Serenity at Chute Lake

Here is an image I made at Chute Lake back in the fall of 1995, a lot of the surrounding forest was burned in massive forest fire in 2003. The lake at an altitude of 4000 feet, is located beside the old historic Kettle Valley Railway north of Naramata in the southern Okanagan of British Columbia, Canada. Another stop of interest while at the lake is the Chute Lake Resort, here one can find some of the best tasting apple pie in the Okanagan Valley, and the antique store is not to be missed.

My Art

There is a great article written by John Camp at The Online Photographer website about the monetization of artwork and also about fine art photographer, Ctein's print-subscription offer which sounds very interesting. I see myself in many of the words that John writes about. I have been fortune enough to have been able to have provided a living for myself using my creativity as a photographer at the Kelowna Courier newspaper in Kelowna , B.C. ( at least up until now, keeping my fingers crossed ) I am grateful for what I have. I have also pursued my own creative artistic vision during my time off and holidays making pictures of the local B.C. landscape, still life and people that inspire me because of the beauty I find in those subjects. As for my own experiences in selling my personal art work, it can be described as challenging, at one point I sold my work through a couple of galleries, including Sooke Harbour House, my experiences has shown me that selling one's creative results can be extremely difficult, last year I sold three prints, it would hardly be enough to live on, but it helps pay for a few of my supplies at least. I have always found it challenging as to just how to market my work. Perhaps some might think its not even necessary as one should be content with creating the work itself, and there is no doubt about that, but I wonder if I could not at least make enough money to perhaps pay for my supply costs and including equipment and travel costs, ( I know not easy to do in these tough economic times ) this would widen my scope of vision to see new places and expand my art work collection...... sorry I have rambled enough here, I am posting an image of myself, reflected in a pool of water while on a hike near Sooke, B.C. this past fall. This image was not taken with my usual view camera ! , but taken with my little Nikon P50 digital point and shoot camera.

The Serene Little Qualicum Falls

Here is an image I made in 1995, probably around June of Liitle Qualicum Fall in the Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, on Canada's west coast. The image was made with a 4 x 5 view camera and a exposure of several seconds.

North Island

I have a self imposed long term film scanning project in that I am sorting through some of my older favourite negatives to be archived electronically, here is an image I made in Cape Scott Provincial Park, San Josef Bay, Vancouver Island in June of 1995, image was made with a 4 x 5 Tachihara view camera and a 120mm lens. There is a interesting story behind this picture, as I was turning away to grab a film holder,after carefully composing the picture one of the tripod legs slowly sunk into the wet sand ( it was low tide ) and the camera fell over striking a rock, part of the wooden camera split apart at one of the joints on the rotating back, later I was able to fasten the pieces together with some wood glue I had in my camping supplies.