Lisa and Hosta montana 'Aureo Marginata' 4 April 2026

 

My daily obligation consists in my getting out of bed around 7:30 and going downstairs to feed my cats Niño and Niña. I make my breakfast and bring it up in a tray. Rosemary and I had breakfast in bed for 25 years with our paper NY Times and Vancouver Sun. Now I share that moment with my two cats. With no reason to get out of bed I might linger until 10:30. On sunny days I do some gardening and I prune my roses. If still sunny I might go in my bike to Jericho Beach.

My financially smart Rosemary arranged so that I never have to worry about my finances.

In the afternoon I might write one or two blogs and in plant season I will scan some of my plants. But there is nothing more for me to do. Some days (most) the phone never rings and I do see people when I shop at Safeway.

How might escape my existential angst?

One way is to fiddle in my oficina and going through my extensive files. Today, Easter Saturday I cut a leaf of my newly acquired Hosta montana ‘Aureo Marginata’ and scanned it with my portrait of Lisa Montonen with that plant. I wrote about this hosta recently here. It was a surprise to find this classic hosta.

You can now have a look at my two versions of fiddling.

Lisa was one of the most beautiful woman I ever photographed. I first met her at a beauty contest at the Drake Hotel in the 80s. She was crying as she had not even been considered. I told her that the women who had won were all very pretty but the judges could not cope with her beauty.

She married a plastic surgeon and moved to LA right after her body had been ruined by him. 

Deborah - Wreck Beach - taken with a swivel lens panoramic Widelux

April - Wreck Beach circa 1977 - my first nude

Because my mother, grandmother, wife Rosemary and I were teachers I have a feeling that I am obliged to impart the knowledge in my head before I meet up with my statistically  soon oblivion.

Katheryn at the Marble Arch Hotel

I may have the largest files on women not wearing much anywhere. I would like to explain why this is so.

Until I was around 14 I was a painter and drawer. My mother even had me take lessons in Mexico City with an artist called Robin Bond. One day I told my mother that I could no longer draw or paint. She became very angry and almost gave me a whipping. It was not until 1958 that I bought my first camera and decided to take photographs.

In 1969, having been married to my Rosemary for a year I took some nude photographs of her. I have no idea why that happened. What is important for me is that they were portraits. My idea of eroticism was far away from my mind or I simply did not acknowledge it.

In 1975 my wife, two daughters and I moved to Vancouver. By 1977 I was taking nude photographs on Wreck Beach. Here is my first ever nude in Vancouver of April. There is nothing erotic about it. It does show what soon became of my photographic particulars. This was to have something odd in my photographs. The black sand on April’s feet is such an example.

Now today April 4, 2026 I have finally understood my obsession in taking photographs of undraped women. It is most obvious that looking back at the many Renaissance of women and men in the nude had a purpose beyond the obvious of wanting to do it. The nude without clothes, when done well, prepared one to paint them with clothes on. It showed how the body moved and how to paint it gracefully.

Now in this century, here in Vancouver nude figure studies places are happening. Why? It is for the same above reason. I cannot go to these because I cannot draw. But I have done my own version of nude figure studying.

I can state here that my portraits of people are good simply because I have knowledge of how their bodies are and I know how to pose them.

April 2, 2026 - Fuji X-E1

Helen

These days I constantly harp on the advantages to a photographer to combine the technology of the 20th century with that of this one. 

A technique that is interesting, but not easy to do, is pinhole photography. Because the hole is so small the exposure times are long and your film camera has to be securely on a good tripod. In that other century, and it this one, I have used film cameras for some of my pinhole photographs. In the one here, of my friend Helen, I had to fire my studio flash many times before enough light had pierced that pinhole.

Now my Fuji digital cameras can take pinhole photographs hand held. How is this? My Fuji X-E1 and E-3 with the pinhole attachment can be exposed at 3200 or higher ISO without affecting the quality of the photographs. The ones here I took yesterday while going on my bike ride to Jericho Beach.

Technically my Mamiya pinhole (on the body cap of the camera) is not a pinhole. The whole was drilled with a tiny drill bit by my friend Ian MacGuffie's father.

Until my grandmother (abuelita) died in 1970 she was one of my principal mentors. I find it comforting that my Rosemary was able to meet her.

My Abue (pronounced Ahbweh) educated me as my mother was always busy teaching. Abue never told me not to do something but would always explain the consequences if I did it. She inculcated me with the refrains and advice of Don Quijote de la Mancha. From her I inherited my sweet tooth.

There is an extra connection with her. As a little boy I was raised to be a Roman Catholic by her and Abue explained a lot of the doctrine.

Today is Good Friday (Viernes Santo) and I will never forget those Good Fridays in Buenos Aires in 1950 and onward. I was prohibited from listening to music (the radio) or going out to play with my friends. It was a sombre day where she would read out the appropriate words from the New Testament with my mother.

Now looking back I can connect the day in which all I could hear were the sounds of my environment and think it was my early lesson in understanding why 4’33” by John Cage is one of my favourite compositions.

Rosa 'Double Delight'

Hosta montana 'Aureo Marginata'

A garden is never the same from one year to another. But still to me my garden represents a stability that I shared with my Rosemary. She had her favourites and I had mine. Some we shared. One of those plants was Rosa ‘Double Delight’. Not only was it unusually beautiful but it also had a lovely strong scent. When we moved from Kerrisdale to our Kits home 7 years ago the plant had died. Just a couple of years ago I found it again and bought it. Now it does not look all that good.

Lisa Montonen

When a few days ago I went to my local and nearby nursery, Hunter’s when I saw it I immediately purchased it.

Another plant that is a classic hosta is Hosta montana ‘Aureo Marginata’. In the last century I had a show of my individual hosta leaves or flowers with a beautiful woman called Lisa Montonen. I used that same Hosta montana to photograph years later with my ecdysiast friend Salem.

Salem

I was most upset when the plant died and because it was a hosta introduced many years ago it was not available anywhere in Vancouver. When I took my youngest daughter home after a lunch date I passed by GardenWorks nursery on our way to Burnaby. After dropping her off I did go to the nursery. They had two handsome Hosta montanas. I bought both!

Salem