Diane Jarvis-Schuller

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.

After making a vegetarian meal tonight (no I’m not vegetarian; just love vegetables) of curried tofu and vegetables, I thought it might make a tasty post. So here are a few recent food photos to titillate your taste buds. Beginning with tonight’s meal of curried tofu & vegetables that I served on Basmati rice, topped with chopped cilantro and toasted almonds. Of course, it went down nicely with a cool glass of white wine.

The ironic thing about having a vegetarian meal this evening is that, as I was preparing it, the lady I buy my bison from, delivered our half bison. So I went outside and we filled the freezer with fresh bison. I prefer the bison to beef partly because it’s lower in fat, but more because we can buy it locally and the people who raise this particular bison do it sustainably. In other words, they don’t feed any synthetics, chemicals, hormones, and the bison are on pasture from the day they’re born until the day they go to slaughter. No mass produced, fat induced meat at all.

This next one is a photo I turned into a bit of art. I baked a pair of apple pies a weekend or two ago.

And this last one is simply some ‘fast food’ that was sitting on the ledge of my kitchen window. The light streaming in my kitchen window lured me into getting my camera to capture how the soft glow made them look so appealing — at least to me. Enjoy!

“It’s the company, not the cooking, that makes a meal.” ~ Kirby Larson, Hattie Big Sky, 2006

Oh do I ever agree with that quote. Nothing beats sitting down to a meal and having a great conversation!

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” ~ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 – 1826), The Physiology of Taste, 1825

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Diane is always available for commercial and editorial assignments. Contact her to discuss your photographic needs today.

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

Today’s installment will be a bit shorter but I have a trio of photos for you. The next set will likely be more images of the village where I get my mail. For today, I’m sticking quite close to home. This was taken day before yesterday. These are black poplars which grow like weeds up here. The other really common tree is the white aspen or white poplar, which I much prefer to these ones.

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.

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.

I recently had an excellent opportunity to take some photos of a class of senior high school students during their music class. I love taking photos of teens and sure would LOVE to do some individual senior photos of these (and other) teens. I posted a few at Facebook in the “photos” tab but wanted to share those plus a few more here. I really should do a promotion to obtain more photo shoots with teens, especially some individual senior photo shoots. As you can see, since we were in the classroom, the background is not ideal but I’m still pleased with the results. I hope you enjoy this small sampling from last week.

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done

Music is the poetry of the air. ~Richter

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If you are a teen and would like Diane to take photos of you, check out the information on my website and get in touch! I promise to make you look great! If you are a parent of a teen, or any child who plays a musical instrument, let’s capture this time in their life for your entire family to treasure forever.

Diane’s website ||  Diane’s Facebook fan page

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 am thrilled. I just learned that one of my photos is featured today at Shutter Sisters One Word Project. Their theme word for February is “nurture”. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thank you so much Shutter Sisters.

While I’m at it, I should let you know that while I was on my road trip there was another of my posts published over at Vision and Verb if  you care to see that one as well — it’s an abstract image paired with a haibun. As if this wasn’t excitement enough, I just received notification of something else really exciting regarding one of my canine photos. Please stay tuned; I’ll be able to announce the news by the beginning of March (keeping secrets, especially such great news, is so darn difficult to keep).

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.”  ~Jean Baptiste Massieu, translated from French

Photo information: The fish market at the end of Beacon Avenue in Sidney, BC. One of my favourite places to be.

Two weeks. So much happens, changes, and shifts in a two week period. I’m back home and at work but seem overwhelmed with the amount of catching up I have to embark upon. My trip was both business and personal but ended up being fully rejuvenating. Now that I’m back home, I surely do hope some of that rejuvenation carries forward as I plunge into emails and messages, not to mention upcoming writing deadlines. I’ll leave you with a few random images from my two-week road trip.

I likely should have included the following images first since they were taken while I was still in the cold north:

I came across two moose bedded down in an RV parking lot. One in each parking spot.

And now back to Sidney, BC where it is MUCH warmer and far more enjoyable in the winter (or anytime, really). This seagull was trotting along main street Sidney oblivious of traffic, which all yielded to him. He obviously had quite a catch that he was determined to keep from the other seagulls:

Of course there were some humorous moments:

And evening had its visual pleasures as well:

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.

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.

A potpourri today. With this first image I love the story it tells.

The next one simply shows how pigs are meant to be raised, not crowded in concrete pens where they can’t move or breathe fresh air, or do what pigs are meant to do.

This family walks the walk. They are a great example that it is fully possible to raise cattle in a sustainable way. This was an excellent assignment.

I sure miss waking to the sound of a rooster crowing …

A few images from some of my freelance editorial assignments. Enjoy.

PS: I often forget to remind readers but each week the newspaper that I write for also posts my environmental columns online after the paper goes out in print. Here is last week’s Everyday Earth Wise.

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Diane is a freelance photographer serving the Grande Prairie and Peace regions of Alberta and BC 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.