Canadian photographer Ian R. Coristine is used to spreading the popularity of the Thousand Islands via his stunning photographs of the area. But he said two ongoing episodes he became involved in have likely exposed the area to an unprecedented worldwide audience.
One involves one of the most popular folk/rock bands in North America and the other began when uncredited photos taken by Mr. Coristine began circulating on the Web.
The reaction to the St. Lawrence River Mr. Coristine has witnessed because of the two situations is an indication of the area's still-untapped full potential, he said.
"I firmly believe this world-class place is still under the radar," Mr. Coristine said from his home on Raleigh Island, Mallorytown, Ontario. "We may think of this area as pretty ordinary, but people are staggered."
Two years ago, a resident along the St. Lawrence River used 50 photographs taken by Mr. Coristine and posted on her blog as a way to showcase where she lived. The blog, Mr. Coristine said, was hosted in Latvia.
From there, the photos were posted on dozens of Web sites hosted around the world. Most of the photos weren't credited.
Mr. Coristine wrote to hosts of the Latvian site to ask them to post a copyright notice and to link to his official site. The site manager complied with the request, but the photographer said there are dozens of sites where his uncredited photos remain, including numerous YouTube videos.
There are also PowerPoint online presentations; one in French, one in Spanish and two in English.
"At least one of the PowerPoints simply had the images with no identification as to where they were taken," Mr. Coristine said.
He said the comments left on the sites usually are in the "Where is this place?" category.
"This is a world-class place, but to people here, they are so used to it, they don't see it that way," he said.
GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS STUNNED
Mr. Coristine decided to put together his own Web PowerPoint presentation, but needed music. He had an idea late in 2007 as he was listening to the CBC radio show "The Vinyl Cafe" and heard the Toronto-based band the Great Lake Swimmers.
"It's just hauntingly beautiful music," Mr. Coristine said.
He said that "on a whim" he e-mailed the band's management asking it to consider a visit to the Thousand Islands area to find inspiration for a river-related song that he could maybe use on his site.
"I wrote it off," Mr. Coristine said. "I figured they must have felt I was a groupie or something."
But in September, Tony Dekker, lead singer for Great Lake Swimmers, called Mr. Coristine and told him the band had a few days free in the next two weeks. Mr. Dekker asked Mr. Coristine if he knew of any good recording spots.
At first, Mr. Coristine was flabbergasted and couldn't think of a site, but inspiration struck by just looking out his window.
"My island is within sight of Singer Castle," he said.
Singer Castle is located on Dark Island, off Chippewa Bay.
Mr. Coristine told Mr. Dekker he would get back to him in a few minutes. The photographer called the manager of Singer Castle, who immediately got hold of the owner in Germany.
"Within three minutes, I was back on the line, telling Tony, 'Yes, the visit is good,'" Mr. Coristine said.
Band members showed up two days later. Their new album, "Lost Channels," released in March, was recorded and named for the Thousand Islands. Besides Singer Castle, tracks were recorded at St. Brendan's Church in Rockport, Ontario, and the Brockville (Ontario) Arts Centre.
"River imagery recurs throughout 'Lost Channels'; the title of the album is a reference to a certain passage of the St. Lawrence, close to the recording locale, where a reconnaissance boat from a British warship went mysteriously missing in 1760," the band notes on its Web site.
A reviewer for All Music Guide wrote: "'Lost Channels' is filled with sepia-tone postcard images of dusty boots following the treads on seasonal roads, and pastoral woodcuts of stoic, blue-collar heartache and wide-eyed innocence."
MUSIC VIDEO PLANNED
The band visited Brockville for the June 6 Masts, Motors & Music festival and performed on the tall ship Fair Jeanne at Tall Ships Landing.
Fair Jeanne is operated by Ottawa-based Bytown Brigantine, which provides adventure experiences to people of all ages through traditional tall-ship training and its Tall Ship Island Adventure Camp.
The band came directly from Madrid, Spain, for the Brockville concert.
The band plans to return to the Thousand Islands in August to shoot a video, said manager Phil Klygo.
Mr. Klygo, speaking from Toronto, said band members had never been to the area before and were stunned. He said the band, like many others, have zoomed by the area when traveling on King's Highway 401 in southern Ontario.
"Unless you need to go down to Brockville or something, you drive right by the Thousand Islands," Mr. Klygo said.
He said the band plans to shoot the video for the song "Palmistry" on the Fair Jeanne and at Singer Castle. The band is also working on scheduling a second video in the area, Mr. Klygo said.
"For the band, and for Tony, it's just payment to be so enthralled by the area," Mr. Klygo said. "We have a lot of good friends there now. It's a home away from home."
Mr. Coristine said his multimedia Web link featuring music married to his photos is still a work in progress.
"I'm hoping Tony will find the time to get back down here later this summer to write music specifically for this, which might also be part of a subsequent album," he said.
Mr. Coristine, a Montreal native and a pilot, "discovered" the Thousand Islands about 20 years ago when, just for fun, he flew his plane up the St. Lawrence.
He has three books on the Thousand Islands, and exhibitions of his work have been featured at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, Brockville Arts Center and St. Lawrence University, Canton.
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