The Wellspring of Talent on Salt Spring

It's so redundant to say there are so many incredibly talented people on this little rock of approximately 10,000 called Salt Spring but people keep saying it because every day it's in their face, not to be ignored.

This week I met with one of them at his beautiful low-slung home right on the water which runs the length of the shore and angles off in interesting directions. His entire front yard is a view of the ocean with little wooden decks staged for perfect summer lounging. It seemed appropriate that a photographer should live in a house where the windows frame the view in the same way the viewfinder in a camera frames potential photographic images. 

In winter, it's grey but in summer one can only imagine the beauty. He told me that his wife, an interior designer, has been coming to the island for 40 years. They also own a little "shack" on the water on another part of the island and when the sun goes down on their main house, they pack a picnic lunch and head over to the shack to enjoy the evening until sundown.

Originally from Scotland, with the true beginnings of his 40 year photography career originating in London, England, he has worked as an editorial and advertising photographer for all of Canada's major magazines and its top advertising agencies in Toronto.  At this point, he's choosing to do what he wants and brainstorming the type of creative projects that he really wants to do: portraits, architectural photography, still lifes of subjects that he, not a client, chooses.

What struck me most about him is his quiet manner. He's very easy to be around. Everything about him and his lifestyle seems very low-key and civilized with ego kept at bay. I like that.

I have decided that I will only agree to offer my writing services to people who I like as people, whose integrity is beyond reproach and who are professional in every aspect of that word. Some people might think you only get to do that when you're financially successful but that's the thing about getting older, you get to make up your own little rules in compliance with your own values and, of course, reap the consequences.  I think it was Tony Robbins who has said, The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of your relationships..."

I think making the decision only to work with people who are professional in every sense of that word will eventually pay off even if it means I say "No" when I intuitively know that saying so is the right decision for moi!

He is going to be one of the photography presenters at this photography event taking place in Campbell River at Painter's Lodge in April. I'm debating whether I can find a way to justify going.

I notice there are 4 photographers from Salt Spring Island presenting: Amy Melious, Steven Friedman, Janet
Dwyer, Gillean Proctor.