Harvey Wildlife Photography blog

Hmmm, the dreaded "who am I" part of the website....

My name is Greg Harvey. I own a personal training and massage therapy company in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

By about this time, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with photography; well it doesn't. Not yet anyway, keep reading :)

 Since the year 2000, I have been taking pictures of wildlife in western Canada on every holiday that I have been on hoping that out of the 300-500 pictures that I take each trip, that one or two of them will be unique enough to enlarge, frame and hang on a wall at home as a reminder of each wildlife photography excursion. In 2002, my better half Gaye; got hooked on the photography trips as well. Each picture in our house has a story and each one is framed with a plaque below it with a caption and where it was shot. Today our trips are a little more serious. Rather than take a few hundred pictures, we need to take 20,000 images per trip to ensure we get a few good prints.

As a wildlife photographer, although western Canada is beautiful, I really needed to experience wildlife photography in other areas around the world. In 2008 we went to South Africa and so far African pictures are my favourite subjects.

Over the past few years I have gotten a lot of compliments on our  framed wildlife prints, so I started selling them. That led to this website and the Harvey Wildlife Photography exhibits at Scotia Place and Petroleum Plaza in Edmonton. We have a big exhibit that goes up every year in the lobby on the main floor in Scotia Place and permanent exhibits downstairs on the concourse level of Scotia Place as well as Petroleum Plaza. Come check it out if you are in the neighbourhood at 10060 Jasper Avenue  or 9945 108 ST Edmonton Alberta. You can also order  Harvey Wildlife Photography prints online here.

My latest frustration is around greeting cards. To me, buying a thank you, anniversary, birthday or any other greeting card has always been painful. In the past when buying cards, I would look through the shelves for the card with out a generic message. Often these cards are blank, but unfortunately kind of boring. I wanted a nice attractive card without the generic messages. With that in mind,  I developed a line of wildlife greeting cards. On the outside is a picture of a wild animal, a watermark picture of that same animal on the inside and another picture on the back. On the back of the card is a story about that animal or that day. The inside is left blank so you can leave an appropriate message for your situation. Do you really want to receive a card that that has a generic message from someone who has never met you before? A blank card actually gives you the opportunity to say "I'm proud of you." or "Thank you for your help. I really appreciate your friendship." Call me crazy, but I would much rather receive a blank card with a short hand written note from a friend or family member than a generic message with a signature any day.

How often do we receive thank you cards anymore? For that matter, how often do we receive  any personal letters in the mail anymore? The mail box is mainly just a place I go to get my bills. I certainly don't enjoy the walk to the mail box as much as I used to before  e-mail came along. I hope you enjoy Harvey Wildlife Photography Greeting Cards. If you have friends and family who like animals, I think they will enjoy them too.

Polar Bear Safari- We spent eight hours a day looking for bears. Sixty percent of the time we went home empty handed, but the few times that we saw a polar bear and her cubs was worth it!

Camera Equipment:

Camera bodies:

Canon Mark III 1Ds

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 7D

Lenses:

Canon 100-400 mm F 5.6 IS 

Canon 600 mm F4 IS

Canon 70-200 IS 2.8

Canon 24-70 2.8L

Canon 1.4 teleconverter

Canon 28-80 mm

Printer:

Epson 9900

     South African Photo Safari Mala Mala 2008

What do photographers do on polar bear safari when it is -54 celcius and it is too cold for the vehicles?

Oddly enough we went for a 90 minute walk.