Welcome to Lardeau Valley Time. Through this blog, I hope to take you on various adventures through the Lardeau Valley in the West Kootenays, British Columbia. This is a special valley, hidden off the beaten track in the south east corner of BC – filled with beautiful scenery, wildlife and history. Using my camera and love of the area, I hope to entice you to come and see it with your own camera and eye. And then you will experience  Lardeau Valley Time. It’s a slower, calmer, restful time that will draw you into the area and make you want to stay a very long time.

I haven’t always been a photographer. For 30 years, I was a marketing professional in Calgary. I also spent some time teaching marketing at the University of Calgary in the management faculty. I was mainly in the communications industry, focussed on business development, advertising and Internet development. I was ‘there’ when the Internet was still in the stage of ‘what will it do for us?’ And was lucky enough to take part in some of the debates about the social implications of this new medium.  Blogging was something no one could see coming.

All through that time I was concerned with how to communicate effectively with people. Always large groups of people. The goal was to ensure that they all received and understood the message the same way.

Then I took up photography…..

Photography blew my mind! Taking a photograph consciously or subconsciously involves having a message in mind. I see something I want to capture with my camera that will tell a story I see. But the amazing thing is that each person I show it to has an slightly different perspective to that story. I am fascinated with how my photographs start a ‘conversation’ with my viewers. I enjoy seeing what they see, remember or enjoy through my photographs.

This discovery was the start of my journey in the Lardeau Valley and led to my blog.

As a photographer of over 25 years, I have never been bored photographing my world.  There is always a new shot, a better shot, a special moment to capture. And most of them have been shot here in the Lardeau Valley – within 100 km of my front door. I never leave home without my camera and there are so many times I have been thankful for that planning! It is amazing what contortions I can go through to get to my camera FAST. Of course, this is always after I stop my truck – well, nearly always. Luck is a big part of my photography as you will see as we explore the Valley. Luck in finding subjects and yes some luck getting the shots.

I should let you know that I am a semi professional photographer, retired from the hectic business life of Calgary, Alberta. I’m living my retirement dream in this photographers’ paradise. I love writing and photography so decided this is a way to do both and share my world. While I do show my photographs in galleries in the area, I am sometimes frustrated that my photos are shown without a complete context. The viewer doesn’t know when I took the photo, why I took that one and what was happening when I took it. So perhaps a blog will give the the opportunity to complete the picture. Let’s see!

I now publish photography books and will occasionally feature them here.

Also, I have a fine art site where some of my photographs are available for sale:

http://www.catherine-aitken.artistwebsites.com/

If you see a photograph here that you would like to purchase, visit my art site. If it’s not there, send me an email.