Fort Simpson (Apr 11/03) - On a sunny summer day in Kakisa with only a few rippling clouds in the sky, kids are jumping off the dock into the cool lake.

There's Edwin Lindberg grinning as he gives wife, Sue, a hug.

Dene drummers sing and pound their drums at the Dene National Assembly.

Stretched moosehide and dandelions.

These are some of the 24 images that photographer Tracy Kovalench displays in vivid colour in her photo exhibit, "Presence."

From July through September she visited several Deh Cho communities and captured candid moments representational of everyday life.

"I wanted to do a connection between the people and their environment," she explained. "Nature is omnipresent. It's intricate in people's lives out here."

Using a 35-millimetre camera, Kovalench shot close to 150 rolls of 24-exposure film over the three months. Narrowing it down to just 24 photos wasn't as difficult as it might seem, she said.

"There are always images that stay in your heart," she said. "I was going with the feeling."

Some people were a little inhibited when they realized the camera was trained on them, but they gradually became comfortable, she noted.

"Overall people have been very generous, very open," she said from the Deh Cho Friendship Centre where the photos were on display since March 21.

The exhibit is accompanied by sounds of frogs croaking, ravens cawing, drummers and people talking about themselves and their experiences.

Kovalench, a graduate of Dawson College's three-year photography program in Montreal, said she got the camera bug while backpacking through Europe in 1997. That same year, she attended Randy and Stephanie Sibbeston's wedding. It was then she decided should would return to Fort Simpson some day to pay tribute to the region in photos.

She received an NWT Arts Council grant this year and got by with a little additional help from her friends.

"The Sibbeston family pretty much adopted me," she said. "I got to see a lot."

She also plans to show the photos at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik and the Open Sky Festival in Fort Simpson.