Welcome to See'rs Be-ers, Knowers, and Doers, a podcast about intuition. Do you know what that is? Intuition to me, is that inner sense for knowing that something is true and yet I have no proof, but there's so many definitions and there's so many ways it can come and we'll even to bring together and share with you some amazing guests, you have some amazing life stories and also some insights into how intuition can come. And I'm looking to gather those crows in the trees.
I hope you're one of them. I hope that this podcast inspires you to be more connected to your intuition. And I hope that by doing that, we make the world a better place. Thanks for coming on this journey with me before we get started today, I would love to share some tools with you to help with stress and feeling overwhelmed, especially for the energetically sensitive person. Feel free to go to my store on my website at www.Healingvitality.ca. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with me.
So today I'm super excited to connect with Denis Duquette. We've just spent the last 20 minutes talking and he has gut intuition flowing out of every pore . I think so in his daily life and in his job. So thank you so much, Denis, for joining me today, tell us about yourself.
So I'm a photographer and primarily I photograph people. The majority of the work that I do is commercial editorial and corporate work. And I've been doing it. Full-time now for almost 10 years. And I've been shooting for about 18, 19 years in total. That's me. That's what I do In a nutshell.
How did you get a camera in your hands and did that?
Yeah, so I kind of , I kind of fell into it growing up. We actually, parents took a lot of pictures. We always had a lot of pictures. I think that's on another note. I think that's something that would generate our generation. Isn't isn't doing so much in the next generation after, despite the fact that they're taking a lot of pictures, not a lot pictures are, are, are out there. Um , yeah. Yeah . It's , it's wild. So, and I mean, I'm bad for too .
I mean, I don't , I don't print a whole lot of pictures. I don't turn of albums or anything like that. It's so great going over to mom and dad's and seeing the old photo albums from even them as kids and that kind of stuff. And we were always around pictures being taken. My grandfather used to take a lot of pictures and uh , I remember my father having an old camera and kind of finding it. And I was always kind of interested in it.
I remember having, it's just like those little point and shoot cameras . I remember it was a Ninja turtles camera. And when you would take a photo, it would put like a Ninja turtles logo in the , in the corner of the, of the photo. And so I remember taking pictures with that when I was younger, probably grade school, age, late grade eight grade nine , um , and then getting into high school and kind of, I did sports, basketball, mostly quite competitively, and I got into music.
And so the interest in taking photos of that kind of stuff kind of went by the wayside. And then when I went to university, I was, I didn't apply myself overly, overly well in high school. So I was, I was attending Mount A, but they would only let me in as a part-time student because of my marks in high school. So it was kind of a trial basis that they let me in. Uh , and so I was only able to take two courses my first year.
And so I had quite a bit of time on my hands and thought, well, I think I was still playing music. I wasn't playing basketball anymore. Wasn't doing the sports thing. So I thought, well, maybe I'll pick up the camera and give this a try. So I did that and just fell in love with the process and with what I was able to do with the camera. And then when to see the there's a small photography program at the school.
And so I went to see the professor there and told him I'd love to kind of take the class. He said to shoot some film and bring him some stuff in. And he let me kind of take, kind of let me jump into the second year course, even though looking back the photos I showed him were nothing special whatsoever. And then I started doing some photos for the school paper, became a photographer at the paper. I started working at a camera store in month .
In that summer, worked there, ended up working there for 10 years. So that's kind of how I got into it. When I first got into it though, it was like, I wanted to be a landscape photographer. I wanted to be a fine art photographer. I had no interest in photographing people. And then I saw some work by a photographer by the name of Richard Avedon. Who's quite a famous portrait and fashion photographer and it just kind of drew me in.
And so I, we had a portrait project to do in my third year, second year, third year. And I just fell in love with photographing people. And it was just a whole different thing. So I actually have trouble taking landscape photos now because I always think that if I put a person in them , it would look better. I tell them to, I don't do much landscape anymore.
Yeah, that's true. I would see how that works. Now. I want to put horses in pictures. So see what you're talking about. Just that focal point , uh, with the backdrop can be beautiful. So one of the things that I found fascinating that I , I didn't anticipate because I was thinking more from using intuition, looking through the lens, but you also use intuition connecting with your subjects and figuring out where to shoot. Can you tell us more about, more about how that flies?
I mean, you may not even be thinking you're using intuition. So just tell us about how, how you go about figuring out what you do, because there's so much more than actually clicking the camera.
Yeah. Oh gosh. Yes. I mean, it's interesting. I assume when you and I chatted a bit before you kind of hit the record button, I had never thought of that intuition kind of thing. I'm always going to get with people. I've always , uh , when I worked at the camera store, I generally work in sales and I always kind of had a good rapport with people. I knew how to, I knew how to talk to people. I knew how to, you know, how to kind of read people.
But I think, well, like you said, like not just looking through the lens, I think there is some intuition as far as looking through the lens and composition and, and things like that. I do think some of that can be taught as well, but there's definitely some people that are just innately better at it than others. Very true. But I think when you're photographing people, especially online, definitely when you photograph with people, it's what makes people good and really good.
The difference between that I think is people's ability to communicate photographers, the ability to communicate with the people that they're photographing and being able to set them at ease and being able to read them and then figure out kind of where they're at. You know, I have some people that come in and like, you can just tell they're having a really bad day and they don't want to be there.
And so in that situation, all I'm trying to do is kind of make them forget about what's going on in their day and really just be in the moment and enjoy it. And, you know, as I said this before, it's, it's 90% of the people out there hate having their photo taken. And I really pride myself on kind of trying to change people's mind on that and trying to make them enjoy the process, enjoy their session.
Because I think from a young age, we're taught to like hate photos and, you know, school photos are generally such a horrible experience and that's kind of our family photos and that's kinda what we connect in photograph two . And I just don't think it needs to be that way. So I think reading people and then being able to figure out, okay, this person, you know, maybe this person, you just need to have a conversation with them. Maybe you need to connect with them on a deeper level.
Maybe, maybe you just need to get it done quickly. Like some people just, no matter what you do, it doesn't really matter. You're just gonna , you just kind of need to get it done and move on. But yeah, I think, I think there's definitely an intuition aspect of that.
Sure. Well, and I hadn't thought about reading the room either in terms of, or reading the space that you're given to do a shoot from a marketing perspective or from a lighting perspective, there would be a technical aspect to that, but then there is kind of the unseen feel within a room that can add on beyond. So I guess that's kind of what I, what popped in my head when you talked about that earlier too, was like, Oh , okay.
People give you three minutes to figure out where the best places to shoot and you pick it. And it's like, Oh, okay. That's not much time to check lighting and do all the technical stuff, but it's also, I would think some intuition flies in there too, so,
Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and that's why I think as a photographer, like the technical thing has to be very second nature. You can't be in there thinking like, okay, what does, what setting do I need to use for this? And what powers should my light be at for this? And what lens would I use? And I think, I think that all has to be secondary. And I don't, I don't know if that's so much intuition as it is like repetition and practice and that kind of thing.
Some people like , like I said before, some people are better at it than others, but it was always really cool. Like when I was in university, there was probably 12 to 15 people in my class and we would go on field trips. So we would go to places and that kind of thing. And maybe a week or two later, we would have like a , we would pin all the photos up on the wall and we'd have like critique and all of the photos were different. We were all, we were all photographing in the same place.
We were photographing the same stuff, but everybody saw something different. And maybe sometimes you would have one or two images that were somewhat similar, but there would always be a huge, vast change in, so that I've always found that really interesting. And I think that's why, you know , despite the fact that some people can have like the look to their photos can be the same. You can edit your photos the same way as somebody else. You can use the same camera.
You can use the same lights and all that, but your photos will never look exactly the same as somebody else, because not everybody, no one sees no two people see it the same way. So the way you're going to see something is going to be completely different than another person. And I think a lot of that just comes through some of it is intuition. Absolutely. And then some of it I think is just repetition and practice and uh , just kind of studying what's out there as well.
Cool. And you travel as well for your work pre COVID, which I love to hear. It's like, Oh , stories always gotten when you travel, what was your favorite place to go? That you've been through work.
There's a lot. I could , that list could be pretty long just because every place that I go is different. And you, you experience things differently in different parts of the world, different parts of the country, different parts of the province. Iceland would be number one for me, but that was, that was pretty cool because we were, so we were there for five days , um, including travel. It was a seven day trip and it was Iceland was at the top of my list for places that I wanted to go.
And when we went there, we were shooting for a clothing company and we traveled all over the Island, everything pretty well, except the East, the East Eastern side of the Island. But we were there with a local, there was a local who was our guide to basically, so he would take us to the places we wanted to go and we would kind of describe to him what we wanted and he would take us there.
So to see it from like a local's perspective and not as a tourist was really, really cool because we get to see some stuff that, you know, you would never know unless you really kind of talked to the people and you got to know the culture and the geography a little bit. So sure. We did go to like some of the waterfalls and some of the things that you see , um, that everybody goes to, but we did a lot of stuff that wasn't kind of quote unquote , on the map,
Not on the marketing program. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. Well, and too , like you've done some work with another podcast guest of mine, James Mullinger , um, through the Edit magazine, I think he speaks very highly of you and to make connections like that, like the two of you seem to have a synergy, like he's , uh , go out and do it guy. And it's like, you are the sensor in the sense that you take his idea and put it in pictures. Does that make sense?
That's kind of how I see how you guys were .
Yeah, yeah, no, it's, I mean, the relates to any relationship you have with art director or a creative director or a publisher editor or anything like that, they're all different, which is really cool. But with James it's, he's such a creative person and he's got so much energy and in the best way possible, like not a knock on him at all. It's , uh , I feel, I feel lazy when I'm around him. I work, I work a lot.
And so , um, what he's been able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, as someone who lived here, his whole life is super impressive, but , uh , I'm really thankful that I, that I've hooked up with, with, with James and the edit magazine, because I've done some of my favorite shoots through them and I've got to meet some incredible people , um, through shoots that I've done for them. So, yeah, that was, that was a , that was a great one.
And how that came about is a bit of a funny story, but , um,
Cool. So how does your intuition show up for you? Like some people feel it, some people hear it, some people, how does, how does intuition show up for you?
Well, it's interesting because I don't know. So you , you you've had my mom on and mum is very in touch with that kind of stuff. And she's very aware of things like that. And I don't think I was ever aware of it, especially before mum started talking to me about some of the stuff she had noticed, like , like for you to see , like before, when we were talking about , um , how to direct people and how to talk to people and that kind of stuff.
I never honestly really thought of it as an intuition kind of thing. I just kind of thought was maybe a skill that I had or something I had learned along the way. Um, but the more that I've thought about it since throughout this conversation, cause my brain has like four or five different divisions. So it's able to do things simultaneously.
It's interesting because I think because I've had other photographers on shoots with me and I've talked to other photographers and I've assisted on other shoots and they've asked me questions, like how do I talk to this person? And I kind of thought , I don't know how much of it can be taught. I think some of it can, but I think, I think the intuition is it's something that's there.
So , um, yeah, I mean, I've had a few conversations with mom about it and she always tells me that I have it because there's a lot of intuition there with my work and that kind of stuff. And it's not really, I'm not conscious of it in any way, shape or form from being totally honest. Okay .
Probably then you're a doer. You just do what the next thing is. Whether it's speaking a particular word or, or taking a particular approach, you probably are just doing the next things without consciously processing it. So Yeah. All good . And then I think, I think sometimes too though, it's in the moment it's not processing anything sometimes after the fact, I will, to a certain extent and a lot of the times when I'm, when I'm working or I'm shooting or anything like that, I have no time.
So there's no time for those kinds of thoughts to happen has to be all, it has to be all kind of go, go, go and, and, and figuring out as you go kind of thing. So, but after the fact that it's definitely, that is definitely some of that. And I've had assistants ask me, like , how did you know, to , to say this to that person? And then, and then I overthink and go , how did I know how and that kind of stuff. So it's , uh , yeah, it's definitely there. Yeah , Definitely. Definitely.
So when we were talking before you also talked about how you go about not relying on just the power of word of mouth anymore , um, or ever, and that, to me struck a chord because , um, like you, you proactively go out and put yourself in front of people quarterly, and there's a plan to that, but do you ever follow up with specific people after you send out your quarterly thing?
Cause you kind of were nudged to go digging deeper in a particular client's client's backyard and say, Hey, yeah, you popped in my head. Does that ever happen?
Um, it will happen, like if I run into people, it's Chuck , because it's like, because I'm already, I've been , I haven't been as of late, but I'm going to speak in like grander times , like more of a larger timeline because I'm generally so on social media and I send out quarterly emails and I do follow up with people. I've run into a client, maybe at a coffee shop and I'll say like, Oh, you got any projects coming up or anything like that?
I think, I think there's a fine line between marketing and being top of mind and being annoying. Um, so I'm very conscious of not being the person that's like constantly emailing people, constantly going after stuff. Um, I think you have to be both passive and aggressive with it. Um, and there's so many people in my industry that, you know, there's a lot of people that do what I do or want to do what I do and that kind of stuff.
Um, so I think there's a real fine line between between those two things. So, no, I don't, I don't typically, if I have pitched projects to people before , um, where I get an idea that of something that I want to do and I think, Oh, well, this agency could really benefit from this kind of work. And so I'll reach out in that situation, but it's rare that I would overly reach out to people. Yeah.
Well, and that's also listening, right? It's like, okay. Time to pull back sometimes no action is intuition. It's kind of true. It's like, Oh, I'm just gonna pause here. And I think that, that also shows up in photography because you can catch somebody like mid laugh and they can look totally ugly and you catch them in the second later and it's beautiful. Right. So I think that that timing and pause and people often think, well do or just does. And it's like, no, I doer often
Calculated doesn't do
It. It takes just as much in for intuition to pause as it does to do the next thing. So I it's , uh it's I was excited when you said yes, cause I'm like a photographer. There's a lot in there. I know there is, it might be digging for gold, but there's a lot in there.
So what was interesting , you said about, you said with a laugh, like one of the best times to photograph somebody is like two seconds after they've laughed because it's, they're still kind of smiling. They've kind of forgotten. They're kind of in the moment a little bit more if you're trying to get a smile at someone . Um, and then people always say like, like, cause people will come in and they'll say, well, I'm not good at having my picture taken. I don't know what to do.
I don't like my smile and that kind of stuff. Oh, you hope you're funny. And uh, and I'm not like I'm especially not when I'm shooting. And um , I , you know, I don't have like a repertoire of jokes that I tell or anything like that. And even if I did, I wouldn't use them because you don't want somebody to like, you know, gut laughing or something like that for a photo. Cause you ever seen a photo of someone that's laughing their head off. It's not a flattering situate .
It'd be like, take a photo of somebody crying. Like it's not a flattering situation to do that. So you have to see those little moments in between that. Uh , it's all about the moments in between that kind of make, make things happen. Yeah. A lot happens in the moments in between, in life too. Right. Yup .
Mm . So are there any stories now that you know, how your intuition kind of flows it at you? Are there any stories that you can reflect on that you'd like to share where something like that shut up? I mean, you already did kind of how, how your photography actually started. Um, but are there any other stories you'd like to share with us that without me putting you on the spot too much?
I think there's some, a lot of times when, when I haven't done things because of intuition where you get an email from a client and, you know, from , from the get-go that this is going to be a mess and they're going to be asking for too much. And it's , it doesn't flow with the work that you do. I've turned a lot of things down in those situations where, you know , it's just not worth it in the end for your sanity, for your creative vision and that kind of stuff.
If you, if it doesn't feel right, then it's probably not going to be right. Um, so there's a lot of those kinds of situations. A lot of situations where I maybe would be on a shoot and a client would ask to do something , um, as far as like, let's try them in this pose or let's try them in that pose. And I just know that the person's not going to be comfortable and it's , it's not going to look good.
And so sometimes it's hard in those situations to say like, no, I don't, I really don't think that that's going to work. And a lot of people are nervous to do that. You know, if you're there on a shoot and there's, there's an art director and a creative director and client services manager, client is there and a bunch of other people are there and they're asking you to do something and you say, no, a lot of people are nervous to do that because they feel like it's going to be viewed upon that.
They're not listening. They're not being told, not doing what they're told to do, but typically nine times out of 10, those people are going to respect you for, for stating your opinion. And for being honest with them and not wasting people's time. So I think, I think that comes into play. Like if I can think of any specific situations in that, not necessarily, but I know there's, there's times where , uh, where it's, it's guided me to not do something. Yeah.
Well, and that's just as important a message for people to understand that it , it, isn't all about following breadcrumbs . It's sometimes about stopping and saying no,
I think , I think a lot of it is about like what I like, what you just said that stopping that I think, especially with digital and , and with, you know , the advancement of cameras and that kind of stuff, people just put their finger on the button and just fire away and, and kind of hope that something comes out of that. And, you know, it's calculated to a certain extent, but I think that's the one thing I really miss about film is it is, you know , every shot mattered , every shot costs money.
And so you were really careful with every frame that you talked , you know, you took the time, made sure it was composed, right. That it was in focus, that settings were right and that kind of stuff. And nowadays it's, there's so much like fix it in Photoshop and, and, Oh, let's take, let's take 2000 pictures and then we'll find one good one of that. And I think just like, keep people need to slow down and, and really analyze what they're, what they're doing.
And I think it would really help really help the quality of the work
That makes so much sense, especially how this podcast is timed or really funny little COVID thing. That's making people either go 90 miles an hour, cause they're front lining or pausing because their work has stopped or slowed down or whatever the case may be. And, and there's, there's beauty to be seen if we stop and see it. I think even if it's just the silver lining stuff, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if I'm being totally honest in what was it March? I think it was March 15th or 16th. It all shut down . I was booked solid until the end of may or early June, which was pretty rare for me because typically I only book about two weeks out and I had been working a hundred, hundred and 20 hours a week and had been traveling a lot and not sleeping a lot and not taking care of myself physically or mentally.
And then when COVID happened and it was a forced shutdown and I mean, I didn't work for, I didn't, I didn't shoot anything for three months. It was probably the biggest like blessing in disguise. Like I was on the verge of a pretty bad burnout and, you know, health wasn't wasn't where it needed to be in that kind of stuff.
So like the forced slowdown really made me kind of take stock of things and helped me kind of navigate things a little bit differently, gave me some time to do some things that I never had time to do, and really just made me analyze. So the , the value in slowing down, I think is highly overlooked,
A hundred percent.
Thank you for sharing that, because that is, I think if we could all get that message , um, that we'll , we'll come to a more balanced place with healthy boundaries with work addiction, with, you know, family, life, work balance, all those things that so many people in our current society, you know, North American society, not necessarily other continents, but our North American society has been so driven in a way that's not been healthy because of X, Y, and Z. That it, if, if we could all take
what you just said, underline highlight pausing is good. Stopping is good. Analyzing what works, what doesn't and saying no more often can be, can save us all a lot of time.
Yeah. The no thing is something that I still struggled with quite a bit, but I'm under, you know, after not working for three months, it was , uh , um , and you know, we're kind of dealing with a small outbreak here right now where some businesses have closed. And I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to operate or not. So I'm under the take, everything I possibly can right now in case it all gets shut down again, the mindset.
So , uh, yeah, I think it's, I think the thing is, is like we have to realize that it's , it's always going to be a work in progress as far as balance and figuring out how to juggle work life and personal life and that kind of stuff. And , and , but just to be okay with that, just to kind of give ourselves a bit of a break and realize that it's going to take time to figure it out. But I think it's something that everybody needs to always kind of be working on myself included.
Well, and there's a seasonality to the planet. There's a seasonality to life. So I think may K applies, but also that winter slumber is allowed kind of thing. So yeah . As long as it, the end game is balanced more than because there just wasn't an end game in a lot of situations. So yeah. Thank you so much Denis. This has been delightful.
No , absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks. Thanks again for having me.
Yeah, well, we might do it again and all the best in this, in this COVID weirdness.
Wherever we are.
Exactly. Take care.
All right . Thanks Heather.
Thank you so much for giving us your time today. We truly appreciate our guests for sharing their stories and insights about how intuition has impacted their lives. And I'm so grateful for Peter trainer for his time and giving me this original music. It's now your turn. It's your turn to listen and act on your own intuition and help make the world a better place until next time, keep seeing being, knowing, and doing. If you liked this podcast, please share it.
If you want to find others, like it, go to www.healingvitality.ca or wherever you would find your podcast . We would love to have you join us on this journey. Come be a Crow sitting in the tree, be part of our community.