Cowboy bids at local auction
Cowboy bids at auction I have a series of photographs taken at a livestock auction somewhere north of Courtenay in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I took this image of a man raising his hand to bid at that time. For some reason I think it took place at the Norwood...
Dancing and 1970s fashion at the Renaissance Faire
Dancing and 1970s fashion the Renaissance Faire The Comox Valley's counter-culture came together during the 1970s for the annual Renaissance Faire. There was music, dancing, arts and crafts and, to the horror of The Establishment, smoking of marijuana -- done secretly...
Farmhand — at Knight Road potato farm
Potato farmer on Knight Road I knew Robin and Danny Woodrow, and sometimes visited the Woodrow brothers potato farm on Knight Road. On one of these visits, in the late 1970s or early 1980s, I snapped a photograph of a farm worker in front of a warehouse full of their...
Dave Hardy, chopping a wood pile in Cumberland
Dave Hardy, in Cumberland I bought a house and moved my family from Comox to Cumberland in the late 1970s. The village had become an enclave for a new wave of artists emerging from the newly formed Comox Valley Arts Alliance, and others in search of affordable...
Group of singers at the Renaissance Fair
Singers at the Renaissance Fair The Comox Valley Arts Alliance was formed sometime in the mid-1970s. I joined the organization soon after it was founded. During my lunch hours, I left my desk as editor of the Lifestyles section of the Comox District Free Press, and...
Molly Guilbeault, ready to work at Leung’s counter
Molly Guilbeault, at Leung's In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I often slipped into Leung's Grocery store at the top of Fifth Street in Courtenay, B.C. for a Denver sandwich at the lunch counter. There was something addictive about those sandwiches. Maybe it was the...
The Bench — scene from early Comox Valley youth football
The Bench - early valley football My high school football career in Paynesville, Minnesota, where I grew up, was less than remarkable. I think I hold the school record for the longest negative punt (don't ask!). Football is big there. Kids start playing right out of...
About Me
My interest in photography began in my father's small-town newspaper darkroom, where I developed the film he shot on his Speed Graphic cameras, and then reloaded his cut sheet film holders. I've been taking pictures ever since.
I shoot with digital cameras these days, but the unposed portraits of Comox Valley people on this page were shot with Leica film cameras between 1974 and the mid-1980s.