Diane Jarvis-Schuller

Weddings are fun to photograph and I know how excited the brides & grooms are for each wedding to see their photos afterward. I’ve been very neglectful in getting images up this year. Here are just a few from a colourful September wedding photographed in Jubilee Park in Grande Prairie here in Alberta. This couple and their delightful wedding party were not only handsome & beautiful but a pleasure to spend the day photographing. The guys even climbed a tree for some photos — their idea!

This one above could easily be titled, “Chillin’” — that’s what ring bearers do, isn’t it?

Did I not tell you how pretty these ladies all are!

Really cool guys.

Handsome couple.

As I mentioned, there was fun during this photo shoot as well. The entire party climbed on a narrow ledge, the guys climbed a tree, the ladies ran across a busy road then marched right up to Tim Horton’s, caught a photo of the bride ‘running away’, the entire wedding party were great sports in tossing leaves, and so much more. Lots and lots of images for this couple to remember their special day.

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Photographs Never Forget! Keeping memories alive with custom portraits & albums.

No words today; simply images of the autumn of 2010. All images were taken while the trees still held on to their delicate leaves. The snow is here now and winter is nigh.

From Forever and Ever, Amen by George Miksch Sutton in Audobon: “… By the wind I shall be scattered — up and down the land,”

Happy Thanksgiving to all you wonderful friends, clients, and cyber visitors! I’m heading to Edmonton for this Thanksgiving long weekend. My husband and I celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend and this coming real Thanksgiving I’ll be with my son and his lovely family. (They phoned me tonight and sang for me! Are they not the most special people in the world?)

Aspen (poplar) trees during an Alberta autumn

I’m way behind on posts and will be doing my best to catch up when I return. I have some wedding previews, in particular, I should get up next week. I’ve also been so pleased that some of you have sent me your photos showing how you display or save your printed photographs! Thank you so much! Keep ‘em coming for those of you who haven’t sent a photo in to show me how you display or save your printed photos (even if they’re held up by clothespins or nicely stored in an album or photo box) — I’m also going to make a post of those next week. I had promised to post some photos of that beautiful old barn and they are still to come — I have not forgotten.

English Springer Spaniel — a different perspective

Anyway, I had a super day today and by mid day tomorrow I’ll be hitting the highway to drive to Edmonton. May you and yours enjoy a special weekend of celebration and appreciation. I look forward to sharing more with you next week. In the meantime I hope you enjoy a few photos I took while there were still leaves on the trees — they’re all on the ground now making a carpet for winter.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

early morning: Birch leaves in silhouette

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” ~Thornton Wilder

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Photographs Never Forget!

… with a nod to James Herriot’s book of a similar title. This weekend we spent a great deal of time outdoors, cutting down perennials, walking the dogs, and a few photo lessons for my husband. He’s heading out in a couple weeks for his vacation and wanted me to teach him how to use our old digital camera. The old one is the one we use for ‘knocking around’ and it’s the one that gets carried around in the car all the time. Besides it’s a LOT lighter than my regular camera. Anyway, I got off track. I took a few photos this weekend, just for the fun of it (are you noticing a trend lately?). There is no better light than at this time of year. THE . BEST . LIGHT.

The reason for the title is because when I was picking 3 photos to post for the end-of-the-weekend, besides the light, the other connection is that the subjects are all small, I’m down low, and yet the subjects are really quite great, are they not? Okay, so maybe I’m stretching connections, but here they are anyway. Enjoy.

When I downloaded the last photo below, the first thing it reminded me of was Velvia film. Do you remember that old Velvia film? It always resulted in real strong vivid colours, especially the yellows and blues. And, if I’m remembering correctly, the reds were pretty saturated with Velvia film too. One thing I did to this image, as you can see, is add some vignetting. There was some natural vignetting already but I specifically emphasized it a bit because it really added to that old Velvia look.

Some of you may recognize the gal in this next photo. She’s our 11 1/2 year old English Springer Spaniel, Maggie. I love when one or both of her floppy ears is flipped back like this one.  You’ll likely also notice her right eye — to your left — looks a bit off or different from her normal eye — the one on your right. She has a small tumour that is causing her eye to be infected and she’ll soon have to have surgery for the tumour to be removed. We’ve been holding off having it done for a number of reasons. She has a non-malignant form of cancer but she’s been having some sporadic health issues that cause her to become very ill for a day or two at a time and then she gets completely well again. We were so afraid of her having surgery in case it causes everything to become worse, but that eye is really getting worse. So this weekend we both made the decision our old gal is going to get the surgery.

I bet she can outrun and out-hunt any of your dogs The vet is always amazed at what fantastic condition Maggie is in. The one vet said she has never seen a Springer Spaniel that isn’t obese, except my dog.

Oh and I nearly forgot, we also had our Thanksgiving dinner today, a week early. Since I will be in Edmonton next weekend for Thanksgiving, I decided to do turkey and all the trimmings — including pumpkin pie — today. I really don’t know any good reason why most of us only cook turkey on holidays. I’m going to try and ‘fix’ that and make it more often.

I haven’t forgotten — because I got way behind this summer with posting previews from some of my photo shoots, I am definitely going to post a few photos from that last wedding. I’ll try and get a few up later this week. I hope you are getting out and photographing your family in this amazing autumn light — and don’t forget to get them printed!

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Photographs Never Forget!

Don’t forget my upcoming workshop in Grande Prairie, “How to Take Better Photos of Your Children.”

In recent weeks I have finally been able to resume work on a part time basis. This has allowed me time; time I’ve spent getting out and experimenting with my camera. Any time I have the freedom not to worry about technical details and simply get out and take photographs for the fun of it, the results are always like a treasure chest.

Like any treasure chest, what I’ve found in that treasure chest excites me and adds to my list of photographic treasures. I’m thinking I should create a simple slideshow to insert here in my photo journal simply to show the results of my recent photographic experiments and free time expressions. A few years ago, I did some of these and a few turned out, but the other day I tried two different versions of what you see below. I love the results and ended up keeping most of them; only a few hit the trash bin.

With this one, although I love the red from the Amur Maple, it’s the imperfections emphasized that I find of interest. It’s an explosion of fall colours coming right at you!

Those of you who know me well, are likely cocking your head and wondering about these since you know my stance on fake blur. Well this isn’t fake blur (blur created in Photoshop rather than in camera). I love a photograph in which the photographer has adeptly created a lovely soft blur (called shallow depth of field) behind the sharply focused main subject. The blur you’re seeing here is created in camera and definitely not in Photoshop. That’s why I find these so exciting. Any creativity that is done in camera, to me, is like opening a box of treasures. Although I must have about two dozen keepers from my recent experiments, here is my favourite. I love this one so much, I am so tempted to blow it up really large or maybe even on canvas — something with texture.

Although I took these on two separate days in the past week, I am still overjoyed with the opportunity to rev up my creative juices. What about you? What have you done recently that revved up your creativity?

PS: I will create a slideshow to show all my ‘keepers’ and will post it here by tomorrow morning. I have a wedding rehearsal to attend later today otherwise I’d do it now.

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Photographs Never Forget! Keeping memories alive with custom albums and portraits.

{We live in the Peace Wapiti region of Alberta, for those who aren’t sure about the reference to the Peace.} I couldn’t resist padding outside this morning to take a few photos of the lovely frost.

I’m not sure where the spiders are, but their home got quite frosty overnight.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

What beauty is in your back yard today?

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Photographs Never Forget! Keeping memories alive with custom albums and portraits.

A few autumn leaves taken in my backyard a couple days ago.

“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.” ~Elizabeth Lawrence

I am loving autumn. The leaves turning their brilliant yellows, golds, auburn, and reds are truly nature’s kaleidoscope.
I love the earthy scent of autumn as the frost begins the slow decay into winter.
The geese honking as their “V” formations float overhead each day.
The light, the low rich light of autumn is the best.

What are you enjoying most about autumn?

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Photographs Never Forget! Keeping memories alive with custom albums and portraits.

Do you live in the Peace Wapiti region, in or around Grande Prairie? … If you or someone you know would like some beautiful portraits taken in the golden light, get in touch right away. As the song lyrics, “autumn leaves will fall,” soon the leaves will be gone.

What a glorious day. We have wet snow forecast for tomorrow yet today was a lovely sunny day and the countryside was aglow with all the coloured leaves, the rich autumn sky, and lots more too.

On my way home from Grande Prairie today, I took time to take a few photos — actually I took a huge whack of photos. I have so many that I wish I could share all of them with you. I’m going to have to create a couple different posts featuring some of the different subjects. For now, here’s a trio (though I took oodles) of some snow geese on their fall migration here in my neck of the woods. Enjoy!

This first photo shows a variety of waterfowl including some ducks and geese.

You wouldn’t believe the cacophony as they all took flight. You would be correct if you notice there are both Snow Geese and Canada Geese here.

The colours were brilliant today. Lots and lots of bright yellow, but also some oranges and a few hits of red here and there. Autumn is such a comforting time of year.

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Photographs Never Forget! Keeping memories alive with custom albums and portraits.

Diane is a photographer in the Grande Prairie area. She creates portraits for you and for her pleasure as well.

It’s been busy for me lately though I felt I really should post something. The photography season for me is beginning to wind down since I do most of my work outdoors. I definitely do photo shoots indoors but, without a studio, winter tends to be a slower season for me. I’m busy creating some client-requested storyboards and collages, preparing some orders for submission to the printer, and doing the final edits on my latest photo shoot.

You’ll see that I’ve posted a beautiful image of a translucent Amur Maple leaf. This one was taken last autumn because this year, no sooner did the leaves begin to really colour up then the deep freeze came along with temperatures well below zero. Any leaves that didn’t turn colour are now solidly frozen and will fall on the first day the mercury rises above zero and a bit of wind races through this northern prairie.

Though I love autumn so much, it’s also a time when certain life expires. On my recent trip to Edmonton, as I always do, I visited the cemetery where my mother is laid to rest. It was cold and lonely. Several years ago at this same time of year, my husband and I were coping with the imminent death of our dog Jasper to cancer. He had been diagnosed in October and died a few days before Christmas. Now our Springer Spaniel Maggie is in the same stages. The other two dogs really diagnosed her before we knew: they had been intently sniffing at her and lately, their intent on her has escalated. Dogs, unlike humans, don’t feel sorry for themselves. Even when Jasper was dying of cancer, the day before he had still been out wanting his daily runs and barking at the squirrels. Maggie is the same. She looks forward to her 2 or 3 runs each day, still tries to hunt, but when she comes in she rests quietly. She’s seeking our attention which is unusual for her so she senses things are not right within. The cancer is spreading rapidly. We’re making her days as normal and comfortable as possible, avoiding negative energy. But when she begins to suffer, it will be time for us to do the right thing and allow her quietly to make her way to canine winter.

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.” ~Gilda Radner

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Diane is a lifestyle on-location photographer serving central and northern Alberta / BC. Visit Diane Schuller Photography to view her portfolio and for further information.

“Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.”  ~Author Unknown

Such a beautiful family in such a beautiful setting.



I hope you enjoy this sneak peek. I’ll let you know when your private viewing gallery of proofs is ready. Thank you again for such a fantastic weekend!

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” ~Desmond Tutu
“Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.” ~Gail Lumet Buckley

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Albertans: As I do with everyone, If this post receives 15 or more comments, from different people, this beautiful young family will receive a free 8×10. To make it easy you can use the [email a friend] link to share this post with friends and family.

Diane is a natural light, on-location lifestyle photographer serving central and northern Alberta including Edmonton & area. Visit Diane Schuller Photography to view her portfolio.