Behind the lens

Alana Patterson: Born to Lurk Forced to Work


Age?

32

Where are you based?

Sea to sky corridor in British Columbia

How do you make a living?

I’d say 70% from photography and 30% from a part time farm job I work in Pemberton b.c.. Just organic farm hand stuff. Planting, picking, packing, animal stuff. It’s very nice and makes for a good balance to life as a photographer. I suppose I could go full time photography but I don’t really want to. I would really be missing something if I wasn’t working on farms. It’s been 10 years now.

What camera do you use?

Nikon f100 has been my work horse for a long while. I play around with lots of cameras but the f100 has been really solid for me. Canon 5d markiii has also proved to be pretty handy. Ha.

How has travel made an impact on your life?

Well I lived in Europe for three years..I have a U.K. Passport and to be honest I really think it made me a better person. Being away from your safety net for that long really makes you a more sympathetic person…I hope..I think. These days it’s shorter trips but I like to go out there you know. I feel like I get soft if I sleep in my own bed too many nights in a row.

What is your relationship to travel/adventure, and what does it mean to you?

It keeps the gears turning. Keeps my eyes fresh. If I see the same stuff everyday I start to get a little sleepy. It’s nice to be on the road..in the air…there’s a lot to learn and it’s hard to learn it all in your own backyard….but I also think it’s important to make a life at home. It’s a balance. It can’t be all fun and flightiness.


This is the Ashcroft Manor, built in 1862. It was a place for prospectors to stay on their way to gold fields but as the story goes some girl got drunk last year and burnt it down. Real shame, neat place.

In the summers I work on a farm in the Pemberton Meadows called Ice Cap and this is my little trailer that they have for me to sleep in.

This is also Ashcroft and thats my little Ranger that I gave away and I miss her.

Ashcroft is in the Canadian High desert 6 hours North East of Vancouver. It is a very strange little micro climate. I worked on my friends dads ranch there for a couple months last spring. One of my favourite places in B.C. and not what you’d expect to find in B.C. at all.

Hot doggers on a hill side with Howe Sounds in the background. This spot is really nice, its on a network of logging roads and you just gotta make all the correct turns and you pop out on at this view point.

Another logging road! B.C.’s full of em! They get us to some of our best outdoor recreation to he honest. They call them FSR’s or forest service roads once they are established but they all start out as just some loggers trap line essentially.

4x4 access only really keeps your spots nice and quiet even if they aren’t that far from the city. This is a beauty lake, small but fresh and clean. Its just on the other side of the fence from the Capilano water shed which is absolutely massive and supplies Vancouver with a majority of its drinking water.

Storm rolling in over Slocan Lake which is in the interior if B.C.. I’m a coastal gal but I try and go to the Kooteney region at least twice a year.

Ran into my friends looking for a camping spot up Paradise Valley. The boys look like they’re looking for trouble.


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