John E. Marriott
A Short Encapsulated History!

I first visited the Canadian Rockies in September 1969 at the ripe old age of one month old! I would show you the photos but I don't think I look all that adorable as a small bald person in the arms of my Grandma in front of Lake Louise.

Six years later, I began photographing in the Canadian Rockies, snapping shot after shot of what I was sure were award-winning images on my family's annual pilgrimages from Salmon Arm, British Columbia in the station wagon to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. Of course, $20 cameras don't often produce award-winning shots and neither do most 6 year-olds using them, so while I still have my old photo albums of bears and moose and so on, I've decided to keep those for myself too!

Since those inauspicious beginnings, the camera equipment in my hands has changed and so have my skills as a nature photographer.

In 1992, I came across the incredibly fortunate situation of being hired by Parks Canada in Banff National Park to go out and shoot roll after roll of photos of people, wildlife and scenics in the mountain environment -- and from that, my career as an outdoor photographer was born.

In the past six years, I have photographed extensively in the frontcountry and backcountry of the parks in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta and British Columbia. I have also spent several months over those years photographing grizzly bears and other wildlife along British Columbia's West Coast, working out of Knight Inlet Lodge 500 kilometers north of Vancouver.

The past two years have led me to more exotic locations. I spent a month on a sailboat in the Queen Charlotte Islands in the spring of 2000, followed by a four week shoot in Scotland and Ireland in September of that year.  This year, I have photographed in Yellowstone National Park in the U.S., along the entire southern portion of the Inside Passage on British Columbia's West Coast, and in Churchill, Manitoba, the home of the polar bear!

I am not formally trained as a photographer, but rather have learned by trial and error as I've gone along. I have also been lucky enough to have met some incredibly interesting and informative photographers over the years that I have gleaned information from: Al Williams, Jeff Waugh, Darwin Wiggett, Alec Pytlowany, Tom Murphy and Terry Berezan come to mind. Unfortunately I never did get to meet the photographer I most wanted to -- Japanese wildlife photographer Michio Hoshino, who died in Kamchatka, Russia in 1997.

My business started six years ago and is now based in Canmore, Alberta, Canada on the edge of Banff National Park. Most of the work I do is in Western Canada, particularly in the provincial and national parks in British Columbia and Alberta. I sell stock photography - my images have been published in a number of magazines including Backpacker, Canadian Geographic, Bugle, Highways and OWL and have been used for a wide range of commercial applications including billboards, brochures, websites, product packaging and catalogs - and do a lot of small commercial assignments in the local area. My first book, Central Rockies Mammals, was published in July 1997 and 1999 saw the launch of my limited edition prints website www.wildernessprints.com 

This year has seen a large growth in my business with the investment in a line of 24 different greeting cards, which are featured on my newest website, www.wildernessmoments.com and are currently the best-selling scenic greeting cards in the Canadian Rockies!

My primary hope with this site is that it will give you a taste for my style of photography and for what Western Canada is like, creating in you a longing to visit or re-visit this magical area and see it like you've never seen it before. I fell in love with this place long ago, and want you too to experience the beauty and grandeur of the Rocky Mountains and Western Canada and capture the secrets you discover on film.

If you have any suggestions, questions or comments regarding this site,
please e-mail me at info@wildernessprints.com