Finn Slough

My camera has become my ally in slowing down this busy life. I often seem to hurtle through my days, so intent on what needs done that many small and beautiful moments pass by largely unnoticed.

I may observe that the sun rising through fog has an odd coral glow. I may glance over at tidy rows of coloured pencils and be pleased by their order...but these are momentary distractions only, quickly cast aside in pursuit of whatever goal the day demands of me.

.To make time pause in its tracks, I turn to my camera. I've learned that photography involves more than calculating f-stops or reading the manual from cover to cover.

To make meaninful shots, we must first learn how to see, not as automatic a response as it would seem. Our world moves swiftly, propelling us along with it.

We've learned to snap off a quick picture before our child scoots away again, and to take countless shots because our memory card allows it. We don't pay much attention with camera in hand...we'll see the results later.
.

But if we hesitate a little..take the time to really look at the face we are about to record or the flower that has caught our attention, the image imprints on our brain and can find its way to our heart before we even press the shutter. In that moment, we connect with the world in a slower, more meaningul way.

.

.


We are currently exploring place, my camera and I, in particular the places people call home. The word means something different to each of us, but though locations may change and styles may vary, home is univerally considered the place where we can be ourselves

without censure, and can surround ourselves with the people we love and the things we cherish.
.

We recently came upon a unique community on the south arm of the Fraser River. Historic Finn Slough began life a hundred years ago. Today, it is the last working fishing village on the Fraser River
and home to roughly fifty people who live
and work in a manner closely linked to their heritage.

.




Imbued with a palpable sense of history and times past, weathered homes on stilts and floats lie nestled in the slough, some accessible only by a rickety wooden drawbridge. Although close to Richmond and Vancouver, this village has a charm and simplicity that set it well apart from the modern urban areas that crowd around it and threaten it's future.

.

I know I'll be drawn back to this oasis often, lured by the memory of ducks rooting through the marshland and a landscape changed hourly by the tides and the river light.

.

I can only hope it will still be there waiting for me...

.