Danielle Barabé-Bussières: Nature/Wildlife Photographer

Danielle Barabé-Bussières: Nature/Wildlife Photographer - theHumm July 2021

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

“Nature is the place to be,” according to nature and wildlife photographer Danielle Barabé-Bussières. Danielle celebrates her love of the natural world by capturing stunning images and transforming them into works of art. She has a gift for composition, a talent for exploiting the extensive capabilities of current post-processing software, and the dedication and patience needed to create an extraordinary photographic work of art from an excellent photograph.

Take a look at one of her two most popular prints (pictured below). Titled Sleepy Heads, it is an irresistible portrait of two white foxes snuggled close to each other in an archetypical Canadian winter scene. At first glance it looks like a black and white photograph, but closer examination reveals pink noses and a glimmer of colour in one fox’s eyes. The image is compelling — so compelling that in 2020 it garnered Danielle the coveted Photographer of the Year award in the Photographic Artist category of the Professional Photographers of Canada’s (PPOC) annual national competition.

The vision of the PPOC is “To be Canada’s leaders in developing and maintaining the highest level of photographic excellence.” Danielle’s experience as a member is strong evidence that the association is successful, certainly in her case. Since she joined in 2014, her growth as an accredited photographer has been both steady and preeminent. By 2019 she was named Photographic Artist of the Year for the Ontario region. That was just the beginning. PPOC recently announced that Danielle Barabé-Bussières is their 2021 Photographic Artist of The Year for the second year in a row. At press time, a click on ppoc.ca features Sleepy Heads as the first image to appear. Her dedication and perseverance have really paid off.

Wildlife (and sport) photographers sometimes debate about the extent to which luck is a factor in their captures, but as anyone who has sat in a blind or crouched in an uncomfortable position for more than an hour will testify, it’s not enough to be lucky. Preparation is key. First there is predictive shooting — you have to know where an opportunity is likely to occur. That takes an enormous amount of research, experience, patience and practice. When that owl finally flies straight at you, or the fox bounds across the field in search of the invisible rodent, your settings have to be perfect, your reflexes have to be superb, your focus has to be spot on, and that’s just the beginning. For a successful artistic shot, the composition has to be outstanding, the lighting has to be dramatic, the action has to be compelling and in sharp focus, the catch light in the animal’s eye should be visible, and there should be no distracting elements obscuring the subject. The single most infuriating comment you can make to a serious photographer is, “Wow! You must have really good equipment.”

Originally from a small village near Trois-Rivières, Québec, Danielle’s first career was as an air traffic controller with the Canadian Armed Forces. Her posting to Shearwater, NS, inspired her to first try her hand at capturing the splendid scenery of the Maritimes. After she became a single mom of two, Danielle created a customer service company on her own so she could have flexible hours. Ten years later her second marriage to a helicopter pilot named Michel added two children to her family, and eventually brought her to Stittsville in 2007. In 2013 when the last of the kids were leaving home, she decided she wanted to get back into photography. Michel bought her a starter Nikon camera as a birthday present, and Danielle started down the familiar photographers’ path of “We don’t need a reason to upgrade.” Her purchase in 2015 of a 200-500mm lens was a game changer, broadening the horizons of her wildlife passion.

Primarily self-taught, she signed up for classes with a master photographer with the intention of setting up a business to do portrait photography. The instructor noted her “extremely good eye for composition and lighting,” and suggested she join PPOC. At first she found it difficult to have her shots rejected by PPOC judges as she worked to achieve accreditation in the categories of nature, ornithology, entomology and wildlife. The peer feedback frustrated and discouraged her, and she quit. But then something clicked. She realized that she would benefit from their criticism and from working to achieve their standards, and decided to rejoin. It took her two years to earn her first accreditation as a wildlife photographer, and she never looked back.

Danielle’s exceptional aesthetic sensibilities set her apart from her peers. Artists frequently paint from photographs; Danielle paints with software on her own photographs. Two years ago she chose an image of a bird that she particularly liked because of its pose and its dramatic feathers, and started to work with post-processing software. The results are extraordinary, as is her dedication. Her candor is refreshing. She freely admits that she literally spent months working on Sleepy Heads. She captured the image of the two white foxes, and then worked for many, many hours “cleaning them up”. Thick, long, white fox fur accumulates dirt, and Danielle painstakingly removed every speck of Nature’s debris from their luxurious coats. She cleaned up the snow too, and the final image has won major awards and is one of her two best-sellers.

Hazy Day in Constance Bay is her other most popular image, and a true reflection of Danielle’s love of nature. She advises, “Nature is the place to be… I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to be in nature. Even when there’s nothing, there’s something if you just sit down and watch.” She feels especially close to nature on the water in their cruiser boat or on her dinghy. She is still working as a public servant, but most mornings she is out watching for mink and ospreys before other people get up. Evenings find her driving back roads where she knows bald eagles hang out, grateful for the GPS on her phone.

One of her pictures is easily worth a thousand words, so I highly recommend browsing daniellebarabebussieres.com to share in her ecstatic celebrations of the wonders of Nature. Her glorious images may inspire you to bring one of her custom art prints into your own home to nurture your soul.