Photographer Don Pettit got his start
through science. Though his father's landscape painting instilled a
love of nature and composition from a young age, it was in his high
school darkroom that Pettit began to apply this ingrained
appreciation. A kindly physics teacher taught him and his friends how
to shoot and develop black-and-white film, and this chemistry
kick-start was the beginning of the end for Pettit – he was hooked.
After high school, he got a job as
assistant to a commercial photographer in Toronto, and eventually
began working freelance. Through years of self-guided study,
experience, and experiments of which his high school physics teacher
would no doubt be proud, Pettit built his career doing what he loved:
photographing nature.
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| Image owned and provided by D. Pettit |
After those initial sessions with his
former teacher, Pettit found inspiration in the work of photographers
like Ansel Adams (1902-1984) whose work pushed Pettit to explore the
Zone System of ideal film exposure and development on the journey to
perfect his darkroom-developed images.
The darkroom experience of watching
those sheets of blank paper become gradient-rich black and white
images was a big part of his life and job, but digital elbowed its
way in, eventually. Though Pettit is a faithful digital convert
today – he enjoys a Canon 5D Mark II camera with a shallow depth of
field, zoom lens, and has begun dabbling in HDR - he still misses
that unique interaction with contact sheets, chemical beakers, and
enlargers.
Over the years, Pettit has taken it
upon himself to embrace and disperse nature's beauty for the
enjoyment of every person. Driven by that concern many of us share,
about the future of the natural world, he strives with every image to
awaken a sense of awareness and an urge to protect and preserve our
non-urban habitats before they are edged out by encroaching
cityscapes.
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| Image owned and provided by D. Pettit |
These days, Pettit snaps and shoots
primarily in Northeastern British Columbia, where he captures the
diversity of the region, from its craggy Rocky Mountains to the
grassy prairies just over the Alberta border, topped here by crystal
blue skies, and there by the awe-inspiring Aurora Borealis.
Sightings of moose, bear, deer and other wildlife make each season
its own brilliant array of colour and life. “You must totally leave
your regular world, for at least a few hours, to discover a new one,”
he says.
In addition to his own, personal
projects, Pettit spends his time creating large-scale canvas prints
for local interior design clients. He continues to be inspired by the
greats gone before; he advises aspiring photographers to explore the
work and words of the established artists they respect. That, in
combination with some basic photography classes, a solid grasp of
manual camera settings, and a good tripod, is a surefire way to get
started on the path of photographic happiness and success.
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| Image owned and provided by D. Pettit |
To Pettit, any time is a good time to
capture a beautiful, bucolic scene, be it midday, midnight, or that
elusive Golden Hour just after the sun rises and just before it sets.
He encourages fellow nature photographers to get lost in the moment
when shooting outdoors. His recommendation: “Consider nature
photography to be a visual meditation that breaks through the mind
set of human civilization and allows you to sink into and communicate
with the immediate and present natural world.” If you get out of
the bustle of urban life, just be still and watch, “you will be
amazed at what you see and find to photograph.”
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| Image owned and provided by D. Pettit |
Interested in hanging some of Don Pettit's work on your own walls? Get in touch by calling 250-782-6068, or shooting (pun intended) him an email: dpettit@pris.ca.
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