Islands Folk Festival, 30 Years

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Islands Folk Festival at Providence Farm, Duncan, British Columbia. I may be a little biased here but after being at the past 9 festivals I will say that the Islands Folk Festival is likely the best of the smaller festivals in Western Canada. How does that sound? […]
Islands Folk Festival 2013

One of my summer highlights is going to the Islands Folk Festival held at Providence Farm in the Cowichan Valley. The folk festival has a great selection of musicians, many from Canada but also other parts of the globe. A special emphasis is made to showcase local musicians and emerging musicians with the Island Songwriting […]
Briga at the Islands Folk Festival 2012

Briga at the Islands Folk Festival 2012. A full gallery of images can be viewed at Briga photos.
Bananafish Dance Orchestra

I’ve been slowly working through my images of the Islands Folk Festival in 2012. The music was excellent as always and I certainly enjoyed the photography. The first gallery online is the Bananafish Dance Orchestra, a local band that put on a great late night show. Take a look at the gallery at Bananafish Dance […]
Music Gallery Web Site

I have wanted to build a web site dedicated to live music and photographing music for some time. A few aborted attempts have been made over the years but…. I finally have something coming together. While the music gallery site has a ways to go, one has to start somewhere so here it is. www.musicgallery.info […]
Islands Folk Festival – New photos and stage lighting

I’ve finally managed to upload most of the galleries for the Islands Folk Festival that took place at Providence Farm in Duncan in July 2011. I mentioned this huge job previously back in February, Islands Folk Festival – Editing the Photos. As often is the case I try to learn from my experiences with the idea of […]
Islands Folk Festival – Editing the Photos

Here it is in the early spring of 2012 and I’m finally spending some time editing the photographs I shot at last years Islands Folk Festival on Vancouver Island. This is a daunting task, sorting through over 5,000 photographs shot over a 3 day period. Granted, this is nothing compared to what many sports photographers […]
Islands Folk Festival on Flickr

After many years of wondering whether I should use Flickr like the rest of the world I finally decided to give it a try. I’m looking at Flickr as an experiment as apparently numerous “photo buyers” are beginning to look through the vast collection. It has become so important that the huge stock agency Getty […]
Live Music – Pushing photography to the limit

I spend much of my time during the summer photographing musicians and listening to live music and while I find photography a distraction in some ways (it’s hard to listen to music seriously while doing photography seriously) I have managed to work around this. I try to shoot quickly so that I can get the […]
Best Photographs of 2010

It’s always hard to come up with a top 10 list or a best photographs list but as this idea seems to be a common theme I thought it might be prudent to join in the fun. Deciding what is the best for a certain period is always a challenge? What defines “best”?; Is it […]
Children of Celebrities II

The Chapel at Providence Farm is an amazing venue for live music. Great acoustics combined with beautiful late afternoon lighting provided the perfect backdrop for the concert that the Children of Celebrities played a few nights ago. I planned on sitting back and enjoying most of the concert as I wanted to actually enjoy the […]
Children of Celebrities

Children of Celebrities is a great Victoria band that describes themselves as “Delivering more than a half ton of fun and with more than 250 years of cumulative life experience”. These folks do have fun as I discovered when I photographed them a few weeks ago. The photography consisted of photographing two live rehearsals with a […]
Learning from Past Lessons – Concert Photography

With the music festival circuit coming up in the next month and running throughout the summer I decided it would be prudent to spend some time looking at older images, catching up on a few years of post processing and most importantly, learning from my previous mistakes. I expect calling them mistakes is being a bit hard […]
Islands Folk Festival – Providence Farm

One of my summer highlights is going to the Islands Folk Festival held at Providence Farm in the Cowichan Valley. The folk festival has a great selection of musicians many from Canada but also other parts of the globe. A special emphasis is made to showcase local musicians and emerging musicians as well. This is put […]
Santa Cruz River Band

Ted RamÃrez, Michael Ronstadt and Gilbert Brown form this trio from Tucson, Arizona. They perform in English, Spanish and Native American Indian languages. This music is authentic and original with its roots in the traditional music styles of the United States and Mexico. An excellent performance. Santa Cruz River Band photographs
Alan and Eli Gerber at the Islands Folk Festival

Alan Gerber has been performinmg for many years with ordinary folks like Lou Reed, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrex and John Lee Hooker. He’s still at it, producing rootsy music that will stir your soul. Who’s this in the photo? It kind of reminds me of when I was in high school many years ago and […]
Dinah D at the Islands Folk Festival

Dinah D makes me wish you could still hang out at a bar and smoke cigars or cigarettes while listening to cool jazz. A little bit of bluegrass, a little swing, you get the idea. Dinah D is from Gabriola Island so hopefully I’ll have a chance to see her again soon. Dinah D photographs
Sara and Kamila at the Islands Folk Festival, Duncam, BC

Sara and Kamila are sisters from Nova Scotia whose beautiful songwriting and harmonies are backed up by sultry sax, rhythmic bass and worldbeat percussion. Sara & Kamila’s second release entitled Chasing Fireflies was recorded in Newfoundland and was nominated for 4 MIANL awards. Wonderful vocals and great songwriting from these two. Sara and Kamila photographs
Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo

These guys are hot. I wasn’t sure whether I would like the mix of Bulgarian, Bosnian and Montreal fusion but it sure has energy. Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo know how to deliver and get the audience in a frenzy. The name Kaba Horo is from the Turkish word “kaba” (low, rough) and the Bulgarian […]
Tzinquaw Dancers – Duncan, British Columbia

The Tzinquaw Dancers bring the sights and sounds of traditional dance to the Cowichan Valley. The Cowichan Tzinquaw Dancers perform traditional songs and dances passed down from many generations. Performances are held at the The Quw’utsun’ Cultural and Conference Centre in Duncan. The Islands Folk Festival performance started the weekend on a good note. Tzinquaw […]
Diamond Joe White, Islands Folk Festival, Providence Farm.

I have always enjoyed listening to Diamond Joe White perform, having seen him for the first time in the early 80’s. Once again he performed well at the Islands Folk Festival at Providence Farm. He brought his daughter Jolene with him (who is an excellent performer on her own) as well as a great granddaughter. […]
Sabir Sisters at the Islands Folk Festival, Duncan, BC.

The Sabir Sisters are from Abbotsford, just outside Vancouver, British Columbia. You wouldn’t know this unless they revert to playing some classical pieces from their music background. These sisters really sound as though they have grown up in the maritimes and they put on a lively East Coast sort of performance. Sabir Sisters Gallery If […]
Los Munequitos de Matanzas

From Cuba, Los Munequitos de Matanzas entertained the crowds at the Islands Folk Festival in Duncan with their lively and very danceable music. Audience participation was at a high and the only real problem was ths fact they couldn’t play for longer on the Friday night. Los Munequitos de Matanzas is a Cuban rumba band. […]