Document your back yard first

A redhead duck glides across a slough near Bezanson, Alberta. Waterfowl make use of sloughs, potholes, lakes and other wetlands for feeding and nesting in the Prairie Provinces and northeastern BC.Often times we neglect to see the things around us.

It is too easy to be enamoured with taking photos in some far flung area.

After all what we see in our home towns is always there. Nothing ever changes.

If you are at all interested in photography or writing, then what you know best often results in the best work both for yourself or clients, if you work professionally.

After all why should someone spend money, in an economy that is just starting to turn around, to send a photographer from Toronto or a writer from Halifax to document what is going on in Bezanson, Alberta.

The person who lives in that area is already grounded, has contacts, knows the area, and perhaps some angles for photos and stories that the out of town visitor doesn't.

The same applies to you as a photographer or writer. There is so much around you that can be documented in pixels and print that hasn't been covered before.

Often we tend to think an exotic locale like Africa or Southeast Asia is needed to give our photos a lift.

Usually the only lift provided is to our credit card debt. If you are in an area strange and new to you, you will likely take more photos than you would if you were at home — and some will be great — however, you have to ask yourself honestly, are my photographs anything new. Or are there plenty of photos that are similar ie the sun setting on the savannahs of Kenya with a silhouetted bayobab tree and a giraffe.

Unless you are dedicated to spending countless hours of research to find out what should be photographed and how to photograph it, you are going to be constrained in your pursuit of something different.

In addition to your photography or writing, you have to contend with possible illness, strange food, a language and customs you may not understand.

Your home region is changing and you can document those changes in real time. There are literally thousands of stories and photos and if you spend some time looking, you can come up with fantastic and inspiring stories and photos that otherwise would be left untold and unseen.

Some of my favourite stories and photos in publications like National Geographic have been of Smalltown USA. They haven't necessarily been the cover story and photo, but the work in some ways seems more honest.

Writers — whether for print or a blog— seemed to have discovered this.

Two of my high school classmates are prime examples.

Phil Callaway has written a number of books and is an excellent speaker and humourist. His work is based on what he knows. His life growing up and raising a family in Three Hills, Alberta.

A second classmate, Steve Rendall just recently started writing a blog. It too is based on growing up in that same small town.

Both authors' work has an authentic feel to it that those who also grew up in small Alberta towns can relate to.

 Photo Randy Vanderveen Grande Prairie , Alberta 10-05-06 A prairie crocus pokes up from among dried grass and shrubs in a ditch near Kleskun Hills west of Bezanson Thursday morning. The flowers are the first of the wild flowers to show their colours and quickly disappear from view once they have lost their blooms.Why not spend some time this year documenting your home area? It can be wildlife, scenery, portraits or if you are a writer stories of your family, veterans who served in World War II's memories or even a travelogue of your county.

Things do change and some of what is now familiar to you may 10 or 15 years down the road be gone forever.

•••••

On a lighter note. If you have some time you might want to check out the work of two young artists on You Tube. Stephen and Andrew Plant of Hat and Tie Productions have some quirky but funny video clips. Why not check them out.