Wildlife photographers bringing the outdoors in to residents at seniors facility

Keltie and Stan Masters are wildlife photographers who live in Olds, Alberta. The two take photos year round, but also give back to their community by visiting seniors facilities and showing their photos.

On this day, they're at the Mount View Lodge in Olds.

"We like to get out and share nature with other people and share our stories and our adventures with everyone," said Stan. "Especially for the seniors in these lodges, they can't get out and see the stuff that we see so it's nice to bring it in and show them what we get to see and maybe bring a little joy to their life for the day."

Keltie says in her view, nature is the best therapy and she and Stan like to give back to their community when they can, because the couple knows how much the seniors enjoy nature.

"Lots of times pictures really evoke emotions of memories past or maybe of a person that they remembered in the past and how that bird or that animal symbolizes that person again," said Keltie. "So that's what really connects for a lot of people."

The two spend an hour at the facility showing photos and answering questions about their pictures. Stan says in many cases, people don't realize how much effort goes into one picture.

"They think you just pop up a camera and click there's a nice picture," he said. "But I was photographing loons on a lake and it took me three years to get that picture with the sunlight in the right place, to get the loons all to line up, to get their heads all so the red of their eyes shows up, it takes a little bit of timing trying to get them all lined up and get what you want the picture to look like in the end."

But while some photos can take years to find, the couple stumble on some they never expected to see. That's why they say it's always important to have their cameras ready to go in a split second because that's how Stan captured an image of a wolf for the first time.

"I pulled over do a bunch of test shots, get my cameras just right, I drive around the corner and this wolf walks over in front of me just like that," he said. "If I wouldn't have had my camera set, that would just be a blurry mess.

"We kind of have a running joke," he adds, "that it takes us an hour to go 10 kilometres, because if the light changes, we're changing settings -- we're always prepared for the next shot."

Bring outdoors in

Bill Deederly is the activities coordinator for the 92 residents at the facility and says it's nice to bring the outdoors in.

"There's a lot of farmers here," he said. "Husbands and wives and individuals that come off the farm, which I think this 'back-to-the-nature' is quite rewarding for them and fulfilling I would say."

Margret Siemens has lived at the Mountain View Lodge for close to six years and enjoys the Masterses photographs of birds. She always wanted to get out and take her own pictures.

"I got some binoculars and I was gonna go for walks and take pictures," she said. "It never happened but that was my wish."

Helen Wagner arrived early to see the hour-long presentation because she didn't want to miss any of it.

"We don't go out like we used to," she said. "We have no transportation so we have to rely on what we have coming in here."

The Masterses company is called Back to Nature Apparel where they've transferred many of their photos onto pillows and clothing. They attend more than 85 spring and summer markets and also use their images to raise funds for various wildlife rehabilitation centres.

Mary Dodd has lived at the lodge for more than three years and says horses always bring her joy when she sees them and she's eyeing one of the Masters' pillows, which is the prize up for grabs in a draw to be held at the end of the afternoon.

"You know the pillow with the horses, we used to go for a drive out in the west country, west of Sundre," she said. "Yeah, I'd love one of them."

Learn more about Stan and Keltie Masters here.