Diane Schuller, Your All Occasion Custom Photographer

As mentioned in a previous post, I’m beginning to offer a glimpse into “my neck of the woods”. Most of you know I don’t live in a city or even in a town, but on a farm in NW Alberta. The closest town (of approximately 400 — which I frankly believe is a drastically inflated population number by the town) is about 20 km and the closest city of Grande Prairie (population approximately 52,000)  is a one hour drive, one way, from our place. The nearest real city (Edmonton) is a six hour drive, one way. So photos you see will consist of the surrounding countryside & farms, the small town where I get my mail, and trips in between. Be prepared to be surprised at some of what you see, because I plan on showing it as it is, including the beautiful, the plain, the everyday, and the ugly. Posts in this project series will not be posted consecutively, but randomly here and there.

Today I’m beginning by leaving our place and showing you one of my three office assistants, Pearl.

And this is a photo of the back of the tire shop in Hythe, with one of the many feral cats watching me very closely before slinking away to safety. The owner of the tire store leaves food out for the feral cats but they do have a tough life, despite his kind efforts.

You’ll see more photos of the tire store in the nearby town in future “my neck of the woods” series. The tire store appears to have a fairly thriving business going for them. As with most places in small towns, the people are very friendly.

Last night I had to make a trip to the Hythe Library and on the way home, I stopped at a nearby dugout with the hopes of taking some reflection photos. Although I always have a camera with me, I had the wrong one for what I wanted to do. My old camera is not great for low light situations so I didn’t get my reflection photos but I got much more in personal satisfaction. The only sounds were of the wind aerator quietly clunking in the distance, and gentle little plops from the fish surfacing. I could really smell the fish too so there must be quite a few of them in that dugout. I also ended up being entertainment, of sorts, for the resident muskrat. S/he swam towards me then veered off. I remained totally still and it swam back my way a little closer to try and get a good look at my ghostly figure standing on the edge of the water. The air was warm and it felt so good standing there in the silence so I stayed a while. As I climbed back up to the road, I saw an opportunity for a couple photos. Here’s one of them.

If you’re not from here and are thinking you may like to plan a trip to Alberta, I’d recommend Frommer’s Alberta (Frommer’s Complete) and if you’re a real hiker, my favourite place is Waterton so I’d recommend this book with great details on the best hiking there, Hiking Glacier and Waterton Lakes National Parks, 3rd: A Guide to More Than 60 of the Area’s Greatest Hiking Adventures (Regional Hiking Series).

If a good novel is more your cup of tea, I’d recommend the most recent novel by my friend and Hythe’s librarian, Karen Bass. Pick up Summer of Fire to read yourself or as a gift for your favourite teen. See! there is a lot of great talent up in our neck of the woods!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my first installment on the My Neck of the Woods project. There’s more to come.

I am proud to have been included as one of the collaborators for this new and exciting venture, Vision and Verb. Vision and Verb is a collaboration of women of a certain age that launches Monday, January 18th, 2010. I invite you to check it out, bookmark it, and share it with friends. I’ll keep you posted so you know what dates to check out my submissions but you will not want to miss each collaborator’s inspirational writing and images.

I’m so excited! I’m rushing about and wasn’t going to post again until returning from my weekend trip, but I can’t help myself. Yesterday I booked a photo shoot that I am REALLY looking forward to and it’s a surprise to boot! How great is that? I’m going to be shooting a fellow and his pride-and-joy vintage cars. My mind is pumping like a piston thinking about all the interesting possibilities! I can hardly wait. I can’t say much more — even though the fellow doesn’t know about my photo journal, I just wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise. Someone very special has set this up … you’ll be sure to see a sneak peek after the session. I find every creative session to be fun but this is one that won’t come along everyday. I’d better scoot — I have to pack for my trip. Have a grand weekend everyone!

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Diane is an on-location lifestyle photographer serving Grande Prairie and the entire Peace River region of Alberta and B.C. Visit Diane Schuller Photography.

Kelly from Design Ties and I had an email discussion about a week ago in which I wrote that I’m a bit tired of flower photos. I love flowers and I’ve taken hundreds-upon-hundreds of photos of them. But right now, I’m just not at all inspired by flowers. In fact, my tulips are blooming this week and the lilacs have opened up in the past few days, and in a week or two the peonies will begin to open up. I adore those flowers but am not even tempted to take a single photo of them (the tulip and dandelion photos in yesterday’s post were taken last year at this time).

I’m definitely taking photos, whether it’s people, friends, food, or subjects that some would find far too ordinary. I guess I’m needing that diversity right now — the challenge of turning ordinary into something more than ordinary — or something like that.

Today I’m busy finishing up the post processing of the shoot I did on Sunday and then I have to drive to Grande Prairie: I’m one of the presenters for the Iskoteo Arts Festival. I’ll be taking my camera and hope to get some wonderfully ordinary shots!