My Guide 

First, let me explain what I mean by “guide”.  To me, an essential aspect of my image creation is my ability to feel the spirit and mood of my subject, and consequently when I use the word “guide” I mean it in a much fuller sense than the word normally implies.  I will not undertake a photo-expedition unless I have found a unique and special person … a person who possesses some intimate connection to the subject of the expedition – a connection that radiates itself through his/her thoughts and actions.  By selecting my guides in this way, I have found that I am influenced and infused with intangible qualities that sometimes find their way into my photographic images.

My guide on this photo-expedition was John Millar, R.P.Bio.  B.Sc.  John is the Founder and Principal of Coast River Environmental Services (headquartered in Vancouver, BC –  www.coastriver.com ).  He is a native of BC and has devoted more than 20 years of his life to environmental consulting as a Senior Fisheries Biologist.   His activities involving biological impact assessment and habitat design have cultivated within him an intimate understanding of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness.    His deep-felt love for our natural environment springs from childhood summers spent on the beaches and along the rivers of Vancouver Island.  His assignments and his personal research take him continuously into remote regions of the land that are the subject of this photo-expedition.  I have met no other man more qualified to guide me than John.

As John and I traveled together on the expedition, I made photographs and he wrote poetry.   As you view the images in this Collection you will find his personal feelings expressed in the form of Haiku (Japanese three line poems).