Writer, naturalist, and photographer based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Please visit my website, which provides many stories to go with the photos.

Born in the '60s, I've carried a camera for as long as I can remember. In my teens my parents gave me my first SLR, a Canon AE-1, which served for many years. I studied biology and journalism, both fueling and informing my passion for photography.

In 1996 I came out as a gay man under traumatic circumstances. As I struggled with mental health and unemployment, film and processing became inaccessible for several years. Later, much of my analog photography was destroyed by an apartment flood.

My first digital camera, a Kodak DX3500, brought a creative renaissance from 2002. I joined Flickr on May 15, 2005. I progressed to a Canon Powershot, then a Canon EOS Rebel XSi (450D). Since 2022 I have shot with a Canon EOS RP. All this history appears in my Flickr camera roll. My favourite lens is a Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM.

I am a connoisseur of small things and places.

I learned about the concept of genius loci in a landscape architecture course at university. It relates to the idea that every place has a governing spirit, intelligence, or mood. Good places are as valuable as good people to our well-being. To explore this idea I launched the Flickr group Genius loci: The spirit of a place on August 30, 2020. You are welcome to join and share your images of how places affect us.

My home in Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land that was granted to the Haudenosaunee of the Six Nations of the Grand River. It was traditionally used by the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee people. As an artist and writer I look to nature for inspiration, health, and a source of spirituality. This land would not be what it is without the people who have lived here and protected it for millenia.

Website: vanwaffle.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/van.waffle/

Twitter: @vanwaffle