by Rachel Cooper ('89)

When luck, skill and talent come together, the results keep rippling like the wake of a racing dory.

Last winter, Ward Isnor (’65) was surprised to receive an e-mail from Canada Post seeking permission to use one of his photographs on a new postage stamp. His image of the Lunenburg waterfront would be part of a series depicting Canada’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“I didn’t actually submit it,” he says. “They discovered that photo in Parks Canada, but I didn’t send it to Parks Canada, either. Canadian Geographic magazine published it last year, and I think they must share a photo bank with Parks Canada. That’s how they got it. It was a really nice surprise.”

How the photo came to be taken was also a stroke of luck, although Isnor has been a photographer for most of his life and has won numerous national and international awards.

Folk music and dory races

The 10-year-old image was taken when Isnor and his wife, Sharron, attended the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, which they do every summer. Sharron bought raffle tickets and won both first and third prizes that year. While first prize was a stack of autographed CDs from the festival’s performers, third prize was a boat cruise around Lunenburg Harbour and the islands, with a lobster dinner.

“After dinner they took us for a ride past the waterfront,” Isnor says, “and, of course, I had my camera along. It was just straight luck that these two guys came along in the dory. They were practising for the annual dory races between Lunenburg and Gloucester, Massachusetts.”

When members of the Dory Racing Association saw the stamp, they invited Isnor to photograph the 2014 races. “I was invited to go on board the race-pace boat as well,” he says. “As soon as they saw the stamp and the dory they were quite excited and contacted me, so that was a lot of fun.”

To celebrate the launch of the stamp, Canada Post held events this summer in Lunenburg and Mahone Bay, and hundreds of people came. Isnor was an honoured guest, as was one of the young men rowing the dory.

Art for Mahone Islands

Isnor became a purely digital photographer in 2002 and now shoots all his photos in raw format, working with the data to create images that are as much art as photography.

In November, he donated a framed image to be auctioned for MICA, the Mahone Islands Conservation Association, something he does every year. “We’ve been around for 12 years now, and in 12 years we’ve purchased about 12 islands,” he says. The islands are donated to the provincial government to preserve for public use.

The 2014 fundraiser was the best ever. “I think we raised $76,000,” Isnor says. He donated the Lunenburg image, valued at $400, and it sold for $775. “I was very pleased with that,” he says. “I’m happy for MICA, because the whole idea is to make money to buy these islands.”

Memories of Acadia

Isnor first attended Acadia for a Bachelor of Commerce degree after having worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia for three years. “I really enjoyed Acadia,” he says. “Our professors always seemed to have time for their students.”

Two moments stand out. “Probably my saddest moment at Acadia was in November of 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. His death was a shock to everyone,” he says. The following spring, another moment brought his happiest memory. “That’s when I took a young lady to see My Fair Lady at Acadia,” he says. “Her name was Sharron Teare, and she became my bride.” They were married in Manning Memorial Chapel in 1966.

After a stint at Shell Oil, Isnor returned to Acadia for a Bachelor of Education. By the early 1970s he was teaching business and computer courses to high school students in Sudbury, Ontario. “I really enjoyed it, teaching computer subjects at that time. The students were just fascinated by it, and so was I,” he says. When Isnor retired in 1997, he and Sharron returned from Sudbury to Nova Scotia and settled near Mahone Bay.

Next year, Isnor’s graduating year celebrates its 50^th anniversary. To ask alumni to save the date, Acadia will soon send out Canada Post postcards featuring his Lunenburg image.

Winning a competition he didn’t enter with a photographic image sparked by a raffle ticket has delighted Isnor. “You know, I’m just enjoying it. It couldn’t have happened at a better time in my life,” he says. “I’m having more fun than you can imagine.”