Photo Gallery
Colby Williams
– MLM –
I remember my parents buying me a new Canon Rebel film camera for Christmas; I think I was in my early teens. I had been using my dad’s old Canon AE-1 as much as he would let me, mostly shooting landscapes like Ansel Adams.
It was more than a decade later before I would focus my skills on shooting trucks and heavy equipment. In high school, taking photos was just for fun. I was going to be a pilot and started flying the day after I got my drivers license. At 19, I passed the test for my pilots license and a few days later I joined the Marine Corps. I had found
a path in the Marines that allowed me to fly as a Crew Chief without getting a college degree. I served five years with HMX-1 in Quantico Virginia.
In 2007 I was honorably discharged but before that I had studied and earned an Airframe & Powerplant license to work on airplanes. From there I applied at Boeing back home in Seattle. I would spend the next eight years working on the first 787 Dreamliners.
Throughout this time I had still been taking pictures. I never thought of it as a job or even wanted to make it a career.
It was in 2011 when I decided to buy a Canon 5d, a true pro camera at the time. The first time I took it out was during the Buckley Logshow, however it was raining heavily. I thought “what the hell, it’s under warranty and they say it’s weather sealed” so I shot in the rain.
I would later find out that those images had blown up on Facebook.
I remember one picture had more than 1,800 likes. That is when I thought, this might be the direction I should take my photography.
Logging has always been a part of my life. My dad is a diesel mechanic, so from a young age I have been going up in the woods and to the mills with him.
a proud father, Colby Williams, with his two sons, Caden & Greyson Williams
I remember when I was little my dad took me out to the sorting yard to see a LeTourneau log stacker that had rolled on its side.
Every morning on the school bus we would pass several log trucks headed back into the woods for another load. I used to hand draw machines and trace out trucks from the Kenworth brochures.
I think that all has had some influence in my photography career.
In 2012 I created Fueled Photography.
I didn’t want my photography to be about me, it was all about shooting things that are fueled. My focus was different from shooting cars. Truck drivers make a living in these big rigs and I wanted to show the passion they have for keeping their trucks pressed out. They had more pride in their rigs than a guy who had just bought a Ferrari.
I loved that.
Over the next two years, I was getting asked to shoot so much that I was using sick leave and vacation time at Boeing to meet the demand. I was also working weeks on end without a single day off and my family was paying for it. I needed to make photography my full time gig; easier said than done though.
Fortunately I had one customer who was willing to give me the flexibility I needed to run out for photoshoots. In return, I helped manage their fleet of trucks.
Along with many other loyal customers, my work continues to grow and I am very thankful for them.
MVR Timber Cutting is one customer in particular that has kept me busy. They are one of the few companies pushing the future of logging in the Pacific Northwest with tethering bunchers for steep slope work along with a harvest line to fully mechanize logging operations. For the last four years, I have been going out to film and capture some of the steep slope work they do, creating a “year end” video for the crews to enjoy.
These days, I tend to shoot an equal amount of trucks, construction, heavy hauling, and logging operations. It amazes me still to this day that companies will hold off putting a truck on the road just so I can shoot it before it gets dirty.
For those wanting to follow my path, it takes a tremendous amount of hustle and failure to run a successful business. I am constantly shooting and editing, learning new skills, staying up on trends, and further understanding what clients want. It’s a constant learning process.
Never give up.” – Colby Williams
Photo Gallery
Lisa Schneider
Lisa Schneider has been taking photos for a while and it really captures the magic of what we do as loggers
Lisa Schneider
Lisa Schneider has been taking photos for a while and it really captures the magic of what we do as loggers
We hope that with this short introduction you will start following and sharing Lisa’s photos through Instagram.
I started my career in health and safety approximately 8 years ago with a vac truck company – Avenge Energy
Services Ltd. in the oil and gas sector.
In 2015, I opened my own company and started sub-contracting as a Field Safety Operations Supervisor with Strategic HSE Systems Inc. which is owned and operated by a close friend – Samuel Elkins.
We work with a number of companies throughout the Peace region offering many services including safety
management system development, implementation, and management services.
Essentially, we manage the health and safety programs for companies, rather than them having to employ a full-time employee.
Much of my work is field related (which of course I prefer), monitoring active industrial operations and ensuring OHS legislated responsibilities are met, company and client specific policies and procedures are followed, and National Safety Code obligations are achieved.
I also conduct new employee and contractor orientations, conduct heavy equipment and truck audits, facilitate safety meetings, and install signage on haul roads and in cut-blocks.
The majority of my time is spent with a local contractor – Peace River Logging Limited Partnership (PRL) and coincidently enough was my first exposure to the forest sector and I immediately became fascinated with the life-like Tonka Toys.
PRL is a large logging and portable chipping contractor that has contracts with Mercer Peace River Pulp, Boucher Bros. Lumber Ltd., and West Fraser Mills providing chips to the pulp mill and tree length logs to the sawmills.
The logging season starts (weather
dependant) in July with the feller-bunchers heading to the forest to start cutting the timber.
Once the boundary and block roads are opened up, the roadbuilding crew arrives and pushes in the access which is soon followed by the skidders and portable chippers.
All deciduous timber (hardwood) is chipped and transported to the pulp mill in super b-trains, and all conifer (softwood) is tree length hauled to the local sawmills.
Last season, PRL also started hauling tree length deciduous into a satellite yard to facilitate year-round operations that would not be impacted by break-up.
All trucking (chips and logs) are hauled by Excel Transportation
Alberta Inc. a sub-contractor to PRL that we also manage the health and safety activities, making for a very efficient partnership.
A couple years ago, my passion for photography of active industrial operations started to grow, and a side project was provided to me by the General Manager of PRL to capture some photographs for a calendar he wanted to produce for clients, contractors and staff.
Taking photos for me is calming, and I enter my own little world- my happy space so to speak when I am watching equipment operating, anticipating that perfect shot.
When I’m not working with PRL and Excel operations, I fill the remainder of the days with other companies throughout the region including Northpoint Enterprise and Stat Energy Services Inc. in Manning, Tri-Logging Ltd. in Whitecourt, Bjornson Enterprises Ltd. in Grande Prairie, as well as a number of smaller trucking companies around Peace River.
Every company we provide services to, has something new and exciting to offer. I have learned so much over the past few years, met a lot of incredible people and my days just seem to run all together. This is why I love my job.
– MLM –
Photo Gallery
Ivan Turdeich
Ivan works as the Operations manager for Thomassen Logging Ltd , Taupo, New Zealand.
It is Ivan’s goal to promote forestry to show the next generation that logging is a very technological field which offers a lot of opportunities and career paths.
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