Instagram takeover: Alana Sprague finds balance in 'bright and beautiful' photos
Photography is 'just something that helps to put a positive spin on everything'
CBC P.E.I. is featuring a local photographer on our Instagram page every Wednesday this summer. This week, we're showcasing the work of Alana Sprague.
Alana Sprague has a busy job as the executive director of Hospice PEI. She says taking photos in her downtime helps her find a balance.
"Working in a hospice organization you talk about death and dying all the time," she said.
"To be able to go out into the world after my regular work day and see the beauty and the life and everything that we have here on the Island to enjoy — it's just something that helps to put a positive spin on everything I do in my regular day job."
She shares her photos through @lansphotography — she likes the similarity of her nickname Lans to the word lens.
Bright colours
Sprague's photos are bright and colourful — she does use Photoshop to play with the contrast, highlights and shadows, but she does try to stay as true to the original as possible.
"Some people will say that editing your photo in a way that I do that makes it bright and beautiful is almost cheating, but I see it as showing the Island in the way that I see it," she said.
This photo of St. Dunstan's Basilica showcases some of those colours.
"It was a beautiful day, and it was kind of a right place, right time," she said. "The clouds were beautiful and the light on the church was amazing."
Photography adventures
Sprague often goes out around the Island with the intention of taking photos.
"I always usually have an idea of what I'm looking for but sometimes it's just about the adventure too," she said. "It's always a great time and more often than not I come home with some great shots."
She was out with a friend doing that when she snapped this photo of the French River lighthouse, with reeds in the foreground.
"I went down really low. I love interesting angles, so capturing the lighthouse through the reeds I thought was a really cool effect," she said.
Worth getting sticky for
While Sprague seeks out photos, some of them just appear — this one while she was holding her first ice cream cone of the season on Peakes Quay in Charlottetown.
"We walked out of Cows with the most amazing rainbow just there for the whole world to see," she said. "I let ice cream drip all over me while I tried to capture it."
Up close and macro
Sprague got into photography about nine years ago when she bought a small point-and-shoot camera. Though she rarely uses it — now most of her photos are taken with a Cannon Rebel DSLR — she still keeps it in her purse.
"There was something about the macro setting that really attracted me to taking macro shots of flowers and insects and it really just shows all those little details," she said.
She borrowed a macro lens from a colleague to take this up close photo of a white daisy surrounded by yellow flowers.
"Flowers are one of my favourite things to shoot in macro and I really thought the daisy showcased the ability to do that," she said.
Something to fall for
Though she is from P.E.I., Sprague is always discovering new things about the Island. This shot came from an autumn drive to Souris, P.E.I.
"I saw this red field, and I had no idea what it was," she said. She realized, "That's what blueberry fields look like in the fall! And it's so unbelievably amazing! Like the field is on fire."
Now, every year she goes out in the fall with the intention of capturing the fiery fields.
Are you snapping photos of the Island as well? Tag @cbcpei in your photos to share them with us.