Photos With Finesse by Suzan McEvoy

Name: Photos With Finesse by Suzan McEvoy
Address: Calgary, AB, CA
Telephone: +14037032275

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Photos With Finesse by Suzan McEvoy

If you can dream it, let Photos With Finesse help you showcase it. Award winning event photography. Suzan is an ambassador to the event and hospitality industry.

Suzan McEvoy’s passion for photographing live events began when she captured World Skills 2009 from inception to stage performance, carried on through a 4-year partnership with Globalfest Calgary, and continues today. She is now a sought-after award winning event photographer who can capture everything from intimate cocktail parties to multi-day conferences. Suzan is an active member of MPI Greate

r Calgary Chapter, Tourism Calgary, the Chamber of Commerce, and the local ILEA chapter where she was their photography sponsor for the past 2 years. Strong working relationships with Meetings & Conventions Calgary and other venues ensure she is frequently referred to their clients as the preferred professional photographer. Suzan won the 2015 MPI Rising Star award, the 2016 & 2018 Canadian Event Industry Awards - Best Event Photography and the 2018 Calgary Event Awards – Outstanding Supplier, Photography. She is also a regular guest speaker at Mount Royal University’s Introduction to Event Planning. Her images portray the enjoyment of guests, and her personality becomes part of their event experience. She loves nothing more than showcasing and celebrating the successes of her clients, industry colleagues and friends. Suzan’s speciality is capturing the spirit of the event so that attendees, and non-attendees alike, can share the excitement. Let her images drive the visual behind your brand.

08/20/2026

I nearly missed World Photography Day - me - who is always sharing pictures.

But it also reminded me that photography is my sanity. Even when I'm not working, I have a camera in hand. This week has not been a great week for a few reasons. But suddenly the last 3 months caught up on me.

I was saying to a friend that normally when I get home from vacation, I love going through all the pics and seeing the ones I didn't know I captured. I relive the trip for weeks. (And in the case of Tanzania - coming on for two years!) Costa Rica at the beginning of May seems like such a distant memory - like it was years ago. I've barely touched the 5500+ pics I took.

I came home to what I thought was going to be a routine medical test and found I had early stage breast cancer. Fortunately very early. But it still meant surgery. And I was lucky - a short recovery. The knee that decided to quit in Costa Rica showed tricompartmental severe osteoarthritis with bone on bone calcifications. In short, it's fu**ed. A knee injection last week helped, but who knows when my ortho referral will come through. There's been other stuff, and I've handled it all pretty well.

Today, I'm exhausted. But I decided to give myself back to the one thing that truly brings me joy. My photos - and travel. I sat down and randomly hit different pockets of the Costa Rica trip. I have closeups of crocodile eyes. I have cool crabs. Night frogs. And so many birds. I fondly recall the sound of the waves breaking, the warmth contrasting a particularly chilly Calgary spring, the constant bird calls. Random lizards strolling by, and some pretty amazing scenery. It had been a bucket list trip. But for a while, there was a hole in my bucket.

It wasn't until I went through them this evening that I realized I had actually captured hummingbirds - and decently. They're one of my favourite birds. I was so upset that particular day because I'd had to cancel a birding tour on the grounds of where we were staying. My knee was done. It never would have handled the five hours on the hilly slope of the lodge. But I did what I could within it's limitations, on my own.

So here are some of my faves. They're such fun birds to watch. The flower is called Purple Porterweed - a new one to me. I'm still waiting for them to appear on my beebalm here. I usually get some around this time of year. I'm patiently hanging out on the back deck, surrounded by flowers.

Tell me. If you're having a rough day, week, month, or year - as I know many of you are - what's your favourite thing to do to ground yourself?

08/17/2026

I like big bucks and I cannot lie.

Sometimes a quick detour results in the best luck. I was escaping seriously annoying traffic on the way out to BC and decided to do the Minnewanka Loop near Banff. That 15-20 minutes saved my sanity as I merged back into nearly empty roads, and resulted in some of my best elk photos ever. It's challenging enough to see one buck with a great rack. There were three in the bush! Woohoo!

08/04/2026

Today I spent a beautiful morning out at the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary with friends and family. We did the intro tour which took us to the Engadine enclosure to meet Aspen & Grizz - two high content (91%) ambassador wolfdogs. Our guide Sadie gave us an informative 30 minutes of origin story, and answered loads of questions from our group - which included visitors from as far away as Virginia.

Small parts of me were jealous as these wolves go through 2-4lbs of meat a day, including Wagyu, salmon, and other delicacies well above my pay grade! That comes from the support of businesses like Costco who round up all the meat that's hit expiry - or has been returned, throw it in the freezer, and send it out on a couple of pallets a month. When you have 67 wolves, and go through approximately 170lbs a day, every little bit helps. They keep it in frozen portions to help with dental care, and to slow down eating.

There are three grades of wolf dogs... Low is under 50%, Medium is 50-79% and high is 80% and up. The most common crosses are Alaskan Malamute, Siberian Husky, and German Shepherd.

Wolfdog Background story from their website:
"Wolfdogs are the result of people intentionally breeding them. Today, they typically come to be when a wolfdog is bred with another wolfdog or dog, and doesn’t usually involve a pure wolf parent. They are usually bred by backyard breeders as exotic pets in order to make a profit. However, there are a very limited number of breeders who breed them to 'better' the breed and produce an offspring with very particular physical and behavioural characteristics.

Wolfdog traits can vary dramatically between individual wolfdogs due to the degree of wolf content bred into the animal, the dog breeds bred into the animal, and the kind of socialization the animal received at a young age. Typical wolfdog characteristics, of varying degrees are: fearfulness of humans, high prey drive, high energy, territorial, destructive, extremely independent, and being escape artists."

The setting is beautiful. Just west of Cochrane, it's easy access from Calgary. This was the first time I've visited in summer and I loved it - although I do have some great wintery photos in my collection. The paths are wide and, best of all, accessible and well-maintained year around. There are plenty of benches to stop here and there. The hills are gentle slopes - very manageable - even for those with 'screaming knees' - although I was offered $300 for my knee brace by someone who forgot theirs LOL.

One question I forgot to ask, and if anyone knows, feel free to throw down an answer, "why are many of the wolfdogs white - or very high percentage of white. Is that a desirable trait with breeders?"

Anyway, if you want a great way to spend a couple of hours. I highly recommend booking at least the intro tour - but they have other levels too. https://www.yamnuskawolfdogsanctuary.com/

08/01/2026

When Tourism Calgary shared their 'what's on' details, I was looking for something to focus on - literally. After a particularly tough 'no pain, no gain' physio appointment, I was ready for a change of scenery. The world class waterskiing at the Rocky Mountain Pro Am Waterskiing Championship sounded perfect!

I used to love waterskiing as a teen. My knees throbbed just watching the under 21's take to the water! I caught the last couple of trick skiers, then it was into the U21 round 1 jumping. Wow, can these kids soar! It doesn't come without pain though. One young women had to be helped out of the water in agony because of her knee. I hope she's ok. Blows me away some of the landings. Touchdown, on their back, and then upright again. Talk about core and leg strength!

Thanks to Bear Witness Photo for sharing their space - pretty cool gig they have working with Water Ski Canada. I have a lot to learn about sports photography! Wouldn't mind going back for more of the 'trick events' this weekend. You can see the schedule here if you want to check it out. https://www.predatorbaywaterskiclub.com/rocky

At +30C, it was a beautiful day to sit by a lake and watch the action.

07/29/2026

The other night I was feeling restless, so hit the road to ground myself again. Photography really is my therapy. When I left, it was grey. There was a heavy smoke haze. The light was weird.

But... there were still canola fields in bloom (fairly late this year). Deer or moose in a field? It looked like there was sun towards the mountains, but you couldn't see either of those. And it looked like the possibility of a thunderstorm. It could have been a supercell behind the haze, for all I knew, but they were up hammering Edmonton, so I figured I was pretty safe. All those possibilities added up to huge potential.

Sure enough, hints of light began to emerge. It was a thunderstorm. And mostly virga - precipitation that evaporates before it hits the ground. Throughout the couple of hours I was out, there were only enough scattered raindrops to turn the dust on Big Red into dirty splotches. Light began to softly glow on the canola fields. If you looked one direction at Nier, the reservoir glowed like a golden sunset. (Still just a passing shower.) The other direction was flat grey light. Although there were half a dozen swans gliding around like a ballet troupe.

I could hear the starlings - in fact there was a 'starling tree' - laden with them. As soon as I pointed the lens in that direction they took off en masse - without a clear background, so I couldn't capture the murmuration. The usual suspects - Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Terns, Kildeer, Robins, Starlings, Song Sparrows and Grebes could be heard throughout the reeds and rushes. My shoulders let down. I remembered to breathe. (Something apparently I suck at coming out of anaesthesia. I guess feeling good and relaxed at 7 breaths per minute freaks out the medical personnel. 🤣)

I carried on to an area where I've spotted both deer, and moose in the fields before. No sight nor sign of any large ungulates. Anywhere. A Red-Tailed Hawk screeched its cry (famous in the movies) and perched in the worst possible light ever. It was on the perfect side of the road as I came to a halt - and left. Of course.

There were still gentle rumbles of thunder in the distance. The light was trying to come out from the clouds. The smoke had cleared to an extent, but was still enough to give an interesting tone to the fields. Crops are doing well in this area. I could see another bank of clouds behind the foreground, so knew I didn't have much longer. As I made a return pass of the reservoir, 'swan lake' was picking up a hint of light that had the swans glowing. But the main show was still going on to the west. Beautiful rim lighting as the sun disappeared between the two cloud banks. I had to plow on the brakes one last time as a tree had been hiding the clouds reflecting in an inlet closer to shore.

And that was a wrap. No matter how crappy the light is, something will always appear lens worthy along the way. If you go out expecting little, your expectations can be well and truly exceeded as you cross into magical moments.

07/24/2026

We've seen the occasional bobcat amble by in our NW Calgary neighbourhood over the years. And I've been lucky enough to be called to a friend's house in Ranchlands where they have a regular. So when every crow and magpie in the neighbourhood went nuts on Tuesday morning, I wondered what was up. It wasn't just one bobcat. It was a bobcat and two babies. Well here psssspsssspssss!

I was taking it easy, recovering from surgery the day before, so what better way to spend the morning than capturing our own urban wildlife. The words of John E. Marriott Wildlife and Nature Photography were ringing in my ears from the previous week's CAPA Canadian Association for Photographic Art conference. "You don't have to go far for wildlife, start at home." The new Nikon Z8 body I'd picked up the week before is considerably lighter than the Z9 - perfect for recovery week LOL. They hung around for a few hours. The first shot was through a grimy window. There are actually 3 bobcats in the photo. I didn't realize that until I got it up on the big screen.

The rest were all captured from the back deck. No AI here. These are all my own, straight out of a Nikon Z8 with a Nikkor 180-600mm lens.

I just can't get enough of the feet - especially on the babies. I thought Luther's were big - and they are for a polydactyl ginger! These kitties have giant mittens!

07/16/2026

Day 2 at the CAPA Canadian Association for Photographic Art conference was emotional. Soft spoken Nadia Kwandibens of Red Works Photography provided the most incredible Indigenous perspective as "The Lens Bears Witness". Her images are strong. The stories accompanying them, from the heart. First tears of the day. And heart goes out to all the families, including hers, who have lost everything in the NW Ontario fires that wiped out the Collins First Nation and is threatening other communities.

In between sessions I won a camera bag, which I'm sure I'll put to good use!

I really didn't expect a second round of tears, but Larry Louie Photography managed that with his global images reminding us of just how much we take for granted here in Canada.

Thank goodness for John E. Marriott Wildlife and Nature Photography whose images are beautiful, and stories were light, bright, and humorous - especially the encounter with wolves and the Boss!

I'm grateful for a hybrid conference as I'm going to have to watch other presentations pre-recorded, or from home, especially tomorrow.

And tonight's tears are joy and happiness. Got special conference pricing from Nikon on a new Z8. That will take both my event camera bodies to mirrorless. Woohoo! Thanks for hosting the event The Camera Store. You've been in business for 30 years, and I worked out with Peter Gold that I've been shopping there for at least 21 of them!

07/14/2026

It was a great first day of education and inspiration at the
CAPA Canadian Association for Photographic Art 2026 photography conference. And what better place to hold it than Heritage Hall at SAIT - photo inspiration on its own! 100+ years of history right there. Favourite speakers included Kelly VanderBeek, Richard Martin and Monika Deviat. Lots more to come.

06/29/2026

Dropped off my framed print for exhibit at the Calgary Stampede this morning. Their staff are hard at work getting everything displayed! Saw lots of pics from my own Cochrane Camera Club, and some from friends at other clubs!

I'll personally be down there on Sunday July 5th, with Jan Mosimann, from 11am to 1pm, doing a 'meet the artist' - so swing on by and say hello!

05/25/2026

I've been enjoying my in-kind partnership with SKAL INTERNATIONAL CALGARY this year. We see some pretty cool stuff. Last month's event at Eau Claire Distillery was no exception! Learned a lot about the history of Alberta during prohibition times. Got to see the distillery and, even though I'm still not a whisky woman, they do a mean gin, and prickly pear vodka. (Alongside some pretty tasty canned cocktails!)

Address

Calgary, AB

Telephone

+14037032275

Website

http://www.photoswithfinesse.com/

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