It had to be instantly interesting to make it into this calendar, said editor Mark Forsythe of CBC's B.C. Almanac.
There are 36 photos in the Listeners' Lens 2014 calendar, a fundraiser for Food Banks BC and many of them illustrate the lifestyle people experience throughout the province.
Forsythe, who used to work for CJCI in Prince George in the 70s and early 80s, will be at Books & Co., 1685 Third Ave., tonight at 7 p.m. to do a signing and give a talk about the calendar.
"Each of those main photographs had to just shout that it belongs atop the month," said Forsythe. "There is one photograph of three young owls and when that arrived I couldn't believe what I was getting."
All Wayne Emde had to do was step outside into his Coldstream backyard to capture the image of the owls, Forsythe said.
"That photograph instantly sings -- or hoots," he added. "And I think, any of the main photographs is suitable for framing. They just stand out. Some of the photos are stunning because they are beautifully composed and others are interesting to me because they speak to the way of life."
The photos for the fundraising calendar came from CBC's web feature called the Listeners' Lens that is affiliated with Forsythe's show B.C. Almanac. Within the calendar, there is a featured photo and two others included in the calendar grid for each month.
"One of my great joys each morning is to open my e-mails to see what people have sent me and they send photographs, for amateurs, that are pretty remarkable and they come from pretty much all parts of the province, too. So that's what I was trying to do with the calendar representation was to get into most of the regions and I know I missed some and there are many, many photos that could have gone into the calendar but I had to edit."
B.C. Almanac has done three book projects with proceeds always going to various non-profits over the years.
"I figured that if I'm doing this on behalf of CBC, that's what's appropriate because we are a public broadcaster," said Forsythe. "So we're trying to key into the needs in the communities and that's important to CBC as well. CBC has had a long standing relationship with food banks - at least 25 years now, that we've been doing an annual fundraiser broadcast, and this is part of that piece."
Calendars are $17.95, available at Books & Co., at the front desk of Coles at Pine Centre and at the Save On Foods at Spruceland.
