Brooks: A portrait
Cathy Corbett-Schock captures memories for a living. The home-based photographer in Brooks records the joy of life’s milestones, big and small: graduations, engagements and weddings, children and smiling families.
She likes to take advantage of the natural beauty surrounding her town that lays a couple of hours southeast of Calgary. Corbett-Schock often photographs her clients in nearby Dinosaur Park for its awe-inspiring backdrop of Badlands beauty (and a World Heritage Site for having the world's largest deposit of late crustaceous period dinosaur fossils).
After years of operating her business part-time, Corbett-Schock took the plunge and took her business – Photo Dreams – full time on January 1, 2009, just in time to see business fall away with the downturn.
“Since the recession, which impacted the energy sector, business has dropped close to 30 per cent,” she says. She’s finding that people are more cautious in how they spend their money, and some of them don’t consider professional photography a necessity.
“Weddings have definitely declined,” says Corbett-Schock. “To save money, couples are selecting family members or friends that have an interest in photography, instead of hiring professionals to photograph their special day.”
When business started falling away, Corbett-Schock started advertising more, to try to educate people on the value of her services. As a member of the Professional Photographers of Canada-Alberta, she is bound by a code of ethics and takes ongoing education and mentoring services to keep learning and perfecting her craft.
“Basically, you have to try harder to reach people. I’ve had to embark on different marketing techniques such as placing my images in retail outlets, and that’s been more effective than advertising in the yellow pages,” she says.
“Still it’s been tough going in Brooks, a town of 13,000 that depends on the oil and gas industry for much of its economic growth.”
“You can definitely notice the difference in a smaller community,” says Corbett-Schock. “Economic growth has definitely slowed to where there were no signs of new homes or businesses. It’s starting to pick up; but it’s still nowhere like it used to be.”
Corbett-Schock says a number of retail outlets and oil and gas service companies have gone out of business. “The ripples from that affected a number of other businesses,” she says. “Most people I’ve spoken to are down by about 20 percent or more.”
People like living in Brooks – and elsewhere in Alberta – because there is a certain standard of living that affords a great quality of life.
“You want to live where there is a variety of good paying jobs available, affordable homes, places to go and visit, recreational opportunities and a community that is safe for children and thriving with economic growth,” she says. “And for that,” she says, “Albertans need a strong oil and gas industry.”
“When the energy sector does well, communities like ours thrive.”
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