An Evening with David Suzuki and Elizabeth May

Last Saturday, November 12th, I had the exciting opportunity to photograph an inspiring evening with Dr. David Suzuki and MP Elizabeth May at Claremont Secondary school. The event started off with the screening of Dr. Suzuki's biographical film, Force of Nature, and was followed up by a great speech from Suzuki himself.

A big thanks goes out to the Green Party of Canada for hosting the event, teacher Mark Neufeld of Claremont for his great environmental work with students, Ken Wu for Emceeing, and David and Elizabeth for their lifetime legacies of advocating for a better planet.

Getting my copy of David Suzuki's autobiography signed!

WestShore Magazine Cover - Fall/Winter 2011

The 2011 Fall/Winter edition of WestShore Magazine was just released this week. I was fortunate enough to shoot the cover photo for the feature story on the Goldstream River's salmon run, the fish hatchery volunteers, and the environmental effects of the recent fuel spill. It was an interesting challenge setting up to shoot in the river - especially with a fisheye lens like the second angle below which wasn't used in the end. Grab a copy if you live out this way and take a read through!

Holy Wood

An awesome book just arrived in my mailbox titled Holy Wood. The book, published in Germany, focuses on the relationship between forests and people and is filled with incredible paintings, sculptures, photos, and words about trees. I was excited to see one of my clearcut shots made the centerfold spread. With the amount on time spent online these days there's nothing like holding a well made book in your hand that's rich in thought and creativity. Looking forward to flipping the pages.

Lens Creek Cedar Snag

On a recent bushwhack through some second-growth forest along Lens Creek in the San Juan Valley, I stumbled upon this giant cedar snag. Originally, the San Juan Valley would have been home to some of the most impressive stands of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island but sadly, very little remains. Within the last remaining fragments however, you still have the world's largest Douglas-fir as well as Canada's largest spruce tree. One can only imagine what other giants might have grown there in the past.

A determined hemlock tree pushes its way through the wall of cedar peppered with woodpecker holes.

Location of the tree: 48.59369, -124.23470

View Larger Map

A Visit to Goldstream Park

Yesterday I dropped by Goldstream Park to shoot some photos during a beautiful morning visit. With 500+ year old redcedar and Douglas-fir trees, towering waterfalls, and a salmon spawning river, Goldstream is a natural gem.

The delicate river is however still recovering from a fuel spill that leaked 40,000 litres of gasoline and diesel into the water after a tanker crashed on the nearby Malahat Highway.

A raven soars through the bigleaf maples with a chunk of meat in its beak.

Giant old-growth redcedars all in a row.

Cover Photo - Common Ground Magazine

My shot of Canada's largest tree, the Cheewhat Giant, made the cover the August 2011 Common Ground! This massive ancient redcedar is over 6 meters (20 feet) wide, 56 meters (182 feet) tall, and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles worth of wood). Thankfully, it grows just within the boundaries of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve near Nitinat Lake on Vancouver Island.

To read the feature article inside follow this link: www.commonground.ca/iss/241/cg241_biggesttree.shtml

Sign the petition to help protect BC's endangered old-growth forests here: www.ancientforestpetition.com

World Oceans Day 2011 - Basking Shark

On June 8th 2011 I photographed over 1,000 children formed in the shape of a basking shark in celebration of World Oceans Day at École Victor-Brodeur in Esquimalt. The basking shark is the second largest fish in the world and Canada’s most endangered marine fish. The Oceans Day Festival Society hosted the event and the aerial art image was created by Daniel Dancer of Art For The Sky.

Apparently these SkyLifts are hard to flip over. It doesn't feel like that when you are up there.

How it's all planned out!

Combing the Coast - Flores Island

Three of my photographs of Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound have been featured online with a project titled Combing the Coast. The initiative, brought together by Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Island Chapter (South Island) in partnership with BC Parks, will see a remote beach clean up take place on Flores to promote conservation and awareness on how we impact our coastal areas. They will also be keeping track of what types of debris is found and then recycling it back in Tofino. We need more projects like this!

www.combingthecoast.com