THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
In order to balance the demands of her career in mental health and addictions counselling, Leilie Heidema runs a home-based business on the side.

Heidema’s career is in counselling psychology for the GNWT during the week, including managing mental health and addictions workers, but when she leaves work she’s a photographer.

"It’s definitely a high-stress work environment, for sure. It’s very intense, in-depth work," she said of being a counsellor. "(Photography) is me taking care of myself … it’s the way that I balance my life."

Heidema, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counselling psychology, explained a lot of helping professionals incorporate "self-care" into their lives to balance out things, such as painting, drawing or writing.

Since she has a creative eye, she likes to capture images with her Nikon camera for her business, Leilie Heidema Photography.

"You don’t think about anything," she said, explaining how photography for her is like being a painter working on a painting.

"The whole world kind of fades away and you’re so focused, and you can be creative and have fun. That’s what it’s like for me."

Along with her career, Heidema is a wife and a mother of a one-year-old child, which she points to as all the more reason to budget time for her business.

"Making time for myself is a big priority for me," she said.

"If I lose myself in all of this stuff that I’m doing, then I’m not as effective as a mother or as a professional, as a daughter, as a wife. You can make time for things that are a priority in your life, I think."

Heidema, 31, suggested everybody should do something to bring balance to their lives.

She learned how to take photographs in Vancouver by training for a few years with a wedding photographer.

However, she says, she never intended to make photography a full-time career.

"I think, for me, when you have to do a job to pay the bills it changes the dynamic of the work," she said.

"If I had to shoot every day to pay my bills, it would take a little bit of the fun out of it, I think. I do it part-time because I love it."

Heidema and her husband moved to Fort Smith in late 2010. Soon after arriving, she started doing some wedding photography and family photography and quickly discovered her services were in high demand.

"There was no one really doing portraits and family work, and so everyone really kind of jumped on and my business totally grew from there," she recalled.

These days she focuses her lens on families, although she still does some weddings. Her subjects often include expectant mothers, newborns and entire families.

"Sometimes there’s a special occasion, but often I find people just want to have a photo shoot," she said. "Families will contact me and say, ‘I haven’t had pictures of my family in a few years and we’d like to update our family photos.’"

She is also passing along her photography knowledge to a Grade 12 student from Paul William Kaeser High School whom she hired last year as an assistant.

Heidema described a few ways she likes to personalize her family photo shoots. For starters, she said she likes to leave the studio.

"I’m more of a natural-life photographer. So we go outside," she said. "There are so many beautiful locations in Fort Smith. And I encourage families to bring something with them that they like doing. For example, sledding together or playing soccer in the summer."

She said this style of photography often results in candid photos of families just talking, or laughing or doing some fun activity together.

"Those are the moments that I try to capture," Heidema said. "The in-between posed. Those are like the magical moments for me that are totally candid. That’s the real family."

When she’s not behind the lens, Heidema says she hires a family photographer every chance she gets. When she and her family recently took a holiday in Hawaii she hired a photographer to capture memories of their time there.

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