My story

I got interested in photography at a young age. My parents were always taking pictures of us at home and on vacation… I was always intrigued with capturing the moment and having it there with you to look back on.

My mom had a darkroom in our house in White Rock. It was always amazing to me so see an image appear like magic. So I took some photos myself, learned how to develop the film and produce the image.

In my early twenties I took a road trip to California

I stopped to see my Aunt Wilda and Uncle Russ in Avila Beach. Russ took me out the next day in his 69 Mercury Cougar convertible into the Irish Hills and stopped many places to photograph the area.

Russ was a big influence on me. He would stop suddenly when something caught his eye, jump out of the car and try to get the photo. I began to learn that sometimes the most obvious and apparently uninteresting thing could be a subject if you look at it in a different light. Try to see something that most people would just pass by without a second glance.

Russ visited me in Aldergrove in the late 80’s. During a walk around the neighbourhood, he stopped to take a picture of a simple dandelion. He said they don’t grow where he lived and hey, it might make a nice picture, you never know!

This impressed upon me to look for a picture in what isn’t obvious right away

I still continue to do this whether I am out hiking the Sooke Hills or walking around downtown… look at things as if they’re brand new to you, something you’ve never seen before. You will be pleasantly surprised with your results!

Simple Equipment

I want to mention the fact that you don’t need fancy expensive equipment to get really good photos, the high end point and shoots works really well and cost a few hundred dollars. Most of my photos were taken with a CanonSX 60HS Zoom. A few with a Sony mirrorless camera, you can get a very good one for under $1000, and lately the phone camera, Huawei P20 Pro. The cameras in this phone and most phones these days are very good…except for zoom, use a good zoom camera if you need to get close to a subject for a decent quality. There is also very good photo editing software out there, a good free one I use is Photo-Scape, Windows 10 has it built it and same with Google photos. The phone cameras have some as well. These are not Photoshop quality but will suffice the every day photographer. Get out there with what ever you have and see what you can do!