshow

Every year the Victoria Radio Control Modelers Society puts on the Largest Little Airshow to raise funds for local charities. It’s a challenge to shoot the small fast aircraft in flight and it’s a lot of fun to photograph the contestants and their planes.

Brian Howell in the NY Times

The New York Times’ Home and Garden section has a slide show on the second house that writer (and artist)  Douglas Coupland bought in Vancouver  (behind his existing house) and turned into a gallery for his personal art collection. Slide number four shows a a photograph on the wall by BC photographer Brian Howell, from his series on wrestlers.

Photographers Are A Threat Apparently

Photo District News blog PDN Pulse has this report and link to the FOX video of  the U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asking people to report suspicious photographers. Here’s part of  a quote from her : “One of the things that we ask people to do is when they see something unusual, if they see, for example, somebody continually taking photographs of …

Erica McDonald – Scribbling In The Dark

Last week I mentioned how amazing it’s become online with all the great sites and posting where you can read/listen and watch posting/stories/videos about photography and photographers. A former student, Byron Fry thoughtfully sent me this link of interviews and talks that is quite extensive. I’ve also taken a look at New York photographer Erica McDonald’s collection of her observations at photographer’s talks she’s attended. …

Time Pays $30 For Photo Today – Robert Frank Got $50 in 1947

There’s been a lot of talk in the online photo world the past week or so regarding the fact that a recent Time magazine cover consisted of a $30 iStock photo  (story here) and how it’s yet another indicator of the challenges of making a living in today’s media world. I was reminded of this story while rereading the 1984 Patricia Bosworth biography of Diane …

Learning Photography Online

Students often ask where they can go to add to their knowledge when classes are done and many online sites are obvious recomendations. The past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to revisit some favourite sites as well as take a look at some new offerings. Lens Culture hosts a great site but I’ve never checked out their collection of audio interviews before. I really …

Rowan The Strange Cover

The cover for Julie Hearn’s book Rowan The Strange is a photo I took several years ago of my youngest son.  It’s always great to get an image published somewhere different and while I’ve had my own books published and have had a number of writer portraits used for book covers this is the first book cover from a photograph of mine. The image was …

Ninety year old photographers, Photo-Snobism and more

The New York Times has a feature on 92-year-old fashion photographer Lillian Bassman and an obituary for 98-year-old architectural photographer Julius Schulman. Spacing Toronto on taking photographs of events from the photographer’s balcony. A feature on Magnum’s Susan Meiselas at artdaily.org. Interesting piece from Thoughts of a Bohemian on photo-snobism. Dirck Halstead at the always interesting Digital Journalist revisiting the death of photojournalism An important …

Timothy Findley – Portrait with a wine glass

Sometimes you don’t need a face for a portrait. I had photographed the late Timothy Findley for my first book First Chapter and following that photo session he sat down for an interview and lunch with then Calgary Herald books editor, now best selling author in his own right, Ken McGoogan. I joined the pair and Findley’s partner Bill Whitehead and continued to take a …

Websites, Red Cross, Short Lists and other stories

Smashing magazine has a list of 35 great websites by photographers. Have a look and judge for yourself. The Times features a story on 150 years of photographs for the Red Cross. The shortlist for the 2009 Prix Pictet, the world’s photography award for environmental sustainability has been announced. Two canadaians made the list, Ed Burtynsky and Christopher Anderson. Brett Beadle update from Africa.