In the spring of 1909, Hoy arrived in the gold mining town of Barkerville, and there he picked up a camera for the very first time. It is not known how he got this camera, how he learned to operate it, or where his portrait studio might have been: one day he was an underemployed gold miner and the next he was a photographer. He later settled in Quesnel, a nearby town, and he became a well-respected community member, a father of twelve, and, for many, the man you visited to get your photograph taken.