SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - One day last November, you may recall, Yellowknife was completely swathed in hoarfrost. It was as if the city were encased in a snow globe after someone had shaken it vigorously, the settled flakes like white specks of dust.

Yellowknife photographer Caitlin Cleveland likes to take her subjects outside a studio setting - and sometimes outside their comfort zones - to capture a particular moment of their life in the North - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Professional photographer Caitlin Cleveland saw her chance, calling up her client, Tanya Fraser, who was nine months pregnant and due on Dec.10.

"She asked me how brave I was. I said, 'I'm in,'" said Fraser.

Cleveland drove her about halfway up the Ingraham Trail for a secluded outdoor maternity photo session.

"We had the truck heat on full blast. It was 'run outside, snap snap snap, go back out.' It was very much on the fly, which is what made it fun," said Fraser.

Taking people out of their element and perhaps out of their comfort zone is what Cleveland does, relishing every chance to take her clients outside - at popular and obscure sights around Yellowknife - instead of in a studio setting (traditionalists need not back away in fear, however: she still has a studio.)

But her heart remains outside, no matter the temperature.

"I think the North is absolutely beautiful," said Cleveland, who moved to Yellowknife when she was four, attended the Western Academy of Photography in Victoria, B.C. and now has her own Yellowknife business, Caitlin Cleveland Photography.

"When you're outside in the summer and you've got great, green trees and, believe it or not, lots of great locations with green grass, the blue water - there's a tons of locations to photograph.

"Some of the old heritage buildings in town just give a photograph some phenomenal character.

So if at all possible, I will always take people outside."

Cleveland, who likes to challenge herself lest things get stale, is constantly updating her inventory of natural backdrops by undertaking weekly location scouts.

"I enjoy driving around town and checking out Yellowknife. My son is obsessed with airplanes and helicopters, so the deal is he gets to go to Great Slave Helicopters if I get to find a great new location," said Cleveland.

But location isn't everything; finding the right prop for a session is also oddly satisfying, she added.

"My friends always laugh at me because they say I look at things in a very bizarre way. When we go out together, I can't stop trying to figure out, 'Oh, baby would look really good in that,' whereas they're thinking of it more as a salad bowl.

"A bunch of us moms just got together to do an items swap instead of going out and shopping. We all just decided to have our own little mini garage sale and swap items we weren't using anymore.

"Somebody brought a beautiful knit toque that their mother had made and they just weren't using it anymore, so I did a newborn session this week and put a newborn baby in it."

Making each session personal and unique is sometimes challenging, but her work wouldn't be as satisfying if it was easy, said Cleveland.

"I think photography is a lot like journalism: it's not something where you're ever at that point where you're like, 'This is it. This is where I want to be.'

"And I think that's important … to be continually pushing yourself and challenge your creativity."