Island times (or how the next chapter starts).

All photos in this blog entry: © Tyler A.W. Burke. 2022.

Sometimes change is easier to enact after a clean break from tired routines.

This June, the prospect of a few weeks in one of our favourite places proved too enticing for my partner and I. So even though our old Subaru was showing signs of catastrophic engine failure (and indeed it failed about a week after we got back home) we booked some lodgings, snagged a ferry ticket, and hit the Trans-Canada west towards Vancouver Island.

I kept my photography kit super simple for this trip. My main camera was the compact, fixed-lens Fujfilm X100V; I bought it specifically for travel and daily carry and it’s my go-to camera when photography is not the primary focus of an outing. To complement the wider 23mm (~35mm full-frame equivalent) perspective of the X100V, I also brought an X-T3 with the longer XF 70-300mm lens (~98-420mm full-frame equivalent). I took 85% of my photos with the X100V - reinforcing the point that for a travel kit, simplicity and packability are key to staying in the moment while also creating meaningful photographs.

On our way west, we stopped overnight at Salmon Arm for wine, rest, and to give our ailing car a break. The ferry ride to the Island is always an exciting segment of the trip, as the separation from home begins to feel a bit more concrete.

The first stop on the Island was Jordan River. Here we rented a cabin off the grid and visited a special place to us: China Beach. Later on, we stopped in at Nanaimo for some coffee and to hit a laundromat before continuing on to the Qualicum area.

I was already a week or so into a mystery gastro-intestinal illness when we arrived at another favourite stop: Qualicum Beach. While my inability to digest food certainly slowed me down, I was determined for us to push on and enjoy the beach, sandcastles, Island Farms ice cream, and the Coombs goats on the roof. A few days later - and a bit sicker yet - we hit the road again for Cathedral Groves and Ucluelet.

While we stayed in Ucluelet, we made the short drive over to Tofino and the beaches in between daily. Long Beach and the Amphitrite Point Lighthouse were familiar and welcome stops - and provided plenty of visual inspiration at all times of day.

We spent much of our time in the Tofino area at Long Beach, where the above four photos were taken. Around sunset the beach was largely deserted and the tide recession made for some very interesting shooting conditions.

Our final stop on the Island was a few days’ stay with friends near Victoria. My illness had begun to take a toll. It had been almost 2 weeks since I had retained any food and I was weak, tired, and down about 20lbs - so we opted to stay in and take it easy. The above photo is of our friends’ very loveable Labrador Leo. We packed and made for Salmon Arm again (the above right photo was taken at our final lodgings the morning before the push home) and then finally back home to Calgary where I landed in the hospital.

It turns out - through some bad luck - I contracted a rare and hard-to-kill bacterial infection early in our stay on the Island; now a week and a half into treatment back home I am finally starting to feel a bit better. The trip was still the much-needed circuit breaker we both needed and I think the photos speak to it.

I’m excited to resume work on my transition towards more of a fine-art focus with my photography. If this trip is how the next chapter starts, I think it’s going to be a good one!