Discovering His "Inner Voice"
Don's love of photography developed soon after he lost his fear of the device. Once the Juvenile Court photographer had satisfied Don that the camera would not steal his soul and he saw his picture in print, Don was hooked. Of course being a feral orphan in the middle of Saskatchewan has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to being able to afford high end camera equipment. Don found employment with a German family in Stoughton and went to work in their slaughterhouse. His job was to kill animals for slaughter, and he has some particularly hilarious anecdotes about playing "pig hockey" in the slaughterhouse pens. Don nurtured his budding photographic abilities by photographing various cuts of meat for publication in the meat market's weekly advertisement in the Stoughton newspaper - "The Stoughton Crappie", named after a popular local fish and also alluding to the dual purpose the paper inevitably served. The townsfolk saw his work here and he became highly sought after as a wedding photographer, due to his unique style of laying the bride and groom out on white styrofoam packaging for their portraits. ...next