Currently a resident of Calgary, Alberta, I learned the basics of photography in 2003, but that wasn’t where my love of photography began – that was just where I started to hone in on the tricks of the trade and really learn how to make use of a camera. I have the same beginner-photographer stories as everybody else (‘I took all the family photo’s on a trip to Germany on my mom’s Minolta when I was 16,’ or ‘I shot 12 whole rolls of film on a 10-day trip to England and Ireland in 11th grade’ – both true), but back then I never really had the slightest clue how to take the image I was seeing in my head and create it in my camera frame. I was always content to settle for whatever happened to appear on my negatives when I picked them up from the one-hour down the street. I never thought that it would be okay to try more than one angle to photograph something I liked – it always seemed like a costly waste of film…that was, until I applied for school – journalism major, mind you, but that quickly changed to journalism with photo major. That was when my little hobby overtook me and became daily routine. Now ‘wasting film’ or ‘over-shooting’ are no longer a part of my vocabulary. I am a shutterbug and I’m certainly no longer afraid to fire off what others would call ‘too many’ frames.
Since learning photography on a digital body, I have taken a step back and fallen crazy in love with film, and in having total control of the image-making process. I process my own black and white film and do my own printing in my darkroom at home. I like having full artistic control over my work all the way from capturing my images to displaying them. It gives me a warm sense of accomplishment knowing I created my work from start to completion.
My dad once challenged me to take the Photoshop tricks I had learned in school and try to do them in-camera, rather than relying on my computer to polish and perfect my images. That was the moment I turned my back on digital and picked up an old Pentax K2 SLR film body and went out to re-teach myself how to take photos.
Lately, that old K2 is always loaded with Rollei IR and in my hands I hold my favorite camera of all, my Bronica GS-1 medium format with a nice wide 50mm lens on her. She’s heavy, she’s bulky, and she’s absolutely beautiful. Sure I have a couple of digital bodies in my bag and an arsenal of lenses for those great Alberta wildlife experiences, but I also carry a 120 Holga, a self-modified 35mm Holga, a Lubitel, and Super Ricohflex, and most recently a Diana Mini – what a brilliant little camera! When I go out shooting, I can’t seem to limit myself to one camera, so I tend to just toss them all in my truck, you know, just in case. After so many years, I have learned not to limit myself artistically, and to always come prepared for absolutely everything I can hope the world will throw my way. Guaranteed, I’m going to want to capture it a hundred different ways and share it with everyone I can.
I love photography and I love words – so I put the two together, and I do what I love. For the curious, my work can be found on my web site at www.sheenairenephoto.com where I have a gallery full of assorted albums featuring images from my travels to Scotland, England, Ecuador, Napo Wildlife Reserve and the enchanting Galapagos Islands, as well as wildlife and scenery from across the Alberta prairies and the Rocky Mountains. You can also find/follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
