Birch Tree - Tinted

Winter is a good time for scanning old film to digital. I couldn't help throwing some colour into this black & white image.

Telephone Pole With Clouds

This is a recent scan of a photo I took a few years ago in Richmond. My earliest photos were often of telephone poles and clouds, but on the prairies.

The PNE

Many years ago, before I went digital, my son Mike played soccer and I usually took him to his games. One year, in early spring, he played a game on historic Empire field. This was after the football stadium had been taken down. Empire field is located beside the PNE grounds where Vancouver's annual late summer carnival takes place. While I was waiting for the game to start I took my camera up to the PNE grounds and, to my happy surprise, there was an open gate. I wandered around the abandoned carnival grounds and finished the roll of black and white that was in the camera. It was kind of magical. I had no idea then what I would do with them, if anything, in the future. I have just finished scanning the negatives and here are a few. I tinted some but left B&W versions of them as well.

Flowers On Film

I'm still scanning old negatives. These were shot on good film and have a feel that can only be produced with film. But I love the control digital offers me in the final printing. Maybe I have never fully experienced the romance and control of a darkroom.

Rene Magritte and the Canadian Prairies

These are more early photos that I recently scanned. The bottom photo is one I used as part of the design for a cover for a small book of poems I self-published with the help of my good friend Stephen Gross of Gravity Press. Another friend, Philippe Lasard, helped me realize my cover design. This photo seemed to capture aspects of both the west coast and the prairie landscapes that informed my imagination. It was taken at Centennial Beach, a favorite spot. The top photo reminded me of one of my favorite artists, Rene Magritte. It felt like it could be a detail from one of his paintings, somewhere beyond the bowler hat or floating apple.