All posts tagged: Documentary photography

Saturday Night – Chinatown

Downtown at dusk hoping for the late evening sunlight slanting through but clouds drifting in ended that. Settled for the bright colours of the umbrellas and the neon signs coming on in Victoria’s Chinatown district.

Punk Rock Rising Vancouver 77/78 Show Opening

Had the opening for my show of images of Vancouver punk rockers at Talk I Cheap Gallery in Victoria last night. A good turnout including the members of the Dishrags which was excellent. Hanging the show Jason Flower and Tiemen Kuipers sort through Vancouver punk singles. The Dishrags, Scout, Jade and Dale,  with a photo of their younger selves Friends chat during the opening

The Ramones and The Avengers in Vancouver

I have a new show of my early Vancouver punk photos opening at the Talk Is Cheap Gallery on Pandora Street in Victoria this coming Saturday. I’ve been sorting through my negs yet again and had a couple news ones scanned. It’s interesting what I keep finding. I came across this group shot of the Ramones posing for me before their gig at the Commodore. …

Omen of Bones, British Columbia

I’ve been working on a project the past few years, shooting every fall when the salmon return to spawn. These aren’t the images you always see of scarlet bodied fish fighting their way upstream but instead are images of the dead and decaying bodies of the spawned out fish. I’ve been calling this project Omen of Bones and when people ask me what it’s about …

Annual Pumpkin Harvest Adds Colour To Gloomy Day

It’s now October and this time of year I always take a drive up through Saanich agricultural zone to see if the annual pumpkin harvest has started. It was cloudy out but the rain was holding off  a good sign as they won’t harvest in the rain. It turned out to be busy in the fields with workers from both the Mar and Michell Farms …

JEM Gallery Exhibition

I had a great opening at the JEM Gallery Friday night.  We were scheduled to be open from 6PM until 9PM but it was after 11PM before people stopped dropping by. Saturday was excellent as well and we didn’t close up shop until 5:30. Many thanks to gallery owner Carola Goetze for all her heard work.

Drinking With Photographers

One of the downsides of living in a smaller place is that you have a tendency to feel isolated from the rest of the world. This week Don Weber was in town for a couple of workshops and it was a nice reminder of the wider world out there. Thursday night I met up with him and a couple of other local photographers at a …

Donald Weber – Workshop – Chernobyl, Russia and the VII Photo Agency

Last weekend I attended a two day workshop presented by Luz Gallery with Toronto photographer Don Weber, a member of the VII agency. We had a diverse group of twelve workshoppers (if that’s a word). There was the legally blind Anglican minister, the woman who’d had Ansel Adams drop by her house when she was a child and critique her photos,  a philosophy professor who …

Good Friday Walk with the Cross

For more than a decade now I’ve been trying to get out on Good Friday and photograph the annual walks with a wooden cross that some churches do. It’s a project I call Weight of Faith. It’s an event that’s great for a photo project, visually the cross is an amazing symbol. It’s also a rare example of mainstream Christians  showing off their faith in …

Vancouver Pre – Olympics, Vancouver British Columbia 2010

Main press centre in Vancouver. I picked up the last of my Olympic credentials on Saturday and so am officially official. Lots of Olympic workers and media, with special clothes and accreditation tags around their necks,  and police in the downtown core but hard to see ‘Olympic fever’ among regular folks. Most of the Olympic signage you’re seeing is commercial but there are a few …

Wet Coast Weather

Out looking for a weather feature on a recent wet and very windy day and was driving away from a view of the breakwater as nobody was walking on it and with good reason, the waves were breaking over the top of the wall. Just as I pulled away I saw a runner heading onto the breakwater so pulled a u-turn and drove back to …

Vancouver Visit

A brief visit to Vancouver a week ago to pick up my Olympic credentials. Snapped a couple of images while cruising the downtown streets, just fun stuff for a change. Liked the flag reflection in the one and just playing around with the image of the downtown library building.

Jordan River Winter Surfing

Just another Vancouver Island winter day with the surf kicking up along the coast. Lots of surfers and kayakers out on the water. Weather ranged from pouring rain to a light mist although the sun came out on the drive home (typical). Word was spreading about the waves as more and more surfers were turning up throughout the morning. Surfers head out Beautiful BC wheel …

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 …

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.

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 …

World Naked Bike Ride – Victoria

The annual World Naked Bike Ride, an event with rides in cities around the world, was celebrated in Victoria with a ride that left from the provincial Legislature building, went past the historic Empress Hotel and through downtown. A Legislature worker keeps her head down as she walks past riders getting ready One rider snaps a photo of another before the start of the ride …

Greenpeace and Grocers

I really like it when those real life moments are a touch surreal.  A police officer talks with Greenpeace members outside a grocery store during a protest against selling fish that were not harvested or farmed in a sustainable manner.

Good Friday Cross Procession

I’ve been shooting, as a personal project, the Good Friday cross procession that some churches organize every Easter. I’m fascinated on two levels, first as a purely visual event and second, as an expression of faith by mainstream church members who tend not to brandish their beliefs. This year’s walk by members of Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican) yielded a number of photos I was happy …

New Year’s Eve Road Trip

A leisurely drive out to Jordan River on New Year’s Eve day. Some snow but mainly low dark clouds and rain. Beautiful west coast weather, if you like that sort of thing, and I do. Sooke gas station Coopers Cove Trees in logged area near Jordan River Sunken boat in Sooke at government docks Highway at Jordan River from the site of Shakies, the surfer …