So, this is  my sojourn into photography in the 1960’s. The highlighted texts are links. Just click on them to find out where I’m taking you. If you want to make a comment or see the comments just click on the title.

I don’t have an exact date when I joined the firm. Think it was late 1967 or early 1968. all the negs I made then and up to 1972 were jammed into envelopes. They ended up stored in boxes under the first Hornby house. So, about ten years ago I began organizing them. Which means that some of the dates are just guesses. These photos are in the same era but perhaps not in the proper order.

Dick Dunne/1970

Dick Dunne changed his name to Richard when the word ‘dick’ became fashionable and didn’t mean somebody’s name. Dick Wyndham refused to change his. He said ‘that’s what I’ve been called my whole life and I’m not about to change it.

Dick Wyndham teaches me mushroom hunting/Hornby Island-1972

Two important events occurred in 1969. First, Ken was offered a better job with one of our competitors. He couldn’t resist so he left Focus Prints and started a new life. Glenn asked me if I wanted to take on the manager’s job. I said I thought I was too young (25 years old) and he should get someone more familiar with the work. He was having none of this and after a few beers and arguments managed to recruit me.

Mr. Important

So, now I was manager with a fair salary which prompted me to do the next big thing in 1969. I bought a house! Across the bridge in North Van. George and Glenn were house owners over there as well. It was a fixer upper and the price was right, $14000. Hard to believe that a two story house with basement and large orchard would go for so little but this was North Van and not popular at the time.

Focus Prints was getting very busy. Glenn was spending more time working with me in the shop. We had to hire a helper and so Rick Scheirer joined the outfit. Al Sens moved out so we took over his space. Then the costume rental moved out and his giant studio became available.

A very nice couple opened this shop. Pretty soon the line neg business was over. Even Glenn, Dick, Hal used this shop.

We were now able to get into the photo mural business. An important move as the azo business was disappearing. A shop opened across the street using new technology. Making line negatives and enlarging or reducing them in the darkroom was outdated. The new method was a printing machine that could spew out copy at the correct size and font. We still did copy negs and began using the 5×7 camera for photography.

Rick Schierer and (Forgot his name) another new hire.

1969-1970 were very busy years.

After the photostats were washed they were put into this dryer.

Glenn, shooting his latest design.

Vancouver 1968. This view hasn’t changed much.

My first school, David Lloyd George, in Marpole.

So, this is  my sojourn into photography in the 1960’s. The highlighted texts are links. Just click on them to find out where I’m taking you. If you want to make a comment or see the comments just click on the title.

These two were a hoot!

Focus Prints was on the 2^nd floor and at the rear of 1255 Pender St. We shared that floor with a few interesting characters.

Across the hall was Al Sens; a very creative cartoonist and animator. When he finished a project he would call us in to show the product.

Down the hall, in a huge studio-like room was a Costume Rental. The proprietor mainly rented to theatre companies. He was forever dressing up in his latest costumes and pay us hilarious visits. Often, we’d go over and share a few beers while he would duck behind a screen and change into dozens of different costumes.

Josephine and myself taking advantage of the Costume Outfit.

Glenn had an office down the hall. He was a freelance commercial artist and very busy. The first year Ken and I did all the Focus Prints work. It wasn’t that much and we had plenty of time to play chess.

Definitely I was being exposed to some very creative people but this was only the beginning. Gradually I was getting acquainted with Glenn’s working friends. These were some of the most interesting characters I would ever meet and their ingenuity would influence me for the rest of my life.

Dick Dunne, model builder, had an office across the street where he constructed scale model buildings. His clients were architects who used his models to show clients just how their new building would look. The work was quite exacting and Dick paid scrupulous attention to detail.

In the same building George McLachlan did illustrating for advertising agencies. Another genius in creativity. Once George took a photograph of me and transformed it into a 60 year old man. Grey hair and all. (lost it somewhere over the years)

Hal Arnold didn’t seem to have an office or a need for one. He was kind of a freelance art director. If and advertising agency had a project that needed skill of a veteran director they would hire Hal. So, his office was in the agency or his west end apartment.

Joane Humphrey, Dick Dunne.

Joane Humphrey, another old friend, started out her career as a model then went into broadcasting. (JJ Mcall)

Dick Wyndham, another talented designer, had an office across the street as well.

Every morning Dick Dunne, George McLachlan, Dick Wyndham, and I would meet before work for coffee at a little coffee shop in the same building. (Sometimes Hal would appear but never Glenn. He was one of those people who could never show up on time. A familiar sight would be Glenn running down the sidewalk, briefcase in hand, and tie streaming over his shoulder)

Have you noticed what all these people had in common? They all had land or a special affection for Hornby Island.