In this podcast interview we will be talking to Sara Harley, a photographer and writer who enjoys creating conceptual art from her images, currently based in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
You Can Learn Photography Podcast Episode 9 – Sara Harley (mp3)
Sara Harley lives and creates on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. She has carried a camera for many years, and has recently turned to creating composited art using her own photographs. Creating works from her imagination, her images range from dark and brooding to light and inspirational which strive to elicit an emotional response.
Sara’s photographs have been exhibited in many group exhibits, local and abroad, and has also hosted solo exhibits.
She was thrilled to have one of her photographs used on a cover for a book by Margaret Atwood, and published by several magazines. Sara also publishes several project guides each year.
As a photographer and artist, Sara’s work continues to evolve.
In this podcast interview we will be talking to Brian Merry, a professional landscape and travel photographer, currently based in Banff, Alberta, teaching and leading photography seminars, workshops and tours in Canada, California, and Japan.
You Can Learn Photography Podcast – Episode 8 – Brian Merry (mp3)
Brian Merry was born and raised in Nova Scotia exploring every corner of the Atlantic Canadian Provinces by air, land and sea. Brian started his self directed apprenticeship in outdoor photography in the late 1980s and began seriously exploring the natural world through his lens in 1990. Back then he was shooting a manual film SLR Camera learning with each picture taken and roll of film developed.
Between 1990-1997 Brian earned a Fish and Wildlife Technician diploma from Fleming College in Ontario followed with a BSc. with Honours in Biology from Acadia University. His honours thesis specialized in population genetics and wildlife management. During the 6 years at college and university Brian continued to passionately teach himself everything he could about photography.
While studying at Acadia University Brian concurrently worked as a lab instructor in the biology program during each of the four years during his honours degree, including the first year. teaching labs in “Introductory Biology” and facilitating the “Introductory to Genetics” labs while completing his degree and honours thesis. This was the beginning of Brian’s teaching experience.
After 7 years of self directed photography education, read between the lines, “trial and error!!”, and after finishing up a 4 year degree at Acadia University, Biran moved to Banff in the Canadian Rockies and began his professional landscape photography business in the summer. He has enjoyed a long career as a professional photographer thriving through numerous changes in the industry. We’re presently adjusting to the new normal in the wake of the Covid-19 global pandemic. But, the most dramatic shift in the “landscape” occurred when the photography World shifted from film to digital between 2001 and 2002, which was amazing to experience how quickly and completely that radical shift happened throughout the industry.
Brian was grateful that he had the courage to embrace professional grade digital cameras early on in the transition. That decisive move put him on the “front line of the digital revolution” as he adapted a thriving event photography business from a 100% film operation to a 100% digital operation that spanned the Canadian Rockies and employed 13 photographers seasonally, swiftly making this shift in less than a year.
Brian also began teaching and leading photography workshops and tours in 2006. His professional instructor experience from both Acadia University ,and later at Lakeland College in Vermillion, AB, has proven invaluable. This experience and training served him well while developing and delivering his own educational workshops and presentations featuring his outdoor photography from around the World.
Brian delivers landscape photography seminars, hosts and leads workshops and tours across Canada, in California and in Japan. He thoroughly enjoys teaching landscape photography workshops and leading tours. It is very rewarding to see the sparkle in his students’ eyes, and the realization in their faces in the moment when “they get it!”. Brian was so proud when BMerry Photography was Awarded the best unique tour company in Alberta in 2019 by the International Travel and Hospitality Awards.
For almost 30 years photography has been an integral part of Brian’s life. “I can’t imagine not being a photographer, Photography is part of who I am.”
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