Diane Schuller, Your All Occasion Custom Photographer

“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography” ~ Frederico Fellini

Yesterday, on my way home, I followed signs to a farm auction. I have always really enjoyed going to auctions and I find that farm auctions have a real zest and life all their own. The farm auction wasn’t far out of my way and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The moment I got out of my vehicle, parked in the ditch along the highway just like all the other attendees, I could hear the auctioneer singing out bids through his loudspeaker, echoing across the fields. Auctioneers have a real talent in using their voices.

Woven through the auctioneers calls was the pungent smell of hotdogs and hamburgers sizzling on the grills. Farmers were everywhere. Many crowded around the small items set up on pallets being sold lickety split, others were checking out the large machinery, cattle pens, and flatdecks lined up with tools of all sorts. Despite a bit of cool wind, it was sunny and I could have hunkered down for a couple hours taking in all the goings-on. Instead, I poked around, took a few photos, and wandered back down the highway to my vehicle. The moment I arrived home, I downloaded the photos and sent some off to my editor. Rather pleased with myself … she bought one to appear in today’s newspaper.

Not bad for taking in a fun event.

Pork roast and butternut squash

I’m busy “waiting to put it in the oven” so I can get that pet contest posted but I’ve encountered a glitch. There are several photographers talking about a ‘new rule’ at Facebook regarding not doing promotions, contests, and such. Apparently they say people can have their account removed from Facebook for doing such things because these activities are allegedly against the rules / terms of service. Since I don’t want my business page deleted and because I don’t want to disappoint anyone who enters the contest, I decided to delay posting the launch of the contest until I can get more information. So our contest is still “waiting to be put in the oven.” I was up very late last night reading the terms of service at Facebook and found nothing at all about that. I also Googled and, other than finding some blog posts, could not find anything definitive. I see people conducting contests left, right, and center on Facebook but I do want to follow the rules if they are there.

Anyway, out of an abundance of caution, I am rethinking how on earth I can do this contest without creating hours of work keeping track of things. If any of you wonderful readers has some definitive information regarding these new Facebook rules, or has an uncomplicated way of conducting a pet contest through my blog, I’m open to hearing any and all suggestions. I’d really like to get this contest “in the oven”. I have one idea for conducting the entire contest here on the blog so if we don’t come up with solutions for using Facebook then I’m prepared to get started by running it here (trouble is I won’t be able to ’show’ all the images that come in until the finalists are selected).

meandering …

I will be out of town and without any Internet communication until I return home February 14th. If you have an urgent message I will respond on the 14th, otherwise I will begin responding to messages commencing Monday, February 15th. Feel free to browse around here at my photo journal or visit my Website. You might also want to join my Facebook photography page if you’re interested in being the first to learn about promotions, specials, casting calls for models, and more.

Watch for my return the week of February 15th — I’m sure to bring back many visual goodies!

This work by Diane Schuller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.dianeschuller.com/. Please contact Diane for permission — thank you.

For well over a decade now, we use nothing but pure all natural soap. No dyes, no drying chemicals, no phosphates, no perfumes; just pure soap made from ingredients found in Mother Nature. We used to order from a fantastic place out of Ontario, Lake of the Woods Sunrise Soap Company. The only reason we switched from their outstanding product was because we wanted to try and find a supplier closer to home. So now we order from Cascadia Soaps.

At Cascadia Soaps they raise their own goats and make an amazingly smooth and rich soap from the milk of their Nubian Goats. We discovered them about 10 years ago on a trip to Vancouver when we saw their lush display at the Granville Island Public Market. We purchased several bars to take home and try and have been with them ever since. Although you can buy all their natural soaps in bars, we purchase ours in bulk, then cut it ourselves when it arrives. There’s a bit of savings that way but what I really like is to be able to cut the bars nice and thick. These photos show the most recent order that arrived: two logs of lavender goats milk soap and one log of unscented goats milk soap. I love the wholesome earthiness of these soaps but the huge benefits are how gentle they are on my extremely dry & sensitive skin. The other big benefit is that it is so earth friendly to boot! Can’t beat that.

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Diane is a freelance photographer serving Grande Prairie and the Peace River region from her rural residence near Hythe, Alberta. She is available for commercial, environmental, editorial, and portrait assignments. Contact her (above) or visit her website to view her portfolio.

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All photos on this site are Copyright © Diane Schuller, All Rights Reserved. It is illegal to copy, download, take screenshots, or otherwise use these photos without the express written permission of the photographer. Thank you for your respect.

“There are three forms of visual art: Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through.” ~ Dan Rice

I’m enjoying going through my archive of photos. When I visit different places, it’s both the people and the architecture that strike me as the most interesting. I normally avoid the tourist traps and especially those annoying, ubiquitous souvenir shops. Whether it’s people or architecture, I appreciate the complex and carefully designed structure of things. I’d rather bring home photographs of the people and places I visit, or hand made products artisans there have created; those are souvenirs with worth. What do you appreciate most when you visit places away from home?

Every morning I make a fresh cup of cappuccino for my  husband and myself. It’s a ritual we’ve been enjoying for at least 15 years. Each morning we sit with our cappuccino and chat for up to an hour before he heads off to work. Then I make my way to my  home office and our work day begins. When I’m out of town as I had been last weekend and will be again this coming weekend, I seek out a suitable purveyor of quality coffee. Recently and coincidentally, in the same building as our Edmonton condo, an amazing business has opened up. Credo is where we find a perfect cappuccino when in Edmonton. I used to head to a nearby Starbucks but, forgive me Starbucks, I’ve found an even better morning coffee. The place was featured on the evening news because of its already-faithful following and because of their practice of buying only quality fair trade beans. Not to mention those great leaf designs on every cup of coffee, whether it’s a cup of cappuccino or a bowl of latte. Art in a cup.

What is your morning ritual?

Flirt’s “Fantasy Island”: with light lemon icing & smothered in coconut

I promised more cupcakes from Flirt plus I thought I’d also share a few thoughts on spring north of 55.

In the blog world and on Flickr photos, everyone has been posting scads of photos indicative of their individual signs of spring — and for quite a while. They include bare streets!! (I wish), grass, budding leaves (what!), and flowers (you have got to be kidding, right!). As you can tell from my comments (hoping my humour is coming through!), we aren’t anywhere close to any of those so I thought it was high time I share the reality of living north of 55. You see, even though we had plenty of snow on the ground already, a huge blizzard raged in last week that added to the snowfall but it was the winds that caused drifts as high as 5 and 6 feet — that is NO April Fool’s joke.

We still have a few feet of snow on the ground, not a single tree is anywhere close to opening buds, let alone the perennials that are still buried beneath the snow and frozen in the solid earth. Yes, the first crows returned a few days ago and the Canada Geese are apt to arrive in the next week or two. But nesting — not a chance for quite some time yet. We’re beginning to get forecasts of days that will be above zero (single digits) but that doesn’t mean warm overnight temperatures. In fact, it’s uncommon to plant our gardens prior to the third week in May. Even at that we still get overnight frosts and need to protect our young seedlings or tender bedding plants after planting in May. There are a few exceptions to this but that’s primarily people who live in the city. It’s always warmer in the city because of the heat from the buildings and paved streets, not to mention that they don’t get the same effects from the blowing snow in winter (so snow melts sooner in the cities and towns).

[caption id="attachment_1121" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hansa shrub in my backyard before last week's storm -- now it's barely visible"][/caption]

Thanks to our neighbour, we no longer have to trudge through the deep snow or don our snowshoes to take our dogs for a walk down our driveway (our driveway to the back is approximately the length of two city blocks). On Sunday he nearly got his huge 8-wheel tractor stuck when he attempted to go through some of the deeper drifts but what a relief to be able to go outside and actually walk upright like normal people. You have no idea what a relief that is rather than slogging through deep snow trying to make new tracks each day. Needless to say we are incredibly grateful when he comes by!

[caption id="attachment_1123" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="getting plowed out -- but earlier in the winter before the heavy snowfalls!"][/caption]

All that said, there truly is hope for spring! It appears we are right at an important turning point. Hopefully from now on, the days will be warm enough to melt the snow and eventually thaw the ground. Spring is in sight even if it’s not actually here! I soon hope to begin reporting on the true signs of spring up here, north of 55.