Yeo Point, Ruckle Park, SSI

I began my photographic career when my family moved from my birthplace of Ottawa, Ontario to a small village (St. Symphorien) in Belgium.  I was fourteen years old when I developed my first roll of black and white film and I continued to study photography on a casual basis throughout my high school years.  Upon entering University I had less time to devote to my photographic endeavors but continued to take pictures for the sheer enjoyment of recording the World around me and my various journeys.  After graduating from the University of Western Ontario in 1992 I made my way out West to Vancouver to explore the possibility of working in the film production business.  A car accident in 1993 cut that career short and I found myself living on Salt Spring Island after losing my job and apartment in Vancouver.  Through the generosity of several islanders I was able to re-visit the dark room environment and begin my photographic portfolio virtually from scratch.  During the past ten years I have had the privilege of exploring the island at my leisure through all of the changing seasons picking up new techniques along the way to better record my interpretation of reality.  I consider myself self-taught for the most part and continue to evolve in my work and my life exploring new themes and new territory all of the time.

From 2006-2010 I took a break from photography as I was in the midst of dealing with kidney failure due to a hereditary disease. I spent most of my time dealing with the day to day operations of The Fritz Movie Theatre, Salt Spring Island's cinema since 1977, that my family had purchased in 2006. The cinema left no time (or energy) for much else but it was a very fulfilling business that allowed me to give a lot back to the community through various fundraisers as well as through the ongoing programming that I was able to offer.

In the Spring of 2010 I received a new kidney from my older sister Barbara: the gift of a new life! I realized soon thereafter that running a business while trying to recover from major surgery was not a good idea. I sold The Fritz to a local Salt Spring family in September of 2010 and decided to return once again to what I truly love: photography! The first great challenge was the transition from analog to digital: new cameras, lenses, computers, scanners, software, PC to Mac...the upgrades seemed never ending but after a while I began to appreciate the benefits of good digital equipment when used in the proper fashion. As I continue to heal and adjust to my new-found health I find that my vision has shifted as well...the world seems a much brighter place since the last time that I focused my lenses on it and I am now gravitating much more towards the light than the dark.

I hope that you enjoy these pages as I update them with the products of my continuing journey

I use all Nikon equipment now for my image making. A digital D90 camera body with a 12-24mm, 18-200mm, 105mm micro, and a 300mm telephoto to complement its capabilities. I use Mac computers with Adobe Lightroom for image adjustments, a Nikon hi-res scanner with VueScan software for archiving slides from the past 20 years and a 650cc single cylinder motorcycle for getting to those hard to reach areas!

When it comes to taking pictures, I don't like tricks: I rely on natural lighting for all of my photography and use filters sparingly: either a polarizer or skylight filter can be found covering any one of my lenses, never a "special effects" filter.  My darkroom work is equally devoid of tricks & gimmicks: all of my photographs are printed full-frame (no cropping) with minimal manipulation which suites my style of editing in-camera at the time of seeing and making my photographs.  My subject matter ranges from macro to panoramic; portraits to landscapes; literal to interpretive and includes natural phenomenon, architecture, portraiture, rock climbing, kayaking, aerial, yoga, stock and commercial applications, and general documentary images.  I thoroughly enjoy the entire photographic process and look forward to many more productive years in this most incredible field.