Walking into Dany Couture’s photography studio is like walking into a lush forest or a calm field.
Her walls are decorated with artistic close-up of nature, or landscape scenes of old barns against flat fields.
Her location in the Smithers Mall holds a portrait studio but nature clearly reserves a place in her heart.
To that end, Couture was recently awarded accreditation by the Professional Photographers of Canada organization in the field of nature photography.
Couture had been after that distinction since she attended Marsan College in 2009 in Montreal to get her photography painting.
She was once a masseuse in the Bulkley Valley but a car accident left the job too physically demanding. She looked for a new direction in life and found photography.
Earlier this year it was a five-day workshop in Banff where she learned she was accredited.
And she wasn’t without any naysayers.
“We were in a room with four photographers ... and the two of those said ‘you’re not going to have your accreditation’ because I was missing some stuff,” she said.
A lot of fine detail goes into accreditation. Pointing to a portrait photograph on her wall of an eagle, she said some might consider it not properly centered. To an untrained eye it looks well framed.
“I was so happy,” she said of when she found out she was successful.
Being an accredited member means she can use the Photographers of Canada’s name when promoting herself and the organization lists her on their website at ppoc.ca.
The British Columbia branch is also featuring her photography on their website at ppoc-bc.ca.
To be eligible for the accreditation she said she had to send in 10 of her photographs.
Couture never stops taking more photos. Her studio in the mall is only open Wednesdays to Fridays, and the rest of the week is dedicated to pursuing her passion in nature photography.
“There is an unspeakable sensation that I love in nature,” she said. “We capture in imagery the emotion of a single moment.”
Couture moved to Telkwa in 1993 and her photography studio opened last year.