Photographer
The Travellers Hotel on the main street in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island has seen better days. The construction of the hotel was completed in 1913 when the town was an important coal shipping port. although a miner’s strike in 1912 had halted the economic boom that had been underway.
The former Victoria public library building, constructed for $53,000, was financed by American Andrew Carnegie. The neo-Classical stone building was completed in 1905. A four storey addition was added later, that construction was finished in 1951. The structure which served as a library for over 75 years, and now known as the Carnegie building is used for office space. Businessman Andrew Carnegie donated money to build …
This family corner grocery store closed right at the end of December 2014. It sits across from a small garage and hair stylist, a small pocket of neighbourhood commercial enterprises. When this photo was taken there was someone inside the premises cleaning and packing up. The details in the window already attest to a time in history especially the sign referring to the DVD sale …
The Bay Grocery is one of those neighbourhood establishments, the corner store, that get get harder and harder to find each year. I enjoy how they look front the street, at either dawn or dusk, lighting up the street for the residents.
The current bus depot, located behind the Fairmont Empress Hotel, is soon to be torn down and replaced with high end condo units. No replacement location has yet been announced for the depot. The current location is ideal for visitors as it is right downtown and a very short distance from most attractions and the Inner Harbour.
Duncan, on Vancouver island, is known for the totem poles displayed around the town. Duncan is actually nicknamed The City of Totems. The very walkable downtown is a nice mix of older small town architecture and this unusual circular office building next to the courthouse. I like this view of the one pole and the office tower.
The MV Uchuck III was built in Oregon in 1942 originally for use as a minesweeper. It now carries both passengers and freight along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Website at http://www.getwest.ca/the-uchuck
Artist Rachel Berman died in Victoria on May 28. I can’t claim to have known her very well but I had really liked her work and two years ago she agreed to let me photograph her. After that, we’d often run into each other on the street and have a chat. She would encourage me to photograph other artists, making suggestions about possibilities, and chiding …
A surfer walks past a van and board at Jordan River, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.
Even the Canadian flag hanging from the building seemed dejected by its current status
The North Park Bicycle Shop is a community fixture along Quadra Street in Victoria, in the North Park neighbourhood. The building always looks, to me, wonderfully scruffy and invitingly homely.
A traditional neighbourhood grocery store in Nanaimo, they are getting harder and harder to find, replaced by 7-11s and Mac’s style stores.
Canucks jerseys, protected from the rain in plastic, hang outside a shop in Coombs on Vancouver Island. An image from the ongoing Salt Water & Rain series and the British Columbia photographic archive.
An image from one of my ongoing projects, Salt Water & Rain, which looks at west coast life, in particular the small town urban landscape. This photograph was taken on the main street in Cumberland on Vancouver Island. The photograph is also part of the British Columbia photographic archive.
I was at Coopers Cove last week. The derelict boat in long gone although, for now at least, the former naval ship seen in the background is still anchored in the cove. It’s a reminder how photographs, while they must stand on their own as visual images, also serve as historical records, a document of time passing. This was one of the first group of …
The inflatable giant dinosaur shows up now and then on the roof of Galaxy Motors. It’s certainly an eye catcher
The beautiful thing about the weather here on the southern tip on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island is that this photo could have been taken this week as I saw lots of golfers on the links while driving around. The unfortunate thing about the weather here is that this image was actually taken last June.
An image from a project looking at the forest of the Pacific Northwest.
BC Ferries, Swartz Bay, BC 2012 I’ve spoken to a number of photo groups lately, showing some of my images and talking about the projects. The audiences have been great, very appreciative and always lots of questions and discussion afterwards. It’s a two way street though. I get lots of feedback on my images which is so helpful and it’s often a surprise which photographs …
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.
A lighthouse, small naval ship and a fully loaded container carrying freighter heading towards the open Pacific Ocean. Just another Vancouver Island seascape.
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
Every year I like to start at least one new project. I like to have a number of projects going at the once as I find that due to my full time shooting job my time for personal shooting is limited in both hours and time of day. Having a number of projects means I can usually shoot something in the windows that I have. …
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 …
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 …
Photographer T. J. Watt holds one of his photographs, this one showing fellow photographer Byron Fry sitting inside the giant stump of a recently logged old growth tree on Vancouver Island. Watt is also one of the co-founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance. You can see more of his photographs at his site or the Ancient Forest site.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Spring is here with cherry trees in full bloom and boats still parked in yards and not out on the water.