Lots of sports!

Chastin Martel

Lakeside Leader

Danny Peterson is becoming well known for his photography in Slave Lake, particularly with his sports photos. But don’t let that fool you; he participates in other kinds of photography as well. The Leader caught up with Peterson last week to discuss his photography business, which goes by the name of Danny Peterson Photography.

Peterson has lived in Slave Lake for 13 years. In the pandemic is when his photography began to flourish. It was slow starting, he says.

Peterson was always the one to take photos for his family as he was growing up. Once he and his wife had their own family, he took photography more seriously and began practicing.

“I was like, see if I can give it a go and see what happens,” says Peterson.

Peterson specializes in many types of photo styles, such as sports portraits, events, weddings and families. Peterson has explored photos with smoke machines, snow machines and even water. These take a bit to figure out, he says.

“I need to experiment a little bit with those more before I bring them into large scale things or whatever,” says Peterson.

Asked if Peterson is a freelance photographer, he says, “I guess to an extent. It started out that way, and now I’m moving mostly to sports stuff.”

What makes being a local photographer so rewarding? One reason for Peterson is the community connection.

He has lived in Slave Lake long enough to know people outside of the business.

Kids who’ve worked with Peterson often recognize him in stores and playgrounds.

“You just have a conversation with them in a place because they know who you are and I know who they are a little bit. It just makes life a lot more social, which I like too,” says Peterson.

“It’s just been really great to get to know everybody and the community has been really awesome.”

Peterson balances his full-time job with photography and he finds it difficult.

Another is time constraints with getting back to people in a timely manner. May, June, October and November are the months Peterson is busiest.

“During those few times of the year, there’s so much going on,” he says.

“You don’t want to have people wait three months to get their stuff back. You’re trying to be efficient and not rush things.”

The time for people to get their photos back after the session depends on the time of the year, says Peterson.

In the summer months, photos are given to the client within a week but in the busier months, it could take up to a month.

For sports photography, he offers magnets and trading cards. These get shipped from outside of Canada and often they aren’t sorted, which means Peterson has to sort through them.

“Usually within three to four weeks for the sports stuff besides the odd time,” he says.

“I usually try to be decently timely.”

Peterson has a waiver for his clients. On the waiver there is a spot for the client to sign and allow him to post their photos online. If the client purchases digital, they essentially have the rights to do whatever they would like with the photos.

“Some people aren’t (allow to be posted online) and that’s totally fine,” he says.

Peterson tells The Leader that he has no strange photo requests as of yet. But scammers, yes.

“It’s not a real request anyway so it’s not like you’re getting sucked into it,” says Peterson.

For readers who are wanting to get into photography, Peterson says to practice a lot, know your camera and practice with a friend. Watching videos on how to pose is helpful but in reality, you’re only new to it.

There was a time where Peterson had a friend from his job pose to take a photo, he says. It was stressful and couldn’t tell them what to do.

“Once you do it enough times, then it becomes a lot easier and you can focus on more fine details,” says Peterson.

Peterson has a website for people to book photo sessions. It is dannypetersonphotography.ca. There is a ‘pricing’ tab and in there are the prices he charges for certain photos.

For sports, it depends on the how big the team is and what effects the client wishes to have, such as smoke in the background.

For more information on pricing, email Peterson at dannypetersonphotography@gmail.com. He also has a Facebook page, it is Danny Peterson Photography.