The image currently at the top of Blog is my friend Anna Rose on the banks of Howser Creek in the Purcell Mountains north of Kootenay Lake, British Columbia. (Copyright Doug Pyper)
This pristine glacial-fed creek is currently under threat from independent power producers . The plan currently under review by the BC government would divert the creek into a huge tunnel to a power generating station leaving the creek bed dry forever.
A similar plight faces of thousands of creeks and rivers across our province under the recent BC Energy Plan legislation. A frightening situation which puts the future of British Columbia and our beautiful natural resources at risk.
Find out more here: http://www.ourrivers.ca/
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Website Changes, Fresh Blog and New Directions
I’m now looking at renewed focus on publishing, and promise to deliver on a regular basis. Though not the reason to begin blogging again, returning to and spending the next three months in
I envision my ‘new’ blog as multi-faceted, focusing on stories and images from near and far. It is my goal to create engaging photojournalism, showcasing creative images and expressing my thoughts and opinions on all things including environmental issues, regional and international culture, people, politics and the art and craft of photography in general. Hope to make it all informative, enlightening and an enjoyable read. Not to mention (of course) sharing my images on a regular basis. I will be posting links to my website image galleries and multimedia productions on a regular basis.
I had a great summer, during which I began thinking about how things are changing in the photography world and for me personally as a photographer. Recent changes to my website pretty much sum up where I’m heading with in my profession and my personal life…which are virtually inseparable. What’s new and exciting and what I’m leaving behind in some respects is due to the changes resulting from the digital age on this profession ….some things just don’t work anymore. One example is marketing stock photography globally through agencies. However, marketing stock images to local and regional clients seems as good as ever, if not better. In other respects changes are just a result of artistic growth, which seems to be drawing me in some new and exciting directions.
I have removed marketing “wedding photography” from my website entirely. I will continue to take some bookings and I do enjoy it, but quite frankly I find it (the business) all a bit of a circus these days with the advent of the digital camera…something I prefer not be associated with anymore.
As always my commercial work will continue, but my past focus on editorial, cultural and multimedia has blossomed into a major passion recently. I am equally excited about increased world travel and associated assignments and projects.
In my travels to South America this winter I will be engaging (along with other work) in a few assignments for NGO’s including a shoot for Children International in
Hope you all had a chance to view my new image galleries from the past year on my website Portfolio page. Particularly special to me is the gallery “The Children of Ecuador” All galleries are viewable as slideshow. Check it out!
I have recently become a member of the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers….a very inspiring organization of humanitarian and cultural photographers. I have been a member of the Editorial Photographers of Canada for years. Both are now linked on my homepage.
Please visit my website to see the somewhat new look (changes) and check out images in my Portfolio from the past year if you haven’t been there for a while.
I’ll post about my upcoming trip to
http://www.dougpyperphoto.com/
Doug
Friday, March 5, 2010
From Baños Ecuador
Sorry folks! I didn´t deliver the stories of my travels I promised on leaving Canada my last blog post in November.
Seems I´ve been just too busy to write......but my camera has rarely been idle. It became my means of communication with these wonderful Ecuadorian people as I struggled to improve my Spanish. I have included a link to a collection of 19 photo galleries below. The images leave no doubt about the willingness of these incredible people to share their hearts and souls with a stranger, and the joy that they felt in someone taking an interest in their lives is evident......especially with the children. In all reality, what I did here in Ecuador as a photographer would not be possible in Canada or many other places in the world for that matter.
I came to Ecuador to experience its geographical diversity so to speak. To explore a small country about the size of Colorado that seemingly had everything South America had to offer in one compact little package.
That was over three and a half months ago. I´ve since travelled thousands of kilometers back and forth across this precious land. From a journey down a jungle river in the upper Amazon basin to the warm blue surf of the Pacific Ocean.
And I have traversed and lived in the mesmerizing central highlands of the Andes Mountains that separate the two.
I´ve shared ramshackle buses with indigenous people winding their way from pueblo to pueblo on roads clinging to the sides of 20,000 ft peaks along heart stopping ledges. This made all the more surreal by the crates of live chickens on the roof and the resounding joyous rhythm of Latin American music....ever present on the buses of Ecuador.
I have lived on three separate occasions in Baños, a vibrant yet mellow little town, nestled beneath steep green slopes in the shadow of the active Volcano Tungurahua. The population was evacuated in 2000 during the most recent major eruption. It is a place I´ve come to feel as a home away from home and returned here often during my travels to chill-out. Strangely, it has a certain Kootenays feel to it.
This land has fulfilled all my expectations. But it is not a memory of a place I´ll bring home, but that of a people.
Ecuadorians are extremely poor for the most part, especially in rural areas and small towns. Yet they have a natural sense of earthy dignity, joy and love for each other that is rarely seen in North America.
That joy is in their eyes to see and in the melodic voices of their children to hear. They have given me a new way to look at life and at myself. It is this gift from these very special people that I bring home with me in my heart.
And before I leave I will re-visit a small indigenous village high in the western Andes called Chugchilan. In some almost mystical way it completely defined Ecuador for me.
"Yo cambio atra ves la montaña senderos de Chugchilan"
"I walk again the mountain paths of Chugchilan"
Hasta Luego Mis Amigos en Ecuador!
I take a part of you home with me, and leave a huge part of myself here with you. I will return soon!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Click Here
For Gallery Collection: THE PEOPLE OF ECUADOR
Then click on each desired gallery to view. Galleries best viewed in Slideshow Mode!
Seems I´ve been just too busy to write......but my camera has rarely been idle. It became my means of communication with these wonderful Ecuadorian people as I struggled to improve my Spanish. I have included a link to a collection of 19 photo galleries below. The images leave no doubt about the willingness of these incredible people to share their hearts and souls with a stranger, and the joy that they felt in someone taking an interest in their lives is evident......especially with the children. In all reality, what I did here in Ecuador as a photographer would not be possible in Canada or many other places in the world for that matter.
I came to Ecuador to experience its geographical diversity so to speak. To explore a small country about the size of Colorado that seemingly had everything South America had to offer in one compact little package.
That was over three and a half months ago. I´ve since travelled thousands of kilometers back and forth across this precious land. From a journey down a jungle river in the upper Amazon basin to the warm blue surf of the Pacific Ocean.
And I have traversed and lived in the mesmerizing central highlands of the Andes Mountains that separate the two.
I´ve shared ramshackle buses with indigenous people winding their way from pueblo to pueblo on roads clinging to the sides of 20,000 ft peaks along heart stopping ledges. This made all the more surreal by the crates of live chickens on the roof and the resounding joyous rhythm of Latin American music....ever present on the buses of Ecuador.
I have lived on three separate occasions in Baños, a vibrant yet mellow little town, nestled beneath steep green slopes in the shadow of the active Volcano Tungurahua. The population was evacuated in 2000 during the most recent major eruption. It is a place I´ve come to feel as a home away from home and returned here often during my travels to chill-out. Strangely, it has a certain Kootenays feel to it.
This land has fulfilled all my expectations. But it is not a memory of a place I´ll bring home, but that of a people.
Ecuadorians are extremely poor for the most part, especially in rural areas and small towns. Yet they have a natural sense of earthy dignity, joy and love for each other that is rarely seen in North America.
That joy is in their eyes to see and in the melodic voices of their children to hear. They have given me a new way to look at life and at myself. It is this gift from these very special people that I bring home with me in my heart.
And before I leave I will re-visit a small indigenous village high in the western Andes called Chugchilan. In some almost mystical way it completely defined Ecuador for me.
"Yo cambio atra ves la montaña senderos de Chugchilan"
"I walk again the mountain paths of Chugchilan"
Hasta Luego Mis Amigos en Ecuador!
I take a part of you home with me, and leave a huge part of myself here with you. I will return soon!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Click Here
For Gallery Collection: THE PEOPLE OF ECUADOR
Then click on each desired gallery to view. Galleries best viewed in Slideshow Mode!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Off to Ecuador
When autumn falls on the West Kootenay my thoughts usually drift from a seemingly endless summer to anticipation of the bottomless snow that will soon blanket the amazing Selkirk Mountains. And I dream of fresh days of deep powder skiing and think of friends with whom I share the winter.
But this year it's south to Ecuador and the Andes Mountains, the warm South Pacific coast and remote rivers of the Amazon Jungle. Lost in the excitement and promise of a new adventure, it's almost odd that I feel a soothing voice deep within me. It quietly assures me that these special mountains and the shores of Kootenay Lake is where I belong, and offers me the comfort of knowing that I will always return to my beautiful homeland.
Copyright Doug Pyper
But this year it's south to Ecuador and the Andes Mountains, the warm South Pacific coast and remote rivers of the Amazon Jungle. Lost in the excitement and promise of a new adventure, it's almost odd that I feel a soothing voice deep within me. It quietly assures me that these special mountains and the shores of Kootenay Lake is where I belong, and offers me the comfort of knowing that I will always return to my beautiful homeland.
Copyright Doug Pyper
Copyright Doug Pyper
My next post will be from Quito, Ecuador in about ten days. I'll be posting regularly from South America with all kinds of stories and photos.
So keep checkin' in.
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