In June of 2017, I went on a dream come true workshop…Vancouver Island. A dream come true workshop for me includes a perfect mixture of urban and nature shooting opportunities. The workshop was run over six glorious days with a really fun group of participants. The photographer, Shane McDermott, grew up on the island so he was wonderful to follow around.
Here’s one way I could tell I was extremely inspired on this trip, I squeezed the shutter over 3100 times. Over twice from any other workshop. It still remains the highest number of images I’ve taken in my career with PhotoScapes (except for the Albuquerque balloon festival last year but that’s another story).
We arrived in Vancouver (the city) on a Saturday in June. “We” included two participants that happened to be on the same flight and Megan, my fellow volunteer. My good friend Amy Horn was already there. Megan and I had some volunteer errands to run before we hooked up with Amy, and the two participants we knew and headed out to explore the city. It was suggested we head to Stanley Park and Granville Island, so we did.
Seriously, I was like a kid in a candy shop. We walked and talked and laughed and I kept having to run to catch up because everything caught my eye. And the workshop hadn’t even STARTED yet!
The next morning we took the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. I think I FINALLY got the difference between the two! LOL!
The morning fog was beautiful.
The workshop began for Shane at 2:00 pm in our hotel in Victoria. For the volunteers and participants, it began with breakfast Sunday morning, rounding everyone up and getting them to the ferry then to our hotel. After introductions and an overview, we headed out to the inner harbor to photograph. Victoria is such a beautiful city.
I could shoot boats all day long.
The Parliament Building was amazing.
Growing up in Arizona and having spent my entire adult life in Flagstaff I am used to the art and culture of Navajo and Hopi first nations people. It was SO much fun to be exposed to those of the northwest. I was especially enthralled with the totem poles.
The Inner Harbor also boasted fun tattoos and cool floating homes.
The rain was a constant companion and made for some beautiful images.
The next day, after a morning shoot at Beacon Hill Park, we headed to world-renowned Butchart Gardens. It did not disappoint. Be sure to plan a full day for this venture, especially if you plan to photograph. We allotted four hours and in that time many folks never got past one or two of the gardens! I wandered all the way to the back and found the ocean and more boats!
Another tip would be to arrive, walk the entire property then go back to the gardens you feel most inspired by. Don’t get sucked into the first ones. Not that they are not beautiful but there is so much more!
Tuesday morning, following our third trip to the Inner Harbor, we loaded the vans and headed to Port Renfrew a couple of hours up the coast. On the way, we stopped by Royal Roads University and photographed the grounds there. It was beautiful. Royal Roads University is located on the grounds of the former Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) at Hatley Park National Historic Site on Vancouver Island. Following the decommissioning of RRMC in 1995, the government of British Columbia created Royal Roads University as a public university.
The coastline of British Columbia stretches approximately 27,000 km, including countless islands, bays, inlets, and arms. Port Renfrew is the last step into this remote area. Considered the “Jewel of the West Coast” and the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada”. Port Renfrew is the southern entrance to the Pacific Rim National Park and the world-renown “shipwreck life-saving trail” now called “The West Coast Trail”, and the beginning of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail.
Yes, we stayed n these cabins. Check out the low tide.
We spent Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and Thursday morning exploring this wild area. My favorite part was our walks along the coast.
We drove back to Victoria on Thursday afternoon. Friday was a big day. We had our final classroom session before heading to the dock and our whale watching tour. The tour finished at 1:00 and by that evening I was visiting family in Northern California. Here’s what we saw on the whale tour.
We each had to wear these survival suits. They were really hot but would save our lives should we end up in the ocean.
Ocean-going tankers and whale collisions is a real problem.
Another tour boat.
If you ever get the chance to visit British Columbia I highly recommend it. SUCH a beautiful place. I hope you enjoyed the tour, I’d do it again in a heart-beat.
Until next time, Happy Shooting!
Just before you reach the modern accommodations you can see remnants of very unusual buildings that were built under the overhangs of fallen rocks by Blanche Russell in the 1930s. She ran a restaurant and gas station here.
The following morning we met at the Ferry and loaded our boats onto two river rafts.
We encountered these two paddle boarders loaded with camping gear. I think this was before the SUP craze hit.
We did this trip the end of October in 2011. The days were warm but the nights got quite cold. The water here is 46 degrees as it comes out from the bottom of Lake Powell when released by the dam. The ride up to the dam was chilly but the scenery was magnificent.
You can tell we are approaching the dam area by the seepage coming out of the sandstone. This type of rock is porous and with the pressure of the water behind the dam there are seepage spots all around it.
There she is, Glenn Canyon Dam. Regardless of your thoughts on dams in the American West, she is still quite a structure to behold. This is also a popular trout fishing location.
Rubber boots are a must as standing in 46-degree water is no fun. After off-loading our boats and filling them with gear we shove off to see what we can find.
A few of us stopped at this spot to check out some local art.
A short hike up a trail brought us to a wonderful petroglyph panel. What’s sad is to think about how many of these sights are buried upstream under Lake Powell.
We camped one night here, complete with a porta- potty. Nights were cold and the winter gear definitely came out.
The next morning an eager trout fisherman heads upstream in his power boat.
The next day we floated down to Water Holes Canyon.
We hiked back as far as we could until the terrain got a little sketchy with boulders and cliffs.
I found this rock…
and this stick.
Here we are at the take-out at Lee’s Ferry. It was a quick Friday night, Saturday to Sunday float but well worth it. It’s definitely one we need to do again.
To get a good silhouette you just need the background to be lighter than your subject. And don’t expose for your subject, expose for the lit up background.
This is shooting upriver with two people in it to try to show scale.
This is shooting from one end of the opening to the other where our 36-foot raft was parked. The boat looks small and the people tiny. This begins to give you some idea of the immensity of the cavern.
Will and Tieranny are waiting for the sign from Amity to leap off the boat and tie her off.
Once the raft is secure Amity shares a few moments with a friend acting as the harbormaster. He has taken the role of directing incoming boats to their parking spots.
Once we get near the mouth of Havasu Creek we deposit our life jackets into a pile. We will put them back on following our adventure.
Rocks in the main channel. I just thought they were cool.
Looking down into Havasu Creek toward the main river.
We have reached our swimming hole for the afternoon. We met a couple of other trips here but one was on their way out. Here you can see people lined up rocks to create a water channel to float down.
On our way back to the boat we looked down at the creek. Can you see, on the far side, the work the water has done over the years?
Again, the entrance to the creek.
Looking up river at the mouth.
Amity leading her lemmings back to the raft.
Water gets the most publicity for forming Grand Canyon. That, together with wind, uplift and I’m sure other geologic activity created a most amazing place. This rock has this texture to it, and I only saw a few. If it were wood I’d say worms got into it…
This is the famous pink Zoraster Granite that flowed through and cooled inside the Schist…I think. In the inner gorge, it was everywhere.
The collections of rocks, pebbles and stones near the water’s edge were fantastic. The colors, the shapes, the make-up was so varied. It was cool to be able to focus on such small things in such a massive place.
The white in this rock looks like a fancy goldfish!
This collection of large rocks, small boulders is in Blacktail Canyon. It was shot in the shade which speaks to the subdued lighting of the subject.
We stopped for the day and it was too hot to set up camp so I went exploring to wait for the sun to go behind the canyon wall. I found this gray rock with amazing red color mixed it.
I’m sure someone just set this rock here or…not. The point being that I found rocks in some crazy places with some crazy colors. No wonder people dedicate their lives to geology and this canyon. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what can be told through the rock and rocks of Grand Canyon.
On our river trip, we were dropped off on one end and were encouraged to walk across to the other side, where we were picked up and shuttled to the put-in at Lee’s Ferry.
This image is looking upriver toward the ferry which is four miles away.
This is looking downstream under the vehicle bridge. It was cool to realize we would be floating on that water in just a couple of hours.
I just don’t get tired of this view.
The Colorado is known for the amount of silt it moves. In this image, you can see it suspended in the green water.
See those black dots on the bridge? Those are California Condors! This image is from a different trip but they do like to hang out under the bridge. I think on this day we saw as many as ten!
On either end, you can shoot across and capture both bridges in the same images. They look like they are floating.
I like shadows. I saw this pattern being made from the ramada roof on the side we walked to.
Now we are on the river and fast approaching the bridge. The beaches on this river are stunning…but that’s a blog for a different time.
The black and white makes it seem like an older image. Look at the water and how rough it looks. These are the spring winds notorious for this time of year.
As we passed under I noticed people on the bridge looking at us. I was amazed at how small they were. This is even zoomed all the way in!
And finally, approaching the bridges and as we float under you can see both bridges from the underside.
I think this is my favorite. I saw the face instantly and had to capture it. Crazy, right?
This piece of driftwood caught my attention because it was located high on the beach partially buried right next to this nearly sand covered rock. I want to know its story, how did it get there? How high were the flood waters or did someone drag it up?
The lines and curves and texture around this knot were cool.
There are literally millions of little sticks like this on the beaches. Sometimes they are in piles and sometimes solo among the rocks. They are so smooth and have clearly been involved with the river for a while.
It’s not always about the mystery of the driftwood though. Northern Arizona is filled with twisted and knotted trees that are full of character. I spotted this one not three seconds after getting off the boat for lunch one day. I could have spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the beach and wood like this.
As we gathered on the beach to await our fearless leaders I glanced back at the river. That rock on the right looks a bit like an elf ear.
The hike follows Royal Arch Creek which gives you little snippets of what you will find at the end.
This image shows the ledge you can climb up to behind the waterfall and jump into the pool.
As we began to gather and head out I walked ahead and turned around to capture the creek coming out of the pool in the distance.
As we emerge from the canyon the upcoming rapid is layed out before us. It was a spectacular side canyon hike and I was glad we got to see it before any other trips joined us at the grotto.
Every beach we stopped at for either lunch, camp or just a bathroom break seemed to have a welcoming committee of two Ravens.
They wandered camp and reminded folks to keep their belongings under lock and key, or at least secured in their dry bags.
Ravens are ballsy. This one snuck onto the boat with Amity, our river guide, standing right there, and hopped up and stole her granola bar! She was two feet, if that, away!
Here’s a pair checking out the beach to make sure everything is in order. They are smart, observant and brave.
At times I think they are more observant of their world than we humans are.
It didn’t take long before we saw our first group of bighorn sheep. I believe we saw some every day. The goal became to find ones with big horns.
This guy had a good set. We found one larger but the image was too blurry.
Here’s another pair I shot as we floated past.
At our last camp we watched Bighorn TV. It was great. We all lined up our chairs on a sandbar six inches under water and watched three sheep across the river negotiate the cliffs.
The deer weren’t as common. In fact, this may have been the only group we saw.
We found this guy at the Little Colorado. He was a juvenile and froze when we walked by. His mama came screaming out from the nearby cliff toward us to protect him. She stood her ground with us as baby wandered off to a safer location.
Look at the length of that tail!
I was out shooting rocks one morning, thinking I was alone. I went to steady myself on this rock and was surprised to find my little friend here. He never moved but had an eye on me the whole time.
This guy was a trained model. I found him while out shooting rocks and water in the morning light. He hung out, followed me and posed. His colors were beautiful.
Fire ants were pretty common in camp as well. The good news is they went to bed at sundown. A simple trap was also made. A small bowl was buried in the sand just at the level of the sand with a piece of food in it. The ants would drop down for the food and not be able to get out. Toward sundown, our guides would release the bowl full of ants back to the hill for bedtime.
No one on our trip fished. But I’m sure they would have had success had they attempted. This trout was patrolling the waters off of one of our lunch stops.
See the dark blob near the opposite canyon wall connecting the light and dark water? That’s a school of fish! Not sure what kind but at first glance it looked like some sort of plant life. This is at the mouth of Havasu Creek.
Snowy egrets…who knew? We also saw Great Blue Heron on several occasions.
These first three images are from the backhaul trip. It was my first experience seeing paddle boards on this river. They were fully loaded and had been camping. The thing that would hold me back from such an adventure is the fact that if you take a dive the water is a chilly 46 degrees coming out of the bottom of the dam.
Here is a collection of our own vessels taken on that trip. We had a couple of canoes, sea kayaks, regular kayaks and an inflatable kayak or two. People have been known to paddle upstream. They eddy hop, paddle from eddy to eddy to reach their destination. It’s hard but doable.
This area of the river, upstream from Lee’s Ferry, is famous and popular with the fly fishermen. It’s quite common to see motorboats heading upstream to fish. Companies also do a “daily” where they take passengers on large inflatable motor rigs down the 25 mile stretch of Glenn Canyon from the Dam to Lee’s Ferry. Those are the boats we load up and pay to haul our boats back up to the dam for a two-day float. We stay at the campgrounds along the river.
Here we are at the ferry on the morning of our launch. To my delight, an OARS Grand Canyon Dories trip was loading up and preparing to launch as well. I love these boats. They are my favorite on the river. They are made of wood and each one is a work of art. I drifted away from my group and couldn’t help myself. I had to shoot a few at the boat ramp.
My favorite picture is the one at the top of this post. Late in the trip we floated past several lined up on a beach. I was able to catch just the right angle of their pointed bows with their names painted on the sides.
They launched before we did so when we passed them I was able to capture them silently floating in the canyon while we motored past in our big, 36-foot inflatable S-Rig.
This boat has a long story attached to it. If you’re interested go to 
Kayaking is another popular way to experience this river but rest assured, the water is not always this smooth.
I like this image because it shows you the scale of Grand Canyon. The boats in the distance are two large motor rigs heading to camp in late afternoon. They look tiny.
This is the boat we traveled on, a 36-foot S-rig. No idea what the S stands for.
Shade is a premium while on the river, especially at camp. These boats had the right idea. Temperatures are many degrees cooler the closer to the water you get. One does not want to hang out on the hot sand in the sun until shade adorns the camp. Trust me on this one.
A lot of folks like to bring “duckies” on Canyon trips to float on the calmer sections of water. They tend to get loaded and tied down for the big rapids.
Here’s another boat seen on the river occasionally. It’s a bit of a catamaran; two pontoons connected with a deck for rowing and gear.
I’m going to end where I started, with my beloved dories. I’ve never ridden in one but I think they are such pretty boats. If you want a great dory story read The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko, it’s amazing.