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William Henry Richard "Dick" Bird was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England on August 16, 1892. From an early age he developed a keen interest in cinema and still photography. His first cinema film experience occurred in 1905 watching Boer Was footage at the theatre in Leamington. Emigrating at the age of fourteen, Bird came to Vermont to live with an uncle in c.1907. His family later followed, settling in Fort William, Ontario.

Starting his career in Chicago, Illinois, Bird travelled extensively, gaining experience as a freelance cinematographer covering events for various organizations and film companies in the United States, China, Japan, Korea, South America, Mexico, and Canada, shooting newsreels, animated cartoons, travelogues and commercial motion pictures. In 1919, while living in Toronto, Bird was elected first president of the Canadian Professional and Press Photographers Association. Also in 1919, Bird played an instrumental role organizing Local 636 of the Cinematographers and Motion Picture Craftsmen, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union.

In 1921 Dick Bird moved with his family to Regina, Saskatchewan to make documentary, educational and industrial films for the Saskatchewan government. He continued to shoot newsreels for Pathescope. He also founded Bird Films Ltd., a photographic shop, in Regina in 1928. During this time his photography often mirrored his achievements in filmmaking. This included flights of the RAF Forestry Air Fire Patrol in northern Saskatchewan, the opening of the Albert Memorial Bridge in Regina in 1930 and the Regina Riot of 1935. He also filmed the opening broadcast of Saskatchewan's first radio station CKCK in 1922, the first drilling for oil and gas in the province, as well as the visits of various dignitaries, including Edward, Prince of Wales, on his 1919 Canadian tour. In 1922 Bird founded the Canadian Cinema Arts Society. He continued to travel through Europe in the 1930s filming newsreels of the Spanish Civil War and Hitler Youth rallies.

By the 1930's, however, the primary focus of Bird's career had shifted to nature photography and conservation. Elected president of the Regina Natural History Society, he actively promoted public interest in wildlife. In 1937 he began a weekly program on CKCK Radio "Camera Trails". He published The Camera Trailer, a newsletter illustrated with his own photographs for distribution to his radio audience. He also started a nature club for children and encouraged nature field trips throughout rural Saskatchewan. Bird also produced commercial films for the Boy Scouts of Canada and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.

Soon after coming to work in Canada following the end of the First World War, Dick Bird had met and married Pansy Myrtle Fern Nix of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Actively supporting her husband's career, Pansy Bird managed and operated Bird Films Ltd. while Dick was travelling on film assignments. Dick and Pansy Bird had three children Gordon, Jeanne (Kaad) and Yvonne (Ellis). Their son died as a child and Pansy died in Mexico in 1937.

Ada Gertrude Bovee was born near Avonlea, Saskatchewan on December 21, 1917 to James and Gertrude (Nelson) Bovee. She was the youngest of six children. The Bovees came to homestead in the Avonlea area from Wisconsin in 1906. Trained in business and an amateur ornithologist, Ada also was active in the local Avonlea Sunday School, Mission Band, choirs and the I.O.D.E. She met Dick Bird in the early 1940s when he was invited to show films to her Canadian Girls in Training (CGIT) church group. Soon after Ada began working for Bird Films photographing birds, animals and flowers. During the Second World War Ada and Dick showed films and slides in many rural towns and villages in the province in support of the "Milk for Britain" campaign.

In December 1946 Dick and Ada Bird were married, marking a long personal and business partnership as cinematographers travelling throughout Canada, the United States and the world producing nature films and conducting winter lecture tours. From 1952 to 1955 they shot film footage for Walt Disney Production's True Life Adventure series. Their lecture audience included Harvard, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian Institute. The Audubon Society sponsored many of their tours. The Birds' still photography taken during the period of the 1940's and 1950's is dominated by wildlife, flora, and natural scenery.

In 1960 Dick and Ada Bird retired from eight years of lecture tours to their property at Buena Vista near Regina Beach, which had been in the Bird family since the early 1940s. They continued to show films in Regina public schools to encourage awareness of conservation among school children, and also were guest speakers at various Canadian Clubs in Eastern Canada. In the 1970s Dick began work on his memoirs and on a history of photography, although ill health prevented the completion of this project. Ada worked from 1969 to 1983 with Muir Barber Ltd. in the hardware and gift business. After Dick's death in 1986, Ada moved into Regina. She continued to be active in many senior and church groups.

Throughout his life, Dick Bird received many honours. He was an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. In 1950 he was the second Canadian, after Yousuf Karsh, to become a Fellow of the Photographic Society of America. In that year he also became the first life member of the Saskatchewan Natural History Society. In May 1976 Bird received an honourary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Regina. He was also honoured as Saskatchewan's Pioneer Cinematographer at the International Film Festival in Yorkton in 1979.

Bird Films Ltd. was, since its early years, very much a family business, operated by Dick and Pansy Bird, their daughters, and later their daughters' husbands. The business sold cameras, film and accessories and also had a studio and film lab. Dick Bird remained active in Bird Films into the 1960s. Bird Films continues (2005) to operate as a photography business with a third generation of family management.

Dick Bird died on September 27, 1986. Ada Bird died on October 3, 2003 in Regina.

Edmund Alexander (Ed) Sebestyen was born on March 10, 1930, son of Denes and Theresa (Schell) Sebestyen. He completed his secondary education at the Saskatoon Technical Institute, where he was particularly inspired by art teacher, Ernest Lindner, and drafting teacher, Ernie Chan. He married Edna Regush in 1953, and they had three children: Theresa (Terri) in 1954; Charles (Chuck) Anthony in 1957; and Susanne in 1962.

Sebestyen was hired by the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix in 1949, where he worked as a photographer, engraver, editorial cartoonist, reporter, news editor, managing editor, marketing and general manager, and Executive Vice President (Planning and Corporate Development), until he retired in 1991. His earliest job at the Star-Phoenix was engraving zinc plates to be used in the printing process. He tried his hand at drawing a few editorial cartoons that were well-received by the paper's editorial staff, and this developed into work as the Star-Phoenix's first and only full-time editorial cartoonist (c. 1957-1964). Sebestyen recalled this period as the best of his newspaper career.

Sebestyen and the Star-Phoenix published four books of his editorial cartoons: An Assortment of Sebestyen Cartoons from the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (1959); Another Assortment of Sebestyen Cartoons from the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (1960); and I (1961); and Is There A Doctor In The House: A Case History, In Cartoons, on Saskatchewan's Medical Care Plan (1962).

In 1993, Sebestyen was made a member of the Order of Canada for being an “energetic community builder who has spent his life promoting the city as the locale for many national events.” Along with the Order of Canada, he won numerous service medals and citizenship awards for chairing or holding executive roles on organization and bid committees for events such as the 1989 Western Canada Summer Games, the 1971 and 1989 Jeux Canada Games, the 1975 Western Canada Summer Games, the 1985 Tennis Federation Cup, the 1989 Labatt's Brier, the 1990 World Junior Hockey Championship, and was known as the “the man behind the mountain” for having been instrumental in having Mount Blackstrap built for the 1971 Canada Winter Games.

Ed Sebestyen died in Saskatoon on December 4, 2011.

William John (W.J.) James was born on December 23, 1870 to William, Sr. and Maria James of the Fordwich area, Howick Township, Huron County, Ontario. His father was a blacksmith and carriage maker in Ontario, and first travelled west with the Wolseley Red River Expedition in 1870.

W. J. James came to Prince Albert, Northwest Territories ca.1890. His family followed around 1893. Both James and his father were employed by the James Sanderson sawmill as labourers. W.J. James became a barber while also establishing a photography business briefly with W.J. Jackson in 1894. James continued in barbering while also working as an itinerant photographer in the 1890s. He hired Theodore Charmbury as a photographer in his studio between 1901 and 1903, and operated a branch studio at Indian Head in 1904-1906. James operated the City Art Studio (1909-1919) and W.J. James & Co. (est.1927) in Prince Alberta until his retirement in the mid-1930s. James' professional career as an itinerant, commercial and portrait photographer spanned over forty years during which he travelled extensively in the Prince Albert district and northern parkland regions of Saskatchewan documenting settlement, local industry and everyday life.

W.J. James married Maude Rebecca Courtney, daughter of local rancher, Thomas W. and Matilda Courtney, on April 27, 1904 in Prince Albert. Maude Courtney was born in Bobcaygeon, Ontario on December 31, 1882 and came to the Prince Albert area with her family as a child.

W. J. and Maude James had four daughters: Mossie (b. 1904; died at 8 months); 'Eva' Eunice (b. 1906, married (1) Charles Musk; (2) William Bramwell McKenzie); Norma (b. 1908, married Nelson Thurson) and Murl (b. 1914, married W.B. Smith). Both Maude James and daughter Norma worked at the family studio, becoming proprietors of W.J. James & Co. following James' death in 1944. Norma James is listed in commercial directories as a photographer in the mid-1940s. W. J. James & Co. ceased operation in 1957.

William John James died on September 9, 1944 in Prince Albert. Maude James died in December 1956. Both are buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Prince Albert.

Shirley Collins, daughter of Eunice McKenzie and granddaughter of W.J. James currently (2007) resides in Saskatoon.

William John (W.J.) James was born on December 23, 1870 to William, Sr. and Maria James of the Fordwich area, Howick Township, Huron County, Ontario. His father was a blacksmith and carriage maker in Ontario, and first travelled west with the Wolseley Red River Expedition in 1870.

W.J. James came to Prince Albert, Northwest Territories ca.1890. His family followed around 1893. Both James and his father were employed by the James Sanderson sawmill as labourers. W.J. James became a barber while also establishing a photograph business briefly with W.J. Jackson in 1894. James continued in barbering while also working as an itinerant photographer in the 1890s. He hired Theodore Charmbury as a photographer in his studio between 1901 and 1903, and operated a branch studio at Indian Head in 1904-1906. James operated the City Art Studio (1909-1919) and W.J. James & Co. (est.1927) in Prince Albert until his retirement in the mid-1930s.

James' professional career as an itinerant, commercial and portrait photographer spanned over forty years during which he travelled extensively in the Prince Albert district and northern parkland regions of Saskatchewan documenting settlement, local industry and everyday life. William John James died on September 9, 1944 in Prince Albert and is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Prince Albert.

W.J. James married Maude Rebecca Courtney on April 27, 1904 in Prince Albert. They had four children: Mossie; "Eva" Eunice; Norma; and Murl.

Lawrence Francis (Larry) Easton was born on the family farm near Wawota, Saskatchewan, on August 24, 1938, to Francis Russell and Leah Isabel (Griffin) Easton. He received his early education at Wawota, graduating from Wawota High School in 1958. He later attended the School of Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan (1958-1960) and completed the Electronics Engineering Technologist course at Saskatchewan Technical Institute, Moose Jaw, in 1964. He was employed as an engineering manager with SaskTel in Regina until his retirement in 1997.

Dorothy May Bird was born at Wawota on May 3, 1941, to Francis Carlton and Mable Irene (Myers) Bird. She received her early education in Wawota and later attended Success Business College in Regina. She was employed by SaskTel, the Salvation Army, the federal government, and the provincial Department of Labour and Employment, Apprenticeship and Trade Certification. Dorothy Bird married Larry Easton on April 22, 1961 in Wawota. Together, they have two children: Mark and Michelle.

Since the 1970s, Larry Easton has been an active photographer. He has been a member of the Regina Photo Club for thirty years and in that time has held various positions on its executive. He is the only member of the Club to receive its Prestige Award for photographic achievement. Easton is also a member of the Prairie Region of Photographic Arts, and is a director for the prairies on the Canadian Association for Photographic Art. He has received numerous competition awards and recognitions for his photographic works. As well, his works have appeared in Prairies North and West World magazines, in projects for Saskatchewan Tourism and the Regina Chamber of Commerce, and in educational books.

Larry and Dorothy Easton collaborated to provide the photographic works for the 2008 publication, Legacy of Stone: Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings, written by Margaret Hryniuk and Frank Korvemaker. The publication received the Saskatchewan Book of the Year award from the Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2009.

Larry and Dorothy Easton currently (2011) reside in Regina.

Ralph Prescott Stueck was born on October 12, 1893 in Abernethy, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan) to Conrad and Harriett Stueck. He completed his primary and secondary education in the Abernethy district and in 1915 became a member of the first graduating class of the University of Saskatchewan's degree class in Agriculture. Stueck farmed in the Macrorie district for several years before purchasing a farm in the Abernethy district, where he resided until his retirement in 1947.

Interested in nature and conservation, Stueck raised, traded and sold Canada Geese on his Abernethy district farm. After moving into Abernethy in 1947, he deepened a slough which became a bird sanctuary called "Sleepy Hollow". Stueck introduced Canada Geese to Waterfowl Park in Regina and captured various animals, including prairie dogs, buffalo, sandhill cranes and pelicans, for zoos and exhibitions. He practiced taxidermy and built up an extensive collection of birds, animals and artifacts in his home. He travelled extensively, speaking in schools and community halls and showing films of animals in their natural habitat. Stueck served as president of the Saskatchewan Natural History Society (1953-1954) and wrote for the Society's publication "Blue Jay". Stueck died on October 10, 1979.

An avid wildlife photographer, Stueck became interested in motion picture cinematography around 1950 after he borrowed a camera to film a whopping crane. His amateur footage of wildlife was used for research purposes by the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, shown in schools and televised by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Stueck won several awards at the Yorkton International Film Festival in the early 1950s.

Stueck was the recipient of numerous awards and honours for his contributions to nature conservation. He received awards from the Saskatchewan Natural History Society (1953) and the Canadian Tourist Association (1961). The Saskatchewan Government named Stueck Island in Lac La Ronge in his honor in 1964 and in 1977 the Museum of Natural History made a film depicting his life. In 1990, Stueck's collection of specimens and artifacts was moved to the Nature- Heritage Museum in Abernethy, where they currently (2011) continue to be one of the museum's major attractions.

Stueck married Jean Hammond in 1920. They had two children: Hugh and Joy. After Jean's death in 1965, Stueck married Mary Erner.

Wilfred Lawson West was born in Bourneville, England in 1896 to Samuel and Emma West. He was employed as a young apprentice photographer before immigrating to Canada. He arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1907 and was employed as a cattle herder before apprenticing with the Johnson Brothers photographic studio in 1912. West joined the Canadian Army in 1914 and worked on various war bond campaigns. He was given a medical discharge in 1918.

Upon his return to Regina, West was employed briefly as a boys' work secretary with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) before he purchased the Johnson Art Studio in 1918 and renamed the business in his name. His photographic works included portraits of prominent politicians to local families, as well as scenes capturing commercial, social, and cultural life in Regina. Aside from operating his business, West was involved in the community as a member of the King Hiram Lodge, the Wascana Kiwanis Club, and the Regina Little Theatre Society. He retired in 1955 and sold his business to his brother, Horace. After his retirement, West retired to Clarkson, Ontario. He died there on June 16, 1970.

Horace Gordon "Westy" West was born on October 31, 1911 in Regina, Saskatchewan to Samuel and Emma West. He received his early education at Albert School and Balfour Technical School. He joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1928, and served with the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. Intermittently throughout the 1920s and 1930s, he also worked as a photographer at his brother Wilfred's photographic studio.

After the War, West relocated briefly to Flin Flon, Manitoba where he operated a photographic studio. Upon his return to Regina, he was employed by the Saskatchewan Department of Social Services. Additionally, he worked with Wilfred, and in March 1955, assumed ownership of the photographic studio upon Wilfred's retirement. His photographic works included portraits of prominent politicians to local families, as well as scenes capturing commercial, social, and cultural life in Regina. West operated West's Studio until his retirement in 1981, when his son Mick assumed responsibility.

Aside from his business, West was involved in the community as a member of Emmulation Lodge, the Wascana Kiwanis Club, the Naval Officers of Canada, the Royal United Services Institute, the Navy League of Canada, and the Saskatchewan Professional Photographers Association.

H.G. "Westy" West died in Regina on November 23, 1995.

Edgar Charlotte Rossie was born on September 6, 1875 in London, Ontario to William C. and Lucy Jane (Westlake) Rossie. He received his early education in London and at Pickering College in Oshawa. As a youth, Rossie was employed at the photographic studio of his uncle, Frank Westlake, and was apprenticing under Westlake by 1895. In 1899, Rossie located to Winnipeg, Manitoba and established himself locally as a prominent photographer. He was commissioned by the Royal North-West Mounted Police for a photographic project in Regina, North-West Territories in 1904. Soon after completing his work, he chose to relocate to Regina and by late 1904 had established a photographic studio in the city.

Rossie's photographic works ranged from portraiture of local families to scenes documenting the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Regina, especially in its years of rapid growth during the first two decades of the twentieth century. His portraiture of politicians, First Nations leaders and royalty gained him critical acclaim and recognition throughout North America and western Europe. Rossie's works were exhibited in galleries in the United States, France, and England throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Additionally, he was a local pioneer in the use of panoramic photography in the 1910s and 1920s, and is reported to have been the first person to create moving picture films in Saskatchewan.

In addition to his photographic studio, Rossie owned a photo finishing and supply company. Rex Photo Supply Co. Ltd. was incorporated in 1930 and continued operation until 1943.

Rossie was active in the community as a member of the N.W.M.P. Lodge No. 11, A.F. & A.M., the Wascana Preceptory Knights Templar, the Wa Wa Temple and local baseball and hockey organizations. He was also instrumental in the development of the resort community of Regina Beach in the 1910s.

Edgar Rossie died in Regina on March 13, 1942. He was buried near Regina Beach.

Robert Leslie Barrow was born at Swan River, Manitoba to Tom and Elsie (Hogg) Barrow on January 20, 1951. He received his early education at Swan River and completed a photographic technician certificate program at Red River Community College in 1975.

Barrow was employed as a photographic technician with the Government of Manitoba's Information Services Photo Lab (1975-1976), as a photographer with the University of Winnipeg's Western Canada Pictorial Index project (1977-1979), and as a photographer with the Manitoba Museum's (formerly known as the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature) audio/video department (1980-2003). Since 2003, Barrow has been self-employed as a freelance photographer. Included among Barrow's photographic exhibitions and creative projects is A Doukhobor Camera which was presented at the Manitoba Museum in 1994.

Barrow continues (2016) to reside in Winnipeg.