“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” ~Author Unknown

I am so excited to announce some changes to my photography business that are now in effect.

COMMERCIAL:  As some of you are aware, I have been doing some commercial and editorial photography (for magazines, newspapers, and businesses) and I have made the decision to focus much more on this commercial aspect of my business. That means I will be giving priority to and pursuing more of the commercial photography opportunities both locally and nationally. If you, or someone you know, is seeking photography for your business I hope you will keep me in mind and refer me to friends or their businesses. Coverage of corporate or family events will fall into this category and I look forward to continuing to photograph events of all kinds. Special commercial rates apply.

FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY: Another aspect of my photography that I will be pursuing is fine art photography. One of my canine photos appeared in a fund raising book for cancer in 2010 plus I had two gallery showings of my photographic art with plans to sell my art as home & office decor (prints, canvas, and matted or framed options). Changes will soon be made to my website to reflect this additional focus and I will be seeking out additional opportunities for gallery showings in 2011 and beyond. To that end, if you know of any business that may be interested in hosting a showing of my photographic art (one month or beyond), please let me know and share my website with the decision maker for the business (there is ‘something in it for them’ when they host my photographic art).  As I recently announced on my photo journal (blog), in December my equine photographic art was featured by an Ottawa designer and will be featured again later this month on her design blog (details coming up on my photo journal/blog). Also, to help provide exposure and offer feature artwork, I’m proud to announce I have opened up an Etsy shop. At the moment the ‘shop’ has less than a handful of items so next month once there is a better selection of stock on the ‘shelves’, I’ll provide a link plus another link where you will find some of my other available photographic art.

EQUINE & PET PHOTOGRAPHY: The third important change to my business will be a re-focus to the subjects that got me started in photography to begin with and that is equine and pet photography. Commencing 2011 my portrait photography will re-focus to a specialty in photographing horses, dogs, and pets — as well as the connection with their people. Some of these will fall into the commercial category for breeders or ranch owners needing professional photographs for advertising and promotional needs; others will simply be those who love their pets and want beautiful photos of them.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN REGARDING ALL OTHER LIFESTYLE PHOTO SESSIONS?:

Although I am shifting my business focus in the areas noted above, I will continue to take on lifestyle sessions for individuals, couples, and families where booking dates are available.

I am very excited about the growth of my business and successes for the future. I hope you share in the excitement with me and will let others know about my business.

It was great having the month of December off and I’ve already hit the road running in January! What a busy year it was in 2010 for my photography business. Many new and creative progressions are coming for 2011. Thank you to all of you who have supported me and believe in me! I am very grateful to each of you.

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” ~ Diane Arbus

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Diane is available for a wide variety of commercial and editorial photography assignments. Diane also serves the entire Grande Prairie and peace regions of northern Alberta as an equine, pet, and dog photographer though she is always available anywhere in Alberta, BC, and beyond.

This next image is taken on Highway 43, about 10 km north of the village of Hythe. This is the highway that continues on up to Alaska (behind me). We used to live at mile 0 of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC.  The land both on the left and the right used to belong to our nephew but he sold both quarters a few years ago. The new owners of the property on the left built a house, which you can see up against the trees — it’s for sale if you’d like to live so close to the highway. There is a gravel road behind that line of trees and if you follow that road to the end, you come to our place.

The final image in this trio was taken from the exact same spot as the one above, except I turned 90 degrees. The field used to belong to our nephew. This is a photo of our neighbour who farms a great deal of the land in this area. I took several of these with the combine in different locations but chose to use this one where the combine is down in the gully.

Next post: something in black and white!

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

Only a few fall sessions left — contact me to book yours today.

A gift certificate for a private photo session makes an excellent and unique gift! Do you know someone with a milestone, birthday, or other special occasion coming up? Gift certificates are also ideal as corporate gifts and are much more meaningful and creative than a bouquet of flowers or fruit basket.

See a print on this photo journal that you would love to see on your home or office wall – or as a gift? Get in touch; many of the landscape and still life images are for sale in a variety of sizes.

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

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).

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.

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?

What is your morning ritual?

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).

Hansa shrub in my backyard before last week's storm -- now it's barely visible

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!

getting plowed out -- but earlier in the winter before the heavy snowfalls!

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.