Dani Lefrançois: Driven by passion

My journey and eventual obsession with photography first started with our annual family road trips around Canada. The enjoyment grew when I took a photography class in high school, and got to experiment in the darkroom. I was hooked! After high school I filled my time with anything and everything photography related. I shot weddings and portraits, I did events and dabbled in baby photography, but my real passion and inspiration has always been with landscape photography, specifically the Canadian Landscape.

www.danilefrancois.com landscape photography

One thing you learn when shooting landscape photography is that it can be risky. The most dramatic photos usually happen during bad weather and when most people are inside staying warm and dry. I am driven by the challenge of being outdoors and capturing the elements at work to craft a perfect photograph. I have contended with -45C while shooting ice cracks, dangled over the edge of a cliff looking down to bird colonies above the Atlantic Ocean, and successfully avoided getting run over by vehicles on a road while trying to take a self portrait with the northern lights.

A few years ago, I took the plunge towards really living my passion and moved to the Canadian Rockies. I wanted to be inspired by the scenery around me, and work within it. I contemplated what “job” I wanted to do in the landscape photography field: write for magazines, sell prints, do commercial work, or teach. I always enjoyed helping others with their photography, so teaching was a natural progression. For the last five years, I have been teaching and guiding visitors around Banff National Park through my own photo tour business. It hasn’t always been easy, and not everything always goes to plan, but my passion for creating images and sharing the joy of the experience has been worth the risk.