SASKATOONEXPRESS - February 24 - March 2, 2014 - Page 3
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Photographer always seeks new challenges
hotographs provide the lasting memories of special moments in life. For master photographer Shannon Brunner, the end result is satisfying. But just as important is the process which lights her fire. “I love the challenge of combining the art and the photography. Each shoot is about drawing the creativity, the imagination and the freedom from within myself. It is the good conversation which comes from meeting the subjects. It is about finding new shooting sites and never over-using the old ones. Each new site People comes with different challenges. And these challenges spark creativity,” she said. “It is the full experience that makes me happy. And the happier I am, the more creative I feel.” Her creative moments happen often, judging by the awards she has received for 2013. With the Professional Photographers of Canada she not only won the masters bestin-show honour, but her print Savannah is one of 17 images that Canada entered in the World Photographic Cup event. In Saskatchewan she won the photographer-of the-year-award for a fifth time. She scored excellence and merit with her competition entries, including best portrait, best child portrait and best animal portrait, as well as winning four of the six judges’ choice ribbons. In Manitoba she won the honour as best out-of-province entry. Brunner has been a photographer for 26 years, entering the career quite innocently. She trained and worked as a medical laboratory technologist, and two events brought about a change in her life. “I was shooting black and white pictures of my two young children and taking them to the office. Other mothers asked if I could shoot their children. Only Sears was concentrating on children’s portraits at the time. And I had a room full of props and beautiful antiques. I worked in the lab and did photography for five years. “The photo business grew by word of mouth. I sent out flyers and from one drop-off came an opportunity from Welcome Wagon toML42192.B24 be the only photographer to shoot newborns at the three Saskatoon hospitals. Mary
Midnight, Friday!
Picture perfect
NED POWERS
Shannon Brunner went from medical laboratory technologist to award-winning photographer “You must have patience above all else while working with the babies. Little children as a rule are happy because they get to dress up. When they look at the pictures, they just beam.” In 1995 the Medical Arts laboratory where she worked changed ownership, going from the kind of mom-and-dad operation which she loved to corporate ownership from Toronto. “It was a gamble, but I left the company. I was a single parent with two
little ones. It was super-scary. Out of it I received a $2,000 severance bonus and I used it to travel to Italy with a group of photographers. The scenery was just stunningly beautiful. The secret is that sometimes we left our cameras behind so that we could fully observe and experience the beauty. It was a lesson to be learned.” Her full-time life revolved around black and white photos, developing and enlarging, and hand colouring images with oil paints. And weddings.
“Weddings filled my need to be selfchallenged. It would be easy to shoot every wedding by the Bessborough or at the University of Saskatchewan. I liked going to new settings. I liked the fact I never knew what the weather would be, what the bride would be wearing, whether she could sit down in her dress, at what point the sun would be shining. It was never predicable. I liked to wing it. “When you get to a new spot, anything (Continue on page 4)
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