neutralhills' photostream

Meet the artist...

Sean's first camera was a No. 2 Brownie given to him at age five by his grandmother. This was a mistake as the film and processing costs resulting from his new obsession nearly drove her into bankruptcy over the next two years. Thirty-five years later, Sean still owns his first camera along with a large collection of antique film cameras and 35mm SLRs.

He pursued other interests during his teenage and early adult years becoming a chef, computer technician, technical author, and technical trainer along the way, but the interest in image-making remained. The advent of digital photography turned the interest back into an obsession, and Sean thinks of little else besides looking through a viewfinder these days (as his wife will tell you).

Sean specializes in fine art and landscape photography, and can be found wandering around the vicinity of Kirriemuir, Alberta, Canada. He is a graduate of the New York Institute of Photography and a member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art.

Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting, which Sean co-authored with Catherine Jamieson, is now on sale.

Sean also photoblogs at www.neutralhillsstills.ca, but it tends to be a duplicate of his Flickr site, so you won't see anything different there.

What are the Neutral Hills?

The 'Neutral Hills' is the name given to a range of hills in east central Alberta (Canada) that were shared hunting grounds for the Blackfoot and Cree Indian tribes. Because of its importance to the tribes, the area was designated as 'neutral' for hunting only, not fighting. The area ranges from the village of Veteran as far east as Major, Saskatchewan, and from just south of the town of Provost to the community of Esther.

The Indians have long since moved on -- the successive waves of white homesteaders must have chased them away. All you'll find around here these days are farmers, ranchers, and oil patch workers. (If you see a farmer driving a brand new truck, that's because he moonlights in "the patch".)

Drive through the Neutrals and you'll find tiny towns that withered away after their grain elevator shut down and the rail lines were taken out, forsaken pioneer homesteads, oil pump jacks, stunted trees, windswept grass, cow pastures, derelict vehicles, and of course, cows. We've got plenty of the latter.

Every image posted on this site was captured within or near to the Neutral Hills region.

Perfunctory artist's statement

"Most photographers get excited about creating images of ocean sunsets, waves crashing along beaches, and interesting and abstract bits of driftwood.

I'm not most photographers.

The prairies are my ocean, fence lines are my beaches, and rusting hulks of machinery abandoned in waist-high grass are my driftwood. It's what I love." -- Sean McCormick