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Daniel Battersby
@danielbattersby
Photographer based in Canada
Life is a pretty spectacular thing and I look at life as though it is a gift from the stars. Existentially, we have one chance at life and I’ve always had an innate drive to live mine to its fullest. Part of that includes travelling, but I have many reasons for travelling and all of them circle back to freedom. I travel to feel free from the restraints of society and live as though I have nothing to lose. I was always told that I need to go to school, get a job, buy a house, and live the rest of my life in a constant state of routine, but routine is dull. Though these are not bad things, I desire more. I desire to be challenged and I know that if there is one thing that is constant in my life, that is to learn.
"Each person has a different story to tell and I feel the responsibility to learn what that is."
"Travel is the perfect balance between finding yourself and others. Travel is educational, it is self-discovery, it is what creates everlasting memories and those are the stories I want to be able to tell my kids when I am older."
Photography is a means to capture those memories in the pixels of time and what is so rewarding about photography is that it is quite magical. I mean, to think that with every actuation of the shutter, you are freezing a moment of time, capturing it, and saving it for later is absolutely mind-bending. When my mind grows old and I start to forget the moments of freedom I’ve explored throughout my life, I will have my photos captured as a journal of my time spent on this planet, capsuled as a memory of the person I was. My memories are what defines me and what is so fulfilling is that I earned the shots I have from being present in every moment. The concept of photography is to my core, the very essence of who I am as a person. And when I die, these photos will be my legacy – that is to say, these photos will be the last-living remnants of my life.
"In all the billions of years that have yet to pass, these are the moments that I have etched in the sands of time."
"One stand-out moment that marked the route to where I am today, was when I met my wife years ago."
We met shortly after I had returned from my first backpacking trip in my early twenties and she approached me at one of the local bars we happened to be at the same time. The first thing she said to me was “Do you want to go to Iceland and Norway with me?” That was a question I didn’t hear every day or at all for that matter and so long story short, we booked our flights not long after. This was the trip of a lifetime. A couple of other friends had joined us and so we left on our road trip and 10-day journey around the Ring Road. We saw waterfalls, geysers, craters, and lava fields, but the part that made this trip so special was that this is where I proposed forever marking this trip as one of the coolest places I’ve ever been! The entire trip to Iceland was magical. There’s one photo of my wife and me in front of the Skógafoss waterfall that sums up the trip quite nicely. The moment I look at it, I can recall all of the laughs, the sleepy car rides, the huts we stayed in, the late-night hikes, the rain, the only pizza we could afford, and of course, getting to spend the rest of my life with my wife!
"This trip was quite pivotal for me for a lot of reasons but in terms of my photography, it was one of the first very moments that I decided I wanted to dive into this space."
Being in Iceland had felt like we were on another planet cementing the fact that there is so much more to the world than I had originally believed. I couldn’t get enough and so my life’s mission has been to travel as often as possible, love as much as I can, embrace the people of other countries for what they have brought to our world, and continue to document my life together with my wife so that our memories can be etched in the metaphoric pixels of stone for our little boy to one day see when he grows older.
Nevertheless, despite my love for travel and profound passion for photography, I am not doing this full time. I graduated from university with an honours degree in finance that has led me down the path of working at a major financial firm in Canada. It sounds glamorous and as appreciative as I am to have work, the lifestyle that it comes with is not what I truly want in life. I take a deep interest in business and I think my studies and my work have taught me a life lesson in being a believer in myself. It’s taught me the confidence to be a strong business person which is an extremely powerful skill to have and I often hear is one of the major barriers to entry in the photography world. My education and work experience have made for an easier transition into photography and at the right time for me.
The most challenging aspect, though, has been time management because I am working a full-time job at a bank and moonlighting as a photographer part-time outside of my working hours. This year has been a particularly busy one considering my little boy, Everett was born. Finding the work-life balance between my work and my growing family has been particularly difficult, but wholeheartedly rewarding. I think that setting the right expectations with your clients can make for a much easier interaction though.
Believe it or not, I have met some pretty amazing people through my photography and socials that have been incredibly supportive and a great resource that has helped me with the basics like invoicing, correspondence, and even feedback on website design all of which I have built from the ground up, myself. Most of all, my wife has been my rock! She has been incredibly encouraging and has often spent many late nights with me. She is very much a part of my photography business as I am, from feedback on my editing to modelling for me.
"I owe a lot of my success to her being there supporting me in my every move!"
I am currently and majorly focused on commercial, product, and lifestyle photography and that is largely due to the pandemic considering travel was halted for such a long time and still is in some areas. To build and sustain my business, I have felt it necessary to adapt, learn new key skills, try new things, and hone my craft. As it turns out, concepts that I have learned in shooting product or lifestyle photography have transferred through to other styles such as travel or couples. I enjoy shooting products and working with brands as I feel that I enjoy the nature of bringing a product to life. I like shooting products in a light that hasn’t been seen which can shape a brand’s direction and their entire marketing. There is a lot more that goes into these types of photography that are very intentional in a lot of cases that differ greatly from travel photography. I find, at least in documentary-style travel photos (much of my style today), it heavily relies on candid moments whereas commercial, product, and lifestyle photos are staged. I call it “setting the scene,” like in a movie. Every detail is accounted for and that is something you don’t generally have control over when shooting travel. It’s a stark contrast of differences between these styles and I felt it important to learn more which I now employ in my work today. It has made me a much more well-rounded photographer and I see the world differently now because of this which I find to be very grounding.
A long time ago, I had worked as a camping specialist at a major outdoor store and so that was my initial introduction into the behind-the-scenes of major outdoor brands. From building my knowledge in the outdoor and travel industry where my passions lie, I began learning about these brands which are some of the same brands that I have either worked with or aspire to work with today! When I search for brands to work with, I generally look for brands that embody the message of living a free life. I like brands that promote outdoor sports and are enabling people to do amazing things with their products. Arc’teryx is a great example of this. They’re a homegrown company based out of Vancouver, Canada developing some majorly interesting techwear that is the epitome of fashion meets function. Arc’teryx lives for adventure and so that is what I resonate with. I live for adventure whether that be bungee jumping in the Swiss Alps or touring an ice cave in a lava field in Iceland – I need gear that fits my lifestyle.
"I love to work for brands that enable people to live their lives better, that enable them to push their limits, and brands that give attention to quality craftsmanship, detail, and aesthetics - the connoisseurs of their space."
I’ve been working for Arc’teryx for a couple of years now and though I’ve had several projects with them, my most recent one in Killarney was definitely more of a challenge because it was a culmination of a lot of other skills as I had switched to a new mirrorless camera as well. Beyond learning how to pack light and hike, I needed to know how to focus stack and post-processing stacked images, I needed to learn long exposures and use shutter speed to create motion, and I had to know how to operate a drone for aerial photography. These were skills that I had practiced individually over the last couple of years and this was the moment that they all came together. This was a test of everything I’ve learned to date all in one weekend and we came out of the trip with some pretty spectacular photos, some of my favourites I’ve taken to date.
In general, I have an affinity for searching out rich colours, timeless experiences, and unique perspectives. So, my post-processing is heavily motivated by colour. Down to the science of colour, it is a wave of light, a frequency at which we see and is mirrored as a reflection in our eyes with millions of different varying waves. I’m in search of those certain colours that I have come to love when I am out in the field. Of course, the colours that we see, we may perceive differently and so I think my editing style is a reflection of deep colour hues like ocean blues or rich browns. I’d say my editing style has varied over the years as my choice in colours has also changed naturally as I have matured, but I’d say that nowadays most refer to my editing as a ‘muted’ style – that’s the word I hear most often.
When I edit, I often try to remember what I felt at the moment that I snapped it, so I can get a feel for how I should edit it. Certain colours will play to different emotions and so for a photo that is a gloomy overcast day, I tend to edit for cooler softer colours that evoke feelings of solitude. If the image has more complex elements like perhaps an interesting background or a subject, I’ll edit those to complement the mood.
However, I have found that it is quite difficult keeping a consistent editing style across different genres and I like to think that’s because no two photos are ever the same and so the editing shouldn’t be the same either. I have built stackable presets that help my workflow largely achieve the aesthetic that I’m after, but they’re never always exact. I try to find harmony in a photo when editing and I think that is the fine balance between keeping a consistent style. Besides, I am ever-growing as an individual, my interests evolve, the colours I like can change with time, and so my editing may eventually reflect that. But for now, I like deep blues, golden browns, and a soft muted tone.
I was born and raised in the Durham and Clarington Region in Ontario, and love to go out around here in search of the colours of nature and the landscapes that spark my creativity. Some of my most favourite locations are the waterfall hikes along the Bruce Trail leading from the notorious Bruce Peninsula National Park all the way south to Niagara Falls. I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for this trail and the sheer volume of water that all these waterfalls are pushing is incredibly impressive. I particularly love rocks and water and locations that have these features really tickle my fancy. The great thing about Ontario is that there is a little bit of everything here between the different seasons and how big the province is. Ontario has a lot to offer up and sometimes all it takes is a little drive and knowing where to look. There are some mighty hidden gems here that make for some great photos and amazing hikes (hinting at any backcountry camping fans out there)! I find a lot of inspiration in the various landscapes but the Bruce Peninsula is probably one of my favourites.
"There are just so many awesome things there from the Grotto to freediving, and even outdoor rock climbing at Lion’s Head - all things I live or aspire to do in life!"
I’m also really enjoying the photos that I took during a trip to Killarney Park (some might argue it’s some of the best in Southern Ontario). I went with a close friend for our shoot for Arc’teryx. We had a couple of days and the first day we hiked out to The Crack which is about a 1000ft ascension and took us just over an hour to get to the peak, nothing too daunting. We hiked for sunset which lent the whole summit to ourselves. We hiked back in the dark, got lost a little along the way, and lugged our camera gear with us the whole way. This was one of those trips that make you feel like you earned the shot with one of my favourites of mine that my buddy took of me overlooking the edge of The Crack (the rock formation at the summit).
Already with my very first backpacking trip throughout Europe, in my early twenties, I learned how to appreciate what I have in life and though I have hopped on many flights, travelling has made me very grounded. Money may come and go but time is not limitless and with the time I have, I intend to live for the adventures in life, the moments that memories are made of, and the pockets of happiness that come along with it. We get one chance at life and I want to pass on that message and mindset to my little boy, Everett so that he can live his life better than I ever could. After all, I have still yet to have taken my best photographs – the ones that my new memories are made from.
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